McLaren on Wednesday became the first Formula One team to furlough staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with drivers Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz joining senior management in taking a pay cut.
The automaker said in a statement that the temporary three-month wage reduction was part of wider cost-cutting measures due to the effects of the pandemic on its business.
“These measures are focused on protecting jobs in the short term to ensure our employees return to full-time work as the economy recovers,” McLaren said.
A team spokesman said that 100 to 150 staff from across the group who were working on a project to make ventilators were not included in the measure.
The group, including the luxury automaker and applied technology arm, employs about 3,700 people, with about 850 working for the F1 team.
McLaren is part of a consortium of leading aerospace, engineering and Formula One racing companies that have joined forces to ramp up production of a ventilator made by Smiths Group, which supports those with complications from the virus.
Britain has ordered 10,000 of the breathing machines.
The majority of the Formula One team, who are on a three-week factory shutdown brought forward from August due to the season being on hold, are to be furloughed from next week, with McLaren making up some of the difference.
Those not furloughed, including McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, would work on reduced pay.
With racing unlikely to start until the European summer at the earliest, F1 sources have said that the teams — a majority based in Britain — are discussing extending the shutdown.
Formula One teams, unless owned by manufacturers, derive much of their budget from the sport’s revenues, prize money and sponsorships, and face a major financial hit if races do not happen.
They have already agreed to defer major rule changes from next year to 2022 to cut costs and to race with the same cars next season.
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