Räikkönen Pay

If it's any consolation Raikkonen&Redbull=PartyTime I think he's a money grabbing git and am happy he not in the last two races. It will be interesting to see if he is in default of his contract but somehow I doubt we will ever know.
 
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Isn't everyone who tires or has tried to maximize their income by definition a "money-grabbing git"? Or is anyone who does otherwise a saint or a fool?

Unless the details of the contract are released, which is HIGHLY unlikely, any discussion about it is merely a reflection of people's individual biases, and "guilt" is being assigned accordingly.
Personally, I think that most top-line entertainers, and let's face it, race car drivers are among them, are obscenely overpaid for what they contribute to society. So are most CEOs. However, financial fairness has never been a priority in any civilization that I know of.
 
Kimi does have form though. He left Ferrari with a pile of cash, had the opportunity to return to F1 straight away (or so we are led to believe) but preferred to trouser the cash and have some time off. I agree with your sentiments that sports stars are horribly over paid and someone like Raikkonen should realise that without the grease monkeys in the garage, the bloke who runs the CFD, laminate department, receptionist etc, etc, he wouldn't be able to have his moment in the sun as he won't have a car to drive.
 
I'm frankly a little astonished that the general consensus seems to be that Kimi is using the back problem as an excuse not to drive for Lotus in the last 2 GPs because he hasn't been paid.

Speaking as someone who is currently suffering from a bad back, I can actually sympathise with him - I've not been able to get properly comfortable in a couple of weeks now. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to subject my spine to the punishment of an F1 car anyway!

If your earning potential as a sportsman is at risk from permanent disability due to injury, and you hadn't been paid yet for the work you've done this year, then why would you take the risk?
 
And please let's not forget that any team is buggered if they have no driver!

Perhaps if Kimi had been treated more appropriately, he wouldn't have become 'so selfish'.

I don't see him as a capitalist, per se. I do see him as a man who will not be messed with.
 
I think that if you have a contract that says you earn x amount for doing a specified job, then you should get paid. If a company goes bust,it goes under. The workforce don't work for free, even well paid ones. Working for nothing doesn't buy food or pay the mortgage and bills. In Kimi's case it's a bit more extreme, it doesn't pay for the Avgas for the jet, or the caviar and champagne to sip in the sauna. But still the principle is the same!
 
I don't think that there is an area of commerce where a business does not get a stay of execution to attempt to pay its creditors. If Lotus ceases to exist, remember Raikkonen won't get a penny. If Lotus gets the money in, he gets the lot, and for that to happen they need a chance to trade.
 
I don't think the bad back issue is an excuse for not racing, he already stated he was thinking of not driving because he hasn't got paid.

I doubt he's the one to go around and make an excuse like that, he would come out and say why like he's done throughout his career.

He's raced all season long, and I think he's probably more peeved off at the empty promises from the management which have been going on some time.
 
Can someone give me a link to anything that says that the blue collar workforce are not getting paid either? There have been a lot of comments about Kimi taking priority but I haven't found anything to conclusively back that up. I would also be interested to know if the squads' directors and management are in the same boat.

With regard to sports stars ludicrous levels of income, it should be born in mind that many of them will have short careers in which to bring in anything like the big money. The few who make the very top steps, particularly in "dangerous" sports risk life and limb. Some of them end up dead before they reach 40 and quite a few more will face retirement at an early age saddled with a disability.

At the end of the day it is market forces that determine what a driver can make. Anyone with an issue with that should take it up with the captains of industry and the chieftains of capitalism.
 
I forgot Kimi wasn't driving by the end of the weekend in Texas.

Other than being another moanry disheartened voice on the radio I don't think he'd have brought anything extra though.
 
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