F1’s brutal reality check for aspiring drivers chasing Piastri, Hamilton, Verstappen

The F1 has come to Melbourne - but behind the glitz and glamour is the brutal reality of life as an aspiring F1 driver. It’s a world that costs millions per year and has chewed up many a bright-eyed Australian, writes Jessica Robinson.

It’s the multimillion-dollar reality Australia’s F1 hopefuls must face – money makes the motorsport world go round.

With the superstars of Formula 1 in the country this week it’s easy to get swept up in the high-powered, high-stakes atmosphere of the world’s elite four-wheel event, where drivers are worshipped and unfathomable wealth comes with the territory.

But for every Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan, there are dozens of drivers whose road to the top of motorsport comes to a dead-end as the cost of competing in the development leagues simply becomes too great.

Melbourne-born driver Tommy Smith has made the switch to the American IndyNxt league. Picture: Joe Portlock - Formula 1/Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty Images

Melbourne-born driver Tommy Smith says it’s an “expensive” dream that requires not only a move to the other side of the world but multimillion-dollar investments each year.

Smith, 22, spent the past two seasons competing in the Formula 3 category and has made the switch to the American IndyNxt league in 2025, after being left “pretty disappointed with the results”.

And while he would have “loved to do Formula 2 this year” and follow the good mate Doohan up the ranks, Smith says circumstances and a shift in mindset changed.

“We sat down at the end of last year and said to do F2, it’ll cost this much,” Smith told Code Sports.

“And even if I won it (F2), I probably wouldn’t have gone to F1, so at the end of the day, you just want to be a paid driver.

“Everyone overseas, they have money and that’s what you’re competing with.”

The financial investment would make the eyes water of the everyday Aussie and according to Smith, it all comes down to the individual deals drivers do with their team.

Drivers competing in the junior competitions (F2, F3, F4) don’t earn a regular income from the team, in most situations, they’re paying for a seat at the table.

According to Smith, that could range anywhere from $1.3 million euro ($2.2 million AUD) per season to drive in Formula 3 and $2-2.5 million euros ($3-4 million AUD) to drive in Formula 2.

“For me, we did all our own travel and on those F1 weekends, it’s super expensive because you go to these cities and all the fans are booking out the hotels, even getting a rental car, there’s none left,” the Aussie driver said.

“You need financial backing from sponsors, investors or your parents.

“My sponsors pay for my racing but my parents pay for expenses.

“To fly over, live over there, travel, hotels, it’s really expensive.”

In 2024, Formula 3 had three Australians on the grid, Hugh Barter and Christian Mansell alongside Smith, each of them moving on from the F3 system for 2025.

Mansell – a type one diabetic – found a seat at Formula 2, but only nine days before the season opener in Melbourne announced that he had decided to “step away from racing for a little while,” citing “personal reasons.”

For Barter, he’s made the switch to iRacing, a motorsport virtual racing simulation league.

NATIONAL AND GRASS ROOTS KARTING COSTS

It’s not only the elite junior leagues that require extreme levels of financial investment, karting at the grassroots is no different.

Queenslander Harrison Hoey is a national karting champion who raced alongside the likes of Piastri and Doohan as a teen.

A title winner and a challenger in his own right, Hoey knew early on that a full-time career in motorsport wouldn’t be a realistic one so he made school a priority despite the racing commitments each weekend, which was “challenging at times.”

Harrison Hoey is a national karting champon. Picture: Supplied

“For myself, I knew that a motorsport career would be unlikely, given that it’s a very expensive sport to move throughout the categories,” Hoey said.

“Go karts, it’s all funded by mainly mum and dad I guess.

“So education was still important to make sure I would have something after racing.”

The karting seasons take drivers and their families all over the country, and while Hoey says the bond built between kids and their parents is unlike anything else, the impact on the home front is unmatched.

“You become grateful pretty quickly for what they (parents) sacrifice with work and all that to make you go racing every weekend,” the karting champion said.

“It’s huge, the money it involves and the time involved in the sport, it’s mental.

“You talk to people who play junior football and they’re at the oval for a few hours on a Saturday morning but we’re at the track from Thursday to Sunday just for one race.”

The now full-time real estate agent still manages to compete in the five-race national karting championship each year, but reminiscent of his rivalry with Doohan, Hoey knew the Alpine Aussie would make it.

While he challenged Piastri for several seasons, Hoey and Doohan were two friends turned fierce competitors as teenagers battling it out in 2016.

Hoey claimed the first race of the year, Doohan won the second, to make for quite an entertaining tit-for-tat season.

“From a young age, we knew Jack would go pretty far with a motorsport career, given the talent and the contacts they had to move forward,” Hoey said, referencing Doohan’s famous father, motorcycle great Mick.

Alpine's Australian driver Jack Doohan alongside the A525 Formula One racing car. Picture: AFP

“It was a privilege to race with him, because we knew that whether he made it F1 or not, he would make it somewhere in motorsport.

“We (Oscar) raced probably from 2013-2015 a lot together across Australia.

“It’s pretty cool, you look at some of the big names in F1, Lewis Hamilton as such, and you think they’re such a special person but then with Oscar and Jack making it, you remember they’re just a normal human as well.”

As for Hoey’s F1 season predictions: “It is very unpredictable at the start of the season but Oscar should look pretty positive with how fast the McLaren was at the end of last season.

“For Jack, it’s important for him to keep building confidence in the car, so by the halfway point of the season he can really start striving for the results he wants.”

Originally published as F1’s brutal reality check for aspiring drivers chasing Piastri, Hamilton, Verstappen