How does one become a successful pro race car driver?

>>15049309
Start at the age of 4

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>>15049316
Shit I'm 19 now. I'm fucked.

>>15049327
You can still get into racing on an amateur level if you have the time, money and dedication.

But you'll never be one of those "show up and drive" dudes that get paid millions.

>>15049327
I was 18 when I figured it out, shit sucks. Best you can hope for is to race in lower categories.
We'll never be F1 pilots but some of the most successful top tier drag racers are in there 40's and 50's

>>15049309
Start young, and have lots of money

Most F1 drivers came from rich families.

>>15049309
Are you in America?

>Start young
>Don't be American
>Meet the right people
>Be blisteringly fast (seriously you need to kick everybody's asses handedly in the lower classes, the only time you can not win is once you get to the top)
>Have lots of money
>Have a great personality that can lead a team and inspire the best in people
>Be great at promoting yourself
>Be lucky
>Be in the right place at the right time
>Have the ability to spend most of your waking hours traveling, driving or promoting yourself
>Have a team of people working to make you succeed

Protip: All the guys you see wash out had all these things. They just weren't able to perform at a pro level, or they got unlucky.

>>15049309
Have a rich daddy who has ties to the sport

>>15049425
>Didn't know this.
Thanks anon.

>>15049448
anytime

>>15049309
be young and come from a wealthy family

if you dont have these both you'll never be a high lvl driver. Which is actually why i sortof hate mainstream racing, I wish grassroots and lower budget stuff would get more exposure. shit like the $2016 challenge is a lot more entertaining than f1 or neckcar

>>15049309
make the fastest lap in grand turismo 6

>>15049309
Be Finnish.

>>15049353

>successfully accelerating a car in a straight line at 50 years is an achievement in murriga

Start young, have money or a good sponsorship, have no fear and take it personally when you lose.

>>15049939
when you actually have a fast car that gets chassis flex its a lot harder than it looks.

money, or tits, or both.

Otherwise if you pick the right series and prepare or buy a competitive car you can potentially climb the ranks into a domestic series. For example one of the local guys in my region won the spec e30 nationals, and was awarded a season of free entries into the continental tire series. From there you'd try to get results to attract sponsor $$$ or a team offer

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>Be a manlet
>Start cart racing before kindergarten
>Have rich parents who would rather throw money at you than love you

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you should be racing something motorized before your 7th birthday.
your parents also need to sacrifice their entire lives for you and make decent money.
then, you need natural ability which in my opinion is just extreme competitiveness and ocd level attention to detail.
you also need to be able to network and be personable.
you also can't be tall if you want to do well in karts and even fit into most formula cars.
then you have a small chance.

but now a days, with extreme costs and low sponsorship. it's basically impossible if you're not rich.
the last era of make it on talent was pre 2008. the crash hurt motorsports badly, and it was already hurting from the 90's bubble pop.

hopefully it recovers because im tired of gentleman drivers and millionaire nepotism.

>>15050053
Gentleman drivers have been a major part of motorsports for literally it's whole existence. I agree with your sentiment but would say the last era where people truly made it on talent was the 70s. even the greats like senna and Schumacher came from well to do and/or connected families.

>>15050053
also like the other guy said you have to win basically everything you enter.
every single one of these top 10 formula one guys was "that kid" from age 10 and up.

>>15050104
Pretty much this. Senna,Schumacher, and the other legends lost the "gentleman driver" stigma through consistent and repeated success.

>>15050104
I mean top 5 guys, someone like nigel mansell simply doesn't exist today and that was only 1992. or scott speed who was untouchable in a kart. early 2000s seems like the last era where you could actually get in with not too much wealth. now you need the whole package.

gentleman drivers are okay, but not when theyre half a lap down by the end of the first lap just to fill the grid out to give some semblance of competition to the viewers.

You guys just killed my dreams.

>>15050127
a real driver that happens to be wealthy or from a motorsport family is completely different. senna and schumacher were multi karting and formula champions. they aren't gentleman drivers.

a gentleman driver is someone who wouldn't be on the grid otherwise. someone who would be taking the place of someone like hakkinen.

verstappen isn't a gentleman driver despite his family. graham rahal is.

the fact someone like graham rahal can do well in champ car and win the daytona 24 is a testament to how watered down the field is these days and how money has taken the place of talent in a big way in only 20 years.

>>15049309
Win GT Academy. 2 of my buddies did it, and one of them won. He drives for Nissan in PWC for a living now.

>>15050318
Nice. That's awesome senpai.

>>15050108
Everybody in Formula 1 unless they are paying to be there was one of those kids. Same goes for GP2, LMP1, LMP2, GT Pro, DTM, Japan Super GT and Indy Car.

There are thousands of well qualified people available for every open paid driver position, and most of them will never be given the chance to drive at a professional level.

If you want a career as a driver, let that sink in for a moment. There are hundreds of Senna's, Schumachers and Fangios out there that know they are that good and will never be given the chance to compete above a pay-to-play amateur level.

>>15050257
That is really it. You almost never see anybody dancing a car these days. It is controlled, following textbook timing, the end.

Nobody ever takes a machine and makes it more than its specs. When is the last time you saw something like Senna's 1985 or 1986 Australia qualifying performances?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMXRtXft_sk

Look at the sheer number of times the car slides, but also take note of how minimal the slides are.

money, lots and lots of money

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>>15050325
What's great is when he isn't driving these GT cars, he still finds time to come autocross (that's where he started)

>>15050393
Has he had a big wreck yet? What is going to happen when he realizes this isn't a video game and to progress as a driver he is going to have to accept severe injury or death as a possible outcome?

jk this is 2016 and every cowardly fuck drives race cars because nothing bad happens anymore

>>15050418
I know at least 4 guys that compete regularly in PWC. You should go show them how it's done.

Yeah he wrecked at LBGP.

has there ever been a case of someone becoming a motorsport professional at a late age?

>>15050537
In the olden days.

>>15050502
If somebody would give me a drive I would love to.

>>15050545
My friend was 30.

>>15050537
Sebastien Loeb is the best modern case you will find.

>Started out as a gymnist
>At 18 he realized he loved driving cars
>Went out every night practicing in his Renault, sometimes the same corner over and over again until he was happy with it
>Took a job as a electricians apprentice to keep his car going
>Started entering amateur regional rally
>Got noticed

Loeb exhibited possibly the ultimate form of driving technique learned on public roads at night. An almost perfect mixture of conservative and fast.

>>15050564
manga when?

>>15050562
And Paul Newman was in his 40s.

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>>15050564
>tfw you are on a back road at 2am
>tfw you are passing 110mph, your motor is screaming, your body a mass of goose pimples, you would give anything for an extra mph
>tfw the corner is rushing at you, with a drop afterward. A prolonged certain death awaits any failure in you or your car.
>tfw you hit the magic point, %100 braking at the threshold. you don't know if you are going to slow down enough
>tfw you turn in at the perfect moment with the rear end sliding from braking, roll into the throttle before the car is settled and trust that things will be okay
>tfw you clip the apex
>tfw when you shift into 3rd then 4th pleading for every MPH you can get.

>tfw you eventually get paid to do this

>>15050645
Sounds fun

>>15049309
Have rich parents that are into racing

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>>15050564
>>15050585
please give (You) this took a long time

>>15051503
(You)

>>15051503
(You)

I think it would look better with Loeb's whole head shooped in there instead of Dagumi's head with Loeb's features.

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This is my shit. Manlets talking about things they will never achieve in their lives. LEL.

Get a cunty older man to take a fancy to you and pay every team along the way to let you drive for them and then give you a seat in his F1 car. While he's proving his love to you by focusing the team on your success your quickly jump off the finger he has up your bum and into a team that thinks your a real talent when you are just a minority meme in the right place at the right time.

>>15052860
it didn't look this bad on paint.net i think color warmth and stuff was cranked up (i like it) and peachy dagumi and pale loeb didn't look that contrasted but yeah idk senpai i was lazy as you can see from the R

>>15049939
But if I go fast enough, you all will become older than me.

>>15049327
As long as you got a wealthy family or connections of your own and or your own money, you'll be in good hands for starting a racing career.

Plenty of older pro drivers, of course not in a single seater but rather in sports cars. Where you get a good bang for your buck.

>>15056059
It is way easier to make it in tin tops.

F1 and LMP is the most difficult.

Be 5 years old. Have parents with lots of money and time. Start racing karts and get to formal ford or better by 12.

>>15054170
Hello Lewis.

If, by pro, you mean a driver that does that for a living, then you are way too late for that.
If you mean you just want to drive in some very High level competition "among the pros", then you just need money.
Remember, money is the only thing that matters, you can buy yourself a seat at the 24h of LeMans in a GTE AM car if you can afford it, no special skills required except for a FIA bronze licence.

>>15049309
by crashing into your teammate because you're a faggot.

>>15060398
Crashing your teammate off because you can't beat them

>>15049922
This, I wish there was more shitbox racing, mainstream racing is only for the really rich and real life dagumis

>>15050188
Racing on the circut is for people that just want to make money. If you want to be a true racer go drive on the touge