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Recently Lewis Hamilton stated Formula 1 “has become a billionaire boys’ club”, and now Toto Wolff agrees “grassroots” racing needs to be “more affordable”.
In a recent interview with Spanish newspaper AS, Lewis Hamilton said he would have a hard time coming to Fomula 1 in today’s day and age, due to his working class background.
“If I were to start over from a working-class family, it would be impossible for me to be here today because the other boys would have a lot more money,” the Briton said.
“We have to work to change that and make this an accessible sport, for the rich and for people with more humble origins.”
While Toto Wolff doesn’t want to point his finger at sons of billionaires such as Lance Stroll, Nicholas Latifi and Nikita Mazepin, he does agree that racing needs to be more affordable to people from all sorts of backgrounds.
“What makes the sport so attractive is that it provides narrative for good soap [opera] outside of the racing too,” the Austrian said.
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“Drivers have always come from different backgrounds, and I think there is not always, everyone has his story, and things to cope.
“I doubt that kids from a more privileged background have it easy all the time. They are fighting their own demons.
“What I think we can do is make sure that grassroots racing becomes more affordable, so kids that haven’t got any financial background can actually be successful in the junior formulas.
“All the big Formula 1 teams [need to be] able to identify those kids, rather than making it so expensive that a good go-karting season costs 250,000, an F4 season 500,000, and an F3 season 1 million.
“That is totally absurd, [and] needs to stop, because we want to have access. I think we need to give access to kids that are interested in go-karting.
“[Give them] the opportunity to race for much more affordable budgets,” concluded Wolff.
