American in Formula One

[D-bass]

American champ car racer, Rayan Hunter-Reay wants to move over to race in Formula One, he said that F1 is simply the highest level of racing in the world, the pinnacle of motorsport, and that’s where I want to be.

I think he should stay where he is, Michael Andretti, a huge American racing star, came over to Formula One in 1993 and it wasn’t a great success.

[krt917]

That's partly because he didn't fully commit. I think that it is good that American drivers these days seem interested in F1. I like many things about racing in the U.S, but the level does tend to be higher in F1 and so I can understand RH-R wanting to prove himself there.

It would be good for F1 too - it is meant to be a World championship. I don't know if RH-R is theAmerican driver I'd pick, but it's good to hear of his interest.

[BootsOntheSide]

Michael had a family at the time of his entry to F1, and chose to commute form America rather than moving to be closer to the McLaren team, and he supposedly didn't put much effort into sorting out his initial problems.

Ryan would be able to move across, races in a series which is now almost entirely road/street courses rather than ovals (although his dominant win on Sunday was an oval - an absolute snooze compared to the Indy 500 b the way), and clearly values ion very highly, and has from an early stage of his career.

Also, his grounding was in Karts and Formula Ford, similar to a tyical European racer, rather than on dirt-track ovals that many US guys learn on. He clearly has some talent, and could be as good as anyone.

[Kicking-back]

If team owners are intent on finding an American driver, Ryan should be at the top of their list.

[jj2728]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
If team owners are intent on finding an American driver, Ryan should be at the top of their list.

i fully agree.......

[esorniloc]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
If team owners are intent on finding an American driver, Ryan should be at the top of their list.

Why not Hornish?

[Kicking-back]

Ryan has a road-racing background.

He has wins in Toyota atlantic and in Champ Car.

Hornish was midfield at best in Atlantic and his IRL career has been, obviously, solely on ovals.

Hunter-Reay's ambition has always been F1, Hornish has always been dreaming of Indy.

I'd be interested to see how Hornish would go in an F1 test - but you need desire, and Hunter-Reay has that, as well as "supportive" financial backers, and advice from a former GP driver in Stefan Johansson.

[Spudgun]

The Red-Bull sponsored American drivers in Formula Renault are looking good. I wouldn't be surprised if Scott Speed's name (apt name eh?) pops up in the next couple of years.

[grumpy1]

If you are refering to the David Richards comment on a American to move to F1 I think you will find he has been slightly miss quoted.He was not talking about an American driver rather a driver in the American IRL series.Who he is will remain a mystery for most for a while yet.

The Grumpy1

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by grumpy1
If you are refering to the David Richards comment on a American to move to F1 I think you will find he has been slightly miss quoted.He was not talking about an American driver rather a driver in the American IRL series.Who he is will remain a mystery for most for a while yet.

The Grumpy1

Don't see any reference to Dave Richards here.

This story was sparked by an article on Ryan Hunter Reay's ambitions in F1.

[Mackmot]

I think I might have found the next American F1 champ, I just hope he drives for me, then I'll publicise him loads

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by Mackmot
I think I might have found the next American F1 champ, I just hope he drives for me, then I'll publicise him loads

Not Ross is it?

[Mackmot]

No hehehe, I wish hed sort out some money though.

[Snrub]

The idea that American's cannot compete in F1 is a truely Euro-snob opinion. We seem to have to have this stupid discussion weekly. Pull thy head from thy arse. What was the difference between that and JV (a Canadian) comming over and winning the WDC? For that matter what was the difference between MS comming out of Germany and winning the WDC?

That said, I can't stand it that when an American says he wouldn't mind doing F1 and it becomes international news.

[Mackmot]

I never said they cant, all that happens is that Americans often refuse or cant afford to come to Europe where they will get noticed and tend to end up sticking to American racing such as IRL NasCar where they can earn money.

It not a racist thing its just geography and economy

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by D-bass
I think he should stay where he is, Michael Andretti, a huge American racing star, came over to Formula One in 1993 and it wasn’t a great success.

Gee, if a great American star like Michael Andretti couldn't make it, than I guess they'll never be an American good enough, eh?

Geez, what dribble...

[freud]

Originally posted by D-bass
American champ car racer, Rayan Hunter-Reay wants to move over to race in Formula One, he said that F1 is simply the highest level of racing in the world, the pinnacle of motorsport, and that’s where I want to be.

I think he should stay where he is, Michael Andretti, a huge American racing star, came over to Formula One in 1993 and it wasn’t a great success.

I agree.

I dont think that american drivers understand the formula one atmosphere. Juan Pablo (a south american who loved INDY) has found it tough to adapt. Basically formula-one is more 'mind' than anything else. European drivers have raced in those circuits and among those people for ages and they know best how to talk to the engineers, how to handle the pressure and also, they are more technical. American drivers are more 'gung-ho', who are willing to drive at limit without too much finesse. Anyway imho an american driver can potentially succeed in f1 if he really does some racing in europe prior to getting in f1. Like e.g. JV had a good background of racing in europe and then went to US and then ame back again and blended so perfectly in the f1 world.

However a rookie american guy would just find it too difficult. For hunter-raeyay, if he want to drive in f1, I would say 'start with f3000'.

[JohnSSC]

JohnSSC stands up in his Amurriken house, scratches his private-type areas and sez: "Well golllleee!" Us 'mericans likes to run on themdirt tracks - not much use for paved surfaces 'ceptin to put a Wal-Mart parkin lot on!

Snrub and GP Racer, I agree 100% with you! Sure, since Europeans are all European, they have an automatic, inbred, uncanny ability to understand how to drive an F1 car and us poor wretches runnin' around on unpaved ovals (how gauche!) like the rustic little critters we are just can never hope to match up to the Sofisteecayshun of your average Europeen racing car driver.

Michael Andretti seems to be the poster boy for why our kind can't do well in F1. Seems to me there was a fellow by the name of Phil Hill who did not do so badly, or Peter Revson, or Dan Gurney. Just to name a few. Now Mario Andretti was born in Italy, so obviously his genetic makeup included the chromosome for understanding who the heck Flavio Briatore is and what he does.

Just to illuminate our friends in Europe, most drivers here today get their start in Karts, run Formula Fords and all manner of open wheel racing cars on courses with right and left hand turns AND non-dirt paved surfaces! Why, some of them even have passports and have used them to go places other than Canada, Mexico and Arkansas (which to many here IS a foreign country).

I would happily take a guy like Jeff Gordon and watch him kick just about anyone's arse who is currently in F1 today.

And by the way, Michael got the shaft from Senna - who had "retired" if you recall and then decided to drop back into the team. I also agree that Michael did not fully commit but neither did the team commit to him. It takes the whole package to be successful in F1. At the time he went there were many who though that Al Unser Jr was actually the better choice.

Sorry for the rant but before you make assumptions about what we all do and how we learn to drive racing cars try to get your facts straight.

[freud]

*sniff*
Very funny

Originally posted by JohnSSC

I would happily take a guy like Jeff Gordon and watch him kick just about anyone's arse who is currently in F1 today.

Dont you just 'wish'..
I wish that kid had gotten a f1 seat... he roamed around too much. Its a tough racket..aint it.

[D-bass]

Independent study

Fifty American drivers have participated in the Formula One World Championship (excluding the Indianapolis 500), beginning with Harry Schell at Monaco in 1950. Eddie Cheever made the most appearances (143) and also drove for the most teams (9).
http://home.cinci.rr.com/usgp/history/am_presence.html

With the Formula One tour revisiting the US you might have expected visitors to the Indianapolis circuit to be curious motorsports fans, with no particular allegiance to Formula One. If you did, you would have been wrong. Despite a ten-year absence, America’s passion toward Formula One remains undiminished. An independent study* conducted by Performance Research suggests that real US Formula One fans exist.

In fact when the respondents were asked to rate their interest in Formula One on a scale of one to ten where ten is high, three-fourths (75%) gave Formula One either a ‘9’ or ‘10’ rating. So how did this compare to other established US motorsports? Well, roughly one-fourth (24%) awarded CART, a ‘9’ or ‘10’ rating, and fewer than one-fifth (15%) awarded NASCAR a ‘9’ or ‘10’ rating, indicating there is a unique Formula One audience in the US and not just a bi-product of interest in other US
Motorsports.

Moreover, almost all (91%) of the respondents reported watching Formula One on television during the past month, in contrast fewer than two-thirds (62%) reported watching CART. When respondents were asked to choose the statement which best described themselves, just over one-half (53%) chose the statement "I am a diehard Formula One fan and will attend as many races as I can. The remaining respondents expressed interest in other US motorsports.

With a US Formula One fan base clearly in place, how would the other big race pan out? The other race is of course,

the battle of the sponsors.
During unaided awareness questioning, the most frequently mentioned sponsor was SAP (58%), followed by Marlboro (46%) and Mercedes (33%). When respondents were asked to identify sponsors from a list aided recall was high, with almost all (96%) of the respondents correctly identifying Mercedes, Jaguar (94%), Yahoo! (91%) and SAP (86%).

Further good news for SAP was the finding that over two-thirds (68%) of respondents correctly attributed them as the primary sponsor of the US Grand Prix.
The good news didn’t just stop at sponsor awareness. Almost two-thirds (63%) of fans believed Formula One sponsors have more interest in their customers than non-sponsors. Over one-half of US Formula One fans reported that they personally benefit from corporate sponsorship of Formula One. Just over one-third believed that sponsorship "Makes the race possible".

Finally, when questioned about loyalty to sponsors products, over one-half of the respondents reported they would "Frequently" or "Almost always" preferentially choose a sponsors product, compared to a non-sponsors product. Not bad considering that ten-year absence!
Editorial Information

[Tazio]

From memory the year Micheal raced in F1 there was a large reduction in the amount of testing that a team could do.
This would have contributed to him having a tough first year

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by freud
I agree.

Juan Pablo (a south american who loved INDY) has found it tough to adapt.

Slightly misrepresenting JPM, I fear.

He raced in British F Vauxhall and F3, and was champion in F3000.

The "love" of Indy was more by circumstance than design.

As for finding it difficult to adapt to F1, that has more to do with a poor car than much else.

[BootsOntheSide]

Freud, goign to F3000 might not make any difference. Tehre are currently 3 F3000 champins in CART (Junquiera, Bourdais and Wilson) and only 2 in F1 (Heidfeld and Panis (and that was before the current one-make rules were added)). Even last year's dominant champion Bjorn Wirdheim only got a testing deal.

The other factor is that guys who aren't used to Europe but appear promising often struggle in F3000 - Craig Lowndes, Ryan Briscoe and Cristiano da Matta are good examples - and failure in F3000 often severely sets back a career (at one point Mario haberfeld was the Next Big Thing - this year he didn't get a CART drive until a month before the start of the season despite a moderately encouraging rookie year)

[429CJ]

Often is forgotten, that American driver was a F1 World Champion way before any French or German driver.
Heck, even New Zealand, Austria and Finland beat those countries.

[Snrub]

Originally posted by Mackmot
I never said they cant, all that happens is that Americans often refuse or cant afford to come to Europe where they will get noticed and tend to end up sticking to American racing such as IRL NasCar where they can earn money.

It not a racist thing its just geography and economy

I wasn't meaning it towards you, I had no problem with the opinions you expressed. You're right, there's definately a reason that there aren't Americans in F1, but they're not the reasons some suggest.