"How to earn a sh*t-ton of cash as a PRO racecar driver"

[Nando]

By Alex Lloyd, friend of Lewis Hamilton and solid driver overall.

It´s a pretty good article on the way to Formula 1 or any other top-tier sport.

http://jalopnik.com/5965507/how-to-earn ... car-driver

[jamsbong]

That does not sound like a good career choice.
I wonder if all Sportsmen and Celebrities all have the same tough path to reach the top?

[Websta]

That does not sound like a good career choice.
I wonder if all Sportsmen and Celebrities all have the same tough path to reach the top?

I wouldn't say that they have it tougher than people who want to become doctors or lawyers etc, or anyone successful in their career. It depends on how talented they are - the less inherently talented athletes will have to work much harder to achieve similar results to the superstars and thus have a harder pathway. That's similar to how smarter people find it easier to get into medical schools or top law schools. I can't see much difference between a pre-med student studying hard to ace his MCATs and a basketball player putting in the hours at the gym to improve his game. The pathway to success for the average Joe is always difficult regardless of the context.

The difference with racing is that you have to risk an enormous amount of money before you know whether you will make it or not.

[beelsebob]

That does not sound like a good career choice.
I wonder if all Sportsmen and Celebrities all have the same tough path to reach the top?

Almost certainly not, the big issue with racing car driving is that racing cars are expensive things. Very few other sports have such expensive equipment requirements.

You might get close with Sailing or forms of Equestrian activity, but I can't think of any others.

[Nando]

I wouldn't say that they have it tougher than people who want to become doctors or lawyers etc,

It´s much tougher to make it in racing then being a doctor or lawyer.

I don´t know about your country but in mine you can study for anything you like, i would say minimum 5 years for both those jobs and i think the education is more or less free, the only thing you have to pay is the money the government pays you so you can live during that time.
You just pay it back after you have gotten the job.

[Absolutelee]

Obviously Nando is not from the land of opportunity...the USA, where education is a right. We all have the right to pay $400000+ for our education and start life with a healthy foundation of debt.

[Websta]

I wouldn't say that they have it tougher than people who want to become doctors or lawyers etc,

It´s much tougher to make it in racing then being a doctor or lawyer.

I don´t know about your country but in mine you can study for anything you like, i would say minimum 5 years for both those jobs and i think the education is more or less free, the only thing you have to pay is the money the government pays you so you can live during that time.
You just pay it back after you have gotten the job.

Please don't misquote me, my comment was in response to this:

I wonder if all Sportsmen and Celebrities all have the same tough path to reach the top?

Just to be clear - I wasn't referring to superstar athletes, but the average, moderately successful athlete. IMO it's not any tougher than quite a few other professions. Athletes are quite limited in their career longevity though and can suffer career-ending injuries, so it could be considered riskier.

Although I never said anything specific about racing, I would argue that it is not tougher to become a moderately successful racing driver than it is to be a moderately successful doctor:

In some countries you have to pay enormous fees to study medicine (Harvard Med costs 250K+) and you can spend many years paying back the student loans. Try getting a company to sponsor you to study medicine... And to get into specialties such as dermatology or radiology is enormously competitive, especially in countries like Australia and New Zealand. It takes around 12-14 years of studying to gain fellowship of a speciality college, not to mention the massive competition out of high school and undergraduate studies to get into med school to begin with. The parents would usually also pay a lot of money (40-60K) to send their kids to a private school, especially in countries with bad public education, to have a better chance of getting into medicine.

Of course, apples and oranges, but there is no chance that it is tougher to become a moderately successful racing driver than it is to be a moderately successful doctor. Obviously it would be much, much tougher to become a Formula 1 super star.

[tathan]

Isn't SmartWater the stuff that gets sprayed on you when you rob a bank?

[Nando]

Of course, apples and oranges, but there is no chance that it is tougher to become a moderately successful racing driver than it is to be a moderately successful doctor. Obviously it would be much, much tougher to become a Formula 1 super star.

I disagree. One you start getting judged and looked at by the age of 3-4-5 while studying to become a doctor comes much much later in life.

You can destroy your racing career sooner then any person having even started their "doctor´s-career"

[PlatinumZealot]

F1 is all about getting financial backing. which is diffiult, but i don't think the actual mental and physical preparation is harder.

[Absolutelee]

There is a book out on a topic like this called Talent is Overrated. We sell it in my music bookstore because it can be applied to a career in music...but it applies to any successful person. The basic principle is that if you work hard enough at something, you can become great at it. He uses people from all walks of life as examples, from Ben Franklin to Warren Buffet. Read the description to see a better worded description. But anyway, this is our top selling book, because it talks about success as a product of hard work and dedication as opposed to some mythical predetermined talent level.

this is the book: http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated- ... overrateed

[hollus]

Have you read Outliers?

[Absolutelee]

Is that book for real?? The phrase "Why asians are good at math" is in the amazon blurb...lol

[mzivtins]

Interesting read! to put it into context, i know the most recent Olympic gymnast captain Louis Smith... He didn't train from an extraordinary young age like you would think, he just loved what he did and had some form of natural talent.

After going out on the piss many times with him, i would say that his career did not have such a massive impact on his social aspects of his like, unlike you would expect to find in F1 drivers etc... busy schedules and sponsor events are what we hear to be the devil side of being an F1 driver.

I'm not friends with an F1 driver, or any pro racecar driver, so i can't give anything other than my opinion which is... i guess they all work hard to get where they are, but have a lot more fun than the most of us on the way... and the only thing that makes things more difficult is the level of competition you have... And having said that, i would guess it is a LOT harder for an F1 driver to get where he is... or any racing driver.

Most other sports have some form of government sponsorship etc... as a kid here in the uk, you can start up any sport which you like, at minimal cost... but not motor racing... it seems very hard even from the early karting days!

That plus the risk factor... yeah, any form of motorsport does seem harder than any other form of sport.

[NathanOlder]

You can destroy your racing career sooner then any person having even started their "doctor´s-career"

Im not so sure, At the age of 18 you can still be an F1 driver if you have the money. At the end of the day, If Roman Abramovic wanted one of his children to drive for Sauber, it WOULD happen. A couple of years training, the right licences, 50 million pounds and you have a Russian woman driving in 20 races for 2015. Its never too late, if you have the money.