How to secure an F1 drive

LONDON, England (CNN) -- There are many racing series that young drivers will compete in on their road to Formula 1. In Europe hopefuls will -- after progressing through the grass roots of karting, start out in regional Formula 3 series and eventually progress to GP2.

In recent years, GP2 has supplied a steady stream of talent to the pinnacle of motor sport and its most recent graduates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been able to make their mark in Formula 1.

In Asia the road could also lead past Formula Nippon, which has also given its fair share of race winners to Formula 1 such as Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher.

There are 26 drivers on the GP2 grid this season and 22 in Formula Nippon. Add this to the hundreds of competitors in all the other national and international feeder series and one soon understands that there is a huge supply of drivers of Formula 1 caliber. Driving talent alone is not always sufficient to secure a racing seat in one the 22 fastest cars on earth. A driver is more attractive to a team if he can also bring in sponsorship.

Even the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher -- or rather his manager Willi Weber -- had to come up with a substantial amount of money in order to secure his first ever drive with the Jordan Team in 1991.

Of course, it helps if a driver comes from a very wealthy family. Take 1990s driver Pedro Paulo Diniz for example. The son of Abilio dos Santos Diniz, one of Brazil's wealthiest men, Pedro had no problem to secure the necessary funding. Towards the end of his career, Diniz even invested a considerable amount of his own money to buy a stake in the Prost Team, but it folded shortly afterwards.

A local driver entering Formula 1 can excite an entire nation, as was happened when Alex Yoong made his debut in 2001. The Malaysian had competed in both Formula Nippon and F3000 (the predecessor of GP2) and -- out of the blue -- made his appearance at a Formula 1 test with the Minardi team. He made his race debut at Monza soon after to become Malaysia's first Formula 1 driver.

Buoyed by the financial support of local lottery service Magnum, Yoong snatched the cockpit from Brazilian Tarso Marques for the last three races of the 2001 season.

For 2002, the sponsorship package he could bring to the team had increased dramatically. Magnum was joined by the Tourist Board of Kuala Lumpur, PC manufacturer PC Suria and alloy wheel manufacturer, BSA. "We were able to generate some genuine momentum," said Hanifah Yoong, Alex's father (and manager during the 2002 season).

"Minardi's 2002 contender was launched in front of Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers and Magnum put up quite a show there for everyone to see.

"For the Malaysian business community it was the possibility to gain international exposure, just as Petronas had already experienced it with the Sauber team for many seasons. I doubt however, that these Malaysian companies who went with Minardi would have considered entering Formula 1 if it hadn't been for Alex.

"What I can tell you, however, is that it worked. Some of the sponsors told the Malaysian media that they were impressed with the results they got from getting the exposure in Formula 1, especially because they were able to connect with other business leaders across the globe when they decided to attend a Grand Prix abroad."

For British drivers it has traditionally been more difficult to secure the sponsorship needed to enter Formula 1. A very creative solution to this problem was thought up by racing doctor Jonathan Palmer, manager of aspiring British racing driver Justin Wilson. In order to secure the drive with the Minardi Team in 2003, Palmer incorporated his protégé and launched Justin Wilson plc.

Before his debut race at Melbourne in 2003, Wilson's management produced a 34-page prospectus that invited fans and investors to pay for Wilson's initial drive, to be compensated by his future earnings. The gamble worked out and Wilson was able to secure the $1.6 million needed to make the grid at Albert Park.

For some drivers, the ride into Formula 1 has been less restricted by financial worries. When Fernando Alonso made his debut in 2001, he didn't have much cash on his hands as his former team boss, Paul Stoddart recalls:

"Back in those days, his contract was owned by one of Flavio Briatore's companies and Flavio told me 'you should take this kid, he's really, really good'. At that time he had some Leaseplan sponsorship. I obviously met him and talked to him and I was pretty convinced he was going to go somewhere. We had the discussions in the early week of January and I decided to take him without any guaranteed sponsorship. The Leaseplan sponsorship was worth less than a million dollars and it turned out to be in the form of a free supply of cars for the year.

"When you're a team at the back of the grid, you have to have driver sponsorship in order to survive. Obviously you're looking for people with talent and sponsorship but in Fernando's case we were willing to take him without the latter."

A recent trend is that teams start their own driver development programs in order to separate money and talent. No better example of this than 2007 wunderkind Lewis Hamilton who received financial support from McLaren starting from the age of 13 in order to help him make his way into Formula 1.

That sponsorship is still an issue for drivers at the back end of the grid became clear when Dutchman Christijan Albers was made to vacate his seat at Spyker, after his personal sponsors had failed to pay an installment to the team.

Suffice it to say at this point that talent is good, but a certain degree of financial horsepower is never a bad thing on the road to Formula 1. E-mail to a friend