Doesnt F1 only have one black driver? Unless there are some in the lower series I dont know about.
They arent exactly bursting the race bubble either.
There are more races than black if you go down an F1 field there are racers from all over the world; the common theme however is that they all;
- come from wealthy backgrounds
Or
- are the children / relatives of famous race drivers
There are exceptions to that but that would be the majority of the field accounted for.
Lewis Hamilton and a few others are the exception because they arent children of former top level race drivers, came from wealthy families or were backed by a wealthy investor which are typically the things a driver needs.
It essentially starts from childhood, top level drivers were usually driving Go Karts as soon as they could reach the pedals and if you look at how expensive even a Go Kart season is, you'll realise even that is a greater expense than the majority of what you would consider 'middle class' could afford to commit to. Its expensive and time consuming and for parents its basically an all in affair that the family has to devote finances and lifestyle around right from the beginning.
Lewis Hamiltons father worked up to 4 jobs to keep Lewis driving. It wasnt that they were poor, take away the karting they were still middle class, but Lewis father committed to it right from the word go, he wouldnt have taken multiple jobs to keep Lewis going if it was just a fun side project, ge and Lewis were clearly always going to be in it for the long haul and Lewis was a natural with huge potential but even that potential would never have been enough if his father wasnt prepared or able to provide the support financially for him to keep at it.
It wasnt until Lewis was 13 (he'd been karting since he was 5) before McLaren picked him up and at that point the financial burden is eased with a backer like that but it still took years and a shitload of money before it happen. Its not like kids that can grab a ball and throw it throw a hoop or kick it around or just plain sprint fast that even those from a poor background can do; motorsport is just expensive, and then to get to the top fields ita not just the large amounts of money but talent.
We (in the Formula 1 thread) piss and moan about 'pay drivers' who get seats because they have extremely wealthy backers and bring big money in sponsors but even those guys have to get their Super License to compete so they clearly have great talent also, but it tends to be a balancing act between what a driver can bring financially and how good they are.
Hamilton (que the haters) is an extreme talent, he's not just one of the best now, but of all time and thats why he got a go in F1 and is still there, but even his old man had to make huge financial sacrifices to even begin to drive.
So yeh, a lot of money, sacrifice and talent. Some people have a lot of money but not enough talent, some have a lot of talent but not enough money and some arent prepared to throw literally everything about their life at it, so the number of individuals that can make it is extremely small; factor in wealth distribution among races, access to racing equipment / facilities and cultural or social reasons (a huge amount of drivers tend to come from countries that live and breathe motorsport) and you can sort of see why some people end up racing drivers and others dont.
