The Great Robbery

[I am evil Homer]

Steffan Bellof...his performance at 'that' Monaco GP in 1984 was as outstanding as Senna.

Why he wasn't picked up for the '85 season by a top team still baffles me. Then most of know what happened a few years later at Spa

[ShiftingGears]

I thought he had a two year contract at Tyrell?...Besides, it was a popular rumour (possibly even fact) that Ferrari would've signed Bellof for '86.

[D-Type]

don't have citations but weren'r most of them privateers in their own car?

Here's the challenge - name one championship race in the 50s or 60s with more privateers than works entries.

Exceptions -
1. Indianapolis as every entry was technically a privateer
2. The 1960 Italian GP
3. The Formula 2 entry of races with both Formula 1 and Formula 2 classes, ie work the proportion on the Formula 1 entry

If you can name five races i'll be very surprised.

[Simpson RX1]

The big difference between paying drivers of the past and those of the modern era, is that until the introduction of the Superlicence, which was specifically introduced to raise the standard of F1 drivers, anyone with a big enough bag of cash could get a drive in an F1 car.

These days, there are very few drivers qualified to hold a Superlicence, so the term 'pay driver' means something quite different; you may be in a better position to get a drive if you come with a sackful of gold, but anyone qualified to drive an F1 car should be capable of staying on the track and not being a danger to himself or others, which wasn't always the case in the past.

[futuretiger9]

The involvement of the major manufacturers should reduce the number of pay drivers on the grid. They have the luxury of hiring drivers purely on merit. However, it is still a major consideration for the bottom two or three teams. Just a fact of life.

When bemoaning the failure of talented pilots being blocked out of F1 by rent-a-drivers, perhaps we should consider whether the talented drivers would want to drive for the lower-ranked teams anyway. Surely they would be better off getting a testing contract with a top team, or racing in ChampCars/DTM until a better F1 opening emerged.

The prevalence of pay-drivers was much more marked during the early 1990s recession, when I would say three-quarters of the grid were forced to appoint drivers largely on sponsorship grounds. This was evidenced by the lateness of announcing driver line-ups in those days. 1992 was I think the low point, if you want to call it that. I remember reading Autosport early that year, and finding that Team X was awaiting confirmation that Driver Y would bring a bag of gold from Sponsor Z.

As regards Williams, it is unusual for them to be apparently basing driver appointment decisions to some extent on overt commercial grounds. I think I'm not alone in being distinctly underwhelmed by their driver line-up for this year. Too much pressure is being placed on Nico Rosberg's shoulders.