VILLENEUVE: ADVICE TO PARENTS IS TELL YOUR KID TO DO SOMETHING ELSE

Straight talking Jacques Villeneuve has advice for parents seeking a career in motorsport for their kids: don’t do it because it is becoming a niche sport increasingly for the very rich and has created the ‘Feed Racing’ programme to help talented drivers who need funding.

Five-year budgets for youngsters on the ladder to Formula 1 through traditional avenues run into the tens of millions, increasingly tilting the field towards the children of well-heeled parents while talented youngsters fail to progress due to lack of funding.

“I’ve been in the paddocks for a number of years now, I see how it’s going and it really worries me, maybe because I have kids too. Often, parents come to me for advice: What do I do with my Kid? My first response is: Tell him to do something else.”

“It’s awful as an answer, but I’m not able to lie at that level. Now getting your kid on track is like giving him Christmas every day, with a big tree. It’s no longer about developing talented children and it has started to bother me deeply.”

“It was, therefore, necessary to find a solution for drivers with limited means to gain access to this sport,” added Villeneuve who has started the initiative with friend and former race driver Patrick Lemarié.

The first edition of the program starts in April. The program should raise $1,6 M with 96 aspiring young drivers anticipated to participate in a five-day driver training camp at Magny-Cours circuit using Mygale Formula 4. Entry fee is $17,000 per driver.

From this group, 48 drivers will be selected for the quarterfinals, 24 for the semifinals and five for the final with the winning driver receiving funding for a full European Formula 4 championship in 2020, the cost of this around $300,000 and $450,000.