Quote taken from:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...car-options/P1
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Enzo Coloni
"In Europe all [these] young talents spend million[s of] euros in GP2 and [Formula] Renault 3.5 in order to boost their careers, but [the] reality is that unless you are followed directly by a manufacturer, the only way to enter F1 is having at least 15 million euros, [and] that will buy you a seat in the last two rows of the grid."
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First of all, I'm not sure if the "15 millions" figure is exact. On one hand Enzo Coloni knows the business well, as a (soon former) GP2 team owner, and high-profile driver manager. But on the other hand, he could well be exagerating by a few millions in order to try to prove his point.
But whatever the correct amount is, several millions of euros is an enormous amount of money, for driving a car that is barely faster than a GP2, is doomed for the 2 last rows of the grid, and doesn't give its driver a reliable benchmark, with the exception of the driver's team-mate, who himself usually hasn't driven a competitive car for years anyway.
I am not familiar at all with the background of the backers of the likes of Di Grassi, d'Ambrosio, Pic or Karthikeyan to be honest. What are they trying to gain from their F1 venture?
Is it media exposure? Well, their driver barely gets any air time as long as he is stuck at the last 2 rows of the grid, and he usually gets some for the wrong reasons(ie: getting lapped).
Are they trying to make an investment on the future, hoping that the driver can somehow use his time at Virgin/HRT as a kick start for a successful career? Hard to impress any bigger team in a car that is not only 4 or 5 seconds off the leaders' pace, but more importantly, 2 or 3 seconds off the tail of midfield, isn't it.
Is there any future for a driver like Charles Pic anyway? What can he realistically aim for, before his funds dry up? Impress the team so much so they give him the "hired" n°1 driver seat instead of Glock...?