What's the Best way to get in to Formula 1?

Question

I dream of Driving a F1 car. Even if it's just as a test pilot, I get goosebumps just thinking about it lol. Should I take Karting or just build a time attack car? The thing is that I enjoy auto-x and I whould like to one day have a race car to lap around at the track but I want to drive in a open wheel race car. Even If I don't make it all the way their how close can I get? Which is better open wheel racing or closed.? no nascar please.

Answer 1

well if you don't have about as many years behind the wheel of a race car as you do on your two feet, your probably not going to make it to formula one. sorry even the test pilots are more comfortable behind a wheel than walking around.

if you live in America, you can become a member of the SCCA (sports car club of America) *www.scca.com*

there are many opportunities for you to live out your racing dream in scca, both for open and closed wheel.

basically, its a personal preference,
close wheel cars are ussually production cars making them less expensive to maintain
open wheel cars are usually lighter and more aerodynamic, making them faster, however more expensive due to the specilty of the parts.

as for how close you can get depends on how much money you have.

if your on a tight budget, the spec miata or improved touring class would be perfect for you. its cheep(ish), a lot of fun, and you race on grand prix style tracks. Just like F1!
the average person can afford this

although if you have a good amount of money to burn, and you want to get even closer to F1, a low end formula car like formula continental, grand touring, or american sedan classes would be a good car for you. the formula cars are open wheel and all are very fast.
probably need to be close to 6 figures salary for these

if your a trust fund baby or will have kids that will be trust fund babies, theres very expensive classes like formula BMW, Formula Atlantic.
CEO of a company thats doing well.

while i'm not sure exactly how much you'd have to make to be able to afford to race one of these but keep in mind after you buy the car, you need

a trailer,

you need money for a driving school,

you'll need money for repairs (for spec miata bring about 2k per weekend, you wont use it every weekend, but when you need it it will be nice to not have to take it out of your savings fund)

you need to get hotels.

and lets not forget you will need a truck (if you don't have one already) to pull the trailer.

and the gas for the truck (big expense now a days)

as you can see, if you chose to race it will be a major expense in your life. but its all worth it when your doing 100mph+ inches from other cars

any other questions, i accept emails

Answer 2

It is quite hard to get into F1 for someone who hasn't raced single seaters since they were 8 years old ...judging from your English you're probably a bit older than that. The quickest way to get up the motorsport ladder for a late starter with a bit of money would be to start racing in a procar series:
the modifcations allowed on the cars aren't very large, so the budget is quite low for a privateer. Check http://www.procars.co.za/ for details.
Afterwards, you're going to have to be talented or rich to go any further, but a possible career path could be through the British Touring Car Championship to a Le Mans prototype based series or (if you really are good) the DTM. The DTM is of a good enough standard to get someone an F1 superlicence if they are successful enough, it can also be used to get into a top-end single seater formula (A1GP or GP2 for example).
Alternatively you could use procars to get yourself an F3 drive and move up the single seater formula, several current and former F1 champions came up that way (Nelson Piquet still raced procars even after he had got into F1, so did Niki Lauda).

As to which is best, you're going to get more fun for your money staying in a saloon-car based series than open wheelers in my opinion.

Answer 3

NASCAR sucks, so you are already correct there.

I think you if you made a name for yourself here in USA first, and then make a switchover it will work. Do not do what Scott Speed did and get in way over your head.

Win a few big races first. make notable career wins. maybe a 12 hour race or a 24 hour race. That will make you more marketable. The best would be switchover from Indy to F1 tester. or LeMans to F1 tester or F1 minor teams.

and have a good name that you can easily see plastered on race scoreboards.

Answer 4

Drive as much other stuff as possible - there are only about 30 F1 drivers in the world.

Answer 5

Go up to Ron Dennis, shake his hand and tell him that it is your dream to drive for him. Hell, it worked for this year's world champion.

Alternatively, get a big company to back you or find a rich uncle and become a pay driver.

Answer 6

karting is the way to start. like Schumi, Kimi