You know, on occasion, our friend Peter Adderton, of Boost Mobile fame, does get it right. There are snippets of truth in what he has been saying about the state of Supercars, for sure, particularly around television commentary where he has echoed the unspoken thoughts of a huge part of the motorsports community.
But his recent comments regarding the number of drivers who are being paid to race a Supercar today are complete balderdash. According to Pete, “maybe 6 or 7 drivers actually get paid to race a Supercar”.
That’s a long way from the truth.
Today, there’d be 18 full time drivers on the grid who are getting properly paid. They might not be earning a fortune by Pete’s standards, but they’re all earning a decent wage by most people’s standards.
There would be a couple more getting something, albeit small and possibly direct from a sponsor, rather than their team.
That is impressive for the leading motor racing category in a country with a population of only 25+ million, and it’s a lot more than the equivalent British Touring Car series, for instance.
Moreover, the two top Supercar drivers are earning more than all their European based counterparts racing in GT3.
So, the fact is that the very reverse of what Pete says is true – there are possibly up to six or seven drivers who are NOT getting paid to race, or at least not directly…
Maybe what’s sticking in his throat is that there are definitely several drivers on the grid who are there because they’ve been able to bring money to the table. That’s true, and has always been the case in pretty much every senior motor racing category forever.
It’s true in F1, it’s true in NASCAR, it’s true in IndyCar. Maybe the only place it currently isn’t true is in the Hypercar class of the World Endurance Championship.
But it’s also worth remembering that some of those drivers who do open the door with dollars (whether those dollars are their own or linked to a sponsor), then go on to more than justify their presence with pure results. Drivers from Niki Lauda five decades ago to Lando Norris more recently, for example.
In Supercars, you could say that same thing about Jack Le Brocq. It looks like Bryce Fullwood could also be in that position soon bearing in mind his recent progress. Well done to them, for their perseverance.
On the other hand, the vast majority of current Supercars drivers have got there on talent alone. For some the road was rocky to begin with, and it wasn’t as plain sailing for them as it was for Broc Feeney, for instance.
Take Jamie Whincup. He is a great example of a young driver without cash to lob at a team, and who suffered the sheer ignominy of an in-season sacking by GRM in his maiden campaign, only to go on to be the most successful driver of all time in Australian national motorsport. That was pure perseverance.
What is definitely the case though, and is holding up the careers of several youngsters at the moment, is the fact that several of the more experienced (not necessarily the oldest) current drivers should be moved on by team owners.
These drivers are ones who genuinely got their seats through talent but, for whatever reason, are tapped out now at a certain level. Sometimes snagging a result from time to time, but mostly inconsistent.
I’ve said it before. If a driver is being paid to drive and isn’t going forwards and improving each year, then move that person on and plug in someone who might have the potential to be the Next Big Thing.
But that’s up to teams, and sometimes an experienced driver can be a master politician and good at “working the room” with sponsors and the like to ensure his continued presence.
So, when you go through the Supercars grid from top to toe, there’s four classifications of driver there today:
- A couple of drivers there due to money alone.
- A handful who have brought talent but needed money to open the door. There’s a reasonable chance that several will come good and stay in the field on that talent alone.
- A small number of drivers who graduated onto the grid on talent, and who may or may not have had some success over the years, but have had their chances and opportunities and don’t quite cut the mustard any more.
- The biggest group by far encompasses the drivers who got there on talent alone, are highly deserving of their seats, and, despite what Peter would have you believe, are getting paid properly.
The fact is that teams such as Triple Eight, DJR, WAU, Grove, Erebus, and Tickford (on the basis of a two-car team in future) don’t want or need pay drivers. That’s half the grid. I suspect that you could add BRT and PremiAir to that, making two thirds. Other teams might have one driver bringing dollars but that can then allow them to run a driver of their choice in the other car.
There are, of course, several drivers whose presence in a team is linked to a sponsor. That’s always been the way. Professional drivers often take sponsors with them through their careers. For many years Santander, the Spanish-based banking group, followed Fernando Alonso from team to team, for instance. No one would argue against his right to be in F1 on talent alone though.
It also doesn’t mean that the driver isn’t getting paid just because he or she takes a sponsor to a team. And, whilst that driver might not be the ultimate talent available, he’s often shown some real commercial acumen in spearing the sponsor in the first place and, maybe, fighting for a drive. Nothing wrong with that.
We should celebrate the fact that there’s a simply superb array of young, recent intake, drivers on the grid today who are there because of talent alone – Kostecki, Brown, Feeney, Randle, Golding and Payne. And they’re soon to be joined, by all accounts, by Love, Wood and Allen. There’s plenty more behind them as well. I see them regularly in Toyota 86s, in Porsche Sprint Challenge and at Norwell.
The only standout issue in this article for me, is that I haven’t been able to use the pronoun “she” anywhere. That’s where Boost, and others, could help tomorrow. Ensure that the likes of Alice Buckley do get a fair crack of the whip. At least we’ll have Simona back on the grid for Bathurst, which will be good to see.
In the meantime, let’s cut Supercars some slack, even if some of it is not really deserved, as we head into the Enduro season and then on to Adderton’s own Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
Pete and his crew did an awesome job of activation around this event in 2022. I’m sure they’ll do the same again this year.
Let’s look forward to welcoming at least 18 professional, paid, drivers to the Gold Coast in a few weeks’ time.
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