Why illustrious racing dads aren’t always an advantage for F1 hopefuls

They’ve been there, done it and worn the T-shirt in F1. But for ex-GP racers, helping their offspring up the single-seater ladder is no easy pursuit. While a famous name helps to open doors, the rest is decided on the track

You don’t have to look far to find the inspiration for the helmet design used by newly crowned Formula Regional Oceania (nee Toyota Racing Series) champion Charlie Wurz. The 17-year-old is the second son of three-time Formula 1 podium finisher and two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Alex Wurz, who famously painted his own zig-zag helmet designs that were instantly identifiable wherever he went.

Of course, a distinctive helmet livery isn’t the only benefit Wurz Jr and his younger brother – kart racer Oscar – can derive from their father. The Austrian’s years of extensive racing and testing experience mean he has unparalleled knowledge of tyre behaviour and vehicle dynamics, while his time leading the FIA’s Young Driver Excellence Academy and running his own Test & Training driver school makes him uniquely positioned as an asset to call upon.

What Wurz Sr doesn’t know about driver improvement isn’t worth knowing. But how best to use that knowledge is something he admits is a constant learning curve as his “very analytical” approach, he discovered, was “perhaps overwhelming for the teams and engineers as well as Charlie”.

“There are a lot of things I have experienced, but this is still in the pinnacle of motorsport that’s not always applying to a single brand car,” Wurz Sr admits. “If I’m looking for issues which might be applicable in top cars because they’re individual parts – well, if Tatuus [Formula Regional constructor] makes 10,000 or 1000 roll bars then the fact that maybe one or the other is different, it’s very small. My input has to be adjusted to not be invasive, to be productive.

“What I’m learning myself is to let them come. If they are opening up and say, ‘What do you think about tyre temperatures or set-up direction, should I confront my engineer or should I not?’, then it’s easier to give a direction.”

In a similar position is Rubens Barrichello, who won 11 grands prix during a lengthy F1 career that has him third on the all-time starts list. For his sons Eduardo (21) and Fernando (17), he says: “I’m there when they ask. If I tell them all I think, they’re going to change the whole set-up! They have to grow by themselves, like we did ourselves.”

As such, Barrichello Sr only ever attends debriefs when asked to do so, although he relishes poring over data with his offspring afterwards: “It’s very important that whatever is happening to the car, it’s equal to what they feel about it.”

…