Lauda was less off a pay driver and more of a debt driver, the balls on the guy though jeez

Fun fact: by the early to mid-90s, Banco Nacional was basically broke but Senna kept carrying the brand logo and wearing the cap out of loyalty for their help early in his career even though he could get better sponsors. The bank folded a year after Ayrton's death. Respect to Ayrton for sticking up with those who helped him first.

The first one that came to mind was Lauda

Surprised there wasn't a mention about Sir Jackie Stewart, considering the family links to Ford dealerships and how he got into F1. I've always said paid drivers keep F1 afloat, it's just that the few that become successful, don't get tarnished with the 'pay driver' stigma like the not so successful ones

I think it's hard to compare pay drivers of different eras to those of today. However, it certainly does show just how hard it is to crack into F1.

Nobody is against pay drivers, but the sport got so expensive that practicly only drivers that come from a billionaire background can afford it, and a lot of good guys are out of a drive.

Matt was almost on point calling Erste Österreichische "Bank number 1", I first thought he knew it meant "First Austrian". But Raiffeisen doesn't mean second, so I guess it was just a funny coincidence.

F1 fans during checo's first f1 season : 'boo paid driver, boo' 10 years later : 'checo's a legend'

as an austrian the way you pronounced Sparkassa & Raiffeisen is absulutely hilarious 😂

Rush did an amazing job portraying Lauda’s finesse job at BRM. His negotiations were out of pure desperation

It's so fun to hear Matt trying to say the banks names.

Mazepin is the next Senna confirmed

And this video is why I appreciate pay drivers. Without them the sport would not survive.

There's a massive difference between having sponsors believe in you because you show talent, and having a billionaire dad paying for literally anything you ask...

let's think about it, both Schumachers paid to get in and one was the best driver ever so let's see what happens

"not bad for a number 2 driver" that reference 🔥

Thank you so much for bringing the story of how Senna got to F1... Many Brazilians don't know Senna's past... they think he got to F1, just with his skills... which is partly true... Unfortunately, the Brazilian media does not disclose the origin of several drivers, for example: Senna, Piquet or Fittipaldi... these families had, or still have, good political relations... and they were always rich families or with some influence.

just so you know, the Ö is pronouced the same way as the noise alonso makes when he thinks of the 2015-17 f1 seasons

Latifi is still amazing. Got the whole TeamLH on ropes

4:12 I know the story but every time I listen to Laudas plans back in the days I'm just impressed 1. how convinced he was in his talent and 2. what a madlad he was coming to financials

I knew about the Schumacher Mercedes deal as well as Perez but the others I wasn't aware of. Thing is, back in the 80s and early to mid 90s there were so much more teams in F1. Those small teams even needed the money from pay drivers to survive. Today with only ten teams and so much more drivers available it sometimes feels unfair if a pay driver is chosen over talent. Question still remains if it would be better to have only talented drivers in only ten teams or have 12 or 13 teams with pay drivers? As much as I'd like to see a bigger grid again I'm not sure if the latter would be a better solution.

Giancarlo Fisichella deserves a mention. Only got his seat at minardi due to his Italian tobacco money, but turned out to be a decent driver

It’s sucks that this sport is only for the rich. Imagine how many great drivers go unnoticed.

The 1981 Senna deal was 100.000 if I’m right. Fun fact: the team owner of one of the junior teams he joined was joking with him after a race before he joined them he’d give him a seat for free if he wants. Senna than went to him in the end of ‘82 to join them for the 1983 season for free. In the end he had to pay for the seat, but still way less than you’d pay for the seat usually.

Damn Lauda was a real finance guru

Never knew Ayrton Senna payed for his seat!

Missed the fact that Lauda is the only driver to win championships for both Ferrari and McLaren.

Could you also make a video of the drivers who got in F1 without a wealthy background? That would be interesting as well.

You actually translated the Erste österreichische Bank quite well, as it literally means First Bank of Austria :D

I may get destroyed in the comments for this but the first one I thought of was lando Norris, although he is a great driver he did pay his way though junior categories. He did get into F1 on merit however

For me the question has always been. Does he deserve to be on the grid? The answer is of course, let’s find out. Of course not everyone gets the ‘fair shot’ and that’s where the arguments come in. Most drivers that get a seat deserve two seasons to prove themselves in my opinion although Nikita was so bad last year which tests that policy.

So many "the office" memes in a video about f1, love it!

Nice video, showing all the newer f1 fans some of the best pay drivers, I bet a video on the not so good f1 pay drivers over the last 30 years would have to be split into 3 videos as there has been many of them

Actually.. Alain Prost ..was briefly retired when he took off end of 1991 season and entire 1992 season after getting FIRED from Ferrari end of 1991. He then came out of that brief retirement to drive for Williams 1993. He WON his 4th World Drivers Championship ..and retired for good when Senna was signed for 1994

This is a very bold video and thank you for creating it. I’d bet even Lance appreciates this!

"Not bad for a number 2 driver" nice work sliding that quote in there.

I enjoyed the editions! Thanks

I lost it so badly at that "not bad for a number 2 driver" in the end

2:52 didn't expect that one could butcher the Austrian savings bank like that lel

Michael Schumacher helped out a lot at the karting track in Kerpen during his go-karting days to pay back the karting club that supported him. He later trained as a car mechanic. In return, his instructor Willi Bergmeister supported him a little. A little later, Willi Weber and Mercedes came into the picture.

absolutely love all the Star Wars gifs and pics you use

This easely could have been a video of some of the 🐐🐐

first one that came to mind was checo

Even Hamilton an Verstappen are "Pay Drivers" Without the backup of Mercedes and Red Bull throughout their career they may not even bee in F1. IMO this shouldnt even be a thing to discuss because F1 always have been a rich ppl sport.

Matt's pronunciations of the Austrian banks are hilarious 😂

This list should have included Lance Stroll. I mean, he’s like the definitive pay driver but He’s also a race winner. Edit: This aged poorly. This aged so poorly. Wtf Y’all 😂

Hahaha that first bank for Lauda literally translates to “the first Austrian “ so first bank isn’t far off😂

One essay from 10th grade and another for 11th grade were about how being a may driver doesn’t define your whole career. I used Lauda, Schumi, Lando, and Perez’s defending to make it really easy for me to defend pay drivers.

You did a really good Job on the Sparkasse. Also inspired by your Video from Hockenheim i visit the Track or whats left of It. Was amazing

You had me at the Schumacher Thumbnail. ❤️

Lauda wasn't the only one. Prost became champion in 1993 after his 1992 retirement.

11:29 Rubens looks good as a Kimi impersonator!

couldn't resist that sweet invite to follow. What nice

This is best video i watch thanks wtf 1

I don't agree that you count as "pay driver" if you get paid by a sponsor. In the end its always the driver or the team who has sponsors, but having sponsors means that you are good enough that someone believes in your skill. Who should count as a pay driver is someone whos family pays for their kids, like Mazepin and afaik Latifi and I think still also Stroll.

Gerhard Berger. He only got into F1 and his seats 1984, 1985 and 1986 with BMW support and in 1989 he was the first ever Driver of the Red Bull sponsorship program. He went on to win 10 Races and one of the top five drivers for over a decade.

"the car was astronomically bad..." ***Shows 2021 Haas.. Cheeeeeeeky Matt. 😂

You should put Jenson's face when you mentioned Button. 😂

What about Mansell? He mortgaged his house for a seat!

About Senna, just leaving a quick note, he never raced in junior series in Brazil. He went straight from Karting in Brazil to Formula Ford in UK

3:53 The Haas in the background while he's saying that lmao

1:18 The Sponsor on the car, Autohaus Paul Korn Koblenz is actually a quite loved car Dealership with a great repairshop that was quite loved in the "VW Van" community pre 2000 Rip Mr. Paul Korn (2005)

5:14 didn’t Prost come out of retirement and win the title as well?

I love how you immediately belt out Senna to help showcase that not every paid driver is like Mazepin, because that's where people usually say that paid drivers are trash.

12:37 was cheeky, I must admit.

My uncle's best friend was Banco Nacional's F1 representative and lived with Ayrton for a number of years while he sponsored them

8:25 "Tarso Marks" 😆

Somewhat surprised that Pedro Diniz was not on this list. Sure thing he never won a race or even got a podium, but when compared to the breed of drivers who paid substantial money (we're talking millions of pounds over the 6 years, sources stated the sponsorship he took to Arrows in 1997 was worth $13 million) to get an F1 seat he still held his own quite well. Especially during the era where he began racing in the mid-1990s where other pay drivers included Lavaggi or Délétraz Sr. Basically, Diniz also deserves to get a mention even though to younger fans he may perhaps be classified as something of an obscure racing driver.

The "Österreichische Spar-Cassa" killed me😂😂

As an Austrian it is so funny to hear your pronunciation haha

As a native german speaker Niki laudas Part is really fun to watch 😂

I think Alonso had already signed for Minardi before they sold the contract rights to Briatore/Renault. He won a test for Minardi as prize for the 1999 Open By Nissan Championship and they were immediately impressed by his speed so they wanted to signed him right away

f1 was a very serious sport back in the days... the risk of death of was very high. pay drivers back then were talented drivers who wanted to risk it all... nowadays paydrivers are just some kids whose dads were interested in f1.

Lance Stroll will surely find himself on a list such as this. Superb driver.

now Ayrton listen.. everything you're feeling is perfectly natural. haha his dad looks like Eugene levy

Fun fact: erste Bank actually means bank number 1

This video was desperately needed, plenty of people forget that the path to becoming a pro racing driver is extremely expensive; in other words every driver in F1 and other categories have paid for their way in.

Some comment : Österreichische Sparkasse, which Matt had difficulty to say,is literally Austrian Piggybank in German.They were mainly operating savings accounts for Austrians in 70's with Austrian Schilling as national currency.

I think when we talk about pay driver, Nikita Mazepin was a curious case of it. Seemingly, he's not that a genuine championship contender that everyone wanted. But his junior career is pretty decent. In his first and only season, he managed to finished 3rd in GP3. He went on to F2 later on 2019, however his first season with ART was somewhat dreadful. Finished in bottom with him only finished higher than Tatiana Calderon and...Lord Mahaveer. Still tho, he was still showing some promised that year. At a test at Catalunya that year, driving the Mercedes W10, Mazepin manage to break the lap record of the track at some point before finished behind Valtteri Bottas by 2 tenths off. For a guy that never drive the car that was such OP (i mean racing point literally tracing that car for 2020 and went on having impressive results as well) that was impressive. And then 2020 happened. This is where the turning point for Mazepin came in where he drive for Hitech. Driving a team that had little to none experience in F2, and with abysmal performance season before, you would thought Mazepin would finish dead last and retire his racing dreams. Mazepin went on to take 2 fastest lap and 2 win before settling down for 5th in the standings and his team 4th in teams championship. Infact, Mazepin actually competes for 3rd that season before some excursions happened at Bahrain forced him to finished 5th in the standings. That was really impressive, for a guy that was basically dead last driving a less experienced team to get such a result. Compare to Latifi and Zhou who i thought their career is more of a stagnant. Mazepin actually shows progressed that racing driver rarely has. Sure, and the end of the day. He was just daddy's little boy, and a douchebag whether you view him from woman stand point or not. But his career is something that people seems to forget, and his kinda a few rare pay driver that actually worth signed (The other was Lance Stroll in that regard, i mean who wouldn't sign a kid that was purely dominating F3 by almost 50 points and pays you back?). And you can't judge his career from his Haas career, that car is as good as a ford Pinto. I'd say let's see his progress in next couple of season if we want to consider him as failure or not.

As a German speaker, it is very funny how Matt pronounced "Bank number 1 & 2 of Laudas Sponsors 😂

Wasn't expecting Ayrton ngl

Giancarlo Baghetti is one of My favorite pay drivers, because he managed to pay his way into Ferrari and Win his debut Race. Not bad for a pay driver

"But dad, im speed KACHOW" AHAHAHAHAHAH

How can you forget our 21, 22, 23, 24 world champion, Lance stroll?

you can add Nigel Mansell who hadf support from John Player & Sons.

I’m fine with someone paying there way bc they have talent. It is when some pays there way and they don’t have the talent that’s when they need to be dropped.

When it comes to pay drivers, I only thought about the likes of Paul Belmondo, Olivier Beretta, Taki Inoue, Pedro Diniz, Ricardo Rosset, Gaston Mazzacane, Alex Yoong, who were actually pretty terrible. Thanks for bringing these cases to my attention, too!

It's good to see that massive spin didn't make the list

Haha yes die österreichische Sparkasse xD love how you tried to pronounce that xD

Another one would be Stirling Moss!

As an Austrian hearing you struggle with the names of the banks is so damn hilarious. Btw it's just "Sparkasse" and "Raiffeisen" since "Österreichische" just means "Austrian".

Michael Schumacher got paid in 1991 to one of the F1 GOATS is the one i remembered the best.

Niki Lauda was like a finacial genius who raced xD

Good video, although I have to say as an Austrian, the funniest part was when you tried to pronanciate the Austrian banks. Not too bad.

Pure fun as a german how you pronounce the several banks

Imagine how much talent there is that simply can’t afford F1? Are Senna, Vettel, Schumacher, Hamilton, Lauda, Piquet, Alonso, etc. even that good compared to the talent that just simply can’t afford to even compete in a go kart? 🤔 no offense to those guys by the way! I love all of them!

We can say that Lando is pay driver too, and I think he is doing pretty well

“But dad, I am speed, kachow”-Ayrton Senna

Geez in hindsight Ayrton Senna should have probably taken up the family business.

Is it just me or does Matt pronounce Minardi so satisfyingly?