Too many Formula One drivers are being gifted dash-for-cash breakthroughs at the cost of the more talented but less financially blessed, who are being dumped off the grand prix grid.

The fiscal crisis that threatens F1 — with increasing development costs and travel expenditure amounting to many millions of dollars — looms with dire promise.

And that is why some teams at the wrong end of the income scale are only too keen to recruit a pay-as-you-go driver, bolstered by many millions in sponsorship monies, rather than opt for a more highly talented individual, who does not have the backing and who needs a wage.

“It’s all wrong,” says Red Bull’s outgoing Aussie star Mark Webber. And Felipe Massa agrees, saying: “It’s a shame.”

They are both supported by former F1 driver and now TV pundit Martin Brundle, a veteran of 158 races, all of them salaried.

He confesses that, when he was striving to make his entry into F1 in 1984, he tried to dupe renowned British team boss Ken Tyrrell by promising to bring in £150,000 that he did not have.

“I was kidding,” he reveals. “And Ken said to me ‘I know you don’t have the money, but I want you to drive me for me anyway’.”

Brundle adds: “There is no doubt that pay drivers are creeping their way up the grid — and the balance is getting pretty close to pay drivers dominating the sport.”

A prime example is Pastor Maldonado, who has transferred his 30 million pounds oil company sponsorship money from Williams into an ever-grateful and cash-strapped Lotus for the upcoming season.

The erratic Venezualen, a one-time winner but a fade-out last year, has been welcomed with open arms by the team who lost ex-champion Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari because they failed to pay his wages in 2013.

The spin-off tragedy, with team doors wide open as cash-packed wallets are thrust under hierarchical noses, is that the likes of Paul di Resta, extremely talented but financially unsupported to any useful or desirable degree, is out of a job for the upcoming campaign.

“The issue is disappointing when you see brilliant drivers like Paul getting booted out of F1 when you know that others are only in because they are bringing in cash. And that is what is making me and others uncomfortable,” said Brundle.

Massa, formerly with Ferrari and now with Williams, says: “It is a shame to imagine a young driver who has the talent and the ability to probably be a world champion does not get the chance to compete in Formula One or loses the place he has to another guy who has the money to bring to a team.

“And, let’s face it, more teams want a driver to bring in a budget.”

As the old saying goes: Money does not bring happiness. But it does, as far as F1 goes, buy favouritism.

— The writer is a motorsport expert based in the UK