F1 racing has many seemingly insurmountable economic and gendered barriers that prevent many people from entering the sport. Yet others, with family connections and access to resources, seem to seamlessly avoid some of these obstacles.

Some of the most notable F1 drivers had fathers who competed in either F1 or other high class motorsports (Holding 2021). 2023 F1 championship winner Max Verstappen is a notable example; his father Jos Verstappen competed from  1994-2004. His experiences racing to the top reveal how family racing experience and resources can aid racers’ success and disparities between newer drivers and those drivers who were “born into the sport.” 

The journey for those newly entering racing has many turns that drivers who were born into the sport may be able to avoid. Some of these obstacles involve indirect economic barriers that limit newer drivers from the sport. 

Go(ld) – Karting 

F1 racing is difficult to access because of the capital needed to start. To even have a chance at racing at the national level, one must first start racing go-karts. Go karts are expensive. Most drivers that are serious about the sport at this level have fully dedicated teams as well as top of the line gear to aid their chances at winning. These expenses can range from almost 10k to almost 100k a year for high end go karting championships (Baxter 2024) Such start up costs are prohibitively expensive for many people. 

As a counterexample, Max Verstappen developed a reputation as being a really competent driver during his go-karting years. Due to the fact that Verstappen’s father was in the motorsport, Max did not have to finance his go karting career. He additionally had more access to practice time due to his father’s legacy which in turn likely contributed to his success during his go karting career (Rossignol 2021). Due to the additional practice Verstappen was able to dominate his competition in his go karting career during his numerous championship victories. 

Licensing

The next step in racing onto the big stage is competing in single seater championships. By racing in slower and less notable single seater championships and accumulating “at least 40 super license points in the previous three seasons of competition,” racers can obtain an FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) mandated “Super license”(Blackstock 2022). 

For those financing their own racing career, this rule presents daunting obstacles due to the fact that just the registration for one of these applicable championships costs almost $30,000 per season (FIA, 2024). Yet, without this competition experience drivers typically have no chance to compete in F1. 

By contrast, Max Verstappen was “fast tracked” to sign a contract with Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team at the age of 15 only after competing in one F3 championship. Due to Max’s skill and reputation, he was able to bypass the 40 point requirement for the super license and was able to compete in F1. At this time Verstappen was not eligible to drive legally as he did not own a driver’s license at the time as well. Verstappen was, in fact, the reason that the FIA proceeded to set a new age limit on new drivers entering the championship at the age of18. 

Securing an F1 Contract 

Securing a chance to drive for an F1 team proves to be another difficult obstacle to racing success. Every season of F1 has only had 20 drivers. Since 1950, there have only been 750 drivers that have gotten the chance to race the fastest cars in the world (Thorns 2023).

 To give a comparison on how minuscule the chances are of getting signed to race for these teams, the NFL drafts at least 224 new people to compete each year. There are no new drivers for the 2024 season of F1. 

The Conspicuous Absence of Female Racers

There is also a conspicuous lack of women drivers in the sport. Out of the 775 drivers that have competed in the sport, only 5 of those drivers were women (Howe 2022), making the percentage of women who have raced 0.6%. Moreover, there has not been a female-identifying driver since 1992, when Giovanna Amati had 3 starts in that year’s season (Braybrook 2024).

 While there are many women involved in the sport as test and development drivers as well as engineers, this lack of representation of women drivers can push newer drivers to believe that they have little or no chance at driving on the highest level. This lack of representation shows that there is definitely another invisible gendered barrier that limits women from ever getting the chance to compete at the highest level that the sport has to offer. 

Hope? 

Despite all of these barriers, Lewis Hamilton, arguably the best driver the sport has ever seen with the most championships and race wins, is a notable counterexample. Born in the lower middle class, he too struggled with the economic barriers to achieve his way to the top. But he is a constant reminder that with hard work (and maybe a little bit of luck), others can one day be an F1 driver.

References: 

Baxter, Richard 2024, “Time to Talk Budget: How Much Does Racing Actually Cost?” https://driver61.com/blog/how-much-does-racing-cost/ 

Braybrook Rebecca, 2024, History of female F1 drivers – including grand prix starters and test drivers https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/history-of-female-f1-drivers-including-grand-prix-star ters-and-test-drivers/10584871/ 

Blackstock Elizabeth 2022, “The Formula 1 Super License, Explained” https://jalopnik.com/formula-1-super-license-rules-fees-eligibility-f1-1849499800 

Clement Rossignol 2021, Verstappen was always a winner, says kart track owner, https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/verstappen-was-always-winner-says-kart-track owner-2021-12-13/

FIA, 2024, FIA Formula 4; How to enter https://fiaformula4.com/how-to-enter/#:~:text=Fees,%2C%20are%20%C2%A324%2C70 0%20%2B%20VAT. 

Howe, Oliva R., 2022, “Hitting the barriers – Women in Formula 1 and W series https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13505068221094204 

Smith Luke, 2023 What makes F1’s Max Verstappen so fast? ‘An extremely rare natural talent https://theathletic.com/4256443/2023/02/27/max-verstappen-f1-redbull-fast/ 

Thorns Tom, 2023, How Many F1 Drivers Are There? Covering Historic & Current https://f1mix.com/how-many-f1-drivers-are-there