chinese F1 driver ???

with the economy in china growing so fast and their interest for formula one, is there a chance that a big chinese company decide to buy a team (maybe like jordan) or is there a chance to see a chinese driver soon ?

 

Some stuff to read for you

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/12/content_289605.htm
http://english.people.com.cn/200409/25/eng20040925_158318.html

 

I am a firm believer in merit determining a race seat and not money!

We have all seen the mess Honda are in as result of BUYING Sato a race seat. Then they had to buy the entire team and now they have to create a Honda "B" team.

There is a BIG difference between drivers recieving sponsorship and drivers being BOUGHT race seats. I would absolutely detest a Chinese company entering F1 just for marketing purposes and just to have a Chinese driver so they can sell more junk through Wal-Mart.

 

sure the merit must be the only thing but
1) can bernie resist a large amount of money ??
2)there are a lot of good test drivers in the current team but they don't have any chance as long as they don't bring a big sponsor with them so sato's mess can happen another time unfortunately

 

Jesus H. Christ. And you think Japanese drivers are bad.

 

The whole idea is to get over the theme of nationality!

Who cares if the racer is BRITISH, POLISH, JAPANESE, AMERICAN, FRENCH OR CHINESE! What should matter is merit.

Since when do we need to have equal representation in Formula 1. Just because there is a potential of 1 Billion viewers on the Indian sub-continent does not mean there should be an Indian racer. Same goes with China.

BIG MARKET, SMALL MARKET or NO MARKET.
Can the racer achieve a race seat on merit?
Is he capable of performing at the top level of motorsport?

 

Well your absolutely correct on this one. Who cares where they are from, it is how they can drive. Look at Alex Yoong, he was really lame, but he was from Malyasia at the time they started the GP there.

 

Sponsors have made racing work for decades. It continues to allow racing to work. To think it will change with F1 is a joke. I have no problem with a Chinese/Indian pay driver.

Lets not forget, Scott Speed is a pay driver...

 

I disagree though I do believe in drivers' skill and merit to become F1 driver but with these countries you have just mentioned being Japan, China, India or Malaysia. By placing their 'capable' drivers in F1 then that's the chance for them to excite the locals, spectators, sponsors in order to increase the excitement of F1 as these countries are very serious in investing in F1.
Like it or not, I do believe that China will be a dominant force in most categories of world sports in a very near future!

 

I dont give a damn where the drivers come from, just so long as they belong in F1. This is why I liked having Minardi on the grid, because they exposed new, potential top-competitive drivers to the world of GP.They've done a good job introducing top or near-top drivers to the grid.

 

i didn't asked this question because i didn't want any chinese in formula one, i think if a driver has the skills he deserves to drive in a team but except when i was watching the races in the late 70's and 80's (when at this time you could have 10 french drivers on the start of a gp) with the development of TV, you have almost only one or two drivers from different part of the world and we now see drivers from emergent country (india). i believe that F1, as a world company will try to have a chinese (driver or team) just as a "rep" in the purpose to extand the market .ferrari, mercedes, renault... cannot say no to this marketing operation and they are trying to attract new enthusiasts because like many people, i have lost an interest in watching f1 (except this year with the battle between KM and FA) because of the lack of competition. remember the old season when the champion have to win the last race and when you could have 3 or 4 cars who could win the race

 

Lamar, I think I know what you're saying, and I think you're right. I thought it was odd that F1 went after a race in a country like Turkey, which didn't allow tobacco branding. And this after BernieCo played hardball with Spa for stepping out ahead of Europe with its own ban on tobacco ads. You're probably right about the development of a Chinese driver. I'm sure they look at China and see dollar signs, but that's business. Fortunately the track is decent. My advice to you would be to not give up on F1. I think we're heading into an era of competition that we haven't seen in over 10 years, with teams like McLaren and Renault running strong, plus the ever-rebounding Williams. And who knows what will happen with Toyota, BAR and the 4-car Red Bull situation. On top of that I think we're going to see some talented young guns get their chance at a drive, so there should be some exciting racing in the years to come.

 

Yeah, just look at Krapthikeyan in Jordan.

 

As opposed to Monteiro? They both aren't lighting the world on fire.

 

The sad thing is that money talks in F1. I don't like it any more than the next idealistic guy, but there it is. The highest level of the sport has become corrupted by green. As a result, I feel that truly great drivers (on par with Senna/Fangio/MS) will be few and far between in the future.

A1 is probably the closest thing (in high powered open wheeler racing, at least) to a series where all nations may theoretically vie for top place, with merit being the main consideration. The finances are not that important, since the A1 founder (Sheikh Makhtoum) seems to be funding the (identical) teams out of his own pocket. So the poorer countries are able to send "their man" into the fray without killing off their GDP for the year.

Still, I have to admit...A1 is dead boring to watch. Once you get past the idealistic rhetoric, the cars are underpowered and not technically advanced and most of the drivers are so-so (although still better than nearly all of us on this board). All I really want is for F1 to imbibe some of the good spirit that A1 seems to have started with, then we would have a crackling good sport.

For the moment, I think A1 does serve some good functions : it allows us to see the (presumably) best drivers from many nations, and also helps drivers who would otherwise never have been able to compete at a high level get much needed exposure to hone their skills. Hopefully, if a driver from a "poorer" country does really well, it will also drive up domestic interest in that country, allowing them to dedicate the money to sponsor that guy for an F1 place. Or even better, if a successful F1 team headhunts the best from A1 and buys them over. Then we'll truly have merit (in A1) determining who enters the higher level sport of F1. That I can live with.