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RACER Staff
http://www.racer.com
06/12/2007 - 07:00 PM
Irvine, Calif.
Think you have what it takes to get here? You'd better have a lot of resources in your corner. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
Editor's note: the following is abridged from an article originally appearing in the June issue of RACER magazine.
There are some costs you just do not want to calculate. The amount you spend in Starbucks per year, for example. Or, more painfully, the dollars that go straight out of your salary and into the tax man's pocket. So how many wannabe Formula 1 drivers have sat down with a sharpened pencil and added up the figure should they also have the talent, luck and timing that it's going to cost to land a grand prix drive?
Truth be told, we've already been through several pads of paper trying to figure it out. It's an extremely difficult calculation and will vary from driver to driver depending on the route taken to the top. But give or take a few hundred thousand loose change, in this equation we've arrived at a speculative number for the amount of cash it could take a driver to reach F1.
We've been helped out along the way by team bosses and drivers from five
levels of the sport: karting, junior single-seaters, Formula 3, GP2 and F1. They didn't always want to speak on the record, and they sometimes quoted wildly different figures, but their estimations are enlightening.
Helping us break down the calculation is Chase "Skid" Solo III, fictional racing driver of promising talent and his wealthy father. Family money has given him the opportunity to make the first step on the ladder. What started as a hobby and allowed Dad to live his own racing dream vicariously has quickly become his own dream to get to Formula 1 by any means necessary. Business associates provide vital sponsorship along the way, and Dad has no qualms about paying for a test now and then in order to catch an F1 team's eye. Sadly, Chase is not quite good enough to win any of the titles that bring free drives.
So, just how much is he going to have to spend? We've kept extras such as travel, accommodation and expenses out of it (although these are always paid for by the driver) and focused purely on racing, equipment and insurance.
If your wallet is of a nervous disposition, hide it in your pocket now.
Think you have what it takes to get here? You'd better have a lot of resources in your corner. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
KARTING
It might be the cheapest way to learn wheel-to-wheel competition, but the cost of karting certainly doesn't equate to that of playing golf or football. If you have the money, it is the most proven way of getting
In the United States, you can theoretically start at four years old, and while the competition may not be all that heated, the basics of racecraft are instilled at a very young age. However, most aspiring racers don't enter the karting ranks until they're seven or eight. The path that seems most popular is a start in Cadet Karts, followed by a move into a local junior class such as Yamaha Sportsman at a price tag of $30,000 per season. A year in a spec class such as Rotax Max or TAG would be followed up by two years in a national series such as the Stars of Karting, where a karter's talents and his wallet are put to the test in ICA or ICC shifters. Cost for the top level is near $100,000 per season.
Catch up on the developments in Formula 1 each month in RACER. Steve Cooper gets the scoop on the decline of the Renault F1 team this season, and its efforts to turn the tide in our July issue, on sale now.
A fully loaded Tony Kart chassis will set you back as much as $4,500, and most serious racers will have at least one spare chassis and three or four engines. However, according to one young racer, who wanted to remain anonymous, it's still a darn sight cheaper then the next step of junior single-seaters.
"The most expensive season I ever had was doing one year in Stars of Karting while also prepping for the SKUSA SuperNationals," he says. "That cost around $100,000 to get with the right team and the right support with all the right go-fast parts. Sure, some guys spend half as much, or had development deals with engine builders to keep the cost down. But nine times out of 10, if you spend less, your results are less. I raced karts for seven years and the total money we spent wouldn't have paid for one year in most of the junior formulae."
So if you're working on a shoestring, the more time you can spend learning your trade in karting, the better.
Chase Solo III the formative years
Four years local karting at $25,000: $100,000
One year regional level at $50,000: $50,000
Two years top level at $100,000: $200,000
Sub total: $350,000
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