Worth their Weight in Points?
Regarding next years 2010 F1 season, who’s going where? We know that world champ Button is joining McLaren and Heikki Kovalainen is homeless, but apart from that, the future is looking quite murky for everyone. A great many of the teams all have a great big TBA written next to their driver stats on Wikipedia.
Thus a solution: with a calculator, lord Google and step by step instructions from my editor, the 2009 points per million salaries have emerged. The driver’s total score is worked out taking the number of points the driver earned and dividing it by his salary. Hey presto, we can work out which drivers were actually worth their weight in salt and which were full of hot air and ill-deserved yachts.
Button fares well scoring 19 points, as he was only paid 5 million dollars for the year, whereas Lewis Hamilton only scored 2.7 with his 18 million dollar strong salary. However, the trophy for the bargain purchase of the year has to go to Brawn with Rubens Barrichello, who was paid one million dollars in 2009 and managed to tally up a score of 77 points. Scuderia Ferrari watch dismally as a Kimi Raikkonen shaped pile of their cash disappears into the sunset. The Finn was paid a hefty 45 million this year, ranking as the second highest paid athlete in the world, bringing his points per million salary score to 1.06.
The final score:
Driver Points per Million
1. Rubens Barrichello ($1m) 77
2. Jenson Button ($5m) 19
3. Sebastian Vettel ($6m) 14
4. Mark Webber ($5.5m) 12.6
5. Timo Glock ($2m) 12
6. Nick Heidfeld ($2.8m) 6.78
7. Heikki Kovalainen ($3.5m) 6.28
8. Giancarlo Fisichella ($1.5m) 5.3
9. Jarno Trulli ($6.5m) 5
10. Nico Rosberg ($8.5m) 4.05
11. Sébastien Buemi ($1.5m) 4
12. Robert Kubica ($4.5m) 3.7
13. Felipe Massa ($8m) 2.75
14. Lewis Hamilton ($18m) 2.7
15. Fernando Alonso ($15m) 1.73
16. Kimi Raikkonen ($45m) 1.06
Thus the teams crisis of who to hire has been solved. It’s a pleasure.
Desiree Schirlinger
Photo Credit: www.mclaren.com