(Sauber F1 Team)
Formula One has missed out on attracting a number of extremely talented and experienced drivers to the sport because the smaller teams are relying too much on bringing in drivers with substantial financial backing. It was announced earlier this week that Toro Rosso have signed Dutch teenager Max Verstappen to race alongside Daniil Kvyat next season replacing Jean Eric Vergne.
Verstppen has yet to obtain the mandatory FIA Super licence and at 17 years of age he will become the youngest driver to compete in a Formula One Grand Prix when he makes his debut in Formula One next season.
This has raised some concerns amoungst the more experienced drivers that he could be a safety risk because at 17 he has yet to experience Formula One having only been signed to the Red Bull Young Driver Programme last week.
There are a number of older more experienced drivers who should be considered for a Formula One race seat such as Sauber affiliate driver Simona De Silvestro who has been extremely impressive while testing for the team in a two year old Sauber recently and is set to test once again for the Swiss outfit in Austin, Texas at the Circuit of the Americas later this season.
Sauber are hoping that she will be able to find a race seat in Formula One next season having spent many years in the American IndyCar Series where gender has not been a barrier to a driver coming in and proving themselves. Although Simona brings a small amount of financial backing to the team she would no doubt have got her place with the team regardless of whether or not she had money or not.
Another driver who has proven herself in Formula One is Susie Wolff who got the attention of Williams team boss Sir Frank Williams who gave her the chance to drive one of his cars and following an intense programme with the Grove based outfit she got her first Free Practice outing at Silverstone and again in Germany and was very impressive as she managed to beat regular race drivers from rival teams.
Formula One has also lost the opportunity to bring in driver's like Britain's Sam Bird who was a development and test driver with the Mercedes and has now signed up to join the newly formed Formula E racing series which will officially be launched in Beijing next month.
Formula E has also seen former Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Buemi enter the category along with former HRT driver Karun Chandok. Former IndyCar driver Katherine Legge will drive in the Formula E Series for the Amlin Aguri team alongside Antonio Felix Da Costa who had been tipped to drive in Formula One but was unable to secure a seat. He was backed by Red Bull.
A number of very talented former Formula One drivers are involved in Formula E such as Jarno Trulli who has his own team in the series. Nick Heidfield, Bruno Senna, Lucas Di Grassi and Jerome D'Ambrosio all of whom should have had long Formula One careers.
Formula E, NASCAR and IndyCar all have female drivers competing in races alongside their male counterparts so it is about time that Formula One did too. Susie and Simona have proven themselves to be quick enough to compete in F1 so they should be given their opportunity to do just that.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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