[spireitematt]

Lewis Hamilton has signed a new 3 year deal with Mercedes.

It works out at

£33,333,333 per year

£641.026 per week

£91,575 per day

£3,816 per hour

£63.60 per minute

It's obscene and pure greed especially in times of austerity.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

I don't think he will care. He's a tax exile anyway so not too worried about England's austerity .... in my humble opinion.

[Lord Snooty]

Disgusting! Makes Premier League nobodies look hard done to.

[St Charles Owl]

Good luck to him!! Comparing austerity measures to what goes on in industries that make a ton of money is not really relevant, giving him half this amount won't see any changes to the ordinary man in the street anyway. F1, like football, is a rich sport that is able to pay top dollar for the best employees, no measure of hardship in our lives will change that. Improving the quality of life for the majority of the population is down to the government and the policies it brings in, its not the responsibility of F1, football or any other industry to change it for the whole population. I accept they can adopt fair wage policies within their own organisations and make sure they give good benefits to their employees but I would guess that Mercedes F1 team pay pretty good wages to all their staff anyway.

Rather than target the sports stars who earn big money, I would prefer to see campaigns aimed at raising the minimum wage to at least the living wage level for everyone, a move like that will help the poorest paid in our societies without affecting anyone else on the pay ladder!! Over here in the San Francisco Bay Area, many cities are bringing in minimum wages that are up to $6-7 higher than the government or state levels just because they think its the right thing to do, that should happen more at company level and county/city level anyway. I work for a company that refuses to pay minimum wage even to its "lowest" employees, the starting wage here for the most menial work is still at least $5/hr above minimum wage for San Jose, encouraging companies to be more responsible is the way to go.

[pob]

Pay for F1 teams tends to be slightly under that expected for the skills/sector and working hours/conditions are relatively poor. Most engineers don't stick out this sort of working environment for more than a few years before burning out, and many speak of relief after finally leaving. It's why the 2-week summer shutdown was so gratefully received.

Even the truckies tend to do more than one job, such as doing the catering at the races too.

[spireitematt]

I have to disagree with you there Charles. No one is worth £33 million a year and especially for driving a car around a track 55 times, its the same in football the money is obscene. I don't even think he's that good a driver he just whinges and blames everyone else for either crashing out or not finishing in the top three. When he drove for McLaren there were always a controversy in nearly every race and the stewards had to intervene. Hamilton goes on about how he loves Britain and the country but refuses to live here because he doesn't want to pay the tax so decides to live in Monaco. Same with the top Premier League footballers in this country they get paid thousands and thousands of pounds a week which some people might not earn in there life time and they moan 'I'm playing too many games' 'I'm tired' 'I'm not getting enough money' they are out of touch with reality and with the real people the fans who pay there wages. Karl Henry who plays for QPR was worried about Labour winning the General Election because he might have to pay a bit more tax and instead supports the Conservative Party the same goes for Sol Campbell.

[St Charles Owl]

I never said he was worth the money, nor did I say footballers deserve what they get paid, I said connecting what these guys earn to austerity measures isn't a valid reason what they should or shouldn't be paid!! The companies that employ them decide on their own what they pay him, just like my company does and any other private enterprises and I am sure they base that decision on what he is worth to them and them alone. Again, paying him say 15m a year would have zero effect on the rest of the population in the UK as the remaining 18m a year wouldn't go anywhere but Mercedes deep pockets.

As regards living abroad I really can't have an issue with that as its what I do. One of the benefits of earning good money is it gives people the chance to live where ever they want and I would never want to live in a country that denies citizens the right to move, that would be called communist China!!! Maybe Britain needs to adopt the same rules as the US where it still makes US citizens who work abroad pay taxes in the US. Of course the tax rate over here is significantly less than Britain but maybe making a reduced contribution to tax would be a suitable compromise.

---

Pay for F1 teams tends to be slightly under that expected for the skills/sector and working hours/conditions are relatively poor. Most engineers don't stick out this sort of working environment for more than a few years before burning out, and many speak of relief after finally leaving. It's why the 2-week summer shutdown was so gratefully received.

Even the truckies tend to do more than one job, such as doing the catering at the races too.

Yes I am sure the demands on them are rigourous but most of these guys are living a dream even if its just for a few years.  They get to work in one of the  most exciting sports in the world and get to travel to places most people will never get to.