Fernando Alonso Díaz

Desde los cuatro años hasta los catorce (1985-1995) estudió en el colegio Santo Ángel de la Guarda, en Oviedo, donde cursó primaria y EGB. Después frecuentó el Instituto Leopoldo Alas Clarín de San Lázaro, donde permaneció hasta 2000, año en que abandonó los estudios porque los compromisos deportivos le impidieron seguir estudiando, de manera que ni siquiera terminó el COU.

(From 4 years old until 14, he studied in Santo Ángel de la Guarda School, in Oviedo, where he attended primary school and General Basic Education -EGB- as it's known in Spain. Later he went to Leopoldo Alas Clarín Highschool in San Lázaro, and he remained there until 2000, the year he abandoned his studies because of the sport commiments he had and which were an obstacle for him to keep on studying. He didn't finished the preparatory course for the University (COU).

He, esentially, has the knowledgements of a highschool student.

Hope it helps you.

As far as I know, his father was a mine worker, expert on explosives, with the category of industrial master, and his mother was -I don't know if still is- a shop assistant.

Brazil? Education here is not poor, it's dismal! Children leave 4th grade without knowing the alphabet, reading or simple math operations. Even in high school we see people that cannot read decently a simple text.

But the case of drivers is very interesting. Most of them usually come from very wealthy families. Piquet was son of a high-degreed politician. Massa and Rubens wouldn't be considered rich in Europe, but here they can be put in the top of our social pyramid. Brazil does have a culture of climbing social ladder by using easier ways, like playing soccer (that's why we release so many players every year) or becoming an artist. In higher classes it's considered less worth except if the kid wants to make something that gives some status, like motorsport. A son of a politician wouldn't be worth if he played soccer, but the contrary would happen if he drove a Formula One car.

These people (I mean, the drivers-wannabe) start driving here since an early age and often using money from parents and friends. They dedicate their lifes only on the idea of being successful on Formula 1 and therefore they abandon the studies very early. Brazilian Stock Car star and former Formula 3000 driver Ricardo Mauricio abandoned the school at the age of 14. So, at least here, the question of "illetrate drivers" simply doesn't exist, as drivers choose this condition.

did he develop the carwash?

god i'm funny.

i find the topic interesting,finding out past/present drivers education.i dont think it makes any difference to how a driver was educated in refrence to becoming an f1 driver,to me clever or not clever makes no difference.having a btr education makes you no less of a person than somebody without 1.....Nick

Stefano Modena's father worked in a farmer's market...

And, even during the racing season, Stefano used to help him

Sandro Nanni family I believe own a very large bakery and his sister is the Madonna of Italy.
Sara Fisher engineer from Pudue.
Danica Patrick (who cares) high school drop out.
Elio deAngeles family very whealthy, he was a pianest.
Jimmy Clark was a sheep hearder.
Graham Hill was not an egineer but a mechanic.
Peter Revson was born to the Revlon cosmedics.
Denny Hulme mechanic of sorts, his father won the Vitoria Cross in WW2 and Denny's son is Phd in chemistry.

how does education benefit the driver in terms of comprehending setups, telemetry, PR issues, etc? can all of these be learned through progressing through junior series?

Former regular NASCAR cup race winner Ryan Newman is an engineer as I recall. (Sorry repeat posting)


Obviously main team bosses are former racers, sucessful or not, such as Alain Prost and Eddie Jordan. Is that relevant?

Of course, this is not the topic of your essay, but college is free/cheap in some countries, yet terribly dear in others, quite an odd arrangement!?

Have you seen this report for the inevitable boring background section towards the front? http://sportdevelopment.info/index.php?opt...l&Itemid=65


My opinion, is that education is of no relevance to F1 drivers, only to their after-F1 careers (like they need one with the $100m in the bank....). Of course a qualification in vehicle dynamics will be very useful, aerodynamics may be useful (spare time spent in the team aero dept working on tuning the car to the driver's preferences and away from their teammates' preferred configuration?), while a qualification in journalism could help with the formalities of an ex-F1 media career. Many sports people have unrelated qualifications of course.

F1 drivers obviously don't need to be smart (parking in middle of road, crashing into championship rival..), but they obviously aren't stupid either, and many are no doubt MENSA members. It's unlikely that someone illiterate (remote, poverty? being the reasons???) would have the money/opportunity to buy a go-kart and go racing so that is a moot point there.

Just imagine if Raikkonen was failiure in karting. What would happen? He would be ruined man -unfinished mechanic unemployed and prone to alcochol. Makes you think how risky it is to choose racing carrer.

To avoid any misunderstanding; I'm HUUGE Kimi fan, I absolutely adore the guy...

Very interesting topic. As a tenniscoach AND a teacher in Dutch language at a University College, this is a subject I think a lot about. My impression is the best sportalents are not very educated. They have a small scope of interests, don't talk easily, don't read easily, are not very broadly interested.

But.

Suppose Niki Lauda, or Alain Prost, or Aerton Senna, would have had the will, the same single minded will, to become excellent in say aeronautics or math... they would have succeeded. But the point with sporttalents is that they have a supreme gift that takes away the necessity to study grammar, maths or other stuff. In the end, young people feel the need to survive in the big world. I find it not suprising that drivers who probably were a little bit sceptic about their chances of becoming a success in motorsport are the best educated (see Mansell, Fabi, Donohue).

So... F1 drivers usually will be modestlye educated.

I'm afraid you've confused me with the guy who started the topic. That's not my essay.
Speaking about price of education: it's cheap or free in some European countries like Finland (universities are not very expensive), Germany (most universities are free) and Poland ( a lot of universities are free or cheap), yet Mika, Kimi and Heikki gdo without a degree, the only German on the grid today with a degree is Rosberg, and Kubica didn't go to high school.
Which means that there's no real connection between the price of college education and drivers getting it.
It's rather a personal choice of each guy.

As I pointed out above, Clark would be better described as a gentleman farmer.

Graham Hill was only a mechanic in the sense that he was pretty much self-taught. His original career was as an engineer with Smiths Industries. He then did two years National Service in the Royal Navy as an Engine Room Artificer.

You do need to be very intelligent to be a successful race car driver. Drivers even on FR2.0 level are often made reading books on mechanical setup or aerodynamics. Currently though, it's very difficult for them to finish any university. As an example, Edoardo Mortara wanted to finish his management degree, but he had to travel to races and the dean dropped him:) He just didn't like the idea, so Edoardo concentrated fully on racing. At the end of they day you need to be very intelligent person to analyse and develop your talent, I doubt someone like Schumacher will score the average 100 in an IQ test.
On the other hand there are those rich kids where dad is taking personal tutor, because Junior will be becoming F1 driver and doesn't need history lessons, but they rarely reach F1...

Thanks everyone for the contribution!

IIRC Damon Hill had an HND in Business Studies long before he came to F1.... clearly no dummy.... he also said in an interview that his current reading was a Ford textbook on active suspension (this was in 1993).