The Birth Of the Idea
Hi! Hello! So you’ve found your way to this post, I’d like to venture a guess that you’re interested in knowing more about where and how the idea for the foundation came to be.
Grab a beverage of your choice and strap in to read the long version of how we’ve ended up to this point.
As long as I can remember I’ve loved fast cars, the sounds and noises their motors make as well as driving fast, whether it was as a passenger or now that I’ve had my own drivers license. As a kid on the weekends when we drove to go to our family’s summer cottage, we would drive past a karting track in Helsinki. I remember always thinking:
“Oh, that looks like a lot of fun!”
But since I never actually opened my mouth and said it out loud to my parents, I’ve been a fan of motorsports and cars instead of actually pursuing racing in any form.
Now, let’s return back to more present times, the end of 2021 to be exact.
On one cold, dark and boring December night I was looking for something new to watch on Netflix, as one does, and decided to give Drive to Survive a go. Watch a show that’s about the fastest cars on earth? Sign me up.
What surprised me, positively, was that a big part of it was getting to know the drivers that climb into those cars come each race weekend. You got to know the personalities behind the visors, how they got to F1, how they train, about their mindsets and work ethics. Yes, it was also about the cars, the ever changing regulations, how they affect the racing and the 10 teams competing for the constructors championship but mostly it shows you the reality of what it takes to be an Formula 1 driver. All the sacrifices the drivers and their families have had to make to be able to make their way to being a part of the 20 F1 drivers on the grid.
Granted, the first few seasons are slightly over dramatized when it comes to the rivalry between the team mates in each team but if you take some of it with a grain of salt, it is a highly enjoyable show.
If you are now wondering, great but why did I just read a mini review of Drive to Survive, let me explain.
As I mentioned above, the thing that stuck with me the most about the show was all the back stories of how the drivers made their way into Formula 1 and they were most importantly told by the drivers themselves, sometimes additionally even by their parents.
The first episode where the idea got planted into my head was S1 E5 - Trouble at the Top, which dealt with the beginning of the end of team Force India in 2018.
In the episode Esteban Ocon recalls his journey to Formula 1, which was not an easy one. He talks about all the hard work he and his parents had to do and the hard times they had due to the fact that they did not have a lot of money and what they got went to support Esteban’s racing.
Esteban’s story continued over to the next episode as well, S1 E6 - All or Nothing. In the episode Esteban gets asked by the interviewer about how expensive it is to get kids all the way into Formula 1, to which he answers:
“Uh, it’s difficult to tell you exactly but, um… For sure for someone normal like we were, it’s yeah… Everyone was saying it’s impossible, basically.”
His parents sacrificed a lot over the years, Esteban himself said in the episode mentioned above that without his parents he wouldn’t be in F1.
Unfortunately the episode ends with Esteban not having a seat for the 2019 season but luckily his break from being an full time F1 driver only lasted for one season and he was back racing in 2020, this time at Renault. And still to this day, at least as I’m writing this in April of 2023, get to watch him climb into one of the fastest cars in the world every race weekend and do what he does best and enjoys, race.
After episodes 5&6, the idea started cooking in the oven of my mind, is that even a saying? Anyway, back to the point I was trying to make. The more I watched the show, the stronger the idea grew in my mind.
In later episodes you hear from the likes of a 7 time WDC winner, Sir Lewis Hamilton tell about how much his father and mother worked to help him reach his dreams of becoming an F1 driver, all the sacrifices they made in order for him to become who he is today. Which arguably is one of the GOATS, if not the GOAT, of F1 drivers. And by the way, I will not accept or listen to any Hamilton slander, you can not win 7 WDC “just because he had the fastest car on the grid”. That man is beyond talented. End of discussion.
Welcome to a verbal depiction of how thoughts in a ADHD brain move from one subject to the other.
Anyhow, returning to the actual topic at hand. The more you researched the topic, the more you find information about drivers and their less than easy journeys to reach the pinnacle of motorsports.
News flash: Competing in motorsports is extremely expensive, which in a way did not come as a surprise to someone who owns a few cars and has had to buy new tires, wheels, take them to get serviced etc. But you don’t need to buy new tires every time you go for a drive, unlike with karting, racing in a single seater, rally, motoGP etc. You have to buy new parts, tires, pay for travel etc., this all adds up quite fast.
As with a lot of things in life, money doesn’t solve all your problems but it sure does make certain situations much easier.
My hope and dream for this foundation is to help the talented, driven young drivers who come from low-income families. Who’s parents work several jobs, spend hours sending emails to possible sponsors to help their kid have a chance to fight for their goal of reaching the top of the sport. Make it a bit easier on the parents so that maybe they can have a bit more time to enjoy and watch their child do what makes them happy.
Well, as much as a parent can enjoy watching their child climb into a racing car knowing fully well all the risks that come with it.
Now, here we are many months later, after countless hours of hard work, meetings, visits to the bank, the notary, you name it I’ve been there. We are ready to start the actual work of actually helping drivers reach their dreams.
I hope that you will join us on this journey, whether it be at the start of our story or more down the line. It doesn’t matter.
Together let’s try and create equal opportunities within the world of motorsports.
Yours truly,
Janina Kurki
P.S.
Before someone goes:
“So what you are saying is that all the driver that come from affluent families don’t deserve their seat in F1 because they only got it because their families have a lot of money?!”
No, that is not what I’m saying at all. Have there been, as an example, back in the day some F1 drivers that definitely should not have had the chance to race? Yes. But that’s why now for several years the drivers wanting to enter F1, to put it simply, need to gather a certain amount of points, amongst other requirements, to be able to get a super license. You can’t get a seat by just bringing a lot of money and sponsors with you to the team.
The point of Fenrir Racing Foundation is not to lift other up all the while putting other down.