Everyone wants to be a star athlete at some point. Whether a baseball, basketball, ice hockey, football, soccer or tennis player, everyone has that dream that they should be a great athlete.
However, dreams are one thing and becoming a great athlete, another thing completely. The problem with becoming a competitive professional athlete is that you need some luck and genetics, and not just a plethora of smart, hard working people around you.
It isn’t impossible, but the road is hard.
How difficult would it be, then, to become a professional F1 driver? Pretty difficult, and here is why.
It is Expensive
No one except the richest people in the world can afford to have their child start off with actual F1 vehicles, and in reality, nobody should start with an F1 vehicle, for safety reasons.
Building up the skills to drive an F1 is often done through go karting. Go karting is similar to F1, but much slower and less dangerous. The experience could be similar, but as similar as driving a Prius is to driving a Bugatti when you floor it.
Football and similar sports don’t take tons of equipment for you to get going. You can work on your skills even when not on the pitch. The same cannot be said for racing, where you have to practice on a racing track to actually hone your skills. A simulator will not cut it. The price is what keeps most people away, alongside other things.
The Danger
The second of the problematic obstacles is the danger. F1 cars are fast. Professional drivers, especially young ones, tend to be more hot-blooded than is good for their safety. Getting your emotions to get to you in a race or a practice session can lead to an already dangerous sport becoming lethal.
Starting young is recommended for every sport, but for motorsports, starting young is next to impossible, due to the legality of things and the complications that could arise by letting a child drive a very fast and dangerous vehicle.
It Can Still be Done
While it seems like a rather impossible task, the danger should be presented as it is. It is a difficult career choice, as can be seen even for the best of the drivers, through Netflix’s now famous documentary, Drive to Survive. While documentaries sometimes tend to embellish things, it is still a tough choice for anyone and success is far from guaranteed.
While that can be said for every job, this one simply has more danger involved.
Through rigorous training and actually winning races, one could become an F1 driver, but hardly everyone.
F1 racing isn’t for everyone and that is why only a select couple of people are at the very top of the ladder.
