Powell Post - Volume 7

Alice Powell has had a very busy September. It started off with a red carpet appearance at the world premier of the Ron Howard directed film 'Rush' - see my review of it here - in London, before a difficult F3 Cup round at the Snetterton circuit. Aside from that she also been busy testing along with spending some time relaxing in the sun. Here, she lifts the lid on the true cost of competing in Motorsport.

Hi Powell Post blog readers! I hope you are all well and had a great summer! It has been a nice one for me, mixing racing, fitness training and spending time in the sun!!

The topic that I am going to talk about this month is the cost of Motorsport. It is quite a hot topic amongst people not just inside the sport, but outside it too. So is it expensive? The answer to that is a resounding yes. But just how expensive is it?

(c) Octane Photographic

The road to Formula One is the route that every young driver wants to take, myself included. However, budget is something that dictates how far a driver can go up that ladder. Some young drivers are spending well over £100,000 on go karting around the world. Yes, that is a lot of money to spend on go- karting, but you wait until I tell you the figures for racing in single seater series!

The single seater route to Formula 1 varies quite widely. However, the most popular route is Formula Renault to GP3 or F3 before then moving on to World Series by Renault or GP2, before then hopefully making the jump to F1. The amount of seasons that you spend in each series is of course up to the driver, their managers and sponsors, investors or business partners. All the series listed above get great media coverage worldwide.

Racing for one season in the Formula Renault championship in Europe can cost around the £300,000. Moving up a step in the ladder, GP3 - which is a support series for the European F1 rounds - is budgeted at £600,000 per season with FIA European Formula Three costing a similar price.

(c) Octane Photographic

Progressing up to World Series by Renault, which attracts around 100,000 spectators across the course of a race weekend, can cost around £800,000 per year. GP2, like its sister series GP3, supports all the European Formula 1 races and also follows the sport to some of the “fly away” rounds too. A season’s budget in GP2 is around £1.5-2 million! So depending on the route a driver takes, the overall cost to climb the ladder to F1 is around £2-3 million.

Having said all this, companies do benefit from being associated with young drivers due to the publicity they receive in the sport and out of the sport. Once a driver reaches Formula One, their media awareness increases dramatically and so does the business associated with them. It is not only the drivers that are struggling, but the teams too.

It is a tough industry, but it is one that I love.

Till next time Powell Post readers, take care!

Alice Powell x

For even more insight into life as a racing driver, check out Volume 5 for a look into her fitness training and Volume 6 for information on a race weekend in the shoes of Alice Powell.

Follow Alice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/alicepowell 
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 Powell Post - Volume 6: http://jackleslief1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/powell-post-volume-6.html