Been there, tried that too. But here's the "drill".
First, you go to Great Britan... buy a $7K - $10K Go-Kart. (used price and I'm not kidding.) After a coupld of seasons of running up front, you buy an F3 (formula 3) or Formula 5000. Both cost about $75K. Then after you win the F3 or F5000 national championship (BRAC) you might get a test drive with a F-1 team... as long as you bring around $10 million in sponsorship.
Or if your Daddy has lots of money (like owns Italy or something), you can buy a ride with one of the lesser teams in their "second" car... forget Ferrari, or McClaren, but Arrows, Benatone, or similar... Bring at least 50 million. Really, these are "paid for seats".
Or, win the CART championship. Then you may get a paid "ride". Ala Alex Zarnardi, Michael Andretti, or Joch Villnerve. Alex and Michael were "dismissed" after one season in F-1.
I raced in the "ModSports" national championship in England in the late 70's. I placed 3rd in the championship my first year. I was foolish enough to approach March abouit a ride in their "works F3". They told me that if I won the Formula Ford championship the next season that they would let me pay for a F3 ride.
A friend/close competator of mine, Ryan Hampton won the GrandAM SRPII Rolex series championship (I think it was 1999, but maybe 2000.) In essence he paid for the "rides" to win the championship... and he still has to pay for "rides".
One last "truth" about "pro" racing. I went to Daytona test days in Jan of 2000 looking to buy a "seat" in the Rolex 24. I had arranged with Archangle Motorsports to do a test drive. (Archangle Motorsports was at the time THE top SRPII team... Ryan Hampton won his championship with them)... Anyway... when I got there I found out that there were a few drivers looking to "buy" the seat. I asked the owner. Michael, how he would decide which drivers would get the seats (4 drivers for the 24 hour race)... was it either the ones who did the fastest laps, or was it the ones who did the most consistant laps. His answer was... "I don't care what the times are. The first one with the money gets the seat". The "seat" was $35,000 per driver... I watched on TV.