The point of it is that the people in the house aren't celebrities, but the person running the house (Matt Lucas for the first day) is.
The point of it is that the people in the house aren't celebrities, but the person running the house (Matt Lucas for the first day) is.
He comes across as a bit of an arrogant twat, but then again, he is a racing driver......
With a rich father...
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHHAHA!
sorry, I just loved that bit. Thanks for that ajp
If only everyone who knew how to drive a car around a circuit in the right direction had a father that rich to buy their way into F1...eh lep?
There are many who do that to get there but I respect those who fight to get there, after all, it proves that they're more persistent, more independent and most probably more passionate.
Erm... reality check, no one gets there without a lot of financial commitment, even to get someone to spot you and pay the bills (very rare) you've got to afford a season or two of karting, that means huge sacrifices and years of financial struggle for a middle class family, I very much doubt any working class family could ever produce a Formula 1 driver. A lot of people club racing may have come from poor backgrounds and would have loved the opportunity but karting is very expensive and at the stage you need to start you're dependent on others.
In fact the old days, where typically it was regarded as being more wealthy gentlemen probably had more opportunity for someone (like Jackie Stewart) to be given a drive in pretty much anything from a club hillclimb to prove themself and get given the opportunity to realise their potential.
Leprekaun and reality are 2 words that don't go together.
he's thinking of reprting you m8. although, i think every time lep posts, he confirms our original suspisions. chestnuts anyone???
That's not not entirely true though is it. I'm sure with a bit of thought you can come up with one or two names.
Or did i miss a bit of sarcasm in there ?
Yes please!
No sarcasm there at all, I'd love to see someone who made it all the way without at least two parents working long hours in multiple well paid jobs. The problem with the over competitiveness of karting is the cost rockets and it's harder to get spotted at such a young age where the majority most likely end up being bought a kart as yet another toy and actually turn out to quite like it and be good at it.
If you can find me a recent example of someone who hasn't had bags of family money then I'd be very interested to hear it.
Kimi did OK and his family weren't uber rich, but they weren't as poor as the fans like to make out. No one can afford 100cc karting at a national level without having a decent amount of cash behind them.
Not to say karting at a high level HAS to be expensive... one or two people I know personally do well without the massive budgets.
But to have done JICA/ICA/Formula A (now called KF1/2/3) you need at least 40k a season for at national level... at least. for around 7-10 YEARS!
And then you have your car racing... and you have to pay your way thought BMW - Renault - F3.... 80-100k a year. you would have had to have spent 1 million before your in a position to be picked up.
For this reason a lot of F1 teams scout cadet/junior karters (1 or two drivers I know of are now being watched) because that's where you see the raw talent as money (though still a HUGE factor) isn't as important. They know a lot of the best talent won't make it into F3/GP2 because of financial issues.... so they look direct to karting... Hamilton I doubt would have been able to afford car racing.
Not to say karting at a high level HAS to be expensive... one or two people I know personally do well without the massive budgets.
But to have done JICA/ICA/Formula A (now called KF1/2/3) you need at least 40k a season for at national level... at least. for around 7-10 YEARS!
And then you have your car racing... and you have to pay your way thought BMW - Renault - F3.... 80-100k a year. you would have had to have spent 1 million before your in a position to be picked up.
For this reason a lot of F1 teams scout cadet/junior karters (1 or two drivers I know of are now being watched) because that's where you see the raw talent as money (though still a HUGE factor) isn't as important. They know a lot of the best talent won't make it into F3/GP2 because of financial issues.... so they look direct to karting... Hamilton I doubt would have been able to afford car racing.
Me too, if I'd have known I was going to get a warning I'd have made it worth while.
I'm having some really wierd PC/Internet probs at the moment, and my last couple of attempts to reply have crashed the PC. So i'll have to be brief.
Lewis Hamilton was brought up on a council estate in Stevenage, and after his mother left, his dad took on three jobs in order to pay for all his karting gear. Obviously this was before big Ron turned up with the golden ticket.
The Schumacher's father was a bricklayer. (are German bricklayers middle class ?)
Damon Hill's father left his family pennyless when he died, i think they even had to file for bankruptcy at one stage ?. But Damon had to take on various jobs to pay for his bike/motor racing in the early stages. e.g at one stage he was one of those nutcase bike couriers in London, and later was promoted to driving the company van
If DC is the same DC i knew back in the 80's then he was far from being rich, in fact he was a bit of a scruffy herbert that no-one wanted to talk to, but thats another story, and i'm not sure if it's the same one ?
I don't have a clue about the rest of the current F1 drivers, but i'm sure i read somewhere Nick Heidfeld came from very modesy background (may have been someone else ?)
Incidently, the sponsorship thing with Ron and Lewis is nothing new, that kind of thing has been going on for year in sport. It was even going on when i was an up and coming athlete back in the 80's. But it was/is always performance related, if you didn't get the results you didn't get the goodies.
Come to think of it there's only one F1 driver i can think of where daddy payed for his entire career, Mr Parmalat (ten bonus points if you know who that is)
As much as it was difficult for Lewis, he still got an almost fully paid career with the exception of the fact that his dad paid for the karting side of things.
Also, even though Schumacher's dad was a brick layer, he actually owned a karting track where little Michael and a bit later, Ralf could drive on all day so I would say they were a bit lucky.
I haven't read into DC but I guess according to what you say Mazz, DC had it tough. I definitely know that Damon had a tough time but a point that could be brought up is that he had his dad's name so I'm sure that gave Damon an extra advantage when it came to sponsorship over his rivals.
To be honest, I know that I'm Irish so this may seem a bit biased but in my opinion, one of the perfect examples of a cliche story of a guy who was no body and had a tough life getting to F1 was Eddie Irvine. He had to work as a mechanic to fund his way into racing and he did and he did race in Ferrari and almost winning the championship in '99. Mind you, as much of a role model he is for his strive to get to F1, he was a playboy who used to go clubbing on the Saturday night before the race so as far as character, perhaps you can't respect him too much but as for his strive to get there, thats quite an admirable quality in his character.
Also, even though Schumacher's dad was a brick layer, he actually owned a karting track where little Michael and a bit later, Ralf could drive on all day so I would say they were a bit lucky.
I haven't read into DC but I guess according to what you say Mazz, DC had it tough. I definitely know that Damon had a tough time but a point that could be brought up is that he had his dad's name so I'm sure that gave Damon an extra advantage when it came to sponsorship over his rivals.
To be honest, I know that I'm Irish so this may seem a bit biased
but in my opinion, one of the perfect examples of a cliche story of a guy who was no body and had a tough life getting to F1 was Eddie Irvine. He had to work as a mechanic to fund his way into racing and he did and he did race in Ferrari and almost winning the championship in '99. Mind you, as much of a role model he is for his strive to get to F1, he was a playboy who used to go clubbing on the Saturday night before the race so as far as character, perhaps you can't respect him too much but as for his strive to get there, thats quite an admirable quality in his character.IIRC Coulthard's family run a haulage firm, so they're arguably petit-bourgeoisie. I haven't seen the books or anything but it's a successful business.
Sorted my comp issues out and i've been doing a bit of checking.
Seems it's was a different DC that i knew. F1 DC comes from Tynholm near Dumfries, the DC i knew came from the Kelso/Coldstream area (i think ?) at least he'd be picked up from Wooler (nearly 100 miles away from Tynholm). And, there's about half a dozen different ways of spelling Coulthard, so i guess the chance's of it being the same guy are remote. Shame really, coz he really was a scruffy little oik and no-one liked him, a million miles away from the Peter Perfect squeaky clean image he has now.
On the off chance, if anyone gets a chance to meet F1 DC, do me a favour and ask him if he ever ran for Morpeth Harriers in 86/87. Think he was a 400m runner ?. You never know it might be the same guy.
Seems it's was a different DC that i knew. F1 DC comes from Tynholm near Dumfries, the DC i knew came from the Kelso/Coldstream area (i think ?) at least he'd be picked up from Wooler (nearly 100 miles away from Tynholm). And, there's about half a dozen different ways of spelling Coulthard, so i guess the chance's of it being the same guy are remote. Shame really, coz he really was a scruffy little oik and no-one liked him, a million miles away from the Peter Perfect squeaky clean image he has now.
On the off chance, if anyone gets a chance to meet F1 DC, do me a favour and ask him if he ever ran for Morpeth Harriers in 86/87. Think he was a 400m runner ?. You never know it might be the same guy.
Damon Hill doesn't really count, firstly he was bike racing 20 years ago, which like club car racing would have been considerably cheaper than karting. Then there's the small issue of his Dad being world champion, I think there's little doubt he'd ever of found his way into a racing car if it wasn't for that fact, of course he's an example of a deserved world champion that may well have never made it into the drives he needed.
Several of the back of the grid slots are pay drives, Jordan/Midland/Spyker/Force India/whatever they're now called are constantly switching drivers because they can't afford it.
Please specify what you mean by club car racing being cheaper than karting? What level of karting are you talking about? Comparing to International Karting I would imagine club car racing would be cheaper, but club karting is as cheap as any motorsport can possibly get.
Out of interest what kind of money do you spend to compete at your amateur level?
It's entirely possible to do multiple seasons paying just entry fees, brake pads/shoes a couple of times a season and a set of tires every 2 years. Obviously you need to factor in the cost of a car first but a tidy second hand standard class road car with all the necessary modifications can be had for a few thousand.
Is Big Brother still going on over there? 
There's a new season of Big Brother starting in Germany tomorrow. Don't ask me how I know this.
What is cost for entry into a normal car race and how many laps do you get? For example at club level entry for a practise day in karting is about £35 (6-7 10 minutes sessions), and race day is about £40-45 (3-4 10-12 laps races). running costs for a weekend at bandit level is around £250 with a kart worth around £1000. How does that compare to the racing you are suggesting is cheaper than karting?
It's gone for a couple of years over here, thankfully. We get "Singing and dancing for a dream wedding" in its place though /o\
Jeremy Metcalfe doing Celebrity Big Brother
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