What Fernando Alonso is getting wrong about F1 driving standards

Outubro 30, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

When Fernando Alonso declared “the quality of the drivers in the lower third of the grid is very low” in the aftermath of last weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, he inadvertently poked a hornets’ nest.

While Alonso doubled down on his criticism this week in Mexico, singling out Alex Albon, many other drivers have spoken up in the Williams driver’s defence. Albon himself said, “We don’t have pay drivers anymore. If anything, I would say the grid’s the strongest it’s been in a while.”

The issue of whether a particular driver ‘deserves’ to be in Formula 1 is more complex than it appears. It’s not necessarily the case that there is an inverse relationship between a driver’s ability and the budget they bring. Sergio Perez, for instance, brings considerable sponsorship to the Cadillac team, and yet it would be difficult to argue that he hasn’t justified his position through performance this year – as evinced by his recent contract renewal.

But as Liam Lawson pointed out when asked for his take on the driving standards furore, budget plays a bigger role in creating inequalities much further down the single-seater ladder.

“I think the bigger thing is, Formula 1 is too hard to get into,” he said.

“It’s too expensive for people to grow up and try and get into. And so, I think there’s so many drivers that will never, ever even get the chance to showcase what they can do in a race car.

“Over the years, there’s been many cases of drivers who you would say probably didn’t deserve it as much, getting the chance over other drivers. So, I feel like that’s always been like it in Formula 1. Honestly, it feels like it’s heading more in that direction.

“It’s just too difficult. The access is very, very hard. It’s great that there’s two more seats now, but it’s a sport of 22 seats in the world.

“It’s very, very tough to get into. I feel like it’s always just been too hard to get into. That’s probably the bigger issue.”

Lawson’s contention is quite plausible in many ways. In the budget-cap era, the teams have been ring-fenced and become valuable franchises in their own right. Some, such as Haas and Williams, may have a lower overall budget than others or have less technical infrastructure – a hangover from the previous era – but they are no longer scraping by from race to race, as they once were. A driver who brings a budget is now a nice-to-have, rather than a necessity.

Lawson himself benefitted from Red Bull’s backing, though its young-driver scheme is infamously brutal

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images

Historically, teams further up the grid naturally attracted the healthiest sponsors since they got the most exposure, leaving the tail-enders reliant on pay drivers who often had mixed abilities. It was an open secret. There is an apocryphal story about mid-1990s pay driver Ricardo Rosset, who habitually qualified well off the pace: it’s said the weary Tyrrell mechanics transposed the ‘R’ and the ‘T’ on his paddock scooter so it read “tosser”.

Although the FIA brought in the 107% rule in qualifying to eliminate dangerously slow drivers, the tail-enders arguably became increasingly reliant on paying drivers through the 2000s owing to the machinations of F1 politics. Former rights holder Bernie Ecclestone’s divide-and-rule tactics led to successive iterations of the Concorde Agreement, F1’s commercial contract, massively favouring the leading teams in terms of prize money distribution.

F1 has a much more financially equitable arrangement now but the feeder formulae still run on cash – and lots of it. The means of getting to F1 is perhaps best expressed through a Venn diagram in which the various sets include super-rich parents, good sponsor connections, and/or some support from an F1 team’s young-driver programme.

Even Esteban Ocon, whose father raided the bins at kart circuits to scavenge tyres the rich kids had used only once before discarding, had a helping hand from Lotus and Mercedes. Not everyone can be talent-spotted at an early age.

“I haven’t really thought about the level of the grid this year and who does or doesn’t deserve to be there,” said Lawson.

“But I think the sport just needs to be somehow easier to get into. Because even like going go-kart racing is just insanely expensive. And from a very young age now – I think I got away with it as a kid in New Zealand, I also got very well supported by very generous people around me.

“But I think it starts from a young age where even in go-karts, a kid who’s got six or seven engines versus a kid who can’t test, can’t run new tyres. It’s just always a disadvantage. So, yeah, it’s a sport where the gear makes a big difference.”