Coronavirus: F1 drivers must cut salaries, says Trulli

The unprecedented complications caused by COVD-19 mean F1 drivers will have to take a salary hit, says Jarno Trulli.

Formula One drivers are under pressure to cut their salaries

Jarno Trulli believes it is a must that Formula One drivers cut their salaries amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A veteran of 256 grands prix, Trulli is of the view a collective decision needs to be reached by current drivers throughout the grid.

He feels it is imperative that costs are kept to a minimum in a 2020 season that will not be completed in full and potentially will not start at all due to the proliferation of COVID-19.

F1 announced this week half its staff had been placed on furlough and senior figures not on the job retention scheme had agreed a 20 per cent pay cut.

 

It has also been confirmed Renault has placed the "vast majority" of its United Kingdom-based staff on furlough until May 31, while its site in France would switch to a part-time schedule for a provisional period of 12 weeks.

"I believe it is a must," Trulli told Stats Perform about cuts to drivers' salaries. "Drivers do this for a job and they are not racing at the moment.

"So they need to sit on a roundtable and decide what is necessary. Drivers are very passionate, I can say that because I used to be one of them.

"But this is also a job, which implies tests, travelling and racing. As it stands there is no show, so they will have to be less demanding based on the grands prix they can race.

"Should they manage to do the all races, then it will mean they worked for the whole season - it will be important to see whether the season will start.

"But it will be important to safeguard the costs and to minimise the damages brought by this season which seems to be jeopardised, fully or partly.

"Nobody knows, but this situation is going to affect everybody in F1, with no exception, and it will be necessary to reduce costs.

"Everybody will have to understand this, including drivers. The start of the season is truly at risk. We do not know what it is going to happen, so far we do not have any certainty."

The planned sweeping changes to technical regulations have already been postponed from 2021 until 2022 due to the unprecedented challenges caused by the virus.

 

Trulli, though, believes the sport should go further to minimise disruption.

He added: "I would do a revolution as far as technical regulations go. For the next year cars should not be touched [modified], which is different from what has been said.

"Namely they would like to postpone the 2021 changes to 2022 and have in this way a sort of sabbatical year.

"Instead, I would say to the teams to start the season next year with all the parts being previously approved. This would be beneficial because it would avoid a cost increase after a negative season."