Ferrari has made a second and ‘ultimate’ offer to Sebastian Vettel for the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
While disappointing for the 4-times World Champion, his future salary of 12.5 million Euros + eventual victories bonus, being considerably lower than the 36 million a year he’s perceiving now, the German champion will (most probably) accept it.
Vettel is a racer and a businessman. He wants a car that enables him to fight for victory week in week out, and he wants to be paid ‘at market value’. He’s a pragmatic and smart person. He knows his market value is lower than say in 2015 when Ferrari came knocking at his door, and he knows that the times of the mega salaries are gone.
The Corona virus has badly hit every industry and the car and race industry is no exception. A cost cap will be implemented in F1 in 2021 and the CEO’s of Ferrari, Mercedes and Renault (the 3 major constructors involved) are looking to save money, or even consider to withdraw from the championship in the short or middle term.
On top of that, good drivers like Ricciardo, Sainz, Bottas are on the market, their contracts coming to an end this year, and are very well capable of filling his seat, at a lower cost.
So for Vettel, and he knows it, it’s not the time to play ‘hard ball’ with the Ferrari management. Unless he has an unlikely offer from Mercedes in his sleeve, he will gladly have to accept a pay-cut, he’s not racing for money at this stage of his career after all, and race two more years in red at the front, and who knows beat this kid from Monaco.
But pure logic doesn’t always apply in Formula One, so watch out for a surprise.
