Formula 1 is ‘struggling’ with ‘fundamental problems’ says Britain’s youngest Le Mans winner Harry Tincknell
Too many talented drivers are being passed over in Formula 1 because they don’t have the right financial backing – and it’s hurting the pinnacle of motorsport.
That’s the view of one of Britain’s up and coming drivers, Harry Tincknell, who at 23 has this year become the youngest driver to compete at the top level of sportscars since Michael Schumacher in 1991.
Speaking to ITV Sport ahead of this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours, Tincknell admitted it would be “amazing” to fulfil his “dream” of competing in F1 but was concerned how it was squandering its potential.
"F1 is still the most popular and widely talked about series,” he admitted, “but there are a lot of fundamental issues and problems with it.
“It seems a lot of the drives are being taken by people who can bring sponsorship to the team or the right budget, however many millions that might be. I think a lot of talent is overlooked, certainly in the bottom half of the grid... Most of the time it's the funding the driver can bring and I don't really like that.
"The pinnacle of the sport should be the best guys not the guys who are best at bringing sponsorship."
Tincknell began his racing career in single seaters and hoped to emulate his hero, Mika Hakkinen, in the sport but after success in F3 his career moved towards sportscars where in his debut season with Jota Sport, he narrowly missed out on the European Le Mans Series title whilst also winning the LMP2 class at Le Mans – the youngest Briton to have won at the historic event.
His efforts didn’t go unnoticed and he was called up to Nissan’s World Endurance Championship team for 2015.
Having missed out the first two races of the year because of development issues with the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO, Le Mans will mark the debut for the car and the marque which has returned to the highest class, LMP1, for the first time since 1999.
Tincknell, who has put in thousands of kilometres of testing this year, has had to bide his time to race the car, which is radically different to its rivals from Audi, Toyota and Porsche, but has not been distracted with what might have been elsewhere.
"F1 is struggling at the moment," he continued.
"[It] would be an amazing thing to do and it's been my dream since I was eight years old but let's see what happens. I'm fully focused on sportscars now, it's a really good time to be in it.
"It's almost a perfect scenario for me this year. Jota have given me a fantastic opportunity and I'm also racing at the pinnacle of sports cars with Nissan.
"It's real crest of the wave stuff."
By continuing to race with Jota, the 23-year-old from Devon has been kept “sharp” and produced results – a win at Spa and a second and third at Silverstone and Imola respectively – but this weekend’s Le Mans is all to do with making progress for Nissan rather than racing for victory.
The Nissan GT-R LM NISMO didn't run in the first two races of the WEC because it didn't pass the mandatory crash test in time, so Le Mans will be a difficult baptism for all.
"We're up against the might of Audi, Porsche and Toyota. Audi have been here for the past 15 years and this is our first season and our first race.
"We're under no illusions it's going to be a tough 24 hours but we want to finish and we want to be as respectable as we can.”
The car, which is unique in LMP1 for being front-wheeled drive, took to the track for the first time with its rivals at the Le Mans test day earlier this month and although rain hampered the day’s work, Tincknell saw positive signs which boosted confidence for the race.
"We were quickest on the straights and obviously Le Mans has got super long straights and... we were the fastest through the speed traps so the concept of the car definitely works.
“There’s a massive amount of potential."