Motorsport Off Topic Thread

Skeeter said:
With the lack of testing and the rise in paid drivers, its a worrying time for young guys and girls in the lower formulas. It used to be that the F3000/GP2 champion would be guaranteed a space on the F1 grid the following year, but skipping over these guys in favour of someone else with a larger cheque must be mighty tempting to most mid field F1 teams.
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A somewhat sad reflection on the current importance of the drivers skill vs being able to pump more money into the car itself.

I'm all for high tech cars but when you reach the situation where teams would rather have (or need in some cases) £15m to develop the car with than a better driver, it does say something about the level of difference the teams believe a driver can actually make to the performance on track (or maybe just to the extreme costs that now force some teams to do this to even compete at all).
 
It will end up with a two tier grid, more or less like we have now, where the top teams with the cash will buy the best drivers and the lower teams have the pay drivers and only the decent ones for a short time (Toro Rosso & Vettel for example).
 
It's always been like that though Duke, there have always been the best teams and then the rest. The change now is that the teams in the 'rest' are no longer providing the development for the young talent. People like Massa and Alonso that worked there way up the grid on skill. People like that just aren't getting the chance any more as they are being ignored in favor of 1 year deals for Barry 'average skill' Big Cheque. The top teams have no interest in the drivers further down the grid, instead choosing to groom their own.

I have real worries about the prospects for what is a rather large crop of promising British drivers in the lower formulas. They will simply be unable to compete against drivers from countries whose governments throw money at them, regardless of how well they drive.
 
Skeeter said:
I have real worries about the prospects for what is a rather large crop of promising British drivers in the lower formulas. They will simply be unable to compete against drivers from countries whose governments throw money at them, regardless of how well they drive.
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Agree, the drivers who can actually drive are being overlooked for drivers who just have financial support. It's a worrying trend.
 
Mike306 said:
Agree, the drivers who can actually drive are being overlooked for drivers who just have financial support. It's a worrying trend.
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To be honest it's been like that for a long time, it's just become more noticable recently. besides if someone in a lower tier is winning races then companies will want to be associated. Whyte & mackay have been personal sponsors of Paul Di Resta for years, certainly before Force India anyway.
 
I dunno, I think there is a trend towards people sponsoring drivers regardless of their skill. Especially drivers from countries with little or no history of producing F1 drivers. I imagine PDVSA would pay for a one armed blind man to drive if it meant they could have 'Venezuela' written all over the car.
 
Yeah it was on the back of the rear wing.

I work with a guy from Venezuela and we talk about this whole 'situation' a lot. It doesn't matter how dodgy the sponsorship might be, the government will turn a blind eye because they are trying very hard to convince the rest of the world that Venezuela is a great place, and isn't actually ruled by a dictator with massive crime and other issues.
 
Does he agree that Chavez comes across worldwide as a bit of a loony?? I also know someone from Venezuela who says he's done a lot of good things with the oil money but most news reporting only seems to cover his rants and outbursts such as his threat to the UK over the Falklands. The BBC did a good article about it a while ago but I'm on my SGS2 so can't link or find it.
 
Yeah he says he isn't as mad as he is made out to be. But there are apparently deep seeded issues with corruption across the country, as well as major crime. His family are in the capital (not even going to attempt to spell it) and he was genuinely concerned about being shot or stabbed when he went home for Christmas!
 
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