Cash on Pole
How money takes precedence over true talent in Formula One.
Formula One has gained popularity due to the Netflix documentary Drive to Survive; a documentary that follows drivers lives and their seasons. There are 20 drivers on the grid, and 10 teams that choose 2 drivers for their season. Formula One is considered the pinnacle of motorsport for their innovation of speed and performance. To drive these cars of cutting-edge technology, you need a special talent. But what if you could buy your talent?
When I was 10, I was trying out for a travel soccer team for the first time. I was extremely nervous. I was afraid none of the coaches would think I could play with bigger people because of my height. I jogged over to the bench, set down my things, and took out my ball. I looked over onto the field, and watched another player do a rainbow flick, a move where you put the ball between your legs and flick it over. I immediately regretted coming.
But as we started practicing, I realized I had something over them: my mind of the game. I started picking up where they liked to cut inside, what their weak foot was, and I exposed them. I had played very well, well enough that I was going to start in our first game.
Gameday arrives, and the coach reads the starting lineup. “…and Jake you’re in at Right Wing,” the coach said. Now, Jake was a nice kid, but soccer wasn’t his sport. So it was safe to say I wasn’t happy. I sat on the bench the entire game, ready to leave once the final whistle blew. Once the game was over, I walked back to the parking lot. Near the coach’s car, I saw Jake’s mom hand a wad of cash to the coach. At the time, I figured this was for bringing snacks. But then after the next game I saw it happen again, and the coach didn’t bring snacks that time. I wasn’t getting playing time, so I quit, and I just played rec and school soccer instead. I was one of the best on my team, but once Jake’s mom was single-handedly paying off the coach’s student loans, I couldn’t compete with that.
The point of the story is money takes precedence over many things. In Formula One, most teams with low financial backing are looking for drivers who will pay them for a seat. Of course, you have some talent, or you would destroy the car, but there are countless amounts of people who are absolutely talented enough to make the Formula One grid, but don’t because they do not have enough money to help the team financially. For example, Alexander Rossi, Oliver Rowland, Artem Markelov, Luca Ghiotto, Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman, Liam Lawson, and Felipe Drugovich are many many names who did not get a shot at the highest level despite performing well in Formula 2, F1’s top feeder series.
When you watch some of these drivers highlights, it astounds you that they “weren’t good enough” for the “pinnacle of motorsport” that is Formula One. However, most of these drivers have found success in other motorsporting series such as IndyCar, Formula E, the electric counterpart to Formula One, or even Super Formula, the top open-wheel racing series in Japan. However, some were discouraged by their failures, choosing to retire and take a step away from racing altogether.
These drivers are blocked by other drivers called Pay Drivers: drivers that bring large quantities of money in exchange for a racing seat. However, there are many pay drivers that have found success at the next level. Drivers like Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher have won an insane amount of titles between them, but did not rise to stardom without heavy financial backing of sponsorships.
Most of these pay drivers are shunned by the fans because “daddy’s money” gave them a seat, not their pure talent. In 2021, Nikita Mazepin signed with Haas F1 Team has a very successful father, leading to a seat in Formula One. Mazepin got a seat at Haas F1 Team by being fairly mediocre in F2, with him bringing a Russian company to be the team’s head sponsor for the year. The Mazepins already had a not-so-great reputation in the Formula’s, with the father Dmitry being a Russian oligarch and friends with Vladimir Putin, and Nikita having a poor temper, getting into a fight with previously mentioned Callum Ilott after a misunderstanding in Practice of a race. Mazepin also groped a woman on Instagram Live in December of 2020. So it is safe to say he was not popular with the fans.
There is a serious problem in Formula One. There are not enough teams in Formula One to hold these talented drivers. There is an insane amount of hypocrisy in the sport where teams wonder why their drivers aren’t putting good performances, when they are hiring drivers who are paying them to race. Sadly, these teams employ pay drivers for their teams to stay afloat. Drivers paying for seats will continue to hinder not just Formula One, but all motorsports for years to come.
