Ok having know more about u, I think its time for one of my er,
essays. Read the whole thing if u want to know more about being a
racing driver.
1stly, u have to know, being a racing driver is not all about the
glamour and the "cool" side. It can be hard work if u want to be a
professional racing driver, and u can run into many disheartening
obstacles along the way.
For anyone wanting to race, they need 4 things. Money, Skill,
Hardwork and Luck
Money is the foremost and most important. without money, u
basically CANNOT get anywhere. most sponsered seats and racing
scholarships are only available IF u've enough money to begin with.
How so? most sponsered seats in junior formulas and the likes
require the driver to be able to provide part of the funds of
racing an entire series. In otherwords, u either have to be very
rich already, or already raced b4 and have personal sponsers.
Racing scholarships like the one offered by BMW are only available
IF u've attended their racing licence course, which, from a friend
of mine who've enquired about it, cost about $16 000 to enroll.
U'll then also need to pay for the airfare to the countries where
it is conducted, and u have to provide for your lodging, meals and
other living expenses while in those countries. So as u can see,
1st step u need is money. If u've no money, it's already a big
uphill struggle for you. Afterall, the world's greatest driver
we'll NEVER know may be a poor labourer in Asia or a begger in
Europe.
Next, you'll need skills. For all the money u have, without skills,
no one except struggling teams will offer you race seats, and even
then, if u're already skill-less, combined with a struggling car,
means u'll probably get through a full season or 2 of racing, max
before your funds run out and the team ditches u for another rich
but skill-less driver. typically also, the good teams who snap up
the skilled drivers tend to be more financially stable, so if u're
talented, u may be wanted by a good team, which might mean u'll not
be bled dry. Also, value for money wise, your $ are being put to
better use in a good team and u're more likely to obtain better
results, which in turn helps attracts more sponsership. Also for
the BMW motorsport scholarship, u'll need to be the top 3 graudates
of the racing licence course, so without skill, it's useless. So as
u can see Skill is very important also. Money can get u started,
but skill is what makes sure u go on to bigger things.
Hardwork. I cannot emphasis on how important this is. Have u ever
attended a proper race b4? A typical race weekend is hot, sweaty,
dirty and grimey, greasy, noisy, tiring, exhausting both physically
and mentally, and it holds some of the most physically extreme
hardships anyone could expose themselves to. Thinking back to my
last race in malaysia last year, my coach and I drove down to Kota
Bahru from singapore. We started out at 9pm and drove almost
nonstop thru the night. He drove while I had to navigate. Neither
of us got any sleep lasting longer than 10 minutes, and we arrived
at Kota Bahru the next day at about 5 or 6am. We went to the hotel
which the race organisers had booked for us, and had our breakfast
there, then without checking in, we drove to the circuit at 7am,
set up everything, prepared the vehicles and by 8am+ testing had
begun for me. Yes. I had to start testing my race vehicle at 8 in
the morning, at a circuit I've never even seen b4, and after a
whole night without sleep. After 10 laps I felt like I was dying,
yet we went on to test for over 50 laps that day. Scarily a rear
wheel was no fastened on properly which resulted in all except one
of the wheel nuts flying off. It wasn't discovered until we had
completed the installation laps and initial flying laps. My engine
sprang technical problems and we had a water pump failure later on.
It was a terrible feeling because we were unsure if we could race
the next day at all. Inbetween the frantic technical activity, we
had to register the driver and vehicle, allow our equipment to be
scrutineerised, and being the vehicle to be weighed and
scrutineerised as well to be allowed to race. Back to the hotel
after the end of the day, all team members collapsed into bed to be
ready for the next day. For our meals, we had cheap burgers because
we had no time to eat anything else. the pits area was basically
huge canvas tentages set up in the grass and sand because there
were so many teams and there wasn't enough space in the pits in the
buildings. those spaces went to the more prestigious teams. The
temperature regularly hit 40 degrees in the shade, and wearing
those thick racing suits can mean u sweat a lot. Heat exhaustion is
a constant threat, indeed, it struck me down on the 1st day there
due to a combination of not knowing what sort of conditions to
expect, having no sleep the night b4, and having to wear the racing
suit the whole day. In all the event lasted 4 days, from thursday
thru to sunday. We spend 4 days being sandblasted, in the
oppressive heat, eating crap food, getting dirty and tired and
sometimes frustrated. It's what I'd hardly call glamourous. U may
see those Formula 1 drivers leading easier lives, but they all had
to go thru the gritty phase of junior formulas. Even in F1, they
still have to work hard. So hard work is a must
Finally, luck. Luck is a strange thing. Anthony Davidson of BAR,
had yearned for a race seat so long. Luck came at Sepang as Takuma
Sato caught a viral fever, then abandoned him when his engine broke
after 3 laps. Kimi Raikkonen was on target for a podium finish in
Malaysia when his tyre blew and put him out of contention. why did
the BAR's engine blew after 3 laps? why was it kimi and not montoya
who suffered the blown tyre? these are things we can never fully
understand. It's all down to Luck. A lucky driver can go far, even
if he is not as well funded as his peers, or not as skilled. An
unlucky driver can have all the skills but he falls by the wayside
very soon. Kimi Raikkonen got snapped up by Team McLaren within his
1st year of racing in F1. Prior to that, he'd only done 23 car
races. If he hadn't been lucky with Peter Sauber offering him a
drive in Sauber for 2001, he might not be where he is today. Justin
Wilson was F3000 champion in 2002. He has the skills, thats for
sure. But the luckless driver went to Minardi in 2003, went to
Jaguar after they ditched Antonio Pizzona in 2003. But he failed to
score in the last few races because of a car which was less than
average and as a result nobody wanted him for 2004. Luck, as u can
see, is something which, while u shouldn't rely on too much, is
certainly need once in a while to make sure u stay within
motorsports. In fact, while having no luck is not a good thing, bad
luck is worse. Bad luck is the thing that causes freak acccidents,
which have killed many motorsport participants over the years.
Possum Bourne, Daijiroh Kato, Ayrton Senna, Jim Clark, Peter
Revson, Graham Hill, Giles Villeneuve, Wolfgang von Tripps, Bruce
McLaren, Piers Courage, Jochen Rindt, Francois Cevert, Ronnie
Peterson. Many more like Niki Lauda, Martin Donnelly, Gerhard
Berger, Rubens Barrichello and Mika Hakkinen narrowly escaped with
their lives. Niki Lauda bears scars of his terrible fire to this
day, Mika Hakkinen still has some facial paralysis from his 95
Australian GP accident(due to a blown tyre) and Martin Donnelly's
racing career ended in 1990 after his smash in Jerez, Spain. I'm
sure u can see how much luck counts for a racing driver, not so
much for success, as for not losing their lives.
So therein, I've outlined the 4 things any racing driver needs to
be succssful. After reading thru, u can evaluate yourself and see
how much of a chance u have to be successful. U can ask me if u
have any questions, and while i promise no guranteed answers, I'll
try my best to answer them.
