Talent now, more than ever, will take you only so far in motor racing. The ability to combine split-second decision making with almost ethereal reactions and sensitivity to an enormously complex piece of machinery has long set racers apart. But where once skill would be major the differentiator within their ranks, now it is money that seems to talk the loudest.
This week the former driver Derek Warwick, the vice-president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, warned that the increasing costs of racing meant that Britain may never produce a driver from an underprivileged background such as Lewis Hamilton again. Warwick fears many exceptional drivers will simply not progress unless they have a wealthy family.
Related: W Series leader Jamie Chadwick: ‘F1 is the dream of every young driver’
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