Forum topic: Youth Driver training - a bit pointless now

I really do hope there is an element of loyalty while training Youths. Will be way to easy to poach people who have been trained well.
Frank can you shed some light on this.
I would think that the youths would expect a pay rise going into the main driver roles but there should be consideration for the length of time they have been with the team as a youth driver as money has been spent training them.
It could be something similar to what the Australian defense force do where if you have a year of training you are required to give a year back.
3 years training 3 years back.

Given that the element of selling is a no go tabboo zone, there needs to be SOMETHING beneficial to investing in youths.

At the moment you could train up a brilliant driver, only to not afford his demands when it comes to race.

As suggested, maybe if they have raced three lower tiers with you (ie, 12, 15 and 18) then they should drive as a main driver for at least one year on a reduced salary with consistent high morale no matter the result.

This means he may be shit, but at least the team is boosted by using him from your home pool as a worst case scenario.

That in itself is a reason to use your own youths, even just as a no.2 driver to boost the team dynamics.

To be fair even pinching youth drivers isnt very productive as most teams quite rightly remove them from training as soon as they sign for another team, unless you can grab them after they are 18 then you end up with a driver that hasnt driven for 2, 3, and even 4 seasons.

The whole youth system just isnt great if you ask me, id say you should be able to lock a youth driver in until they hit 18 unless certain clauses are broken, i.e. they dont race a certain number of races. That way we could give them the training they require and our investment would hopefully be worth the time.

You mean have a long term contract by default? That could be a good idea.

Sign until 15 or 18, then the trainee team has first refusal to sign them further before others can poach them. That would make sense. I have seen some youths change teams aged 15 etc. This must be infuriating to the trainer, all that effort then they have to leave.

And like you say, certain demands and requirements are is shown now, ie minimum no. of races etc.

Yep, a default youth contract that would last a set amount of years. If the youth improved then it would be possible to reward them with a new contract but the length would always be until 18 or another chosen age.

I feel guilty having signed some youths from other teams but then again i have lost out as they haven been racing so by the time they come to be it may well be too late for them. Potential superstars getting left on the scrap heap perhaps?

I lose my best youth driver soon as he signed for someone else, Stephan McPhail. I'm seriously not happy about losing him either.

He is a nice driver Matthew

The updated contracts system will put a premium on good drivers in the coming seasons as there wont be as many youths coming through the ranks.
It does take away a bit from Pitwall as I have been looking forward to training up some young ones and seeing them blossom. I still will train youths but I won't be putting in the effort to pay heaps for a better coach.
I know the aim is to make things a real as possible within reason but I dont know if in this instance its a complete positive as it will mean people wont be filling their youth spots. Its now costing more but there has never been financial reward for having them.
I know it would be a huge change but maybe the youth "job pool" needs to be removed all together and just give teams the ability to create youth drivers and who ever they create stays with them until the are old enough to race. When a new team joins they can create youths for all age groups but from then on only 3/4 year olds can be created each season.
I know its a long way off whats happening now but it might add a "less serious" element to a part of pitwall where people arent limited by their budget

yes if that is what is happening only new drivers getting added to the pool are kids then yes in ten seasons time the situation will be very differant!! and those that have invested in a youth program will be rewarded - however i still think you should be able to hire the drivers on a youth contract until they are 18 or 21. and they should be happy with a token payment of up to 20k - this should be considered 'sponsor money' for the 'youth team' that they are driving for in a lower echelon of racing

Tim, look at my second driver, Gonzalez, He was never a junior, and he's still a really good driver. The system creates new drivers/staff all the time, so even without any youth system in place, decent to great drivers will still be created and available