How to get started

Peter, I always like your diplomatic way of expressing yourself.


I have no ambition whatsoever in racing, true, and went through Skip Barber and drove a bunch of race cars. Simply because I'm a fan and want to know what the experience is like and what the finer points of it are all about. It gave me a much better understanding and definitely a big appreciation for what the pros are doing.

Andreas, not rich, poser? you be the judge

 

I'm a ex racer...had an SCCA National License for seven years and raced open wheel cars. That's some time ago, but maybe things aren't all that different now, and maybe I have a few experiences that might be valuable.

The karts are a good way to start... you'll get that seat of the pants feeling that's hard to argue with. I fooled around with karts and bikes too many years before I ever got a drivers license. At 25, I get the bug and go to Skippy school. This was long ago, and one of the instructors was Danny Sullivan (before he started running Can Am). I did well, loved it and went out and bought a Formula Ford. You'll need to do a private school and an SCCA school before you get a novice license... and finish 4-5 races on a novice license before you get a regional license. This may sound like a pain... but it does weed out the guys who are totally unsafe on the track and makes you safer on the track as a result. So don't complain about getting licensed by some sancitoning body, as you'll need it to get anywhere.

If you want to go pro, you're going to have to attract somebody's attention very quickly. That means bucks to buy a competitive car and somebody to cover the expenses. If you're doing it for the love of it, it's still expensive and IT WILL become your second job and your overriding passion. You're not too old at 20, but you'd better have a lot of talent and find somebody with money quickly to have any hope.

When I was about 27, I remember once dicing thru corners with a 'kid' of 19. He came from a racing family, and struck me as waaay to loose in corners.... I backed off and followed by two car lengths and waited for him to fall off the track. He never did. He had the talent, and continued moving up in racing... later sat on the pole of the Indy 500. He also lost his life coming out of turn 2 at Indy. A downside of the trade you need to consider if you get married, have kids, etc. Another guy I raced with from the beginning became a good friend and competitor and had enough talent and hung in there long enough to become Formula Ford national champ over at Mid Ohio. He went through four chassis and four wives along the way. So be warned, even if you do it on an amateur basis, there's still a price to be paid.

Also bear in mind that if you do it on an amateur basis while working a job, you're in for a whole lot of work night work. Trying to run every weekend competitively is not only expensive, you'll have to learn or attract some knowledgable wrenching talent for engine refreshes, chassis setup and gear ratio changes -- quickly -- like on Tuesday and Wednesday night before you take off Friday morning for the next race track. Assuming you're not running in some rent-a-racer class, you can figure on 4 or 5 hours of prep time for every thirty minutes of track time. You'll have to not only love driving, but also working on the car. Then again.. few things are sweeter than taking the victory lap in a car that you've not only driven but turned the wrenches on as well...

If you get into it...good luck.. you'll probably love it, live, eat and breathe it. Guys who do a track day once in a while have no idea what it's like to out brake another guy into a corner then pull 1.2 or 1.3 on a flat corner in a low CG car running slick tires. You'll be spoiled for getting truly impressed by any street car forevermore. Then after you've had all those jollies in your miss spent youth, you can get a nice little Ferrari cause it's the closest thing you can find to that screaming rattle trap held together with duct tape and 3M structrural adhesive you called your race car.

 

Excellent posts. You guys have me very excited to get started.

 

amen to that.

very good post. Thanks.

Am interested for my son to get into karting soon. good advice.

 

Walter Whitman: modesty is for 'posers'

Pros, cons, more detailed impressions?

 

Anyone who states a really good racing school is a waste of money is uninformed. You go to a school , any school, to learn the PROPER way to do things. Yes you can go out and learn ,say engineering ,on you own, but doesn't it make more sense to learn it from someone who has studied and practiced it so you dont have to make stupid mistakes ,and most importantly learn/engrain the WRONG techniques ? BTW carts can be very dangerous, which may be fine if you are bulletproof or immortal but I prefer a cage or hoop. This is from experiance.

 

As I did say, it may work for some but lets discuss this racing thing. Now English and Maths, etc. there is a right way and then a wrong way. Motor racing is NOT like that, it is what ever is the fastest.

Yes you can be schooled on the theoretically correct racing line ... but MS takes a very theorerically incorrect racing line and guess what, he gets the fastest lap time and has won a few WC's.

Thus what I am trying to say is if you believe that a racing school is going to give you everything you need you are WRONG. It may give you something but the best way to learn how to race is to get in a car and race. Push yourself, with your brain on and learn.

Say to yourself every corner, every braking point, could I have done that different, could I have braked later, earlier?. What happens if I was half a car length wider into that corner ... hmmm, look I gained 500rpm by the end of the next straight, must remember that.

That is how you become really fast ... and a school cannot teach you the hunger for speed that is required to pound lap after hundreds of laps around the same boring race track.

MS and Ayton Senna, and many others simply love the challenge of pushing themselves. If you read Senna biography you will know that when aged only single digits he used to go down to the local track (by himself) and just go around and around and around and around and around ... what was he doing?. He was fascinated in the process of improving his own performance, constantly absorbed in the need to be forever faster. That ambition is what makes a F1 driver ... not a pointer or 2 from an instructor.

So yes go to a race school, get some pointers, but the point I am desperately trying to make is that is a very, very tiny part of becoming a good driver ... self learning and practice and continual pushing for the impossible perfect lap is the IMPORTANT part. IMO the school is not worth the money ... but I have been wrong before

I never went to a racing school ... I simply started racing my father's MGB in classic meetings. Yep wrong start, but I'm not a rich person and did not have the funds for karting, etc. My first few races I got lapped and started right near the back ... but I set myself goals, ie. not to be lapped (I was racing against Porsches and Jags, etc.). I thought about racing nearly all the time ... work was just a thing to do to waste the hours between races. Anyway not many races later I was not getting lapped and around that time I beat somebody to the flag. Importantly by the end of the time in that car I was the fastest in a standard MGB!!!

I used to also race indoor karts for fun and won a fun championship with that ... yes I used to listen to advice, but I learnt the most from leaving work and just dropping in at the local kart track and burning $40 worth of track time, many times also just by myself!. That is how bad I had it.

Anyway a few years later I won a proper championship, but hung up my helmet ... why?, simply because I had absolutely no money, no life other than racing and did not back myself enough to live this way. Hence my advice to this young man. I still believe/know I can drive ... and hope to soon start the second phase of my humble racing career ... in a go kart. Heck maybe I can win the over 40's championship .

Nothing teaches you more about racing than making a mistake and getting beaten. If that does not piss you right off and make you think hard about life ... then again wrong sport for you.

Again you 100% need the passion ... a school can't teach or give you that, show you the way like any school, but don't waste your time giving racing ago if racing is not the most important thing in your life!

I understand this ... but the need to win needs to be more important than the possible injury if you are really serious ... cause the other guy is!

Now I am not saying that I should have been a WC, etc. but I am saying I now understand (in hindsight) what it takes to get there ... and I could drive but I got scared of having no money and no life. If that worries you? ... don't fool yourself and start out with the F1 goal, set yourself more realisitic goals like what Jon said and go and kick it.

Pete
ps: We also need to be realistic on why those racing schools exist. They exist to make money ... not to find the next F1 star. Most people they school are middle aged executives out for a laugh, maybe even a corporate event, etc.

And also Tifosi ... you proved my point very well. You went to the school to have the experience not to start on the F1 path?

I would estimate that less than 0.0001% of F1 drivers started their racing careers at a racing school ... but 99.9% of them did in a go kart.

I do know that Graham Hill was involved with a racing school ... but again that was a means to an end, ie. to get involved with the sport.

 

As is so often the case, Pete is right on the money.

None of the current Formula One drivers or any I can think of from the past started racing by going to a school. They all started, as Pete mentioned, by trial and error, the vast majority in karting.

Juan Pablo Montoya did attend Skip Barber when he already had years in the sport behind him, mostly to give him a taste of open-wheel motorsport in the US. Naturally he dominated the field and then went to Indy.

 

As with any school, it all about the teachers, not the curriculum.

Pete, The John Bowe school uses many excellent teachers. And John Bowe himself admits to still having a thirst for education. Nobody knows it all.

You'd do well to hire a local pro and go testing in your car/kart. They're much more accessible than you might think. pm me and I'll set you up with Allan Simonsen. If he hasn't gone 2% faster than you within 20 laps in your own car/Kart, don't pay him. If he can't make you go 1% faster, don't pay him. If you don't think 1 or 2% is important, don't even ask him in the first place......

AND, he'll be cheaper than any number of whiz bang gadgets AND his advice will stay with you forever..unless your lack of training causes an accident that leads to memory loss. Heaven forbid.

 

Least of all me

I do have to say that it would piss me right off if anybody could go faster than me in my own car/kart. Now the sensible person in me understands that this would probably happen ... but the racing driver ego in me would still be extremely pissed. Just as I would expect any proud and passionate racing driver to be.

But yes at my retired and now middle-aged position it would probably help get me up to speed quicker.

... I think you have missed my point. There are some that are self critical and lead ... there are others that follow, in races too.

Yes I'd listen but I would consider Allan to be my opposition as any racer should and thus my aim is to beat him (on the track) ... and it is amazing how much a racer learns by racing against others on the track. I used to purposely follow some people out on warm up laps just to sit in behind and study their lines ... compare to my own thoughts, etc. Didn't have to go to a school to do that, just competing.

Everyday in our lives is a day open to education ... heck even driving to work, I learn something.

Pete

 

Ha Ha.. You beat Allan...!! Kimi Raikkonen and Jensen Button Couldn't!! Ha, that's a good one....!!

Help me up someone, and for the second time today... NURSE!!

 

PSk,

You make good points; but here's the rub as I see it from a very practical dollars and cents standpoint.

1. You go to a 3 day race school and plunk down your 2 or 3 grand (or whatever it is now) and spend 4 to 5 hours a day in a Formula Ford or whatever engine they're sticking in little tube frame single seaters now. You go out and have fun, learn to toe and toe downshift, learn something about lines, trail braking, etc. Most importantly you spend a fair amount of time (let's say 15 hours) in a car that gives you the feel of a real open wheel race car (he did say he wanted to do open wheel, not sports or sedans). If you go over the limit a few times and spin; then come in having scared up the bejeeezus out of yourself (wearing your brown badge of courage in your drawers) and decided to hang up your helmet right then and there -- you're out 2 or 3 grand. End of story, end of racing ambition.

2. You want to race Formula Fords so you just go out and buy one....and spend 10, 15, 20, 30 thousand bucks or more for an older Swift or Van Diemen, or whatever plus a trailer and an old pickup truck to tow it. You show up at a SCCA drivers school and give it a try and again go out and scare the bejeezus out of yourself (I've been an instructor at SCCA schools a few times and have seen that happen). You want to hang up your helmet and just get rid of it then and there. You may take a far greater monetary hit than the cost of the private drivers school..as those cars don't sell all that rapidly.

3. You go to an SCCA school (you need to do two before you can really race a formula car with a suspension here) and hop in a S2000 or Spec Renault or Spec Racer Ford or F440 or something they have for rent and take the school. You're out a few grand for the weekend rental, plus you've only gotten two 30-45 minute sessions on Saturday and one 30-45 minute session on Sunday... so you haven't gotten nearly the seat time nor the instruction you would have gotten in the private school...but you've spent about the same amount of money.

I've owned two MGB's in my time (the real ones before the ugly rubber bumpers, high CG, and with 2 carbs) and although they can be a lot of fun, they just aren't close to the speed of something like a Formula Ford. If I remember even half way well... the lap record on my old 2.5 mile home track for MGB (DP or GP, I think) class cars with the blocks decked down so far they got into the water jacket and had to epoxy'ed shut the resulting holes was a bit over 2 minutes. The lap record for a FF was 1:37.10 or thereabouts. Twenty plus seconds delta over 2.5 miles is a heck of a speed difference... even the pricier sports cars like a fire breathing Vette won't come close to the speed or feel of a 600 or 700 pound formula car with a 130hp Kent FF or 180hp Rabbit motor for a FSV.... power to weight being the name of the game. You also don't get nearly the racing experience in production sports cars or sedans here as you do with a more popular formula class, e.g. -- I started a race one time at Road America that had 62 or more FF's in the field plus a few FC's. There was ALWAYS somebody to race with; every time in every corner. There aren't as many FF's running now.. but I'm sure you can understand my point that a thin class of cars means you'll be spending a lot of time alone out there - not really racing with anybody. If money is a problem and they're still plentiful, check Formula Vee's. They used to start bigger classes than Fords when I was racing (darned if I'm sure what, if anything besides spec racers are popular now).

When I was 20, I was fairly impatient about things. So maybe our friend would be much happier jumping in the swimming hole instead of merely dipping his toe in with a street type vehicle....... The fastest way I know of to get a start with a lot of seat time in a Formula car is to go to a 3 day formula car racing school.

btw....congrats on learning how to keep the old MGB from getting lapped.

 

No mention of karting?

 

In regards to racing schools and making your F1 career: Skip Barber and others won't let you into the school before you have a certain age, which is defnitely beyond the toddler age. As I said before, at that point it is too late to pick up anything seriously (unless your career goals are less ambitious as Jon and others pointed out). So in a sense Pete is right, that no serious F1 racer ever came out of a racing school, they had to learn it their own way as five year olds on a go kart, no question.

The thing, that I take issue with is the statement, that racing schools are for rich posers. Most folks I went with to the 3 day Skip Barber school were like me, regular race fans who wanted to try it out for themselves and learn the finer points. Almost nobody had intentions on becoming a racer. There were a couple of talented kids (16 about) and one about 22 year old guy who thought he had it. Everybody (including the instructors) saw these three guys as superfast and saw the talent. And everybody (again including the instructors) agreed we'd never see those names on any billboard ever.

So is a racing school a waste of money? Depends on what you want to get out of it. I had a hell of a good time and learned a ton of things, so money well spent. If you wait until you reach the school age to enter it, you're probably too old. But just calling everybody going to a racing school a poser is missing the point, that some folks actually enjoy driving a race car as a recreational thing, not as a paying job/sport. Maybe that's your definition of a poser, mine is a bit different: A poser is somebody posing as somebody he isn't. Jordan's "test driver" is IMHO a poser. However if he'd just admit, that he is enjoying paid rides, he wouldn't be a poser, but an enthusiast.

My bone with Skip Barber was more towards their approach of taking themselves a bit too serious: You can take more classes and do races, but that'll never lead to anything, which they obviously wouldn't openly admit. From that perspective I find companies like "driving1on1" and the Petty experience a lot more honest: You pay for a thrill ride knowing full well, that you're in only for the experience. And events like that I have found so far worth every penny.

 

Danny Sullivan didn't sit in a race car till he was 21. Never give up, there is always a chance if you have the talent. I wish I hadn't.

 

Sure karting....but covered that in a previous post and the man said his objective was formula car racing.

 

... you missed my point again (I think).

Anyway we are getting way off track. My main point was the best way to start any racing career is in a go kart.

Now regarding me versus Allan. If you do not start a race thinking or having enough self confidence to believe that you are the quickest car/driver combination well you have already given away something like .2 of second per lap. Why?, cause the guys you are racing against think they are the best, and that extra confidence makes a difference in lap time and also in race craft.

Why do you think MS plays the mind games so hard? ... he already has the current crop of drivers beaten (maybe not Alonso and Kimi) before they even sit in their cars.

My other comment is: If this Allan guy is so good why is he fncking away his racing life being a teacher?. People that can DO, people that can't teach ... and we are not talking about the positive teaching of children here, we are talking about somebody who appears to have lost the ambition for his own career or something?? For respect I'll do a search (see below) and learn more about this Allan, maybe he is regrouping for another serious attack on the international racing stage or something?

That is the sad thing about most Aussie racing drivers ... and especially V8 Supercars. Many of the top drivers in our local racing series are international racing career failures. Yep Ambrose tried his hand and came home with his tail between his legs, Murphy, Lownes, Skaife (did he even have the balls to try?), etc. That is why I have to rate Webber and Ryan. They have not taken the easy way out and limped home and taken a cushy nice pay for a very amature racing series like the rest ... they are still taking the fight to the others.

Pete
ps: I am Murphy fan ... got his autobiography for chrissy, and yep he 100% admits he has given up on a international career due to marriage and family, etc. ... thus now just raking in the pay and enjoying life. Good on him but for our poster to make it, he needs to stick at it as like I said before it is a poor and lonely life choice.


Internet search of Allan Simonsen:
- Currently racing in the Aussie V8 Utes series.
- Won with David Brabham some GT race in a Ferrari 550 ... endurance racing makes it hard to judge real talent, but still a big win.
- I think he has done some V8 Supercar rounds or co-drives.
- He has also competed in the Aussie Procar series (a few Ferraris and Porches racing around with about 5 real drivers, the rest with more money than talent). I guess if he is racing the Ferrari 550 prodrive car ... hard to tell his talent as miles better car than any other competing.
- Could not find any real racing history, ie. single seaters or european efforts.

Sounds like a real shame, has the talent (I guess) and like so many others it is not being best demonstrated IMO. I guess like Murphy he may have family and choosen to feed the family via his racing school, etc.

Not knocking him, at all, just stating the facts as I see it, and yes he could probably lap me ... that does not support the racing school angle versus karts IMO.

 

Diode,

You make some very valid points ... but leaping straight into a Formula Ford (or equivalent) will mean you do not have enough race craft and knowledge and thus will fail (and probably break your legs or something ).

Karting is cheap and teaches you race craft in a blow torch environment ... cause the tracks are small and thus lots of cars per metre of track.

I guess (and this is your point) we do not really know whether our poster has the passion for the sport, or whether he has just decided 'yeah I'll give racing a go'.

We need to also remember there is a big difference to lapping or driving a race car AND actually racing wheel to wheel. Again a kart race or 2 will throw you directly in wheel to wheel racing where a school will isolate you from that completely.

I guess it is up to scuderiafever now ... and I look forward to the updates
Pete

 

Tifosi,
I appologise for the poser comment ... getting carried away .

My point was, and you have clearly confirmed this, is that it is NOT the way to start a racing career. There is a reason for go karts ... the whole purpose that type of racing exists is to create and develop racing drivers and careers. Racing schools are a relatively new concept where the owners of the schools are trying to capitalise on the excitement they get out of their sport by sharing it with others. They are NOT there to start a career.

Scuderiafever asked how to get started ... thus I told him.

In the past with these threads (as we have had a few) it has pissed me off how the racing school concept/direction gets thrown into these threads and it is just plain wrong. As you said you and your mates wanted to experience the scene, and you got heaps out of it and had a great time, and undoubtably learnt an enormous amount about your ability behind a race car steering wheel ... BUT if you really wanted to go racing you would not have gone to that school.

I'm actually surprised that you do not purchase a kart or Formula Vee and get out there. You appear to have the funds, think like a racer and are passionate about the sport. Heck I've decided that as soon as I can, I'm getting back in at some very humble level ... I just miss it too much. Even if I just return to classic racing at least I'll be getting my dose . Don't let the years tick by ... not all racing is mega expensive, but most atleast exist for the same reason, to make the blood pump and wear out some of our competitive spirit

Pete

 

Ferrarifixer,

Regarding Allan Simonsen ... what would really add to this thread is if you told us how he started his racing career.

Pete

 

First off don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something. I am sure there are literally thousands of successfull people in life who DIDN'T listen to other's telling them you can't do this or that !

If Magic Johnson had listened to all the people who told him 15 years ago he couldn't beat AIDS.....he be dead by now. And if Alex Zanardi listened to all the people who told him he'd never race an Indy car again.......well he wouldn't have gone back to the track where his accident occured and set 4th fastest time in an Indy car...nor would he be racing the best sports car racers in the world in the European Touring Car Championship.

And if Tiger Woods and his father had listened to all the people who said "...you'll never make it in golf.......it's a white man's game......"

Well you get the idea!

There are people in all facets of life you beat the odds. You'll never know until you try.

Back to racing and racing schools to be specific.

I think for the most part Pete is right that most people who go through racing schools like Skip Barber, for the most part of they succeed in racing, came from some form of prior motorsports experience. If you look at the list of Skip Barber notables (Gordon, Andretti, Montoya.......) they all had some form of prior experience.

And some do actually stick with the race series. Ryan Hunter Ray (now in CART) and Ernesto Viso (now in F3000) both raced in the Skip Barber series with me back in the late 90's early 2000's. Montoya also raced in the Skip Barber sponsored Indy Lights/Barber Dodge program.

I am sure there are a few kids who signed up with no prior experience at a Russell or Barber program and got to the big leagues but it's getting harder to do that.

In terms of "cheap" racing...................forget it.....it doesn't exist unless you take one simple factor out of the equation........WINNING. If you want win, whether it be Speed World Challenge or racing $6,000 ITB ****boxes you are going to spend money if you want to win.

I spent more money racing my Grand Am Cup Integra last season going for the H4 title than I spent annually on my 355 Challenge running track events. At the end of last season I spent about 15K-17K (not including the cost of the car which was 10K) to win my measly club title. ABout the same as what I spent yearly running 15 plus track events in the Ferrari.

And as someone else mentioned..........you've never lived (in racing terms) until you have spent an entire race behind the leaders bumper, sweating your guts out, overdriving the car, running through dirt and hanging on for dear life doing things you didn't think you or the car was capable of..........in order to set the guy up on the last lap in turn 1 to take the win. I had an entire season like that in 04.

People ask if I miss the 355 Challenge, racing a 140 hp sport compact. Yes I miss 175+ at Pocono but it can't compare to 45 minutes of pure adrenaline hanging on the edge of your seat. Makes any track event seem like a Sunday drive.

Steve (diode) I assume you are referring to Scott Breyton. A very tragic event.

I second much of what you have said. Racing competively at even the club (regional level) is a full time job. I stuggled last year trying to run a business, a full race season, and family life (married with 3 kids). I did it for one full season but no way my job or my wife would put up with last season's race schedule. I towed as far north as Lime Rock and as far South as Roebling Road in Savanah, Georgia all for a $2 piece of wood (acutally we got $150 trophy's and 2K in prize money but look at what I spent). I did a total of 15 race weekends between NASA and SCCA and have been so burnt out I haven't touched my car since Nov. 04. I am not willing to go through all that again.

In a nutshell racing is a full time job even if you never plan to do it professionally.

And in regards to when to start....just remember Bobby Rahal was pretty old when he started and so was Danny Sulivan.

You never know until you try!

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net

 

You gotta have dedication, you have to overcome adversity and you have to put in 110%. I have driven 4.5 hrs for 6 minutes of autox fun, I've driven back at the middle of the night to make it to class. The price of gas goes up, but every couple of weekends I am driving 250-300 miles one way to make an event.

Oh and I'll add to Jon's post... Paul Newman still races and he's like a billion years old.

 

www.allansimonsen.com for starters

and that site doens't include all the details.

He has no money, family or personal, and has got where he has through sheer speed and consistency. He spends EVERY $ he earns on his racing. he owns nothing.

He has spent countless hours as senior instructor at the Johnathan palmer school in UK, but only in between races and he spent every $ or quid on racing.

He is a supreme talent behind the wheel... and if you ask 360C he tell you about what he did from the passengers seat at Calder park!!

In a 360 Challenge car in Nations cup, he has SMASHED other pro's lap records... and done it repeatedly in race conditions.

His consistency is alarming... I've lost count how many times my watch or the data has listed consecutive laps of exactly the same 100th of a second. Too many for coincidence... and they're all lap record speed.

He's currently doing the Utes as he has a Coopers contract (Based on the 550GTS programme that fell through).

In the V8 supercars, he's had a free drive at GRM, where minimal seat time meant he was only a few tenths faster than the regular driver. And if you know V8's, that in itself is amazing.

He's in the UK right now, as part of a double header Brit GT GT3 Ferrari drive. check www.britishgt.com for progress this weekend at Croft.

He spends his spare time here chasing sponsors and teaching, privately and with the Bowe school and O'neil track days etc.

He has NEVER had a faster teammate, and convincingly went faster than Stokell in the Lambo at B24 hrs race... who had raced the car for years and is an Aussie champion. He also blitzed his team mates at Veloqx, but a UK driver poilicy meant he did minimal racing, but what he did was never bettered by a team mate either.

Once again, if I was racing seriously, I'd hire him as much as possible. English may be his 3rd language after Danish and German, but he get's it across somehow. Trust me. Try it, what have you got to lose.

 

lmao !

 

The Ferrari crowd tends to focus too much on F1.

There are thousands of racers in the world, hundreds of open wheel racers, scores of supercar licenses, and only 25 drivers got to race in F1 in '04.

Michael started in karts. He brakes with his left foot, which is considered a slight advantage in F1. Most other racing machines have clutches, and knowing how to shift well is a massive advantage, there. F1 and karting are two of the few venues where your left foot doesn't have better things to do than work the brake.

You can learn racing in the school of hard knocks (literally!), if you must. And if you have bloody fast reflexes. But learning the basic skills give you the ability to stay out of the troubles that you'd need figher jock reflexes to get you out of, and will save you a lot of rebuild time. It also helps to know the correct terms, in order to take advantage of what other drivers tell you.

But a couple of years ago, I started to daydream up bizzare circumstances where I might be offered a ride in a back marker F1 team. Of course, this was only a daydream, because: a) I'm old. b) I'm 6'4", c) I'm old, d) I don't have the statistically abnormal reflexes I had in my 20s, e) I'm old, ...

and f) after thinking about it ... I wouldn't take the job.

Flying around from Europe, spending my time testing the car and doing press conferences, spending enough time in the car to get bored with it, performing for the media, etc. ... actually sounds a lot less fun than being a professional nerd.

If it's no fun, why do it?

If you really want to race, I'd suggest you get a handle on the basics: h/t shifts, car handling, even handbrake turns. (Although most racing never uses handbrakes, it gives you an understanding of wheel loading.) Get an understanding of and a "feel" for the hardware -- you can't finish first unless you first finish.

Then go find something you enjoy and do as much of it as your budget will allow. And don't worry if it's aimed at F1. The question is whether you enjoy it.