Growing up, Sunday afternoons had certain visceral associations. That unmistakable Fleetwood Mac bass guitar solo, the turbocharged howl of one thousand horsepower V6s, and of course Murray Walker’s frantic and frequently befuddled tones. One association that certainly isn’t in the memory banks however, is the camera zooming in on Nigel Mansell’s mum or Alain Prost’s dad in the pit garages.
Perhaps you can discount this – after all, in times past there were fewer cameras in fewer places. Our perception of F1 drivers is surely just like that of policemen; their youthful appearance simply a reflection of the ever accumulating years one carries. Or, just maybe – they really are getting younger. And if so, why? Especially when Le Mans seems to be a retirement home for household names, and rally masters like Sébastien Loeb are still sending it hard into their fifties. What forces – physiological, technological or commercial – might be shifting the dial, moving that window of opportunity ever younger for any kind of career at the top level of motorsport? And why might that career last significantly longer in endurance racing or rallying?
Before we disappear down into the depths of this particularly wondrous rabbit hole, let me arm you, me and Alice with some cold hard numbers to set the stage. Firstly, yes, F1 drivers really are getting younger. In 1975, 15 drivers on the grid were over the age of 30. In 1985, it was down to eight. Now, it is just three. Only one F1 driver over the age of 40 (Mansell in 1994) has won a race in the last 55 years.
