Giancarlo Minardi has criticised the FIA for failing to encourage new talent in Formula 1, implying that the sport is becoming clogged up with old men and that younger drivers who have progressed through junior series are unable to find a race seat.
The founder and former managing director of the now-defunct Minardi team has said, in one of his regular pronouncements on the state of F1, that the FIA should introduce a rule forcing teams to run one rookie driver during the Friday-morning practice session at each grand prix.
In a badly translated press release, the Italian suggests that his will encourage all of the teams to look at fresh talent and encourage the movement of drivers through the sport.
“Thanks to the preparatory championships, the boys now get ready for the leap and own their young age allows him to easily adapt the methods of F1,” says Minardi, who has been credited for giving some top drivers their big break in F1. “But we must give them the opportunity to compete and to create a healthy competition with those who are the senators. The results of Vettel, Kubica, Di Resta and Alguersuari are under everybody's eyes and the FIA should take account of. Unlike all the work is done from the kart becomes absolutely useless.
“My recipe is very simple: to force all teams to use a young man during the first session on Friday morning. Today, some teams do so only out of necessity. Imposing it as a fixed rule on the track at the same time we could have 12 rookies (one per team). In this way the choices of some teams will not be dictated by the budgets brought as a dowry, but the boy from the prize list. A team that is in your hands a talent think twice before renewing the contract for a pilot at an advanced age.
“Today the average age is rising because there is no spare. The team is afraid to invest as a young man, unable to perform tests, are faced with many unknowns. At that point, the balance leans toward the experience.”
