The F1 driver transfer discussion/speculation archiveFormula 1 

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I understand that a truly competitive driver would want their team to have a larger R&D budget so they can have a better car which they stand a better chance of winning races in, rather than a larger salary to just fill up their Swiss saving account.
 
Imagine if in the future, the really well paid drivers had aspirations to start their own teams.
Could that ever be a possibility? (no matter how unlikely).
 
Or Bruce Mclaren (RIP). Point is, successful or not, it could still be an aspiration of these higher paid drivers. But i suppose you're going to say, you've never heard anything so ridiculous.. Just like the Audi to F1 rumors. :lol:
 
Doesn't matter how much a driver earns to whether or not they could start their own F1 team. No contemporary driver has earned enough in their career to even run a top line team for a single season.

Maldonado has as much chance as any driver has to successfully start their own team.
 
Anghammarad
Don't know if posted before but here's a very good documentary about Alonso's last race weekend with Ferrari.



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Wow, that was really something. It's comforting to confirm my beliefs that Alonso isn't such a bad guy. I was afraid he was only a brilliant driver and a real :censored:head off the track and to his team. Granted, editing can paint a very different picture, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Lewis on the other hand still comes off as someone I wouldn't want to be friends with.

I really enjoy how much passion Alonso emits. And listening to him speak Spanish is something else :cool:.
 
TheCracker
Doesn't matter how much a driver earns to whether or not they could start their own F1 team. No contemporary driver has earned enough in their career to even run a top line team for a single season.

Maldonado has as much chance as any driver has to successfully start their own team.
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That would be a smashing idea! Sign Canamasas and Platato whilst he's at it!
 
TheCracker
Doesn't matter how much a driver earns to whether or not they could start their own F1 team. No contemporary driver has earned enough in their career to even run a top line team for a single season.

Maldonado has as much chance as any driver has to successfully start their own team.
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Well thats incorrect, Schumacher net worth is much more then what any team has run in a single year ever.
 
mustafur
Well thats incorrect, Schumacher net worth is much more then what any team has run in a single year ever.
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Perhaps if he'd lived out his career like a pauper in a 3 bed semi in a Dortmund suburb, he might have had enough cash in the bank to fund a team for a season and a half.

My point was that F1, or certainly winning in F1, is out of reach for someone embarking on a vanity project.
 
TheCracker
Perhaps if he'd lived out his career like a pauper in a 3 bed semi in a Dortmund suburb, he might have had enough cash in the bank to fund a team for a season and a half.

My point was that F1, or certainly winning in F1, is out of reach for someone embarking on a vanity project.
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that would assume the car would be exclusively funded by him and the car had no sponsorship on the car and from drivers, which you know if such a team was made wouldn't be the case.

It's certainly possible but it would be a uphill battle.
 
Again, ask Alain Prost. He was sure that his name would attract sponsors, but it didn't work. He fundamentally overestimated the French public and corporate desire to see a French team on the grid.
 
prisonermonkeys
Again, ask Alain Prost. He was sure that his name would attract sponsors, but it didn't work. He fundamentally overestimated the French public and corporate desire to see a French team on the grid.
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Tbh it started pretty well but got progressively harder each year after 1997.

Whilst the points don't show the full story the Prost was definitely a front runner in 1997 in the hands of Panis.
 
prisonermonkeys
I would hardly call that brief burst of success proof that driver-owned teams work.
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I wouldn't either but it proves that atleast at that time it was certainly possible.

Prost was hardly the wealthiest F1 Driver anyway.
 
Nessy
Or Bruce Mclaren (RIP). Point is, successful or not, it could still be an aspiration of these higher paid drivers. But i suppose you're going to say, you've never heard anything so ridiculous.. Just like the Audi to F1 rumors. :lol:
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Your comparing an era of when teams were popping up like weeds and you could enter F2 cars with ballast and compete, unlike Today where it's totally different. You could buy customer cars too back then unlike today and on and on and on. There are plenty of others racers that started their own teams from the Era Mclaren did and the only one alive today is McLaren due to becoming more than the man who made it.

Now if say a band of drivers came together to build a team...then I could see it working especially if they take their now sponsors with them. Say if Hamilton and Alonso put a team together using their money and Santander and the various designer companies that support Lewis among others for both. It could work for a time.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
Your comparing an era of when teams were popping up like weeds and you could enter F2 cars with ballast and compete, unlike Today where it's totally different. You could buy customer cars too back then unlike today and on and on and on. There are plenty of others racers that started their own teams from the Era Mclaren did and the only one alive today is McLaren due to becoming more than the man who made it.

Now if say a band of drivers came together to build a team...then I could see it working especially if they take their now sponsors with them. Say if Hamilton and Alonso put a team together using their money and Santander and the various designer companies that support Lewis among others for both. It could work for a time.
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I wasn't drawing any comparison...

Just merely pointing out, that drivers in the past have started their own teams, besides.. there are other motorsports. Who's to say these drivers won't aspire to running their own team in another motorsport?

I do agree with the plausibility of drivers clubbing together, along with sponsers to form their own team though. 👍
 
mustafur
Like basically any team unless your a billionaire your going to need investment from somewhere.
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Yes but instead of a single driver you have a couple of them bringing sponsors already tied to them to make it work rather than having to do heavy lifting after deciding to form the team or during the formation. Prost had a couple big names but nothing that was a massive influx of cash and it never expanded from that due to performance and also what PM pointed out.

Nessy
I wasn't drawing any comparison...

Just merely pointing out, that drivers in the past have started their own teams, besides.. there are other motorsports. Who's to say these drivers won't aspire to running their own team in another motorsport?

I do agree with the plausibility of drivers clubbing together, along with sponsers to form their own team though. 👍
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You may have not been drawing comparison but the point still stands, it was far easier back in Bruce's day to make a team and have success as long as the right pair of hands were in the seat. However, the same couldn't be said about 97 when F1 had already became massively technological. Also drivers from F1 have or are running teams in other sports, that isn't all that hard, Keke has his own DTM team.
 
Anghammarad
Don't know if posted before but here's a very good documentary about Alonso's last race weekend with Ferrari.
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It was only last night that I managed to find the time to watch. A great documentary with a bit of everything, moving moments and funny moments, my favourite being the old King's indiscretion :lol:

Seriously, thank you for letting us know this documentary exists! :cheers:
 
prisonermonkeys
So, the big question now is if Marussia and/or Caterham can be saved, then who do they take?
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Depends, are the new Super-licence rules in effect for this year, or not?

If not, then the drivers with the biggest budgets.

My guess would be Ceccotto and Chilton for Marussia, Merhi and Leal for Caterham. (Both have ties to the team)
 
The Chiltons were pretty much funding Marussia for months. They don't have limitless reserves, and there will come a point of diminishing returns. I can't really picture Max Chilton continuing on for a third season.
 
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