When considering future candidates for F1 seats during this silliest of silly seasons,
one thing I often forget to check is whether prospective drivers i n junior categories
qualify for a super licence. Despite sounding like it was named by an 8
year old, a super licence is a serious deal and only handed out to a select few whose
‘outstanding ability in single seaters’ qualifies them to hold the licence and only
then can they take part in the FIA’s premiere racing series.
But how do you qualify for a super licence? Well the system has changed a bit in the last
few years so let’s go back in time, all the way to 2015…
Shoes tied themselves, cars could fly… and it was a whole lot simpler to get yourself
a super licence and move up to F1. In order to qualify for a super licence a
driver had meet the following criteria: Firstly, you has to hold an FIA International
A licence (the next highest racing licence down)
If you had never held a Super Licence before, to prove your racing experience, you had to
meet at meet at least one of the following requirements:
Finished in the top three of either Formula 2, International Formula 3, GP2, GP2 Asia
or Formula Nippon in either of the previous two seasons.
Or, you could have finished in the top four in the Indycar championship or IRL in either
of the previous two years. Or, you could be the current outright champion
of Euro Formula 3, Formula 3 Great Britain, Italy, Japan or Spain, or Formula Renault
V6. Failing that if you just demonstrated outstanding
ability in single seaters and could prove your skills to the FIA by driving an F1 car
for a total of 300 km at racing speed in a one or two day test, then the FIA might well
give you the thumbs up. Achieve any of those goals and you were in
and ready to race in F1. The application criteria seemed sort of legitimate
enough - there weren’t that many series that qualified you for a super licence automatically,
but there was enough wiggle room in clause (f) to let talented drivers from other series
break into F1. But you have to bear in mind that there are
some very young drivers in series like Formula 3, sometimes well under 18.
12 year old Juju Noda recently tested a Formula 3 car having already set the lap record for
a Formula 4 car at Okayama International Circuit. While Noda is a clear outlier, it’s at time
like these that you can see why the FIA start to get a little twitchy, and Max Verstappen
getting signed up to Red Bull at 16 was really the catalyst for change.
So, from 2016 onwards the FIA introduced a more formal points-based system for super
licence qualification. Finishing in certain positions in your respective
championship would earn you different points, as follows:
So winning the Formula 2 championship would earn you 40 super licence points, whereas
coming 4th in the LMP1 class of WEC would earn you 10 points. In order to qualify for
a super licence, you first had to hold a total of 40 super licence points over your previous
3 years in motorsport. So the top three in the F2 championship automatically
earn the requisite points, as do the top two in GP2 (which was separate at the time), as
does the champion of Euro F3, LMP1 and IndyCar. But also, you could qualify if you won the
DTM championship for the last three years, Or if you came 2nd, 3rd and 6th in the last
three seasons of GP3, Or if you came 6th in Super Formula, 2nd in
GP3 and then 4th in GP2. You get the idea, you can probably add up
3 numbers. Now Formula E wasn’t included in the points
system at the time but as a sort of asterisk to the whole affair, the FIA mumbled that
the Formula E champion would of course get a super licence.
You’ll also notice the FIA explicitly expanded its criteria to recognise series such at touring
cars, lower tier single seaters and even karting as part of the relevant experience on the
road to F1, which was great. Further requirements to the super licence
included: Being 18 or over
Having a valid driver’s licence Taking a theory test on the sporting code
and regulations Having completed 80% of the past two seasons
of any of these championships. These quite hefty super licence rule changes
came about due to a young baby named Max Verstappen who was signed up to Toro Rosso at aged a
pimply 16 (though he didn’t actually debut in F1 until 17).
The FIA were (perhaps rightly) concerned that their premier world motorsport series could
soon be filled with literal teenagers and for safety reasons (and perhaps to preserve
the elite mystique of F1) they worked to quantify the entry bar into the sport as we’ve described.
After all, F1 should be the best of the best, right?
What’s interesting is just how badly Max Verstappen would have failed to qualify for
F1 had he had to meet the 2016 criteria in 2015. Let’s have a look, shall we?
Firstly on age: being only 17 he was too young and would not qualify
Secondly, he had no driver’s licence. Though I’m sure he would have made sure to have
got one, had he known. Thirdly, he came third in Euro F3 in 2014,
giving him 20 points and… that’s it. That’s the only thing he did that qualified him for
super licence points. Fourthly, he did not complete 80% of the past
two seasons of any qualifying championship. On paper it does look like Max was completely
unprepared for F1 upon his debut. But in reality, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who
thought he wasn’t ready. So, is Max an outlier? A rare instance of
a super talent, ready beyond his resume? Or are racing drivers simply ready for the top
tier a lot earlier than ever? And are we blocking out future talents in this way? Or are we
making sure we don’t get a bunch of young, hot-headed youngsters that are all too ready
to cause accidents? It’s very hard to be sure, to be honest.
There are hard arguments either way. Bringing us forward to the present day we
see that the points system has been developed further - tightening up in some ways and expanding
in others, like a pair of old jeans. There are now a lot more championships around
the world that can contribute to your super licence qualification, but most of the actual
points given have been reduced. Now only F2 and IndyCar can give you the full
40 points in one season - a bit of an insult to LMP1 maybe, but hey ho.
So you still have to accumulate 40 points from your previous three seasons but you can
do it from a wider range of series. Formula 2 gets more weighting as the FIA tries to
encourage junior drivers to move through F2 on their way to F1.
As an aside, there’s also a Free Practice Super Licence purely for third drivers wanting
to take part in official Friday Practice sessions. You’ll need to have competed in 6 rounds
of Formula 2 or accumulated just 25 points towards your super licence in the last 3 years.
Again, something Max Verstappen wouldn’t have managed.
So, when we look at drivers we might be interested in plonking into an F1 seat, we should give
them a quick check for points. George Russell, for example would qualify
for a super licence as he’s got 20 points from finishing 3rd in Formula 3 and 25 points
from winning GP3, which is 45 points already. If he wins or comes second in Formula 2, as
seems likely, he’ll have a massive 85 points in the bank.
Jack Aitken on the other hand has 7 points from finishing 5th in GP3 in 2016, 20 from
coming second in GP3 in 2017 and, if he finishes 10th in F2 this year, he’ll have a total
of 30 points to his licence, which isn’t enough.
Of course, once you’ve got a super licence, you can keep renewing it year on year (at
considerable costs) as long as the FIA are happy you’re up to the task and have done
the mileage. That’s how someone like Kubica has a super licence despite not competing
in recent racing series. It’s not easy to get a super licence - something
Red Bull will be aware of considering that precisely none of their junior drivers are
close to qualifying for one. The only one of their junior drivers with points to their
licence is Fukuzima who has 18 to his name. Red Bull, who are are used to promoting drivers
from within, using their bank of junior drivers now have an empty seat at Toro Rosso following
Ricciardo’s merry dance to Renault and they have no one in their bank to fill it with.
When considering your dream grid for 2019 and beyond it can be pretty tricky to keep
track of who from your favourite drivers is actually even eligible to break into F1 so
do check them against this points chart or find a friendly hard-working website that’ll
do the hard work for you! Keep an eye on your dream F1 drivers currently
making their way through the junior formulae and keep a mental tally of their super licence
points total. Let’s hope they get their in
the end!