Minardi | F1 Wolf

May 31st, 2008

Demise of pay drivers in Formula 1 - Is it a good thing ?

It looks like after many years there are no pay drivers on Formula 1 grid. Their last sanctuary disapeared when Vijay Mallya took over Spyker F1. The last proper pay driver - Christijan Albers - left the grid even earlier. Not (as he should) because of his mediocre performances, but because his sponsor stopped sending money.

Christijan Albers - Spyker

So now there isn’t a driver on the Formula 1 grid who has to pay to drive instead of getting paid for driving. At least for now gone are the days of fat purses buying F1 drives in teams like Prost, Minardi, Jordan (later Midland and Spyker)… At the same time however almost gone are also the days when other teams or drivers management could place their young and upcoming drivers to weaker back-of-the-grid teams for few seasons. This is what Honda could do with Super Aguri but never really did, this is what Toyota have done with Kazuki Nakajima and Williams, this is what Flavio Briatore have done with Minardi. Many different drivers started (and some also ended up) their F1 careers in with the backmarkers:

Fernando Alonso - Minardi

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