Opinion: Motorsport needs to start paying volunteer marshals

It is no exaggeration to say that this year’s Bathurst 1000 will be one of, if not the, largest motorsport event ever held in Australia. The scale of the event is unheard of.

Spread across six days of competition, ten categories will take to Australia’s most famous stretch of bitumen to round out a racing season devastated by COVID lockdowns. The almost week-long event will culminate with the Bathurst 1000 – an event so beloved that its almost a religious holiday for Australian racing fans.

Yet, mixed with the elation of the racing season ending on a high are pangs of trepidation that Motorsport Australia, Supercars and ARG will be taking further advantage of the most undervalued members of the racing community – marshals.

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It might surprise those not closely involved in motorsport to know the people you see standing at the side of the track waving yellow flags during cautions are not paid for their time. Each and every one of them are volunteers doing a job so critical that without it, running an event would be impossible.

Being a marshal is not easy. The conditions are tough, days long, and the risks high. That last point was tragically underlined earlier in the year when a marshal working at Brands Hatch in the UK was killed as a direct result of an on-track accident. It was a dark day for motorsport globally. A man was volunteering his time to keep drivers safe, and paid the ultimate price.

“These volunteer marshals are what makes racing possible, they are heroes,” Lewis Hamilton wrote at the time. He is right. Marshals make racing possible. Without them, from grassroots to blue riband events, nothing would happen. The part they play in keeping competitors and spectators alike safe is often understated, and the danger they face while doing so not insignificant.

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Why aren’t they being paid to take on that risk?

Unfortunately, that’s a taboo question to ask in motorsport circles, and there doesn’t seem to be any reasonable answer. There are some half-hearted arguments to be made against paying for marshals, but they don’t stand up to heavy scrutiny.

If the motorsport community is honest with itself for a moment, it’d realise that the men and women doing this work are being taken advantage of. The real reason being a marshal at some of the biggest sporting events in the world is a volunteer position? People are willing to do it for free. Frankly, that’s not good enough.

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Some claim that by having marshals work for free means that it weeds out the slackers just wanting to get close to the action. But paying people doesn’t result in poor performances. I don’t think a surgeon is going to do a half-baked job because they know they’ll be cashing a healthy pay cheque regardless of the outcome. Try telling your favourite racing driver to do the job for free, because if you paid them, they wouldn’t try as hard to win. Doesn’t really make sense, does it?

And before teams start complaining about the added entry costs that paying marshals would entail, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the change in annual budget would be a rounding error for most. Many supercar teams built brand new chassis this year, knowing full well at the time Gen3 replacement regulations were due in 2022. Cost saving? Yeah, right.

It’s high time top level categories around the world do the right thing, and begin paying marshals. Not every category would require the use of professionals, but it’s not unreasonable to expect the likes of Supercars, F1, NASCAR, IndyCar, WRC, WEC, and Formula E to reach into their pockets.

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If we put a proper price on the value of the work conducted by marshals, it’d far outstrip the cost of paying a reasonable wage for their time.

Motorsport is steeped in cash. At its upper echelons, the mind boggles at the amount of money being spent by teams, drivers, sponsors and organisers. It’s time paying marshals was added to the balance sheet. Should the ambitious Bathurst 1000 plan become a reality, I’ll be watching those six glorious days of racing knowing it is happening atop the backs of volunteer marshals.

And after the victory champagne is sprayed, TV deal payments received, and performance bonuses paid out, not one red cent will be used to reward the marshals that made it all possible.

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