Is It Too Late To Start Stepping Up For F1 Racing? Please help!?

Far too late.

True, a handful of Formula 1 drivers have made it to the top level starting late. Adrian Sutil was 12. Mark Webber was 14. Vitaly Petrov was 17. Gerhard Berger was 21. But all of these men are exceptional talents. In the case of Webber and Petrov, they were also hindered by weak racing structure in their home countries. Webber left home for England at the age of 18; Petrov raced Ladas, FFS. These men made it to the top through sheer determination and hard work and an enormous amount of talent.

If you don't have a lot of money, well, I'm really sorry, but that's the end of the line. Just to get a semi-competitive kart is AT LEAST $5000 - and then you have to outfit yourself with the appropriate apparel and accessories, another $1000. Each season of karting will probably mean you'll need two or three engines and a bunch of tyres - not to mention bigger more powerful karts if you start moving up, which are naturally much more expensive, getting towards $10000-$15000. Then you'd need to do a lower Formula series, like Formula Ford...and so on. Now you're talking $100,000 a season minimum...just to turn up.

As the old adage goes, "How do you make a small fortune out of motorsport? Start with a large one!"

At your age (I'm guessing around 14 or 15?), to even have a shot, you should already be in at least the national-level karting series, if not Formula Ford, and winning almost everything. You should also be signed, or at least looked at, by one of the driver development programs run by the big teams, i.e., McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes etc.

And last of all, remember that the F1 grid represents 24 of the best drivers in the world. That's 24 out of the hundreds of thousands of racing drivers all over the world. There are many talented drivers out there who never even get close.

This may sound harsh, but it's intended to be realistic.

Most experienced F1 drivers started really early. They started their careers at a child age. I gave up on my dream on becoming an F1 driver because

1. Acting was easier to join at the age I was

2. I had no go karting experience

see!

just do one thing:

if you have sources just go to big races like rotax max karting (national as well as international level) then try for national tems like formula ford, formula bmw etc. after go to F3 then if you want to be a good driver try F2 also then at last F1.! remember : you should perform very well in every category

THAT WOULD TAKE AT LEAST 5 TO 6 YEARS

Also read the article about Michael Schumacher in wikipedia

that would be helpful!

hope i could help :)

I am 18 years old n I want to become formula 1 driver though I am an Indian so never had opportunities to learn in early age ..pls help me

i guess it is actually late because if you want to be an F1 driver you should started driving kart at 5 years old ,so you can't but don't worry there is other kind of auto races like INDY-CAR RACING...NASCAR......TWO SEATS CAR RACING........TOURING CAR RACING........STOCK CAR RACING

THAT'S ALL

HOPE IT HELPS