The Marussia F1 Team has named Max Chilton as its reserve driver for the six remaining races of the season. The team’s test driver Maria de Villota was injured during an aerodynamic tests in the run-up to the British Grand Prix. Chilton will join with the team at the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka on October 7.
He is the son of insurance magnate Grahame Chilton, who is Vice Chairman of Aon Group, one of the world’s largest insurance groups, with assets of $29.5 billion and profits in 2011 of just under $1 billion. Chilton owns the Carlin team, which runs cars in GP2, the Renault World Series, British Formula 3 Championship and GP3.
There have been rumours for some time that Chilton might buy into the Russian-owned team in order to assist his son’s career. These have been denied by the team.
Does he have any skill, Joe? Dad’s clearly cashed up, but will Max cut it in the big league?
Cheers
Julian F
Marussia is not the big league.
In any event I think the answer is NO! – A bit like big brother in WTC; no-points
Okay, presumably the clouds are parting re the WTC (former BTCC) Team Aon now too.
Judging by his results on wikipedia, he’s certainly faster than me, but McLaren are unlikely to be bidding for him?
He’d be better off sponsoring Williams and in a couple of years get the kid into a decent car with Pasta as a teammate
I Used to watch his dad in BTCC, I think he was then a privateer, always a good mid field. (before he went to WTC)
It must be a disadvantage having a father who used to be pretty good, you start with everyone thinking “Is he as good as his dad?” To get anywhere he needs to be better than his father, not many are!
Except the one you were watching in BTCC was not his father, it was his older brother Tom. By the way, daddy owns Tom’s WTCC team as well (Arena)
I think it was his brother Tom Chilton who was in the BTCC and went to the WTCC this year
Dad?
One that looks promising is Carlos Sainz Jr. Different discipline to his Pop I know but from what I’ve seen of this kid he looks special. I watched him win the prestigious Monaco karting event by a country mile a couple of years ago and he’s giving older drivers a hard time in F3 at the moment. Can it be too long before he plants himself on F1 radar (if he hasn’t already?). Not sure about Kevin (son of Jan) Magnusson or the Palmer, Brundle or Mansell boys to be honest. Decent drivers I’m sure but the Sainz kid looks super quick. Anyone know if he’s rated in F1 circles yet?
I think he is part of the Red Bull Junior Team? Perhaps he will be next into Toro Rosso in a few years, they also picked up Antonio Felix da Costa as ‘next in line’ I suppose until then, and they have Daniil Kvyat too
Carlos Jr is a good driver, but may be suffering a little from Red Bull pressure at times.
His form in F3 has been patchy at times, but when he’s on it, he’s very very quick; however there have been far too many weekends where he has been anonymous on track.
If nothing else, he probably moved up to F3 a year too early and it has hurt him at times.
He could be an excellent prospect, if he is allowed to grow as a racer and mature naturally, but in my experience Red Bull tend not to allow their young drivers to do that.
No harm having a bit of cash! To be fair to him, I think he’s not short of talent. So good luck to him! if only the best drivers reached F1 the grid would be half empty.
bye bye Pic?
You need to do a bit more homework on Pic…
Jean-François: Does Groupe Charles Andre ring a bell…?
*If* PIC leaves – it’s to go to a better team. Cash is king my friend.
Max isn’t a bad racer, but he’s not great either. He’s always come across as a driver with immense single lap pace, but has tended to fade a lot during races.
As an aside, Luca Filippi’s insta-pace on his return to GP2 has once again put many of the regulars in the shade.
I think you are looking it the wrong way, Luca was beating Grosjean in the 2nd half of last year. Romain apparently is faster than Kimi so I would say being close to Luca in GP2 is not half bad.
As you say, Max gets stick for the cash situation, but he is definitely quick enough for GP2.
Can’t overtake, mind.
Filippi deserves a shot at F1, as does Valsechi but it seems unless you bring big family or sponsor money, the ladder ends very abruptly at GP2, which in itself is silly money at £2m/season.
Apparently the Pics are looking to move up the grid, so a seat at Caterham or maybe Williams is a possibility.
Joe, any idea on what kind of funding the likes of Maldonado/Pic/Petrov bring to their respective teams?
I understand Perez brings money via Telmex but what, if any, does Kobiyashi bring also?
Defining pay-drivers is not easy. Because there is Mexican money at Sauber does not mean that Perez is a pay-driver. It helped (obviously) but he had proven his worth in GP2, as indeed did Maldonado, Pic, Petrov etc. Alonso is not a pay-driver because Santander wants to follow him around. Anyway, the numbers are:
Maldonado $55m
Pic $8m
Petrov $10m
Kobayashi is paid.
Agree that it’s difficult to define ‘pay drivers’ but there’s a difference between Santander backing Alonso because he’s Spanish and one of the two or three best racing drivers in the world (perhaps *the* best) and Aon backing Chilton because Daddy’s on the board. Maldonado’s an interesting edge case. I bet that the Maldonado family have connections with PDVSA and the Chavez government in Venezuela, but on the other hand, he’s a man who can stick a Williams on the front row at Singapore and, when he’s not running into other drivers, looks to be as quick as anyone…
Shame Ferrari doesn’t do anything whatsoever to support this countryman, Luca Filippi…or any Italian drivers. If I recall, he was faster than Sato in a Super Aguri testing back when Sato was a very fast driver by all accounts. It’s just a damn shame money always has a say over pure talent.
There’s no point beating around the bush: Max Chilton is a pay driver.
If he was from Brazil or Venezuela we’d certainly be calling him that.
His results in GP2 are average in the extreme. One win and a third place in three seasons? Hardly F1 material.
He’d be nowhere near F1 if it wasn’t for his old man’s deep pockets.
I know AON has strong revenues and profits but I wonder how shareholders feel about the company spending so much money on Chilton’s career just because his Dad sits on the board?
I think it’s fair to say that Pic is doing a pretty good job in that car,and he now has a season under his belt which does not come cheap. It takes two seasons to judge the value of a driver. keep the young guys in F1 and lose some of the midfield deadwood.
Has there been any further news on Maria de Villota? Seems that all news stopped in July with nothing since she returned to Spain.
It would be nice to know she is OK and recovering well.
Any news on Petrov’s future?