Formula One has furloughed 50 percent of its staff until the end of the season due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with CEO Chase Carey among senior management to have taken a pay cut.
F1 employs over 450 people across two locations in the UK, their headquarters in London and the TV centre at Biggin Hill in Kent. The staff have been furloughed until the end of May.
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Senior staff are also taking at least a 20 percent pay cut during this time period. F1 says Carey is likely to take a much larger cut voluntarily.
F1 follows three of its teams, McLaren, Williams and Racing Point, doing the same thing. Each of those team’s had drivers take pay cuts as part of their cost-cutting measures.
The series says these are temporary measures until the sport is in a position to go racing again – the season has been indefinitely suspended due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The next race on the calendar which is yet to be cancelled or postponed is the Canadian Grand Prix of June 14, although race organisers are expected to make a decision on whether to proceed with that event this weekend.
Carey is still confident F1 can put on 15-18 races this season, although that prediction was based on a best-case scenario of starting at some point in the summer. Carey’s predecessor Bernie Ecclestone is less optimistic, suggesting F1 should have cancelled the season as soon as the worldwide situation worsened.