Christian Horner makes precarious statement on length of career in Formula 1
Christian Horner is well aware of how small the window for success is in a driver's Formula 1 career. In the latest trailer for season 6 of Netflix's "Formula 1: Drive to Survive," the Red Bull boss is seen explaining how a driver has to make the most of his opportunities.
"A driver's career has a finite amount of time to it," Horner is seen saying, while in the back of a car. His point is made even clearer later on in the trailer when Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton is seen having a tense conversation with team boss Toto Wolff about the length of his career.
"You can be here for 20 more years, I can't," Hamilton told Wolff, with a chuckle. In the trailer, Wolff is seen just staring at the 39-year-old with a flat look on his face after hearing Hamilton's statement.
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While F1 drivers have been racing for most of their lives in different series, when they reach the pinnacle of the sport, they know they're in a ruthless environment. It's not uncommon for drivers to last just one or two years on the F1 grid, or an even shorter period of time if they don't hit the ground running.
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As it stands, Fernando Alonso is the longest-serving F1 driver currently active, having begun his career with Minardi back in 2001. Hamilton also is one of the most experienced drivers on the grid, starting his career in 2007 with McLaren before switching to Mercedes in 2013.
Alonso and Hamilton have 380 and 332 entries, respectively, during their time racing with Red Bull's Sergio Perez being active for the third-longest amount of time, having been at the top flight since 2011. However, Alonso, Hamilton and Perez appear to be outliers in a sport where there is little certainty.
Christian Horner explained just how long a typical driver lasts in Formula 1 (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)In 2023, the average amount of time a driver has been in F1 was 7.41 seasons, per formula1points. That is the lowest amount of time a driver has spent in F1 since 1994, when drivers had 7.36 seasons of experience under their belts.
This represents a trend of how, in recent years, the number of years a driver can last in F1 is slowly going down. In 2008, the year saw the peak of drivers with the most experience as the average amount of seasons a driver had that year was 11.27 seasons.
With how Red Bull's Max Verstappen has been dominating the sport in recent years, it appears as if the 26-year-old will be a long-standing staple in the sport for years to come. He recently was signed to a lucrative long-term deal which will see him driving for Red Bull until 2028, showing just how much the team believes in his potential be even greater than he has shown.
Horner's admission is borne out of his own experience driving. His career first began in 1991 after winning a Formula Renault scholarship and by the time he was 25 years old, Horner had moved on to managing a team.
Considering how quickly a career in F1 can come and go, drivers should make the most of it, as Horner alluded to. It is very rare for a driver to last more than 10 years and with how the trends are, it appears as if that will be a benchmark of success than longevity.
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