Jake Dennis won the US electric car racing title a week and a half ago for the US Andretti team, but he doesn’t really expect this success to help him move into Formula 1, even if Michael Andretti’s application for a new team is granted.
This despite the fact that he has been actively working with Red Bull Racing as a simulator driver for five years. Moreover, once, namely in 2018, he drove a real RB14 car for two days during tests in Hungary.
You can understand Dennis’s logic: if the Andretti Cadillac project is implemented, Colton Herta will most likely take one place in the future team, and for the second she will try to find an experienced Formula 1 driver, and not a beginner.
“Even if everything works out for Andretti, I don’t think I’ll get the chance to play for this team,” The Race quoted the Briton as saying. “I imagine they take one American and apparently an experienced man, because that certainly makes sense.”
But this is just one of the considerations, because you also have to take into account the age of Dennis, who turned 28 in June, and he understands that all too well. As well as the fact that playing at a high level in Formula E is, from his point of view, better than being doomed to eternally fight for positions in the middle of the pack in F1.
“Look, for example, at Nick de Vries, who won the title at the end of the eighth season of Formula E,” says Dennis. “But when he moved to F1, it didn’t work, and there is no way to go back to Formula E, because this series is second to Formula 1 in terms of level. Moving to F1 brings a lot of risks with either succeed or nothing happens.
If this were the question then I would have to make a difficult decision as it is difficult to expect Andretti to deliver a competitive car. Even if you’re driving the best race of your life, but driving a car like the AlphaTauri, no one will notice.
Say you manage to finish 12th instead of 14th, beating your partner by a minute at the same time, but no one will know. In Formula 1, McLaren, Ferrari and of course Red Bull are in the spotlight, because this is on a whole different level.
In F1 it is very difficult to prove yourself unless you get a car that you can fight for top ten places.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
