Troubles at the Grand Prix Drivers Association

Hot on our recent article on Formula One Safety, the issue of the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) has again been thrown into the spotlight. It seems that the GPDA is going through a rough time right now. Recently Jarno Trulli, Fernando Alsono and Mark Webber has spoken out about the issue by criticising those drivers not in the association. Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are not members of the GPDA. Also Force India’s Adrian Sutil is not a member.

"There are some drivers who couldn't care less but they take advantage of the work done by others," Trulli told Autosprint. "What these sensationally uninterested drivers don't understand is that the GPDA has a price. We fund it with a fee on the points scored.

"If the top six drivers are the uninterested ones, then there's a lack of money to survive and it's always the unlucky ones, the ones who get paid less, that have to sustain the costs. The figures are little. The entry fee was one thousand dollars, now it's probably one thousand euros, then you pay something like two hundred dollars per point scored.

"But what I don't understand is that you might not want to be part of the GPDA, then you can do what you want, but at least pay the money since you go on track too.”

"I'm not saying they should get involved, I'm saying as a grand prix driver you should be sensible about safety because you are driving," said Trulli.

"It's you getting in the car and going fast so the GPDA is only there not to do any politics. Any time we sit in a room, we discuss privately anything which we have in common – which is racing and safety.

"Apparently, there are some people who do not care about it – but they get the benefit anyway. And what is really concerning me and all the GPDA drivers is at the moment more and more drivers are pulling out of GPDA for no particular reason. But they are getting the benefit of all the work we are still doing.

Trulli expressed his frustration in the interview that the drivers who choose not to be part of the association simply don't understand how important the work it does is.

"The most outrageous thing is that a top driver doesn't give a damn about his safety," he added. "For me, that's unacceptable. Even drivers that were part of the association and left pretend not to understand, and don't read what we do.

"If it wasn't for the GPDA, and for Riccardo Ceccarelli of Formula Medicine, then if one of these guys had an accident during winter testing he would have risked his life. The minimum safety requirements were lacking yet they don't care and leave the association, this means they are truly insane."

Lewis Hamilton however again confirmed at the Turkish Grand Prix that he has no current intentions of joining the association. In addition he does not intend paying any fees to the association.

"I won't go on about whether I'm joining or not because you guys know the deal," he told reporters when asked about the GPDA situation.

"We spoke about it plenty of times, but they've not approached me and asked me if I want to support them. But in all honesty it's like asking you (the media) to pay for our driver salaries, or that sort of thing.

"I don't understand why I need to. I pay for my racing licence, which goes towards the FIA safety regulations. So I don't understand why I need to be paying more."

This lead to the great safety campaigner Sir Jackie Stewart to observe “I think this is one area where Lewis might be feeling he is a bit special,” the triple champion said, “and that is wrong. He should be part of the GPDA.”

Mark Webber indicated that the association remains very interested in having Hamilton involved. "He will be very welcome any day to come along and just flick a couple of views around," he said. "It is good to have someone at the front of the grid in the quick car, to be helping us out and taking the sport forward, because he is the future of the sport.

"Someone like Kimi (Raikkonen), we know he is not interested and that is fine. And some guys in the past were not interested but they paid their way because they knew every single lap they did, whether testing or racing, there were GPDA people saving them."

Felipe Massa has recently rescinded his membership of the GPDA. "I didn't always like the way it was run," the Ferrari driver told the Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

However fellow countryman Rubens Barrichello was not impressed "It is a personal decision," the Honda veteran told Spanish newspaper Diario AS in Istanbul, "but it's not good for the rest of us.

"If the association wants to be a strong influence on the FIA, it is very important to have the Ferrari drivers on-board. If we have the 20 guys of the grid discussing these things, then every situation is possible."

All of this lead to Fernando Alonso also coming out saying he could not understand the drivers who did not want to be part of the association. Given the GPDA is really the main vehicle for the drivers to raise safety fears.

"It is true there are drivers not in the GPDA, which is their own decision, but in my opinion it is not good," said Alonso, when asked by autosport.com about the situation regarding GPDA. "As I have said another time, everyone can choose what they want - but it is difficult to understand how drivers don't want to be involved in an association of drivers that want to save our lives when we are racing.

"The accident that Kovalainen had last week, we will work on it with the FIA very closely, we will make some proposals and at the end we will find a solution. And these type of accidents will not be repeated. So drivers who don't want to be involved with that, it makes no sense."

Richard Woods, Director General of the FIA Institute, told the Independant newspaper that there has always been genuine interest in working with the drivers, and that this has frequently been the case.

“There’s a constant dialogue between the drivers and the FIA and they are welcome to attend the key safety research meetings where all the detailed work is done. The GPDA has regularly sent speakers and delegates to FIA Institute events such as this season’s medical summit in Bahrain and Sid (Watkins) and Gerard Saillant (FIA Institute President and Deputy President) value these contributions greatly.

Here at OzRacingWrap we would have to say we agree with Trulli, Webber and Alonso. It is staggering to us that any driver would view the association as optional. In fact we think further the FIA should make it a condition of being sanctioned to drive in Formula 1 that a driver must firstly pay the fee and secondly be a member of the association.

For those drivers who feel the association does not achieve anything, we have only look to the recent Turkish Grand Prix. In the support GP2 race a stray dog wondered onto the track and was collected by Bruno Senna. The GPDA immediately became involved with track officials to agree a work around of the problem. If there was no GPDA it would be much harder to get agreement, However the appropriate officials of the GPDA were able to be contacted and a solution found to allow the Grand Prix to go ahead.

Perhaps it has been to long since the last death in Formula 1 and some of the younger drivers are starting to take safety for granted. We can only hope that such a attitude will not come back to bite them. Motor sport will always be dangerous and the search for safety must be ongoing. What is safe today may not be tomorrow, as the cars find ever increasing speed.