Home  
Site Partners: SpotterGuides Veloce Books  
Related Sites: Your Link Here  

Go Back   TenTenths Motorsport Forum > Single Seater Racing > Formula One

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 6 Dec 2015, 11:47 (Ref:3595883)   #1
old man
Veteran
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
England
UK
Posts: 2,007
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?
old man is offline  
Quote
 

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
F1 = the key to attracting women marcus Formula One 7 7 Jun 2009 12:38
Attracting New Marshals. bludvl_x19 Marshals Forum 53 14 May 2008 15:01
K&N attracting some nice tin KennyG Motorsport Art & Photography 2 9 Jun 2005 17:56
Are Sportscar Drivers better than F1 Drivers ? SL Sportscar & GT Racing 37 15 Jul 2002 13:50


All times are GMT. The time now is 10:18.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Original Website Copyright © 1998-2003 Craig Antil. All Rights Reserved.
Ten-Tenths Motorsport Forums Copyright © 2004-2021 Royalridge Computing. All Rights Reserved.
Ten-Tenths Motorsport Forums Copyright © 2021-2022 Grant MacDonald. All Rights Reserved.