David Coulthard is adamant that his Extra Than Equal initiative – geared toward discovering and growing the primary feminine F1 World Champion – is not going to present any type of “token gesture” alternative.
Coulthard and entrepreneur Karel Komarek have based and funded the programme, which guarantees to carry collectively a few of motorsports’ greatest scouts, bodily trainers, psychologists, nutritionists, racing coaches and drivers to be able to discover and develop a future feminine Formulation 1 expertise.
The announcement of the venture in June got here shortly after Alpine revealed their ‘Rac(H)er’ programme, geared toward growing variety throughout the staff’s workforce and serving to feminine expertise attain F1, whereas W Sequence is now into its third marketing campaign.
However, in an unique interview with RacingNews365.com, Coulthard and Komarek have defined that Extra Than Equal will purpose to offer earlier assist to younger drivers.
“We admire all these initiatives, as a result of they’ll entice extra individuals,” Komarek stated.
“However our venture relies on one thing comparable. We aren’t linked to any present Formulation 1 staff, however we wish to stay impartial, and our technique is to essentially discover and assist younger drivers on the age of 10 to 12, and to provide them the assist.”
© W Sequence
Coulthard hopes Extra Than Equal drivers will progress “on advantage”
Formulation 1 staff academies typically retain a driver beneath contract for a sure time period.
Within the case of Extra Than Equal, Coulthard is just not aiming to maintain anyone beneath the programme’s wing on this manner, because the purpose is for the motive force to have the expertise to progress via the ranks on advantage.
“It isn’t about making them ours, as a result of the imaginative and prescient that we’ve got is not about offering the entire funding,” the previous F1 driver detailed.
“The imaginative and prescient is to have them ok that your Alpines and your Ferrari academies and all the present academies will wish to decide them up – not as a token gesture, as a result of they’re ok.”
Coulthard is real looking in regards to the degree of expertise required for a driver to achieve Formulation 1, and has warned that solely those that show this potential will make it.
“The dream can be that we have got a Max Verstappen or a Lewis Hamilton down the road,” he continued.
“However we all know [that] to win in Formulation 1, these distinctive drivers come alongside a few times a era in case you’re fortunate. So we have to discover and assist somebody that is obtained the expertise to be in Formulation 1 on advantage.
“None of them will undergo any of these programmes if they don’t seem to be ok, as a result of there is not sufficient time [and] there [aren’t] sufficient automobiles for any staff to do a token gesture.”
© Alpine
Why the method may very well be an extended one
With this in thoughts, Coulthard admits that the journey concerned with the Extra Than Equal initiative is not going to be an in a single day one.
“That is about taking them to the purpose the place they’re picked up as a result of they’re ok,” the Williams and McLaren Grand Prix winner stated. Throughout his subsequent years with Pink Bull between 2005 and 2008, Coulthard additionally labored carefully with the staff’s junior driver programme.
“This isn’t about making an attempt to say, ‘This is a pot of 20 million kilos, and that is going to be ringed with one individual or two individuals or three individuals’, and [then] force-feed them right into a system that is saying, ‘We aren’t certain they’re the proper individual’.
“So that is what makes this completely different, that is what makes us formidable, and that is what makes it the start of what is going to doubtlessly be fairly an extended course of.”
Coulthard: If they don’t seem to be fast sufficient, they can’t progress
The method of shifting drivers via the programme will in the end be based mostly on them delivering on the highest commonplace.
“They have to be quick. This isn’t tokenism,” Coulthard reiterated.
“If
they don’t seem to be fast sufficient [they won’t progress]. I’ve the identical factor
proper now with my son; he is 13, he is fast, however he is inconsistent, and
he crashes an excessive amount of. If he does not eliminate the inconsistency and the
crashing an excessive amount of, he can’t progress.
“Irrespective of how a lot I like him, irrespective of how a lot he needs to, he must iron out these two points.
“So [progression through More Than Equal] will
be determined by outcomes, as a result of [it cannot be a case of], ‘She’s virtually
there, so let’s take her to the following degree’.
“You have to win in each degree. You have to win in karting, you have to win in Formulation 4, you have to win in Formulation 3.”
What the long run holds for Extra Than Equal
The goals of the venture are formidable, and Komarek is real looking in regards to the time that could be concerned within the means of discovering the very best feminine driver to assist on the journey in direction of Formulation 1.
“We stated to start with that this initiative is a minimum of for eight to 10 years, however we strongly imagine that there isn’t any finish of such initiative, that it’ll proceed past the purpose [of] eight to 10 years,” Komarek defined.
“We simply wish to be real looking, and it’ll take us some time to search out the proper expertise. To begin with, we have to [be] attracting extra ladies to change into racers in karting.
“Then [we need] to search out the proper skills, develop the abilities, give them the assist the identical manner [that] the male drivers had, after which we will discover the proper lady who will have the ability to win the Formulation 1 title.”