Some of the richest sportsmen in the world were talking about industrial action yesterday, but it was hard to believe that they meant it. Multi-millionaire tax-exiled Formula One drivers warming their hands by a burning brazier while whistling at their colleagues who had dared to cross the picket line and drive their racing cars?

Of course, that would never happen - it is almost always hot in Formula One’s perpetual global summer, for one thing. Another reason is that the drivers know that they would get short shrift from the paying public if they dared to withhold their services while being paid amounts of money most people can only dream of to compete in motor racing’s most glamorous series.

But Formula One’s finest were at least talking about “strike action” in the paddock at Magny-Cours, in rural Burgundy, where the French Grand Prix is being staged on Sunday for the last time. Fernando Alonso, the Spanish former world champion, set the ball rolling, saying that the drivers had all agreed they would consider a strike of some sort, possibly at the British Grand Prix in two weeks, because of the huge increase in the cost of their driving licence for Formula One - the so-called “superlicence”.

Max Mosley, the FIA president, announced this year an increase in price and imposed it retrospectively from last year. The cost of the super-licence went up from £1,350 a season to £7,858 and the levy imposed on a driver for each point scored increased from £350 to £1,570. This means that drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen - they earn a basic wage of £15-20 million a year - were charged about £180,000 for their licence for last season.

The FIA says that the price rise is justified not only by the huge wages commanded by drivers but also by the large expenditure incurred by the FIA and by race tracks on safety measures. But Alonso was not impressed. “We are all agreed that it is not fair that it has increased so much,” he said. “A strike at Silverstone, that it is one possibility.”

The Renault driver was coy about what form “strike action” might take. The options for the drivers seemed to include not taking part in a practice session (unlikely), not taking part in qualifying (very unlikely) or not taking part in the race itself (extremely unlikely).