Former Caterham Academy member Seb Morris admits he will probably stop chasing his F1 dream, saying it would amount to “blowing money down the drain”.
The Welsh racer finished runner-up in the inaugural BRDC Formula 4 championship in 2013 before becoming a multiple race winner in Formula Renault 2.0 NEC the following year. Morris then graduated to GP3 with Status Grand Prix, where he experienced a challenging season in 2015.
Speaking to The Checkered Flag, the BRDC rising star thinks the budgets that are asked to race in the feeder series are becoming increasingly ridiculous, which ends up skewing the F1 ladder altogether.
“[GP3 is] probably not [an option for 2016],” Morris confessed. “I’m probably looking elsewhere to be honest, my aim is to have a career in motorsport. I think the F1 option is completely dead; it’s all about money.
“There are people racing in GP3 this year who are throwing £8million at an F1 seat and they’ve not had any results all year and they just get an F1 drive – its all about money so unless I win the lottery or have £40million in the bank, there is no point pursuing the F1 dream and blowing money down the drain.”
The GP3 class of 2015 included the likes of Lotus development driver and sometime Sauber tester Adderly Fong, who did not score a single point, as well as Alfonso Celis Jr., who only finished 12th but still got promoted to an F1 development role at Force India. The Mexican will also take part in seven FP1 sessions this year.
Former Ferrari and McLaren driver Stefan Johansson recently said it was “a sad situation” to see top talents miss out on an F1 chance due to a lack of funding.
Key dates for the 2016 F1 season