Brutal article about Hailie Deegan

[97prizm]

You think?

The racing series where every single spare inch of real estate on the vehicle is plastered with sponsor logos and the author feels the need to point out that "sponsorship talks"?

What an incredibly naïve article.



All that telemetry laying bare a driver's ability and still, drivers like Nikita Mazepin, Nicholas Latifi, and Mick Schumacher get multi-year contracts, even after underperformance.

Pay drivers have always been a thing (Mazepin/Latifi). So are big names that bring along sponsors (Schumacher).

Of course, your dad could just buy the team and give you a drive (Lance Stroll).

Or maybe it's just because a team wants to give a ride to an America driver during a period of rapid expansion in the American market and even got the FIA to stretch the rules to make it happen (Logan Sargeant).

Don't pretend F1 is some paragon of performance, where better drivers always get the seat.

Yeah F1 also needs to be more financially affordable. Back in the day CART came to Denver 2003ish or so. The called it F1 which I thought was odd as I knew it was CART but.... My dad and I parked for free, I got lucky as I was a college student downtown and showed my student ID and they waved me in. We got good seats on a short straight. I have the ticket stub and think they were $25ish each. They didn't charge extra for wandering around the pits and talking to the crews and drivers. COTA in Austin I think started at $500 each.

 

[97prizm]

You think?

The racing series where every single spare inch of real estate on the vehicle is plastered with sponsor logos and the author feels the need to point out that "sponsorship talks"?

What an incredibly naïve article.



All that telemetry laying bare a driver's ability and still, drivers like Nikita Mazepin, Nicholas Latifi, and Mick Schumacher get multi-year contracts, even after underperformance.

Pay drivers have always been a thing (Mazepin/Latifi). So are big names that bring along sponsors (Schumacher).

Of course, your dad could just buy the team and give you a drive (Lance Stroll).

Or maybe it's just because a team wants to give a ride to an America driver during a period of rapid expansion in the American market and even got the FIA to stretch the rules to make it happen (Logan Sargeant).

Don't pretend F1 is some paragon of performance, where better drivers always get the seat.

I'd really enjoy seeing a study of what and why the top F1 drivers made it to the top. Yeah deep pockets help but are there people who truly "have a knack for driving?" I saw some of the exercise regimens and contract clauses of top F1 drivers and they work out alot, are told what to eat, and told what they can and can't do for fun. I worked for a hotel for seven years and had a knack with sales. Nine times out of ten if someone walked in they bought a room. I even had several people who were walk ins that ended up being regulars due to local business or whatnot. I was told that I could talk an eskimo into buying snow. I worked with many people that weren't good at customer service nor sales at all. Point is can you take a regular joe off the street and get them to F1 performance, even if they give 100 percent all in?

 

[billt460]

......... Point is can you take a regular joe off the street and get them to F1 performance, even if they give 100 percent all in?

No. They tried that with Scott Speed. Red Bull spent something like $25 million trying to "develop" his "talent". He went nowhere. He even tried to sue Red Bull for $6.5 million for canning him.

Look at Lance Stroll. He would never be in that seat if it weren't for his father owning the team. Yet Alonso is far older, and consistently out qualifies him with the same equipment.

On the other hand, if Nico Hulkenberg had the same equipment as Hamilton or Verstappen, he would be right up there with the best. He's a phenomenal driver that never got a good enough ride to prove it.

 

[97prizm]

No. They tried that with Scott Speed. Red Bull spent something like $25 million trying to "develop" his "talent". He went nowhere. He even tried to sue Red Bull for $6.5 million for canning him.

Look at Lance Stroll. He would never be in that seat if it weren't for his father owning the team. Yet Alonso is far older, and consistently out qualifies him with the same equipment.

On the other hand, if Nico Hulkenberg had the same equipment as Hamilton or Verstappen, he would be right up there with the best. He's a phenomenal driver that never got a good enough ride to prove it.

A good video I found a while back showed the difference between a GT3 car, a Daytona prototype vehicle and a F1 car at SPA on the kink to the downhill section. The GT3 racecar looked like a model T, and the Daytona prototype looked not much faster. The F1 car was a blur. It's shocking that some people have that kind of ability.