The child is, to paraphrase the old saying, the parent to the adult. There is not a single driver on today's Formula 1 grid who can deny that his childhood dreams and experiences informed his life; led him on the path to F1.
Of course, only a select few make it to the pinnacle of motorsport; get to spearhead a team effort measured in hundreds (or even thousands) of dedicated folk covering virtually every professional discipline.
A structured staircase of motorsport categories ranging from karting through feeder single-seater formulas through Formula 3 and Formula 2, plus various young driver academies, whittles tens of thousands of hopeful kids down to hundreds, then tens before one of their number eventually proves to have the talent to make it into F1.