Hamilton, McLaren, Williams and young hopefuls

[ukracing]

Why do McLaren and Williams etc support drivers through their own selection like Hamilton/ Asmer rather than putting their full support behind drivers that win their awards like the McLaren Autosport awards?

[Stephen Green]

Good question. However, it is fair to say that they DO support rising stars and maybe a few other top teams could take a leaf out of there book and follow suit?

[Dr Venom]

PR,
Hamilton, first coloured F1 driver with the ability to go all the way.
Asmer, not sure of the angle there, but bet your bottom dollor williams will in time us him in some sort of PR, is he Croation..?

[Alx]

Estonian

He has some good backing I think. And potential too. I think McLaren do, technically, support the drivers who win the autosport awards in that I guess, well, they give them the prize. Would be nice to see them help out former finalists (especially the multiple ones) such as Robbie Kerr though.

In saying that, I'm a McLaren fan, and I would prefer to see any one of the more recent (at least) Autosport award winners driving for them in F1 than Lewis (though understand I'm not trying to knock Lewis here).

[garagegirl]

did robbie ker never win it then alx? i thought he did?

[Russfeld]

Asmer is connected to Williams vs Harald Huysman

[ukracing]

You'd think though that McLaren would give their award winners more help. Money is what they need, like Hamilton has been given. What happens when the awards come round again, will Hamilton win them all?

[Alx]

Originally posted by garagegirl
did robbie ker never win it then alx? i thought he did?

Nope, he never won it.

I think he was a finalist, twice at least, maybe more.

Ah, that was what I was trying to remember, thanks Russ The management!!!

[Paul Rayner]

Originally posted by ukracing
Why do McLaren and Williams etc support drivers through their own selection like Hamilton/ Asmer rather than putting their full support behind drivers that win their awards like the McLaren Autosport awards?

McLaren, Williams and other teams look for young talent in motor sport all over the place, and sometimes they obviously decide to support it. However, they can't look everywhere, and therefore I guess the Autosport award is McLaren's way of getting other people to look for them, so if they've missed them before they get another chance to grab them. They're not going to support ALL the drivers who win the awards though, because these awards are given out every year, and Britain does not produce one F1 class driver every single year.

[Russfeld]

Thing is though, Williams and Mclraen dont even need to hunt for talent. What driver is going to say no to a ride at that team? An extreme example is Ferrari, they can have any driver or sponsor in the world at a moment's notice.

[Paul Rayner]

Yeah, but Williams, McLaren and Renault want to make sure that whatever talent is out there is signed up to them first. The earlier they can spot it, the less chance there is of one of the other teams profitting from it.

[Russfeld]

At the same time though, why not let the Saubers and Minardis and Chip Ganassis of the world have them while they go through their growing pains

[Mr Jinxx]

I understood that people like Flavio and Eddie Jordan do sign up young hopefuls at an early age to foster them and develop them but also to have control of them. EJ is my hero

[Russfeld]

EJ's a bit of a weasel actually, and neither he or Peter Sauber are the 'talent scouts' they facy themselves.

[Mr Jinxx]

Well Peter Sauber signed up Kimi, and didn't baulk at letting him go to McLaren! And EJ has brought on a few drivers hasn't he? OK so he may sell them on afterwards, but you can't hold that against him unless he prohibits a move in the driver's best interests, and I haven't heard reports of that happening.

[Russfeld]

Yeah but did those two spot any talent you or I couldnt have? Didnt Fisichella win all but 3 F3 races? Thats not a hard call to make.

And the weasel comment was more about EJ's general racing approach.

[Mr Jinxx]

Not the purported hairpiece?

If you take the blanket spotting approach that Flavio appears to have got, you'll possibly end up with something, and ruin a few hopes along the way.

I don't see or know of any other people being spotted and funded at Hamilton's junior age, though. That's extraordinarily young, and very expensive backing, so I'm not surprised.

[Russfeld]

I remember a few years ago the team was doing some anti-drug promotion and some wise-ass crossed out the D in "Just say no to drugs"

[Mr Jinxx]

I'm told he's very sensitive about it. Don't really know why, as it seems to be universally known, and to be honest, he's done it fantastically well as he's aged himself. Still, maybe I'll be glueing one on one day soon ... comes to us all.

[bacon sandwich]

I suppose McLaren are only a sponsor of the Young driver award and it is basically organized by Autosport, but I do believe they should be doing more for the winners. I know they get a fair amount of money and a nice trophy but over the last couple of years - the winners don't seem to have furthered their careers very much (other than how they would've anyway without the award!) and winning it, to me, doesn't seem to make an awful lot of difference.
I think the prize should be a funded drive in the next category up to what the winner is in currently to progress them up the ladder.

[Russfeld]

And you almost never hear of the test results or if they've even done it.