As the Formula 1 season winds down for Christmas, former drivers Alan Jones, Karl Wendlinger, and Jody Scheckter have shared their candid thoughts on the state of the sport today.
Alan Jones, the rough and tough 1980 world champion, has drifted away from his interest in Formula 1, turning his attention to MotoGP. Speaking to Channel 9, 77-year-old Jones admitted, “I have a lot of interest now in MotoGP. I’ve lost a lot of interest in Formula 1 – they’re all bloody prima donnas.” Despite this, Jones still keeps an eye on F1, especially criticizing the recent news about the fees for F1 superlicenses. “$2 million for Max (Verstappen)’s licence?” he scoffed. “I can’t see why you have to pay $2 million for a licence. What service do they give you back for that? It’s all a bit silly.”
Karl Wendlinger, whose F1 career was overshadowed by a severe accident in 1994, told Kronen Zeitung that making it into Formula 1 today would have been very difficult for him. “No, impossible,” he said. “I started racing cars at the age of 18. We bought a used Formula Ford 1600 and raced it ourselves. That’s no longer possible today.” Wendlinger also pointed out the soaring costs of motorsport, “I was told Formula 4 now costs 350,000 euros per year, which is crazy. Even karting is crazy. It’s good that Jonas is a footballer,” he laughed, referring to his son who plays professional football in the Austrian Bundesliga.
When asked about Verstappen’s potential in 2024, Wendlinger said he thinks it’s unlikely the Dutchman will be beaten, “Given Red Bull’s serious dominance, it’s hard to imagine… Max remains the big favourite.”
1979 world champion Jody Scheckter spoke highly of Verstappen, telling La Gazzetta dello Sport, “Max is better than anyone who drove in Formula 1 in my era.” He reflected on the danger in his racing days, “My greatest success was that I stayed alive – I didn’t even take a helicopter to hospital.” Scheckter also compared his early career to Verstappen’s, “At the beginning I was a bit reckless, like everyone who is young. Max was too, and I didn’t like the way he did it because he showed no respect to the other drivers. But then he also realised that you don’t win races, let alone world championships, if you cause accidents and collisions.”
