That’s not true for some towns. There is no area, it’s the whole town.
How to get into motor racing as a kid/teen - any racers on here?
- Thread starter jaybee
- Start date
Caporegime
No but compared to Carlos Sainz and Verstappen who's parents were millionaires. Hamilton's dad was more working class wealthy but not rich.
I do not think Hamiltons father would have a chance if he were to do it again in todays world.
Have you seen how much some people in IT get paid now?
But yep, most of the F1 drivers were born with silver spoons up their arse. Even the people's hero Senna. I think Schumacher may have come from a normal background though. Raikkonen too.
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Quite I did a bit of karting when I was a kid and the money even back then was astronomical. You really cannot have a full time job and do it either. My father had me quite late in life. (Mid 40's) and was retired by his 50's. Height and weight makes up a lot as well. I am 6ft 3 so too tall anyway. Everyone just used to beat me in a straight line as power to weight is pretty important. Strangely I enjoyed RC cars much more and did quite a lot of that in my teens till I learnt to drive ironically quite late at 20. Even RC cars were expensive. I think my TC3 which I was racing at the time must have been close to 2K for most of the kit.
It is why I have a lot of respect for people like Mansell and Button. Being tall is so fantastic in day to day life but is the hardest thing to overcome in Motorsport
George Russell is 185cm.. but yeah, most of the F1 crew are small fry like LuLu
Caporegime
F1 is a rich mans sport yes but it doesn't mean you cannot enjoy lower level motorsport as a hobby. MR2 and MX5 championship are relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things.
You also have BTCC and GT racing that is possible to make a career of.
There’s also plenty of low level enjoyment too. EnduroKa is relatively cheap. https://www.pistonheads.com/news/motorsport/ph-competes-enduroka/39689 And there are lots of classes like C1/Aygo and saxo racing too. Of course cheap is relative, but each event can be done with a few hundred pounds each if you’re budget conscious. Setup costs can be high if you want it all but used ‘race cars’ are usually available for each series.
None of them are cheap anymore.
I knew a guy who raced Clios over 10 years ago and it cost them about 70k a season back then. I think that was AFTER sponsorship.
Once you factor in everything like insurance and traveling, you'll go through a set of tyres and brakes every race (and you can't just use cheap stuff!), any damage has to be repaired. It all mounts up. Also paying the keep of any crew unless you want to do everything yourself.
I knew a guy who raced Clios over 10 years ago and it cost them about 70k a season back then. I think that was AFTER sponsorship.
Once you factor in everything like insurance and traveling, you'll go through a set of tyres and brakes every race (and you can't just use cheap stuff!), any damage has to be repaired. It all mounts up. Also paying the keep of any crew unless you want to do everything yourself.
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Soldato
Update on my costs, having completely written off a car, my spend is around £25k for this season so far with entries, test days etc
Clio’s is with relatively new cars on a support bill for BTCC though, it’s not meant to be cheap access motorsport.
Mate of mine used to race prep and maintain some Mk1 MR2s for that racing series (forget the name of it). It's definitely not a 'cheap' hobby, but for single digit thousands a year you could compete in the series, provided you didn't wreck your car every round.
that is a fair chunk, im guessing many are negatively affected by holding back so not to damage too much. I think i would give 100% in a banger but if i paid for a very nice car i think i could only drive at 85 - 90% or whatever
Soldato
I can't speak for all the grid, but for those of us at the front end it's 100% every race! In my opinion if you can't afford to literally lose the car and all it owes you, racing isn't the best idea! I literally smashed my new build car up first race at Snetterton couple weeks back! The front end is about 2 ft over to passenger side!
Caporegime
What is fundamentally the issue with sports that are "rich people sports". I don't get it. Thats how life works. I don't drive a 50k car or go to Monaco and live it up in penthouses in my spare time. I don't ride on yachts or pop over to Rome of a weekend without a thought. Thats just how life works. If you are wealthy you can do things that the average person cant.
There are plenty of things in this world that should be equal and fair but niche sports isn't something that I lose sleep over not being able to do. Some things are inherently expensive if we want them to be the pinnacle of whatever they are examples of. It's why we watch PL football instead of sunday league. Its why I watch Federer rather than 2 fat lads down the local courts struggling to put 2 shots together. F1 is expensive. Owning a horse is expensive. Owning a car that is purely for leisure is expensive. A lot of sports are expensive at the elite levels and thats very hard to avoid.
There are plenty of things in this world that should be equal and fair but niche sports isn't something that I lose sleep over not being able to do. Some things are inherently expensive if we want them to be the pinnacle of whatever they are examples of. It's why we watch PL football instead of sunday league. Its why I watch Federer rather than 2 fat lads down the local courts struggling to put 2 shots together. F1 is expensive. Owning a horse is expensive. Owning a car that is purely for leisure is expensive. A lot of sports are expensive at the elite levels and thats very hard to avoid.
Why don’t you look at grass root racing or the ovals.
Join a local club, cheap car ( eg Mini) & race on the grass.
That would be a lot cheaper... until they can pay their own way.
My brother did 100cc karting in the 80’s... it was expensive then.
( & he was a working adult too)... bank of mum & dad, for a while.
Quite a few well known drivers started on the grass... Andy Rouse & Colin Turkington for starters.
A lot of drivers also started on the ovals...Derek Warwick got to F1, think Martin Brundle dabbled too.
( And many more didn’t do too badly either...eventually).
Join a local club, cheap car ( eg Mini) & race on the grass.
That would be a lot cheaper... until they can pay their own way.
My brother did 100cc karting in the 80’s... it was expensive then.
( & he was a working adult too)... bank of mum & dad, for a while.
Quite a few well known drivers started on the grass... Andy Rouse & Colin Turkington for starters.
A lot of drivers also started on the ovals...Derek Warwick got to F1, think Martin Brundle dabbled too.
( And many more didn’t do too badly either...eventually).
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Associate
- Joined
- 19 Dec 2017
- Posts
- 720
There's a lot of talk in here like the only reason for a child to start karting is to end up in F1. Go do some kart sessions with your son, get involved in some local leagues/races - make sure you both enjoy it before start planning a career into single seaters
You can spend £50k+ a year karting at a national level, or you can spend a few £k introducing him to kart races and having some fun. For example, although your son is not old enough yet, Club 100 have a young drivers championship for 14-18 year olds - it's totally arrive and drive and costs just £198 per round (7 rounds per year).
There are loads of options to get started and race casually, go talk to your nearest "proper" karting circuit.
Associate
@jaybee Any update on this, did you do some karting with your son this year?
I managed to meet my goal of not being last in everything I was competing in this year, which was good for my rookie season
I managed to meet my goal of not being last in everything I was competing in this year, which was good for my rookie season
@jaybee Any update on this, did you do some karting with your son this year?
I managed to meet my goal of not being last in everything I was competing in this year, which was good for my rookie season
I've sacked off the whole idea as it's too expensive. Harsh but this is the reality unfortunately.
Associate
A shame, but given the costs understandable. When he's older there are definitely cheaper routes to motorsport