My 6 year old wants to race F1 - how to get started?

eddiem74

Ok, so my son who is 6 now, and will be 7 in December is obessed with two careers paths. All he ever says is he will not do any job or anything else because he will either be a formula 1 driver or a premiership soccer player.

Since a few years back he always watches F1 practice, and the actual races with his grandfather. Knows more about it than I do, and even recently has started playing F1 racing on his Wii.

As a parent I obviously don't want to ruin/stop the dream, but I have no idea of where to start in order to expose him to racing, and what is even available or possible at his age ?

I would appreciate the expertise and guidance here in the form, of how I should go about getting him exposed to what's out there, and perhaps then even involved. I am pretty clueless where to even start?

Many thanks for any suggestions and guidance.

amacca

You'll probably get much more informed answers after this but I would suggest that Karting is probably the cheapest way to start motorsport and what most f1 drivers started their racing careers in.www.irishkarting.com/

If you've got the cash or can raise it somehow then your son could progress to formula vee www.formulavee.ie/

then formula sheane www.formuasheane.ie/

that seems to be the peak of single seater racing in Ireland and obviously he would then be looking to either progress into or skip the above (theres where you need the contacts or outstanding raw talent) altogether and go directly too some of the feeder series for formula 1 ....off the top of my head but probably outdated now but I think these are formula 3000, formula 3....might get noticed for an f1 drive from indy car (although drivers seem moreso to go from f1 to this rather than other way around) or even A1 grand prix.

Best of luck.....Id say its very rare that someone with an ambition at six years of age to be an f1 driver and no prior connections in the sport gets to be an F1 driver but I really admire you're not standing in his way and trying to help....and not being condescending at all here but its so hard (competition is cutthroat and I'd say youll find it hard to do it based in and racing primarily in Ireland) to get to that level Id be advising him that it wouldnt harm his chances to get a good education while hes pursuing his interests (that is if he still has them in a couple of years time) and only drop/ this when he really has a chance at the big time

but you never know...just be prepared to spend/raise money if you want to pursue nearly any form of motorsport to even prove youve got the talent....also maybe dont rule out other forms of motorsport...wrc...touring cars etc.

also maybe take a trip to mondello, kirkistown etc and get talking to people there, go to some of the races, get familiar with it and get you're son familiar with the reality of it before you invest cold hard cash and he tells you next year hes mad into rock climbing etc.

very best of luck again....would love to see an irish driver at the peak of world motorsport. Hopefully this was some help and if it does happen maybe you could get me a ticket or two:D

SouperComputer

Start with a PC and a steering wheel/pedal setup (Logitech G25 or G27). Get Rfactor, iRacing & Live for Speed. Forget anything on Wii, forget Forza and forget GT. You could go all out and build one of these (the plans are free):



Call around the kart tracks, many have kiddie karts that he can try out. These will be a lot slower than what he would actually race but will give you an idea of if hes going to like it or not.

He can't race karts until he is 8 at which stage he would start out in the cadet class. But I know plenty of kids that practiced from when they were 6 or so. Get to a kart race, check it out, take to people and see what you think. Not everyone is OK with their <10year olds doing 50-60 MPH. Talk to the different teams, hire someone to work with his driving when he has some experience in the kart.

#1 rule: Have fun. If your and your son aren't having fun you need to figure out why.

Checkout: www.irishkarting.com

Worry about whats after for karting when he's won some championships, or at least is a soild contender in the UK or Europe. For now, my advice is start kart racing when he is 8. Learn, build relationships and have fun.

Heres some books to read for you, learn from these guys!:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crashed-Byrned-Greatest-Racing-Driver/dp/1848310285
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Drive-Win-Essential-Guide-Driving/dp/0965160009/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282406279&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Race-Win-Become-Champion-Driver/dp/0760331855/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282406302&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Straight-Talk-About-Children-Sport/dp/0889626308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1282406324&sr=1-1-spell

I think autograss can be raced from a young age too, check that out at www.motorsportireland.com
Over here in the US they can start racing karts at 5, if my daughter is interested ill start her practicing at 4ish. But only if she is interested. She's already asking to play "beep beeps" on the PC at two haha. Heres what a cadet race looks like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Dtd-nJz2Bc

Feel free to PM me any questions if you like, or just ask away here.

Bobby04

My 8yr son is similar in his ambitions! I've been bringing him karting since he was 7, and most recently to Whiteriver
They have junior karts very suitable for your 6 yr old. But possibly best of all, they usually have owner drivers testing there at weekends so that you can get a chance to see Cadet karts in action. This will give you and your son an appreciation of the speed of them, and how big a leap it is to go from a hire kart to a race kart. You'll soon find out how he's comparing to others by getting him out there in hire karts, and decide when he's 8 if you want to get him racing Cadets. And I only hope you get even half the joy from the journey that myself and the wee fella already are. A Playstation or similar won't make a racer of him, get him out there in the real world driving karts.

fixie

I think autograss can be raced from a young age too

autograss can be started at 12 racing minis or open wheeled 1.2l corsa engined specials,and then from 16 you can race anything like twin bike engined specials or v8 engined minis
http://www.national-autograss.co.uk/about.html
http://downautograss.jimdo.com/
next race on the 11th and 12th of september in waterford or 25th in september in down
have a look...........

Kefuie

Hi eddiem74!
One of the all time very best toys that one could EVER get your child is the pedal go kart. Today’d karts come in many shapes and sizes and they are of course the young brother of the motorized mini sports car that whizzes around the kgo kart race track over weekends! But for me persoanlly there is just something to classic, so timeless associated with pedal karts.