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6 Dec 2015, 11:47 (Ref:3595883) | #1 | ||
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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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6 Dec 2015, 12:43 (Ref:3595891) | #2 | |
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That's a good question! Ever since I have been
following F1 since 1984 I have always thought that they had the best drivers in 4 wheel motorsports. To drive that fast on a road course is quite remarkable. To be trusted with the most expensive gear on the planet a diver must be qualified for that level. Seems like a lot of the successful sportscar racers have some amount of F1 experience. So I would say - yes - F1 does attract the best drivers. |
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6 Dec 2015, 12:44 (Ref:3595892) | #3 | |
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The big problem for me is that with only 20 seats on the grid, so many talented drivers are missing out or leaving F1 too early, like di Resta. I only hope no more teams drop out
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7 Dec 2015, 17:47 (Ref:3596169) | #4 | ||
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It does not help that there is very little movement in the driver ranks. Of the 20 confirmed drivers for 2016 (minus the 2 at Manor), 17 are in the same seat they were last year and all three that are not was caused by Haas joining the grid.
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8 Dec 2015, 02:39 (Ref:3596302) | #5 | |
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Given the reviews that Webber has given Timo Bernhard, it is clear that all the best drivers are not in F1.
MotoGP on the other hand - they are the best, no question, and no pay riders either! |
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8 Dec 2015, 02:53 (Ref:3596304) | #6 | |
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8 Dec 2015, 08:58 (Ref:3596352) | #7 | ||
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F1 will always be the dream for every aspiring young driver but the sad truth is 99% of them will never make it, no matter how talented they are.
Money, lots of it, and connections (management) are the prime reasons. Add into the mix that circa 50% of the F1 teams require pay drivers and you're looking at maybe just 10 to 12 talent based seats. I actually don't think that's good for F1 but frankly it's never been any different. Drivers who want to earn a living from the sport should be encouraged to consider everything and anything......sure they won't become World famous or multi millionaires but they could do OK. |
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8 Dec 2015, 09:26 (Ref:3596358) | #8 | |
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Are the best drivers in F1? In my opinion yes, the very best will and have normally made it. There will always be the argument that we don't know how successful some people would have been. Senna always said that Fullerton was the most complete driver he ever raced against in Karting. Could he have been the best F1 driver in History?
Is F1 made up of the best 20 drivers? No certainly not, but it never has so why are people (not necessarily on here) worried about that? F1 has always had Megastars/Great Drivers/Good Drivers/Grid Fillers and that I think is one of the appeals, can a "grid filler" work hard and become a great driver? can a perceived "megastar" fail to fulfil his potential? Even on the current grid there are a few drivers that are great but have never won a race and some that are good/grid fillers that have won. History will say that Maldanado was a more successful driver than Hulkenberg (assuming no more success from either) but I think that the majority of people will say otherwise. |
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8 Dec 2015, 10:06 (Ref:3596369) | #9 | ||
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Ogier is one of the best 20 drivers in motorsports - don't remember him ever wanting to be in F1. Loeb similarly.....
So, No...the best drivers are not necessarily in F1. |
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8 Dec 2015, 10:24 (Ref:3596374) | #10 | |
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A quick flit around the wonder of the internet would seem to indicate a lot of people who have never been associated with F1 have done A OK.
http://www.celebritiesmoney.com/indy...ies-list-2015/ http://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/2015...d-sports-star/ http://tsmplay.com/money/nascar-drivers-salaries/ Net worths Tom Kristenson $20M Seb Loeb $55M Tony Stewart $70M Danica Patrick $30M Jeff Gordon $150M Kyle Busch $25M So either try and get into F1 or go to America I guess. Don't know what some of the Japanese drivers and some of the Asian championship drivers are paid???! Webber is apparently on $2M a year at Porsche. P.S. There are some contradictory figures around. P.P.S. Wonder what some of the team owners in the lesser categories make out of the wannabees ART, DAMS, Campos, Trident etc. Last edited by wnut; 8 Dec 2015 at 10:29. |
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8 Dec 2015, 10:30 (Ref:3596376) | #11 | |
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8 Dec 2015, 11:38 (Ref:3596393) | #12 | ||
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Hotshots have always fallen off the radar for lack of cash, lesser drivers are in because of their cash and some drivers aren't interested in F1.
Realistically drivers should need to reach a certain threshold of high excellence but F1 being the best of the best is just marketing jazz. I'm actually surprised that Kyle Busch earns less than Tom Kristensen but that list is hardly a metric for quality. Danica Patrick, for example, is a very middling character. |
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8 Dec 2015, 15:47 (Ref:3596433) | #13 | ||
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Thanks for that research wnut, interesting figures in those links, one wonders just how accurate but even if out by a large % they are still impressive.
Given these figures why would a talented driver not get himself over to the USA as quickly as possible, Max Chilton and his dad must wonder why they bothered with second tier teams in F1. It brings up other thoughts, now we know why more top US drivers don't come to F1, we know why Bernie struggles to get teams involved when it is clear they must find the money through drivers to get on the grid and finally, I wonder how much Nigel Mansell made when he went Stateside? |
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8 Dec 2015, 16:05 (Ref:3596439) | #14 | ||
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i also have an issue with pay drivers. i respect that in motorsports a driver must be able to attract personal sponsors to make themselves more attractive but there is a difference in what the trend is now although im not sure i can say where exactly that line is.
i do think that if F1 wants to be the 'pinnacle' then this practice should not be allowed in F1. really there should be a minimum salary paid for by the teams irrespective of what type sponsorship a driver can bring in. no doubt it would be difficult to monitor who got what/was it because of talent or commercial appeal/connections but for me its more of an appearance thing anyways and the hope that if a team has to pay then they will pick based only on perceived talent. to be a professional sport and to be an professional athlete one must be paid by the team that they perform for. if the athlete is the one paying the team then they are not professional athletes and as such its not a professional sport. i should add that i dont hold the same concerns for other categories as there is more of a blending between ownership and drivers with drivers often owning their own teams then there is in F1. |
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8 Dec 2015, 17:06 (Ref:3596449) | #15 | |||
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Quote:
This is surely the same type of arrangement that the pay-to-drive lot have with the teams; it would be hard to tell where the sponsorship stopped and the bought drive starts. |
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8 Dec 2015, 18:07 (Ref:3596459) | #16 | ||
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true true it is hard to tell where these types of relationships start and end but surely there is a difference for the guys making 30-50mil per year through an existing team sponsorship deal vs those trying to secure their seats for the smaller teams based on their ability to generate their own personal sponsorship as a prerequisite for entry.
Philip Morris and Honda would be in F1 regardless of whether or Schumi or Alonso were there and the sponsorship those companies provide stays with or will stay with the team after those drivers left/leave and those two drivers earned their spots prior to being afforded or categorized as having a pseudo pay driver status. the Maldonado situation would be the odd one imo in that PDVSA would likely still be an F1 sponsor even if PM wasnt a driver but would they opt for a longer term deal with one team rather than move as the driver moves? but moreso i am talking about those trying to get into F1 with one of the smaller teams and their situation is very much different to that of Schumi's or Alonso's imo. |
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15 Dec 2015, 11:10 (Ref:3597921) | #17 | ||
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The question of whether sponsorship goes to the team and the team pay the driver or the sponsorship goes direct to the driver is a matter of book keeping. What is not clear from any of those interesting earning figures is how many drivers actually get hired for their ability in the car and do not bring cash sponsors, we really will never know.
Many teams over all my years of motorsport interest have benefitted from the connections of drivers, having Stirling Moss as a driver probably guaranteed certain tyre supplies for example and his rise in F1 had a lot to do with his father buying a Maserati for him What seems to be happening now is that drivers need to be able to bring budget for F1 whereas some other classes of racing require less, or even no budget and so we lose drivers to F1 who have less funding. |
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24 Jan 2016, 11:06 (Ref:3607559) | #18 | ||
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Stofel VanDoorne does not expect to suffer the same fate as Magnussen and, wisely in my opinion, is chasing a deal in another formula to keep him race sharp. I have contact with leading people in the feeder formulae and this year things appear to be a little different and wonder how the Magnussen experience, the Verstappen case and the general financial state of smaller teams in F1 are really changing the young driver approach.
I am told that at this stage in the season signed deals in GP2 and FR3.5 are at a very low point and that GP3 is not all that healthy. The boom in F3 that followed Verstappen's rise to F1 is thought to be on the wane as young drivers find that it is it not as easy as all that to move from Karting to F3. The market for drivers in F4 and the other entry level series is buoyant but it is suggested that a realisation is coming in that the budget requirements to move from the (relatively) achievable levels required at GP3, GP2 and FR3.5 is so large that the dream cannot be maintained. Only the wealthiest fathers and connections can see the road clear for them. Many of the other backers who dream of the vast return on investment that can be expected when their charge reaches F1 are becoming clear that they are more likely to win the lottery. Going down the ladder I can see the vast effort being put into Karting as drivers now can move to cars at 15 with the dream of F1 having been proved possible at 17 and feel that the whole thing has moved down the age scale in a way that perhaps was inevitable but is it a good long term development? I saw the ultimate situation recently when I came across the "Bambino" class in Karting where 6 to 7 year olds "race" in a time trial format. The kids that I watched were fascinating and,"cute" as they got into their karts. Track speed was reasonable and some were very raw but the odd one had a good eye for line, braking and throttle control even at 6 years old. Further insight came when I saw that one of best kid's father was employing the services of a person that I regard as one of the biggest karting experts in the world and who charges big dollars for his time. This expert has more than one Bambino/Cadet client I understand. So, just as we have seen golfers who wielded a club almost as soon as they could lift one, tennis players taking the racket at two years old and thousands of footballers who start kicking a ball as soon as they can walk we now have professional management of 6 year old racers in "cars" and, I am sure bikes. I am not saying I disapprove of this trend, what is the harm and better to have professional help in such a dangerous area but it demonstrates that the whole driver career line has moved down by several years. Formula 1 cannot absorb all the drivers that the feeder series will create and so to earn a living they must look to other things where funding does not just come from the driver. If you just want to race for fun there are plenty of opportunities and none better than karting at any age but to make a career from motorsport now is far less of a clear path. The lack of direct sponsorship in F1 that would allow teams to chose the best does mean, IMO, that we will not necessarily get the top drivers. It may also mean that we get some great drivers in sports and saloon racing of all types. These changes may make for problems for others in the sport than drivers as teams may need to employ mechanics and engineers with wider skills and do you need less staff to run in the more junior formulae than in GP2 and GP3? Changing times I feel |
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24 Jan 2016, 15:45 (Ref:3607625) | #19 | |
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Am I the only one who believes that to an extent (certainly when looking at junior single seaters) that the question should not be 'does Formula 1 attract the best drivers?' but should instead be 'do the best drivers attract Formula 1?'
Look at the likes of Frijns, Magnussen, and now potentially Vandoorne over just the last couple of years. |
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24 Jan 2016, 17:32 (Ref:3607642) | #20 | ||
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I suspect Vandoorne will be in a McLaren in 2017. Either JB will retire or the Spaniard will flounce off. Whether being in a McLaren in 2017 is a good thing or not is another matter, however.
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24 Jan 2016, 22:00 (Ref:3607736) | #21 | ||
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I'm struggling to recall a good example, but there are drivers who are brilliant but not suited to F1 open wheeler.
Peter Brock once said the best driver in the world was probably a tractor driver in Siberia, but nobody is ever going to find him to find out. However, talent alone will not get into F1. You need a backer, whether it's the Vettel/Hamilton route or Ericsson/Moldynado route. |
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24 Jan 2016, 22:34 (Ref:3607747) | #22 | ||
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Since it started F1 has always been a compromise between drivers with talent and drivers with money/connections.Every team over the years has made a choice at some time to take the money over the best driver going around.
Teams have lost championships because they had a pay driver who couldnt back up the number onee driver,drivers have lost championships becaue they had to play second fiddle to the money/connection driver. If anything its got worse in recent times because the money involved is so obscene you need to have parents who own a country to get together the dollars to grease the palms that get you into F1. |
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25 Jan 2016, 08:56 (Ref:3607804) | #23 | |
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Funny the discussion is kinda about McLaren. When it was McLaren Mercedes, the amount of drivers who were meant to get F1 seats but were never given proper chances was mad.
McMercs attitude seemed to be sign a lot of good drivers, then dump them in DTM and test driver roles so nobody else can use them. |
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25 Jan 2016, 10:21 (Ref:3607819) | #24 | ||
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Interviewer: "Will the McLaren F1 be your answer to the Ferrari F40?" Gordon Murray: "Hmm... I don't think we have anyone at McLaren who can weld that badly..." |
25 Jan 2016, 10:24 (Ref:3607820) | #25 | |
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I think it was actually Jenks who said that the best driver could be a bus driver in China, but we would never know it if he didn't get the opportunity
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