Indeed! No argument from me there. Jos became 'The Boss' for a reason. In the same way dear old Mark got Sebs cast offs? I'm not buying that one. From his career perspective I suspect he was unlucky that Michael came along as his 'mate at just the "wrong" time..... Fer sure! Had things gone a little differently he's one that could have bagged a title or two. He was damn good! Not sure what you mean by "coming from the right country" though? If you're quick, and, sure, lucky, I don't think origin, color or even gender matters one hoot. Someone will give you a shot. It may not last long, and you need to be in the right place at the right time, but that's another debate..... Your weight might these days of course!.... Better be a little guy/gal! Cheers, Ian
You might not get a shot at all. It takes a lot of money to get into Formula 1, even well before you are in a position to show what talent you have. A company will rather sponsor a talent that it and its clients can relate to, than a foreigner. Especially from the standpoint of TV commercials and so on. There are many quick drivers - it is extremely rare that someone gets through on talent alone. Don't forget that most F1 teams are permanently under water, financially. We have big industry in Holland, but all those companies (Unilever and the like) tend to mask the fact they are Dutch, not dwell on it. They like to be perceived as global, not Dutch (too many associations with cows and quaintness). And there is also a certain type of company that is attracted to F1 and the glamour world it lives in. The Dutch are not great with glamour. So - being from the Netherlands is a disadvantage. And many F1 promise can attest to that (Frijns for one). But now that Max has the spotlight on him, perhaps it will become fashionable to sponsor F1, and then things might change. Onno
Well at least he didn't have to call himself; "Fast_Jos"........ Vettel and Webber; wrong comparison, totally different situation in a different time. It was often said that Flavio lacked funds at the time. Besides Schumacher and Verstappen were both competitive in karting at the same, in the same championships. And thereby I'm not saying there on the same level. He was, why would he end up in F1 as a payed driver if he wasn't..........;-) Onother pretty obvious not so smart remark Ian; ofcourse it's not about origin, color or gender as such; it's about talent and numbers. It might have occured to you that country's like Germany, Italy, Spain, France and England have far more inhabitants, a larger market, more interesting/valuable for sponsors. On top of that all the aforementioned country's all happen to have a large car and motorsport industry. In other words if Mclaren/Meredes would have to choose between a evenly talented German/Brit or a Danish/Portugese/Swedish/etc. driver; it's pretty obvious which one they'll pick... Are you grown-up Swift_Ian, You might want to check that last comment of yours again, makes you look like quite the little man that you seem te be... Byebye Ian.
Wow! Wasn't expecting that as a response!.... I was actually trying to be complimentary with the "Jos the Boss" comment! And, FWIW, the 'fast' reference goes back to self depreciating humor where 'fast' refers to, let's says, a "shady" background. Nothing to do with speed. Sure. As I said, with a little luck, Jos could have, maybe, been a champion. The history books tell us different though. I beg to differ. Sure, you need shed loads of money to even get the chance. That may or may not to be easier to raise in England, or back in my day, Brazil, but if you've got the talent, money, and nowadays, unfortunately, "marketability", you'll get a shot regardless of your origins. I think we got our wires crossed here!... No matter, feel free to ignore me. Cheers, Ian
O and besides Ian, I think it would be more appropriate if you point your comment about "weight" to you're fellow countrymen. I'm quite a skinny guy compared with the most of them...........
Sorry Ian...don't agree there. I read an article a little while ago and there was a question why right now there are so few racing stars from Italy, and the answer came down to their (horrid) current economic situation. Companies are simply not going to sponsor a driver (and they really need sponsors once they get serious from karting onwards, unless you have a minted dad, 150K is easily blown in a season of a bit of karting) because they don't see the return on it currently. As Onno explained above as well...Holland isn't quite hot on sponsoring either. Van Der Garde is lucky to be dating (or engaged to? I don't know) a billionaires daughter which helps with a bit of sponsorship, but I doubt he would've gotten it was he not dating her. Even Conor Daly, a pretty talented American chap has now run out of funds because an American company just isn't interested enough to sponsor some American kid driving about in Europe-land. Where you from and who you know has a lot to do with it... A friend of mine used to kart against Jenson Button and beat him regularly, but because they didn't have the connections Button ('s dad) had, funding/sponsorship dried up and goodbye mega yacht and supermodel girlfriend...hello desk job and a lifetime of sour grapes (last is a joke, he's quite happy for him obviously...but he'll always wonder ''what if?'').
Dude! Relax!.... My comment about weight was in reference to some of the guys being on record as saying they're basically starving themselves ahead of a race! Some have suggested that one the problems Hulkenburg has is that he's too heavy! Ridiculous I know, but that seems to be the state of the sport right now is all I was trying to say. Cheers, Ian
Fair enough! Hell yeah! Absolutely no doubt! Always been that way and always will be. Not just money either, you've got to have the right "persona" in front of the cameras and so on these days...... I think I've said before, the late, great Jim Clark probably wouldn't have made it today! He was a shy guy - doesn't work for "promotions" etc today. As for raising money, why limit yourself to your home nation? England has had it's share of, let's say, "lean" times, but continues to produce drivers. France got behind their drivers back in the day and did pretty well. Now it seems to be Mexico. In my day, I well remember the "Brazilian invasion" - common wisdom was that Brit drivers didn't stand a chance against their influx of $...... I'm sure you're at something of a disadvantage if you hail from a "small", not motorsport obsessed country, but it's possible to overcome if you're lucky enough & good enough IMO. Cheers, Ian
I hope so.... He made some good & eloquent points. Certainly worthy of debate. I just didn't expect such a reaction to my comments! Cheers, Ian
I don't think Ian was talking about your weight personally, he was referring to how many F1 drivers are having to slim down almost like jockeys to be competitive. Big-framed guys like Mark Webber had tremendous trouble with this. All the best, Andrew.
Max did around 400km today in an F1 car, so he can now get his Superlicense for FP1 sessions. Toro Rosso happy with Verstappen test debut - F1technical.net Interesting what Steve nielsen said: ''he gave the impression to have been driving an F1 car for quite some time''. They said the same about one MSC and some finish young gun one day...
... Helmut Marko's filling his driver roster, and signing driver contracts, like it's the end of the world! - asj.
I just scanned back thru the whole thing, and I'm happy to say, in my case at least, "no". I certainly wasn't "spot on" with some comments, but I stand behind what I wrote at the time. Cheers, Ian
Interesting to hear that from a Dutch - I presume. Do you think the same applies to countries like Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Finland too?
