{"id":354698,"date":"2023-12-20T18:07:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T19:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=354698"},"modified":"2023-12-20T21:02:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T21:02:17","slug":"aussie-racing-icon-unloads-on-f1-prima-donnas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=354698","title":{"rendered":"Aussie racing icon unloads on F1 'prima donnas'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former world champion Alan Jones<\/a> has admitted he's losing interest in Formula 1<\/a>, saying the sport is full of "prima donnas" and "ridiculous" regulations.<\/p>\n

Jones \u2013 who remains Australia's last world champion having done so in 1980 driving for Williams \u2013 said he still attends two or three grand prix events a year, but is losing interest in the sport he once conquered and is instead turning his focus to two wheels.<\/p>\n

"I have a lot of interest now in MotoGP," he told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n

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"I love it, it's competitive, you don't know who's going to win the bloody race until the last lap.<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/p>\n

"It's colourful, it's very professional \u2026 I've lost a lot of interest in Formula 1 \u2013 they're all bloody prima donnas."<\/p>\n

He pointed to Max Verstappen's nearly $2 million license fee for 2024<\/a> as the latest example of regulations gone mad.<\/p>\n

Drivers require a special racing licence, called a Superlicence, from the sport's governing body the FIA in order to compete in F1. But instead of just being a flat fee for all, each driver's entry fee is calculated on a base fee-plus-points-scored method.<\/p>\n

Due to how many points the Dutchman accrued in his record-breaking 2023 campaign \u2013 a record 575 \u2013 his racing licence for the 2024 season will cost an eye-watering $1,979,702.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"$2 million for Max's licence? It's getting ridiculous," Jones said.<\/p>\n

Jones competed in the sport between 1975 and 1986. He said he also required a Superlicence, but it came from the British Royal Automobile Club (RAC) and came at no cost.<\/p>\n

"It just simply meant that you could drive a Formula 1 car \u2013 they didn't charge for it," he said.<\/p>\n

"You just went into the RAC in England, filled in your form and as long as you met the requirements, you got a licence to race a Formula 1 car.<\/p>\n

"That was it \u2013 I can't see why you have to pay $2 million for a licence. What service do they give you back for that?<\/p>\n

"It's not like they give you some sort of special treatment or service or whatever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It's just a piece of paper to say that you're qualified to drive a Formula 1 car.<\/p>\n

"It's all a bit silly."<\/p>\n

Thankfully for Verstappen, the fee is generally not paid by the driver, but rather by the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former world champion Alan Jones has admitted he's losing interest in Formula 1, saying the sport is full of "prima donnas" and "ridiculous" regulations. Jones […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":354700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354703,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354698\/revisions\/354703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/354700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}