“Make sure that grassroots racing becomes more affordable”– Toto Wolff wants the path to F1 to be affordable for aspiring drivers.
Formula 1 is an expensive sport, and that is the biggest reason it is an exclusive sport, with only a section of society could think of making into it.
Lewis Hamilton recently called it a club of the billionaire kids. Now, his boss, Toto Wolff, the youth competitions to be more affordable to give accessibility to kids from modest backgrounds.
“What makes the sport so attractive is that it provides a narrative for good soap [opera] outside of the racing too,” Wolff said. “Drivers have always come from different backgrounds, and I think there is not always; everyone has his story and things to cope with.
“I doubt that kids from a more privileged background have it easy all the time. They are fighting their own demons. What I think we can do is make sure that grassroots racing becomes more affordable, so kids that haven’t got any financial background can actually be successful in the junior formulas.”
“All the big Formula 1 teams [need to be] able to identify those kids, rather than making it so expensive that a good go-karting season costs 250,000, an F4 season 500,000, and an F3 season 1 million.
“That is totally absurd, [and] needs to stop, because we want to have access. I think we need to give access to kids that are interested in go-karting, the opportunity to race for much more affordable budgets.”
Reducing the price is not enough.
Though a reduction in prices would be a welcome move, it surely is not enough for the people belonging to the working class to fight against rich F1 aspirants.
An increase in the number of opportunities for the former group is needed from top to down. Nowadays, many F1 teams are ready to sell their seat to a driver who can manage to bring in extra cash.
So, to compete against this activity, teams at the top have to create space for the drivers, who can’t load in cash for other teams to make an entry in F1.
