F1 dreams for Australian Chris Wootton

By George Skentzos | February 25th, 2009

At the pinnacle of motorsport, Mark Webber stands alone as Australia’s only current Formula 1 driver, racing alongside teammate Sebastian Vettel for the Red Bull F1 team.

Although this could change very soon with 20-year-old Queenslander Chris Wootton announced as one of just three drivers to be granted a $100,000-plus scholarship to compete in the Formula BMW Pacific Series – catapulting him into the spotlight of the leading Formula 1 teams.

He will compete under the watchful gaze of the BMW Sauber F1 Team, currently headlined by Nick Heidfeld of Germany and Robert Kubica of Poland.

“I’m stoked to be chosen as one of the three second year Formula BMW Junior drivers worldwide, it’s humbling and a real honour. Formula BMW Pacific is a brilliant Series and provides arguably the best entry level to ‘wings and slicks’ racing anywhere in the world.” said Chris

Like his mentor Mark Webber, Chris is one of the fittest competitors to line up in Formula BMW competition – finishing fourth in the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge in 2008 – ahead of many experienced adventure racers.

During his stint with BMW, Chris will be driving a Formula BMW FB02 which accelerates to 100km/h in under four seconds and hits a top speed of 230km/h.

The goal is to make it into European open-wheel competition in 2010, before reaching the pinnacle of world motorsport – Formula 1.

“From round one, we’re aiming to be on the pace and in a winning position. Regular race wins will be tough – there are some great competitors out there, but that’s what we have to do to meet our objectives and show BMW they made the correct decision by picking me to be part of the Junior Program.”

Five of the drivers which currently make up the Formula 1 grid are Formula BMW alumni, including Webber’s Red Bull F1 team-mate – Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg (Williams), Adrian Sutil (Force India), Timo Glock (Panasonic Toyota Racing) and Sebastien Buemi (Scuderia Toro Rosso).

The Formula BMW Championship is conducted in three territories – the United States (Formula BMW Americas), with Formula 1 Grand Prix in Europe (Formula BMW Europe) and the Formula BMW Pacific Series in pan-Asia.

FrugalOne

*****PRIMO!*****

Best of luck to him, need to be in a top team to have any real chance.

One day another Aussie will make it in F1, in the mean time we can dominate 2 wheel motorsports!

Cheers

F-0
Richo

Good on Chris, but unfortunately at the end of the day the Formula BMW Pacific series is fairly small fry in terms of being under the gaze of F1 teams. Basically, if its not in europe, its not important to F1 team bosses. Not saying that Chris can’t do anything with this opportunity, but he is still a while away from F1, he needs to use this as a stepping stone to get to europe, same as Daniel Ricciardo did who also came through the Formula BMW ranks with a BMW scholarship

For those who don’t know, Daniel is Australia’s next best opportunity to make it to F1 and is currently part of the very well respected Red Bull junior drivers program. Christien Klien, Vitantonio Liuzzi and ofcourse Sebestien Vettel are all graduates to F1 from the very same program. Last year he competed in Formula Renault winning the western europe series and coming second in the eurocup series. This year he is competeing in the Brittish Formula 3 series and is conceivably only 2 or 3 years away from F1, not bad for a 19 year old!!

Its these sorts of programs that young Aussie racers need to crack it in europe because sad fact of the matter is racing in europe is expensive and if your not european, then its very difficult to get the money to run over there because Australian sponsors aren’t interested because they dont sell products in europe, and european sponsors would rather european drivers. Theres been plenty of young talented aussie drivers who never made it in europe, Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, Russell Ingall, Will Power, Ryan Briscoe and James Courtney are the most recongnisable of those, but there has been ALOT more over the years to miss out. Even Mark Webber came INCREDIBLY close to missing out on his F1 dream for that exact reason, no cash, he only got into F1 at the end through shear luck that just as he was about to give up, an Australian bloke bought an F1 team and wanted an Aussie to drive, he was Paul Stoddart and owned Minardi, everyone knows the rest
Richo

oh how could i forget, ALL of Jack Brabham’s sons, even the legendary Brabham name meant nothing when it came to getting into F1, the team bosses where all like “oh you don’t have any cash? real shame because your quite quick, oh well say hi to your Dad for me”
Alex

Yeah, because that’s exactly where the world’s money should be going right now.
I love cars. They’re my second favourite thing in the world. But even the most avid petrol head’s say that F1 is one of the most boring things in the world. Who cares?
I’m sure some love it to pieces but the only person I’ve ever met who did like it was a massive nerd. And that sums it up. You have to be a nerd. You have to appreciate how the car works because they are not beautiful, they are not particularly fast; (Quote, During his stint with BMW, Chris will be driving a Formula BMW FB02 which accelerates to 100km/h in under four seconds and hits a top speed of 230km/h. – those numbers don’t exactly blow me away) and they aren’t particularly exciting somehow.
Feel free to disagree but I have a good mind to think that you won’t. I, like many, have fallen asleep watching so I don’t even bother now. Do you? I’d like to know if anybody still does.
Kovy

Good on him.

He won’t make it, though. Formula BMW is the next step up from karting, it’sbelow Formula 3, Formula 2, Renault World Series, A1GP, GP2, and probably a few other series.
Richo

Umm Alex, you do realise a formula BMW car is not a Formula one car, the 0-100 in 4 seconds and top speed 230 is for formula BMW not formula one. Formula 1 car reach speeds of up to 360km/h when configured for high speed circuits (although we havent been to the old completely awesome hockenheim for a long time) and 0-100 is more like 2 seconds. That IS fast mate…

So maybe come back when you know a little more about what your talking about eh? As for having to be a nerd to follow F1, then i guess you have to be a thug to follow rugby league, rich to follow rugby union, a bogan to follow AFL and italian to follow soccer… how about you pull your head in mate! Just because none of YOUR mates are interested doesn’t mean there isn’t other people who are and we don’t need to put up with your shit about it.
Richo

oh and pulling 6 g’s under brakes and 3 g’s through corners is pretty freekin impressive mate! again, learn a little about what your talking about because thats what F1 cars can do!
Bavarian Missile (.)(.)

Anything that launches from 0-100 under 4s would excite me,I doubt many people would have had that opportunity !

Good on the guy,I wish him well !
Alan

BM I thought LES excited you??? Does he launch in under 4 secs?
http://www.thebookabyss.com.au Australian Online Bookshop

I’m affraid Richo is right. Money talks. It doesn\’t matter how good the kid is if he hasn\’t got the financial backing behind him. There have been a plethera of talented and fast drivers over the years that couldn\’t get in the front door because they didn\’t have the backing. Its for this reason that formula 1 isn\’t all it could be for me at least. I would prefer not to see sunday drivers linning up on the grid just because they have the financial backing to buy a seat.
Bavarian Missile (.)(.)

hahaha Nah Alan.Hes got tall gearing takes ages for him to get there
Richo

Australian Bookshop – i wouldn’t call any of the current crop of F1 drivers sunday drivers though, even though there may have been better who missed out, you still have to have an extreem amount of talent to be able to drive an F1 car at the limit. Cameron McConville is a reasonably well accomplished race driver but when he got a chance to drive the Honda F1 car last year he said he couldn’t get it anywhere even close to its limits, the car was just too good for him.
http://www.petepigott.com petepigottcom

hell do it, go for it Chris !