Talent?

What does talent determine? i am confused!

Choose talent over everything! It cannot be changed and if you have a young driver with Talent of 20 it means, if you look after him well, he could be a future star. Talent I believe  just adds to his driving skill but its probably one of the most important atributes. Talent, Wet Weather, Fast Corners, Slow Corners, Health, Weight, Reflexes,  Aggression, Overtaking and Bravery are the main ones. All of these can be improved apart from talent threw training.

Speed: Wet Weather, Fast Corners and Slow Corners
Physical: Health, Weight, Reflexes and (Less Importantly) Stamina
Attacking: Aggression, Overtaking and Bravery.

So basically choose talent over everything! Its worth it in the future. I replaced (In my main team) a Level 8 driver with a bottom of the range Level 7 Driver because the Level 8's drivers results weren't always good enough. The Level 8 Driver had a Talent Level of 10 while my new driver has a talent level of 20! I am yet to see weather this was a wise decision though as my season is yet to start and the transfer was a Pre-Season thing. I do know however from his performance on this account that he is very good for the car he's in. And btw on average his other atributes are around 9 while his Talent is 20. I think its fair to say this shows talent is important.

Talent is important as Ross says.

However, a couple of well trained 19 talent drivers will do very well

I have an 18 Talent veteran driver (of like 9 seasons) named Dias and a 20 Talent youngster named Jones on her 3rd season. Jones is starting to outqualify her vastly more experienced teammate (4 to 2 over this season). Dias is still stronger in races, but eventually age will catch up with him and Jones' own training will put her in a good position.

I had a similar situation when I hired Jones. Dias was the junior teammate to my former lead driver Perei, but after a while, Dias was matching or beating Perei (who had 16 talent) even though Dias' stats were lower.

Talent, in my experience, is like a modifier for all the other stats. It basically is a measure of the potential of drivers.