During the 1993 Australian Grand Prix, Ayrton Senna gave an unexpected answer to the question of which driver he had enjoyed the most in his career. To the surprise of many, who expected names like Alain Prost or Nigel Mansell , the Brazilian mentioned Terry Fullerton .
The Briton was an old rival from the three-time world champion’s karting days, and had garnered numerous titles: he was junior British champion in 1966, 1967 and 1968, but he also won five outright British titles and four at European level.
For Fullerton, karting was the only thing that mattered. He hung up his helmet in 1984 and went to the other side of the barrier, creating his own competition team, in which he welcomed names like Paul di Resta, Dan Wheldon and Anthony Davidson , among others.
Nowadays, it is almost unthinkable that a professional single-seater driver reaches the top without having passed through those introductory categories, but not everyone makes it to the Grand Circus.
Max Verstappen, who was world champion in karting in 2013 and knows its ins and outs well, is of the opinion that those competitions and Formula 1 are extremely different.
“Just because you’re very good at karting doesn’t guarantee you’ll be good at Formula 1,” said the Red Bull driver, who also insists the opposite is also true. “Of course there are a lot of good drivers in all kinds of categories, not only in Formula 1, but there were also a lot of great kart drivers who got into a racing car and didn’t give their full potential, and vice versa.”
“There were drivers who were not so good in karts, but they were good in cars. So it is very difficult to say that a driver who was fast in karts would have made it to Formula 1. There is no guarantee.”
Terry Fullerton and Ayrton Senna in their karting days
Valtteri Bottas agrees with this statement from the Dutchman: “I see it the same way as Max [Verstappen]. It’s really a very steep learning curve throughout your career.”
According to the Alfa Romeo driver, hard work also has a lot to do with it: “Of course, some drivers develop earlier, others maybe a little later. Those who keep working and learning can get there. In a way it’s sad that So much talent doesn’t have a chance to get to F1. You could see it as a waste,” he lamented.
“In my karting days in Finland there were a lot of promising drivers, but they didn’t have any financial support. You have to be in the right place at the right time.” Bottas gave former driver Jussi Kohtala as an example: “Now he runs a kart team. He was very good, but he never had the chance to get into a junior formula category.”
“It’s very difficult to make the leap out of karting,” added George Russell, current Mercedes driver. “Every year and with every higher category, the budgets get bigger and bigger. Sometimes talent gets lost. I think as a sport we have to find a way to make sure we have the best talent [in F1].”
Russell’s generation is a rare bird , as a large number of riders made it to the premier class. “In my first year in European karting, Max and Charles [Leclerc] were the guys who won and were at the top. Alex Albon won in the previous years. Now we are in Formula 1 together.”
The two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, also wanted to record their opinion. In the case of the Monegasque, the unknown of how many would come to occupy a seat in F1 became a kind of broken record in his head.
“I would go to races and ask myself ‘how many of us will be in F1 one day?’ All the names I thought of are here now. It’s good to see that there are a lot of us. But there are also three names that I thought would come, but ultimately didn’t due to lack of luck and other reasons: Dennis Olsen, Ben Barnicoat and Nicklas Nielsen.”
The three drivers that Leclerc mentions are still active in the world of competition, although they have not been able to gain a foothold in single-seaters. Olsen is present in the DTM and the IMSA in 2022. Barnicoat competes in the Asian Le Mans Series and in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), which he combines with the IMSA, where Nielsen competes, which is also part of the European Le Man’s Series (ELMS).
“Everyone is still racing and they are doing very well. But it shows that even if you have most of the requirements for F1, sometimes you have to be lucky. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some names from back then.”
Sainz, for his part, instead of giving names, preferred to highlight the scarcity of seats in a category like Formula 1 as one of the key reasons: “In the end, there is only room for twenty F1 drivers. There will never be room for all of them”.
“I have competed against so many good drivers that it is difficult to choose one,” said the Spaniard. “I’m friends with all of them and maybe someone will say to me: ‘why didn’t you mention me?’ Of course, I know three to five people who I think would have done very well in F1, but they didn’t make it [there].
