Bit of a somewhat off-topic question here, but having just seen the thread about F1 becoming a Farce and remembering back to the ING Survey and the claims that F1 is the Top Championship and the Pinnacle of World Motorsport; here's a little question....

In it's current setup, would you aim for F1 if you where an up-and-coming Racing Driver? As in, would getting to a drive in an F1 team be your goal in your career?

If all the avenues of Motorsport where open to you - F1, Sportscars, WRC, Touring Cars and so forth - would F1 be the highest on your list? Obviously you've got to put aside the Talent / Money issues as this is just a bit-of-fun question. If you want to go further and say "Yes, only if it was a drive for McLaren" then go ahead!

If i'm honest, i'm a Sportscar fan first and formost so a paid drive for say, Corvette, Porsche or Audi would appeal to me alot more than a drive in any of the F1 teams; and i would most likely aim for that route. For me, getting a drive in any F1 team just would not interest me at all with how the series is currently working and being run.

It all depends on whether you grow up in racing single-seaters or something else.

Sportscars for example aren't single-seaters and the 'racing' is an entirely different beast.

To me single-seater racing is a pure relatively short burst of exciting adrenaline-fuelled racing action. Sportscars meanwhile for me are no more exciting than a long distance drive from Aberdeen to Southampton.

Drivers grow up wanting to do one thing or another. I can't imagine one example where a driver would concentrate on single-seaters his whole life then perhaps aged about 20 they suddenly decide that maybe rallying rather than racing is the pinnacle.

Despite all the BS and politics, I still regard F1 as the ultimate.

However, only recently have we seen a return to overtaking. There was a period around 2001 when I stopped watching F1 completely. It's a bit better now but there is still too much dirty air and no slipstream - slipstreaming is the bread and butter of racing through all classes.

I'm amazed that drivers haven't done F1 for a couple of seasons and then quit. I think it is too addictive. You can get real racing elsewhere.

True, it does all come down to which you prefer. There's a few drivers out there though who have gone from one to the other and vice-versa. Max Chilton for example is currently doing F3, though he's also done some LMP1 racing and wasn't too bad at it; i would guess he's aiming for F1 but an LMP career might also be there if not.

id like todo abit of everything tbh, but probably only a little F1. i would probably go for sportscars/IRL mostly . and you can actully do a season of one with a limited package of the other.

id do bike road racing if my error rate was way lower, its just too dangerous to have someone incompitant on those types of circuit

I'm not a racing driver, but if I was for sure F1 would be my goal, it's the pinnacle of motorsport, it's the competition that makes the news and everyone knows about even if they are not fans of racing.

However, playing video games like GTR series made sportscars grow on me, i would certainly love to get a shot at FIA GT or International GT Open and i would dream of being in the 24 hours of Le Mans, either with a LMP or LMGT.

But, it isn't easy to deliver both in open-wheelers and sports cars, so i guess my main goal would be to build a career aiming for F1 and then try to get a shot a GTs when i was older.

Kinda like my fellow countryman Pedro Lamy did with his career.

Id sign with someone like Honda where I was F1 tester, full time racer in their WTCC team, did the long distance ALMS events for Acura (teams that needed a third driver) and an Indy500 ride every year.

Id like to try an F1 car, but racing in the series would make me crazy.

Crazy how, just all the media bollox etc? Or the frustration if your car wasn't a front runner?

All the nonsense really. Maybe it's different when you're part of a team, but I only find F1 interesting/enjoyable for about 90 minutes every two weeks.

To be honest it amazes me how the drivers stick around as long as they do (Coulthard, Barrichello, Fisichella being just three examples) when they were never champion material and must have realised at a relatively early stage that the chance to be champion was very much unlikely to come up, or come up again in some cases. Even being a race winner or points scorer is hard or next to impossible for long-term drivers we've seen down the years. Seriously, how the hell does Fisichella find the motivation to even get out of bed on a morning? And he's doing at least another season before he retires!

There's plus points to F1 of course:

Lot's of time off.
Humongous amounts of pay.

It's not that long ago they were only doing 15 or 16 races a season. They hardly did any racing. The mid-90's CART calendar must have been an absolute dream for racing drivers who simply can't get enough of being in the car. What was it, about 22 races in one season? Loads of back-to-backs, good mix of circuits and disciplines. It must have been great man.

To be fair there is far more testing in F1 than there was in the cart series. I think a lot of it also simply comes down to the fact that no other car in the world can provide such a sensation when driving it. Sure funny cars go faster for all of 9 seconds, or indycars are faster in circles but when it comes to being able to drive round a race track fast theres nothing that compares. I think thats what keeps them in those things for so long.