Formula One remains the ultimate goal for Richie Stanaway, despite the up-and-coming New Zealand driver believing it is not the most competitive championship in world motorsport.
The Tauranga-raised, England-based 23-year-old is one of several young Kiwis stamping their mark on foreign soil, along with the likes of Brendon Hartley, Mitch Evans and Earl Bamber.
In his rookie season in GP2, F1’s official feeder series, Stanaway also races for Aston Martin in the LM-GTE Pro division of the World Endurance Championship.
He still visualises his long-held F1 dream coming true, even though he does not have the big financial backing required to even be considered for a drive and acknowledges the category has its downsides.
“In terms of from the outside and what everyone sees as the pinnacle of motorsport, it’s still F1,” Stanaway said.
“If you win a championship in F1 it’s what everyone considers to be a world champion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s harder to win races.
“In terms of the pure competitive element and what is the hardest to be at the front and winning races in, I don’t think it’s the peak in the world of motorsport.”
IndyCar, German sportscar series DTM and GP2 are at the top of Stanaway’s list of world motorsport’s most competitive categories.
All three have a full field in almost identical cars, he said, meaning success is harder to come by than in F1, where you essentially only have one team-mate to benchmark your performance against.
With plenty of talk in the race paddock surrounding changes that need to be made in F1, Stanaway remains optimistic his chances of cracking the big time will improve over the next year or two.
In the meantime he knows he must continue to impress, starting with this weekend’s GP2 round in Bahrain, where he also has a rookie test in an LMP1 car with WEC heavyweights Audi.
The latter comes in the wake of a WEC victory for Aston Martin at the famous Spa track in Belgium earlier this year, along with two race wins and a respectable championship placing of ninth for one of the smaller GP2 teams.
“It’s an amazing opportunity [to test for Audi] and in my mind it means as much as getting a Formula One test,” Stanaway said.
“Audi is a big manufacturer programme and there is not many manufacturers involved in Formula One.”
“To get a test with a manufacturer in LMP1 you have to do it on merit, whereas getting a Formula One gig at the moment is purely about bringing sponsorship.”
Stanaway admits the chances the test will result in a LPM1 seat for next year are slim, but a good display should put him on the short-list for when one does become available.
Whatever pans out, he is keeping his options open, with his contract with Aston Martin running until the end of 2017 and a second year in GP2 looking promising.
Reaching F1 remains the dream, but a long-term professional career would almost be as satisfying.
“I’m only really focused on what I can control which is my individual performance and trying to make things work in the most efficient way possible outside of the car when it comes to networking and knowing the right people,” he said.
“Whether or not I make it to Formula One, I kind of feel like it is out of my hands and I just want to take it one year at a time.”
