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BusinessCar Office Blog: 10 July 2008
Date: 10 July 2008 | Author: Tristan Young
Given fleets specialise in costs saving, maybe F1 can learn a thing or two from business car managers...
Fleet suggestions for F1
Last weekend I was lucky enough to be at Silverstone to cheer Lewis Hamilton to his first win (hopefully of many) at the British Grand Prix.
Even from the stands it was easy to tell Hamilton was streets ahead of the competition.
However, it's easy to forget that its not all down to one person, or even just the people in the pit garage. Thanks to a tour of the pits from, my hosts for the weekend (see pics), Honda I found out that the Honda F1 operation employs some 1600 staff. And you have to remember Honda is by no means the largest operation on the grid.
It's also interesting to note that despite all the obvious expenditure in F1, the teams have been asked to look at cost saving measures and efficiency improvements for future years.
Given this is what fleets excel at, I figured that maybe F1 should could learn a few things from business car managers.
So here's my top three suggestions:
Reward best average mpg in a race - to make it fair you'd have to finish the race within two laps of the winner.
Tax the CO2 emissions of the car - lower TV-rights payments to the highest emitters, hybrids are already on their way in F1, but this could speed up their introduction
Driver's employment contract to include a clause making them pay for the first £100,000 of any at-fault damage - genuine overtaking attempts to be exempt
If you've got any suggestions have your say here.
