Do some Formula 1 drivers actually pay to be the team's main race driver?

This remains the case, but only on the 2nd tier teams, certainly not the top 4-5 teams in F1. All of the Japanese drivers from the last decade, and the Indian chap as well, had to bring outside financing to the teams where they drove. In other words, they do not directly pay their teams for the privilege of driving, but they absolutely would not be driving in F1 if not for the fact that they brought in a big sponsor, who typically underwrites the team's campaign. See the story below -- a young Indian driver raises funds for the operation of the Jordan 2005 team, and is then allowed to drive the car.

I'm not sure it applies to the larger teams who can easily afford to pay the drivers wages but smaller teams, some years ago I might add, such as Minardi and even Jordan towards the end of their time in F1, did basically have rules which stated you needed to bring in a certain amount of revenue to race.

Drivers who have complied with such rules include Justin Wilson whose manager encouraged the British public to buy shares in him to raise the money for an F1 drive.....it worked.

Alex Yoong, the Malaysian driver was brought in to replace Tarso Marques simply because Yoong had better financial backing. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Fernando Alonso was required to pay towards his season with Minardi.

I'm not sure If I've got the right person here, but if memory serves me correctly Pedro de La Rosa's father is a multi millionaire in his own right. I think he own a major Spanish supermarket chain. So, you can easily imagine how he got his entry into F1.

I'm not sure if the practice of paying for a drive exists anymore due to the lack of any small privateer entries into F1 now. All the teams are owned by huge corporations who can easily afford to hire their talent on merit.

Yes they do, but only in the teams at the bottom of the pack. Where do you think the rubbish Japanese drivers come from!

These drivers have to bring a certain amount of sponsorship (or cash) with them to be able to drive for the team (and to keep the team going).

Have a read of ITV's F1 pages, there's usually information on there.

A lot of the lower teams in F1 will hire drivers that are backed by either private money or corporate money. So in other words someone is paying the team so that driver can have that seat. The team is desperate for money so they have to do it. Christian Klein, Christian Albers, Jos Verstappen, Alex Yoong, and countless others have used sponsorship money to get a ride in F1.

no you cannot deny those, and those are very good points, i think if ms was in a force india then theyd have scored points by now but he wouldnt get 7 championships with them, im a fan of F1 but it seems to be more of a race between engineers to develop the better car rather than between the drivers to be the best

What clues? As far as I know, in the top teams, the guy with the more chance of winning the world championship gets a bit more privilege. While in the other teams, they are pretty fair in terms of their two drivers.

Nope. Maybe in nascar but not f1. There are some situations where a team must put one driver ahead of another for whatever reason, but i've never heard of any driver paying to be the number one driver of any team.

I think you will find it was always considered the other way around, i.e. Formula 1 drivers were regarded as playboys!.

NO - you can't pay your way into an F1 seat. You have to have talent as a driver.

No, it's based on their performance. And even if they wanted to, they'd probably get slapped with a fine.