The advantage of Karting and Junior Formula experience….and severe disadvantages of not having any!
In my last post I described a racing driver’s typical route into a professional career and started to touch on different career paths. Before continuing the discussion on the advantages of acquiring such experience over a multi-year junior program, I thought it might be best to further explain the differences between the two sides of the pyramid diagram. Classical Steps vs Modern Era..
If you could not already surmise, I based the Classical Steps side of the diagram on a professional racing driver who I came to know later on in my efforts. He ascended to the World Championship Karting level as a youngster and even became a junior driver of a major F1 team near the end of his junior career! While he may not have made it to his ultimate goal of Formula One, I chose to write about his experience here because…well, he already accomplished what I pursue with fervency – he became a professional driver. In fact, he was a factory driver at one stage as well!
Factory Driver – /fakt(ə)rē/ ˈdrīvər
- a person who drives really f’n fast, but exclusively in circles
- a part, mechanism, or organism which receives female adoration and sometime prix money
- a factor which causes a phenomenon to happen inside of a racing car
- he who puts the ace in racecar
- speedyboi who cashes ouuuut
- has long hair, wears his shirts down to here and/or is sexy
- an individual who has put in the work, had some luck, and is financially compensated for his arduously procured expertise
- is not someone who pays a customer team, gets to drive their car, and tells everybody under the sun on social media that he is D E F I N I T E L Y a factory driver
His own case was, as you can see from the diagram which reappears below, a pretty bog standard route up the motorsport ladder. He started the First Stage by completing nine years of karting from cadet, junior, senior, National, Grand National, right through to European and World Championship levels. Read that again, mate – nine years of karting.
Our venerable driver got his feet wet in the Second Stage formula cars by testing cars sporadically before he even left karting. Eventually, whilst in his final year of karting, he wound up spending an entire year testing Vauxhall Junior after getting his car racing license. The following year with a full season of dovetailing tests under his belt, he entered Formula Renault (in those days with 1.7L engines). This step represented his first year with wings and slicks. He moved up to Formula Renault 2.0 for the next season.
Third Stage for this driver was spent fighting in Formula 3, only dual-campaigning in a regional Formula Renault series in addition. The following season he topped his formula days off with an entire year as the Formula Chrysler testing and development driver, slinging around a 6 speed sequential in a Reynard chassis – fantastic cars with 3.5l V6 engines. That was a highly sought after position which turned out really well for him in the end – he absorbed much, much knowledge of many European tracks on the job.
Now on to the Modern Era side of the diagram. As you can see the primary steps are still quite similar, anywhere from eight to ten years in various levels of karting first, followed by a jump to the second rung of the ladder into Formula Renault 2.0. The third stage, and one of the most important, still stands as a term in Formula 3. In the slightly modified diagram below, however, things start to get somewhat obfuscated here on this side of the triangle. Although, outliers have existed on both ladders.
While elements warranting some examination certainly exist on the Modern Era side, those subjects are the focus of the forthcoming installment of this site. For now, you know the typical routes into a final stage of road racing life which can be described as “professional.” Apologies in advance, as there are more silly diagrams coming. For now, I think it is appropriate to describe the advantages of this experi–
“GUY! Get to the point because I already know this!!” – you
Wonderful indeed, esteemed passenger, that you likely already knew this information by the time you arrived here. Put yourself in my position as an outsider looking in; consequently, what precisely are the advantages of having this experience, that is, karting plus mid/high level junior formula? Well, I believe the most efficient way to understand this is to look at those three little dotted lines. Kimi Räikkönen in purple and Jenson Button in red on the Classical Steps side, and Max Verstappen in green on the Modern Era side.
What do these three fastbois have in common, exactly?
They were all able to make the jump from MID-LEVEL ladder rungs or, pyramid steps in this case, up to the big show in Formula 1. Many motorsport fans and those who know better than I do will be assuredly swift in pointing out their immense talent. That is totally appropriate as these individuals deserve it – all three drivers have tasted champagne on F1’s top step, and at the time of writing two went on to become champions. Though, immense talent is never the whole story. Is it ever? While it is pointless to sit here and write about every extenuating circumstance with respect to their quick shuttling into Formula 1, these diagrams do show something which might be lost on those less anointed by the sport’s history.
All three had a serious quantum of karting experience. All three had some junior ladder experience. Yes, they had powerful managers. Surely they were lucky to have extremely dedicated parents. Indeed, they had the requisite talent in spades. These three were indisputably blessed with impressive capability. They all started somewhere though, and that first taste of racing for all three studs was karting.
Therein lies the value of karting; this is the point in a driver’s life where all racecraft is learned. Apexes, lines, braking, throttle application, steering, defending…..attacking. It is ALL learned in the First Stage and is the the reason I chose a pyramid for the diagram. The portion representing karting is the widest part, the base, the very foundation; representative of both the greatest number of competitors starting the journey and being cleansed from the ladder as we go up the pyramid. It also represents where the vast majority of how to be a f*cking racing driver is learned.
Just look at the driver I referenced earlier in this post. NINE YEARS, lads. He spent NINE years in karting and rose to the very top of the crop at the World Championship level, facing off against eventual F1 champions. Almost a decade spent whetting racecraft as a whole in the simplest machinery before ever tuning a wheel in anger in a formula car. If that does not illustrate the value of karting then I am not certain what would. Karting’s worth is illustrated nowhere more efficiently than in the case of Max Verstappen. After a single year in the Third Stage, to which he jumped directly from Karting might I add (we don’t count winter series on this blog yet, get used to it), he was on the Formula 1 grid. While Max Verstappen is an immensely talented wunderkind turned immensely talented F1 driver who also had some luck in life with the right father and no shortage of funding, the point here is he learned and honed his racecraft in a decade of karting. Formula 3 was still a requisite for him and hugely important step in any driver’s junior career – but it represents only ten percent of the total time Max Verstappen spent in karting. We really see the value of karting in this modern era of motorsport, partly because Formula 1 cars are easier and less dangerous to drive than in the Classical era of the aforementioned Classic driver. In any case, that even a supremely talented once-per-generation driver can make the jump from karting to F1 with only a single year of Formula 3 in between just shows how important this step is. Karting is the truly fundamental stage in which almost all drivers sharpen their skills. I remember watching a beautifully produced interview series by the extremely talented Mario Muth in which one of his guests talks about the value of karting. If anyone is interested I will append his interview with Karun Chandhok below – though the entire series by Mario is a must-watch in my humble opinion. If you take one thing away from this blog thus far, esteemed passenger, it should be that you must watch Mario Muth’s work. It deserves your attention!
So if karting is so valuable why did I make a triangle diagram indicating the other stages, then bother a girl to write stuff all over it?
…because there is still some mega-value to the rest of the ladder. Less than karting, admittedly, but still some value.
As I have exhaustively reiterated above, Karting in the First Stage is where a young fastboi learns almost everything about racing. The further a driver climbs up the ladder there are certainly more complicated factors to master, but in reality they are not as fundamental…
The Second Stage is valuable in the sense it is all about understanding how a racing car’s weight transfers. Not a massive step from the First Stage, really.
Third Stage is valuable in the sense it is the stage slick tires and moderate downforce are introduced. While a driver needs to understand how to differentiate between mechanically generated grip and aerodynamically generated grip, his intrinsic racecraft does not fundamentally change. That was entirely inculcated during karting, the driver here is just learning how to apply it in an environment with slicks and downforce.
Fourth Stage is valuable due to strategy planning and working in a more professional setting, potentially about testing and sharpening a driver’s fitness as the physical challenges are closest to F1 here.
“How is any of this long-winded post relevant? What am I still doing here?” – you, impatiently
Well as I alluded to in my introductory post I have precisely zero karting experience and therefore zero junior formula experience. Hopefully, if by the time of your arrival to this blog you were as inept as I was, by now you have a decent understanding how having none of this experience places me firmly within the lowest odds of accomplishing my goal of becoming a professional driver. Thus conclud-
“Hang on a moment! What ever happened to that first driver you opened this post with? – you, being a proper passenger seat driver
He continues to enjoy a rewarding career in GT’s to this day! That is, after reinventing himself a few times over; from Formula driver to GT driver, GT driver to Prototype driver, then finally from Prototype driver back to GT driver. I am extremely proud of him. I am even more proud to call him my friend – one of the very, very few I have made in the years since I started this whole mecca into Motor Racing. Here is a very short summary of what the professional part of his life looked like after serving his role as F1 Junior driver and completing his junior Formula career.
He landed in a free GT drive the next season, slinging a mustang quad-cam V8 Marcos in the Spa 1000km as well as a few rounds of National GT. The following season he ended up being the quick driver for a gentleman racer he instructed for previously in a 996 cup car. The next year he only participated in two races at the national level, again as the quick shoe in a gentleman’s car. Unfortunately he only raced in one of them at the Nürburgring, as the gent’ crashed the car on the first lap of the other event!
The next year he was signed as a Factory Driver. The merited result of being immensely talented and in the right place at the right time was contesting the FIA GT championship. Following FIA GT, he found himself the quick professional driver in the car of another gentleman he instructed for, this time in GT2 with a Porsche 996RS, and then ran the 24 Hours of Silverstone in a TVR Sagaris prototype.
After that season a bit of an arduous journey began in a completely foreign land. He began testing activities in a country unknown to him where he needed to learn the language. By the end of that year he uprooted and moved there full-time, and from a point shortly thereafter to present day he has been active every year as a professional driver.
On top of it all, he is a phenomenal person. In my experience, this is rare in racing. While I admire his professional career and achievements, I respect him most for simply persevering. He had the “right stuff” in spades but moreover he resolutely refused to give up. He just kept going despite all manner of ever present asperities. I hope all reading this now stick around long enough for when I inevitably dedicate a post or two to his own exceptionally motivating racing journey.
Thus concludes Part 2 of this post. Part 3 to follow!
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