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.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.