F1 Pay to drive.

bbsrs

Looks like a Russian 17 year old is going to get a Sauber F1 driver spot next year with the support of Russian companies sponsorship. His beast finish in Formula Renault 3.5 was 2nd and he's currently 8th in the championship. The guy may or may not have serious potential , I don't know but this kind of pay to drive makes you wonder is F1 the place where the best drivers in the world end up or is it simply 6 to 8 are there on merit while the rest just have deep pockets. Depressing for the less well off aspiring talented drivers. Susie Wolff is another very privileged we'll positioned individual.

paddy147

bbsrs wrote: »

Looks like a Russian 17 year old is going to get a Sauber F1 driver spot next year with the support of Russian companies sponsorship. His beast finish in Formula Renault 3.5 was 2nd and he's currently 8th in the championship. The guy may or may not have serious potential , I don't know but this kind of pay to drive makes you wonder is F1 the place where the best drivers in the world end up or is it simply 6 to 8 are there on merit while the rest just have deep pockets. Depressing for the less well off aspiring talented drivers. Susie Wolff is another very privileged we'll positioned individual.

F1 is all about......

ted1

Pay to drive has being around for years.
They still have to qualify with on something like 7% of the fastest time to race

Rascasse

Very hard to get into F1 without being a pay driver. One Herr Schumacher paid Jordan £100k per race I think to get his start in '91 after competing in F3 in the year before. Of course, there are many more talentless drivers with millions behind them like Chilton, Diniz, Katayama etc etc etc. Who knows how good this guy will be?

Jordan 199

Rascasse wrote: »

One Herr Schumacher paid Jordan £100k per race I think to get his start in '91 after competing in F3 in the year before.

And it was paid by Mercedes Benz.

Frankie Lee

Rascasse wrote: »

Very hard to get into F1 without being a pay driver. One Herr Schumacher paid Jordan £100k per race I think to get his start in '91 after competing in F3 in the year before. Of course, there are many more talentless drivers with millions behind them like Chilton, Diniz, Katayama etc etc etc. Who knows how good this guy will be?

Diniz while undoubtedly a pay driver wasn't that bad while Katayama showed some promise before he got cancer.

Slutmonkey57b

What concerns me is that while pay drivers are nothing new, drivers with little or no experience are getting the sponsorship. Guys like Chilton and this fella clearly get the benefit of nepotism, but why aren't guys with actual results behind them like Frijns getting the money in?

smellslikeshoes

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

What concerns me is that while pay drivers are nothing new, drivers with little or no experience are getting the sponsorship. Guys like Chilton and this fella clearly get the benefit of nepotism, but why aren't guys with actual results behind them like Frijns getting the money in?

Frijns will get there I think but if you don't have a family fortune you need a big company to get behind you. Compared to the like of Russia there isn't going to be near as many companies in the Netherlands who would be willing to bankroll an F1 driver, he's also not helped by the fact there is already a Dutch driver on the grid.

Frank Bullitt

Does he even have enough miles to get a super license?

2 Friday sessions would be easily enough to get the required mileage.

Robbo

Personally, I believe that Russia is a hotbed of motorsport talent at the moment, just like Italy was in the 90s. Nothing questionable at all about it whatsoever. No need to make too many enquiries as to the origin of the money...

ScumLord

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

What concerns me is that while pay drivers are nothing new, drivers with little or no experience are getting the sponsorship. Guys like Chilton and this fella clearly get the benefit of nepotism, but why aren't guys with actual results behind them like Frijns getting the money in?

I think drivers don't need to have as much natural skill anymore. You can break everything down with telemetry and have a team of people show you exactly how to drive the car. They won't have the ability to make the most out of each race like Alonso would but as long as everything goes to plan they should put in a competent drive.

That's kind of what I like about the mayhem that we're seeing with tyres in F1 lately. It's typically the best of the best that rise to the top positions when circumstances are unpredictable. If things stay unpredictable teams would need to look for naturally talented drivers that can deal with problems on their own bat.