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Old 6 Dec 2015, 11:47 (Ref:3595883)   #1
old man
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Join Date: Oct 2006
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old man should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridold man should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridold man should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
F1 Not Attracting the Best Drivers?

In deciding the above title I want to add "And Does it Matter"

It is prompted by something heard yesterday concerning an already respected driver in his mid to late teens who is faced with an enviable decision. Does he take a free drive in a feeder series or a paid drive in another branch of motorsport? He is likely to take the latter.

In recent years when discussing objectives with kart drivers or those in say FF, Vauxhall Junior, F BMW, F Renault, the inevitable reply was "I want to get into F1" but this is increasingly not the case. The brighter ones are now looking simply for a career in whatever branch offers achievability. They see the budgets required to just get them through karting as frightening and realise that as they move into the feeder series these budgets get way out of family reach. They also see drivers in some cases with less perceived talent making it onto the F1 grid because of heavy backing.

To assist drivers there are various schemes that pick up "the best" and offer big support towards the budget for feeders and the driver has to find the rest, often a 50/50 split. Sponsors are attracted to a driver selected for such a scheme but rapidly lose interest if success does not follow. The best young drivers are inevitably highly intelligent, have family advisors or managers who, unless blinded by ambition, see the problems of the budget requirements to F1 and are increasingly looking at alternatives.

Another factor now is the short route taken by Verstappen and before him Button and Raikkonen, many think if they are not in F1 by 20 they have failed and so adjust objectives or have them adjusted. We saw Shumacher and Webber come into F1 through sportscar racing with others from Indycar and these routes should still be open but I do not at the moment see it happening.

Finally, does it matter?

I was attracted by motorsport when I discovered it in the late '40s and enthuse about the cars, the technology, the driving skills, the racing and see that excellent careers can be carved without "making it" to F1, there are many such examples with Tom Kristensen being perhaps the best from circuit racing, you will all list lots of others. It has changed over the years but one thing is constant, it costs a lot of money to buy the equipment if you want to achieve at the top level, even at club level it is not really cheap but vastly enjoyable.

So, what do others think, is F1 losing out on driver talent and does it matter?
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