Pay Driver is a driver for a professional auto racing team who, instead of being paid by the owner of their car, drives for free and brings with them either personal sponsorship or personal or family funding to finance the team's operations.
Among them are Malaysian Alex Yoong, Russian Vitalij Petrov, Indonesian Rio Haryanto (all the first drivers from their respective countries to compete in F1), and above all Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado who, between 2011 and 2015, had a guaranteed seat in F1 thanks to the enormous support of the state-run oil company PDVSA and of his country's president Hugo Chávez, a friend of his family, thanks to whom he brought a total of 35 million dollars. For 2022, Guanyu Zhou has signed a one-year contract with Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen thanks to sponsorship from the Chinese government, becoming the first Chinese driver to compete in Formula 1.
One of the most well-known paying drivers is Lance Stroll, son of billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who, after racing for Williams as a paying driver, now races with Force India, now called Aston Martin F1 Team, which his father purchased with the express intention of having his son race.
In 2021, another paying driver, Nikita Mazepin, entered Formula One thanks to a sponsorship from Uralkali, owned by his father, Dmitri Mazepin, who had become the title sponsor of Haas. Subsequently, following tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Haas decided to terminate both contracts and instead compete under the name Uralkali Haas F1 Team for the 2021 season only.
There have also been drivers supported by some major engine manufacturers, again often by virtue of their nationality: pay-drivers are cases in which the team guarantees the driver a seat in exchange for favors from the engine supplier (greater technical assistance, discounts on supplies, etc.). The most frequent cases were Japanese drivers such as Satoru Nakajima, Aguri Suzuki, and Shinji Nakano, who, between the late 1980s and 1990s, were able to participate in the F1 championship thanks to Honda's support. In the 2000s, Honda itself significantly facilitated the career of Takuma Sato, while in the same period Kazuki Nakajima obtained a place at Williams thanks to the support of Toyota, the engine supplier of the English team.