Help a Kid Out

Hey everyone, I'm a high school student who loves motorsport, especially Formula One. My goal is to one day become Team Principal of a Formula One team, and I thought that amateur racing would be an excellent hands-on way to learn about building and working on racing cars and would also be really fun. Obviously I don't have tens of thousands of dollars to work with, so my build will have to be relatively low-cost. (I understand it's often cheaper to buy a complete racecar but honestly I want to build) I have access to most of the necessary equipment, as my high school has a garage complete with car lifts and tools. I've been browsing Craigslist looking for possible project cars, and please provide some suggestions on relatively affordable donor cars I could use for my build. Thanks!

So while you are in high school, you should be planning ahead for your college education- and I would suggest finding a school that has a VERY robust Formula SAE team.   Here are some results of past events, where you can see what schools are competing, and which schools are competitive year after year- https://www.sae.org/attend/student-events/formula-sae-michigan/awards-results

Since you are more focused on F1, it may be a good idea to reach out to Haas F1- who are in North Carolina- and ask for school suggestions from them.

At the same time, it may be a good idea to ask them the exact same question you are asking here- they have a Careers page that may be a good contact to offer some direction right now-https://www.haasf1team.com/careers

In terms of racing that you can do right now- other than circle track driving, which does allow for younger drivers in their full systems, I'm not sure about road racing from HS- I'm sure someone else here knows that.

A good start, though, would be autocrossing- and a lot of very famous profession drivers started autocrossing.  And one of the best cheap platforms you can start with is The Answer- a Miata of whatever era you can afford in the best condition you can find.  They are also pretty common cars in the cheap road racing series out there, too- again, there are plenty here that do that, and I'll let them list the options.

Another reasonable option is a F-440/500 etc car.  Seems as if they are found pretty darned cheaply, and everyone who seems to find them also loves how cheap they are to run.  Given this is a real open wheel car, it's closer to the kind of car you hope to end up managing.   That path may help you "graduate" into other open wheel cars.  

If you were 5 years younger, getting a Kart would 100% be the suggestion.

Welcome, have you volunteered with a local track, a team or any SCCA event?  You get to see what goes on, network with people and possibly get more opportunities.

Good luck, Dan

alfadriver said:

So while you are in high school, you should be planning ahead for your college education- and I would suggest finding a school that has a VERY robust Formula SAE team.   Here are some results of past events, where you can see what schools are competing, and which schools are competitive year after year- https://www.sae.org/attend/student-events/formula-sae-michigan/awards-results

Since you are more focused on F1, it may be a good idea to reach out to Haas F1- who are in North Carolina- and ask for school suggestions from them.

 

If you do want to go to Haas, I know at least one person there that will recommend University of South Florida.  That's where he was captain of the FSAE team, and its where I went to school and was on the FSAE team for a few years.

That being said, I know that Rochester Institute of Tech has a pretty solid team if you want to stay up north.

I'd go race some karts. Best bang for the buck.