With the news that HRT are likely to sign Narain Karthikeyan for 2012 has started the debate on pay drivers all over again. Today we ask the question, is this good or bad for F1.
First of all let me put you in the picture as to what a pay driver is. A pay driver isn't just anyone with cash or sponsors, they have to have some competitive driving ability to go alongside the finance. If I had millions, I wouldn't be able to approach a team to drive for them, I have never been in a motor race before and therefore I wouldn't be able to get a super license. A pay driver is someone who has experience in motor racing but can back that up with sponsors and/or cash of their own. They may not be the best driver available, but a team with a small budget will be more likely to choose this option ahead of pure skill. It's been a bone of contention for some time in Formula One that pay drivers are able to race. A lot of the top teams have an issue with slower drivers in slower cars getting in the way. They believe that it isn't good for the sport.
Some pay drivers have shown that they have the skills to make it, Jerome D'Ambrosio showed some moments of skill last season for Marussia Virgin as he beat his experienced team mate, Timo Glock on a number of occasions. He has been rewarded with a reserve driver role at Lotus for 2012. On the other hand, some haven't been so successful, HRT spring to mind as a team short on cash and bringing in drivers based on cash. HRT would argue that their drivers have been world class, others would argue against that, citing their first year as a bit of a shambles using Sakon Yamamoto, Bruno Senna, Christian Klien and Karun Chandock. Now, please don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that these are bad drivers, but taking Bruno Senna aside they are not what I would call world class, there were arguably better drivers without a drive for 2010. HRT struggled from the word go in Formula One, they only just managed to get their car finished for the season opener in both 2010 and 2011. This perhaps means that they had no choice with financial pressures they were under. Let's not forget that on the 19th February 2010, the team was bought from Campos F1 who couldn't guarantee to fulfil their obligations.
Now we come onto cost, how much does it actually cost to buy a seat in Formula One? It has been reported recently that it cost Pedro De La Rosa 8-10 million euros to race for HRT in 2012. He hasn't had to pay this himself, it has instead come from an investor who has sponsored his drive. This is all speculation do we have to look deeper to find more reports about finances. Searching the Internet, it's easy to find rumours about financial packages but to find the truth is far more complicated. Let's take Pastor Maldonado at Williams, he is classed by some as a pay driver, but this is not down to his money, more down to sponsorship. To find out how much you need to delve into the accounts of Williams. They are a PLC so it's a little easier, however I don't particularly want to do that. You need to find out how much sponsorship Williams gained from sponsors he bought with him. To find evidence of whether he's a pay driver or not you need to look back at Brasil in 2010, Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg gained pole position in stunning fashion, but was then dropped in favour of Pastor. Was this down to finances only? Who knows, but evidence points to the answer wing yes. It has also been reported that Vitaly Petrov bought between 10 and 14 million Euros to Lotus Renault. This money was raised by sponsors, mainly Russian. He was able to do this because he was the first Russian driver in Formula One. Couple that with Russia hosting a race in 2013, it was only natural that Russian companies would jump at the chance to get involved and guarantee exposure when F1 gets to Russia. For 2012, Lotus have dispensed of Vitaly Petrov, they have instead chosen second chance youngster Romain Grosjean. Why have they made this move? especially with the sponsorship Vitaly can bring (apparently). Perhaps Romain brings more, however it could be that Lotus are looking for talent in 2012. Lotus have also employed Kimi Raikkonen, this is without doubt a talent choice. Kimi is a former world champion, he retired from F1 and had a spell in Rally cars. He will be a huge cost to Lotus, but if they give him the car to challenge, he will be there or there abouts at the end of 2012. Contrary to my thoughts on Romain (who I think will turn out to be a very good driver), it is unlikely that he is a pay driver. He still works at a bank in his home town and is reluctant to give that job up, surely this is evidence that he is not rolling in cash. He has tried F1 before, however he was thrown in at the deep end and didn't have time to get into the groove. This time will be different. It is pleasing to see a team choose talent above money, if this is the case.
Massa said "Today, there are only four teams that can afford to operate without drivers that bring money, It's an absurd situation and I don't think it's good for F1 and especially the young drivers." We have also heard from Jarno Trulli on this subject. Jarno races for Caterham (formally Team Lotus), who are one of the new teams from 2020. Caterham resisted the temptation to go with pay drivers and instead opted for talent. Jarno had this to say in an interview with Motorsport.com "There is no rule, but it is true that those who pay are less accustomed to suffering. They are less committed. Hiring them is a business decision but in my opinion it’s not worth it."
Back to HRT now, I'm not trying to pick on them, I'm beginning to feel a bit cruel. I promise I'm not. HRT are the only team with a seat left for 2012, that is why I'm bringing them up again. Spanish sports paper, Marca, have reported that the 2nd seat at HRT will cost in the region of 6 million euros. Vitantonio Liuzzi has a contract with HRT but he is concerned that a pay driver may come in and take his seat, Liuzzi has been racing for 7 years in F1 and is a talented driver. He made this comment to ESPN: "If you've got a big sponsor behind you then you are an F1 driver and that's not the way it should be from my point of view," he added. "There may be some people that think differently, but Formula One is the top of the sport and should be full of talent that have got the results during their career and have been kicking arse since they were kids, not people that just have the money. I'm sick of it being like this at the moment, but I have to just accept it and hopefully I will get another chance." That's what some of the drivers think.
Now we look at the fans views, we start with Peter Kerr, who claims to be Marussia's biggest fan. He had a slightly different view to some of the drivers. This was his view point, "'pay drivers are seen as not as committed most of the time but most bring money in if not all and Jerome drove very well last year" he then added some interstitial points about finances and why teams might chose a pay driver, this is his opinion, "But if a driver brings say 20 million that could pay for 3 top aero techs and other staff and money to further develop and make car faster!"
I can certainly understand that view point, however, surely in F1 the teams should have the funding in place before they join the grid. We really shouldn't have a situation where teams can't afford to get their cars finished in good time.
We'll have more comments later. Now I want to talk about how pay drivers might affect the racing. If you join F1 as a pay driver, but you haven't worked your way to the top like Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and more. Are you going to get in the way? Whilst I'm watching F1 I am on a knife edge when my favourite driver is perhaps in 1st place but he is about to lap the pay driver for the 4th time, each time he passes him, he looses valuable seconds and the 2nd place driver catches up. I know that the 2nd driver will have to pass him to but I get nervous, I'm always expecting the pay driver to make an error and take my favourite out of the race. This shouldn't happen, anyone who drives in F1 should have the skills to avoid issues. No one should be lapped so many times, a car and driver in the pinnacle of motor sport should be one of the top 24 drivers in the world.
Red Bull won the championship last season with an outstanding car and two great drivers. Team boss Christian Horner spoke to Total Race and had this to say about the situation. "Throughout the history of the sport, you always see it [drivers paying for race seats]. If you look at all the teams, it has always been a matter of trying to balance the money that goes with the talent of the driver." It seems that Christian believed that it's not so bad.
Kunal Shah, a former racing driver and now pundit on SportzPower has a different view on the subject, this is his opinion, "A pay driver is no lesser an F1 driver than the others on the grid. Their skills are comparable if not better; it is just that a pay driver arrives with sponsors that are willing to pay the team (usually millions of dollars) to hire the driver."
The final comments from other people comes from a Spanish fan of F1, they made some interesting comments, here they are. "I feel the obligation to support HRT as a home country team. It's so hard though because it's been such a shambles so far. They have only beaten Virgin (editor - now Marussia) by pure luck. They are also the only team not to announce a second driver. I suspect they are weighing up options and it probably revolves around finance. I really hope they use this time to raise funds in order to get further up the grid. They obviously need an injection of cash, so I am not really against pay drivers at this stage of the growth of the team. I do hope that they get to a level playing field soon." she added "If I'm being honest, my attitude towards pay drivers is probably bias, I want them to raise the money, but at the same time I can see the problems they might cause. I can also see that drivers in GP2 etc are slightly miffed at the situation. It seems to them that more doors are closing at the top level." Interestingly, Sabina knows a driver in GP3 (editor - races to be shown live on Sky F1 HD Channel), she won;t release his name but he said the following "I really get cross when drivers skip levels and go into F1 just because they have the cash. I strongly believe that you have to work hard to get to the top. Every year more doors close to me, I may never get to F1 because soon it'll be just the top four who will have seats for talent. It does upset me as I've been racing since I was 8 years old and worked my way up. I expect to win a GP3 title soon and progress to GP2, I want to do the same there, I then really hoped that would lead to the top, unfortunately that is very unlikely. But you never say never when you've worked as hard as I have."
To conclude this argument on this article (the debate will go on for years), I am going to give the FIA an idea. First of all, I want to say that I believe smaller F1 teams do need to raise funds, perhaps they should look at other options first. I'm a salesman by trade, I class myself as one of the best (a good salesman always claims to be the best). I'm willing to bet that a good salesman, like myself could raise enough money to avoid having to fry a pay driver. My idea for the FIA is to introduce a driving test system before issuing a super license. Perhaps they must prove on a track that they can consistently get within 3 seconds of the pole lap time the season before. If they can't do that, they fail and can't race. I believe it's important to endure we don't have a two tear F1 grid, with. competitive cars at the front and people driving for fun at the back. It has to stop in my opinion, one day it will cause a nasty accident, that's something no one wants to see. I do understand why they have pay drivers but get a excellent salesman in. Pay them £40,000 a year and get £10 million back in new sponsors. I know I could do it and I also know there are other great sales people out there.
Thank you for the contributions to this article, especially Peter Kerr from the Marussia F1 Twitter fans feed. You can follow him in Twitter @MFITeamfans You can also follow me on Twitter by joining @F1News2012 I would also like to that Sabina from Spain and her GP3 friend who gave us the racer's view point.
What do you all think? after reading this, do you think pay drivers are good for F1 or are they a pain in the back of the grid? I may add to this article at a later date as I am waiting for some more comments.
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