Martin Whitmarsh laments the "rise of the pay driver"

[F1ang-o]

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-210635.html
Mexican for Martin....forward looking............
Jenson's girlfriend Jessica....half Japanese...but the half was dropped for the Japanese GP....

 

[RasputinLives]

Which is the point I was trying to make. I'm sure nearly all of wish that driver selection and finance could be kept apart so we had the 22 best drivers on the grid. Currently we don't which is sad.

 

[RickD]

Lets go back to a certain M Schumacher for a minute. Jordan got paid in the region of £150k to give Micheal a drive, surely that means he came into F1 as a pay driver? Didn't exactly do him any harm, did it?

Everyone deserves a chance, if they shine, great, if they don't, then they should get the boot, it really is that simple. Unfortunately money will always talk in the lower teams and that will never change. The better drivers either get a drive at a better team or go to another series as without being in a top team, there is no way (even with a hell of a lot of money), you are ever going to win a GP without bizarre circumstances.

 

[Jen]

Personally, I don't give a toss whether anyone is a 'pay driver' or not - all, it would seem, bring money one way or another to the constructors. The important bit is whether the sponsored one can drive - patently Narain can't - both Perez and Hulkenberg can but the latter's pot wasn't as big as Perez's. If you see what I mean!

 

[RasputinLives]

Schumie came through an acadamey set up by Merc and brought in like that. Vettel was brought in in a similar way. So was Alonso. They were in these acadamys on talent. Have any of these new guys been selected on talent?

My point still remains that in an ideal world we would have the 22 best drivers on the grid. We don't have that and its sad.

 

[Jen]

My point still remains that in an ideal world we would have the 22 best drivers on the grid. We don't have that and its sad.

I agree totally, but can't remember when it last happened. Recently it's become a 'big bucks' sport and we are stuck with it.

 

[siffert_fan]

I don't think it is possible of have the 22 best drivers in the world on the F1 grid given the number of races in a season nowdays. If the season was shortened to, say, 10 races, then you might be able to entice the likes of Kristensen and Loeb etc. That is what was going on in the 60s and 70s, where drivers from Le Mans series, such as Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriquez were also team drivers in F1. You also had stars like Sir Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme etc taking part in the Can Am series as well as F1.

Unfortunately, various series have now so thoroughly diverged that I don't believe we could ever see the 22 best drivers on any grid in any series.

 

[mnmracer]

I think there is also a significantly bigger difference in driving styles and techniques between the different top series, i.e. F1, Le Mans and Indy.

 

[RasputinLives]

See in an ideal world I'd like to address that as well. The fact that F1 only competes on Tilke air hanger tracks or custom street circuits has always been a bit of a downer I think. Would love to see team and drivers conpete in different circumstances. How about an old fashioned road race from point A to point B? I know the logistics would be difficult. Would love to see an oval track chucked in the mix if they could sort the safety out too. Just something to really push limits and versitility.

 

[siffert_fan]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/when-even-money-isn-t-enough

Interesting because of the amounts of money involved.

 

[Titch]

The answer to Pay drivers is to take the sport back to it's grass roots and basic racing. If the big companies (Mercedes,Ferrari, Honda etc) want to use F1 as a test bed, for all their new innovations, and make half of the teams so super powered, that the rest of the teams are driving at a different level, the very least the big teams could do is sponsor drivers, so they have someone to race against, and show the world how wonderful their technology is.
Either that or start a Car companies only formula, and give F1 back to car nerds, with no money, who just want to see some racing.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Whitmarsh laments the rise of the Ron..