American in Formula One

[N I Tram]

Ryan would be ideal for F1, no doubt about it, and I belive a good chunk of the US audience would cheer him on. The fact that the races are on early Sunday morning in North America doesn't help, but it didn't stop millions of Brazillians cheering Emmo, Ayrton and Nelson in F1, or Rubens and Montoya today.

[Kicking-back]

RHR would be good, although I think an American coming up through the British or European ladders will be more ready for it in due course.

[Homer Simpson]

Originally posted by Attila
...but how many 6-8 year old gokart drivers were in the US 15 years ago and how many were in whole Europe. I think that is what makes the difference.

Well said. Here in California (currently considered the "heart" of the American karting scene) there are no more than 5 karting tracks. Five! Specifically, where I live (Southern California, L.A. and O.C.) there is one indoor track (there are others, but those do not have real karts, but more like your fun disneyland type go-karts) and two outdoor tracks (one belonging to the Jim Hall Karting School). Growing up, I had no exposure whatsoever to F1 racing, and only heard about NASCAR and CART. Even then, I'd be hard pressed to name anyone besides myself among my high school or even college friends that were interested in or even knew about F1. Here in the U.S., there is no mention of F1 in the nightly broadcasts, and even during the USGP there are many stations that hardly even mention it. Motorsports is just not that big a deal here, as there are way, way too many other sports to grab your attention and money.

[GP Racer]

Originally posted by N I Tram
Ryan would be ideal for F1, no doubt about it, and I belive a good chunk of the US audience would cheer him on. The fact that the races are on early Sunday morning in North America doesn't help, but it didn't stop millions of Brazillians cheering Emmo, Ayrton and Nelson in F1, or Rubens and Montoya today.

Good point about race times, because it certainly plays a role in American interest in the sport.

It takes a serious fan to get up at 7AM on a Sunday morning for the Euro races or stay up till 1AM for the Far East races, especially with no American drivers, teams, or manufacturers involved! And Speed Channel isn't exactly a mainstream station either. Also as Homer said, there is virtually no coverage, no interviews, no race high-lights of any kind on your local news.

So really, all things considered, F1 probably does better here than it deserves to...

[freud]

Originally quoted by Michael Schumacher:

Last year it seemed as though there was a contest between our fans and the opposition. It was so noisy I asked myself whether every European in the USA had come to watch the race!

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/040616/23/4fyp.html

When MS says that all people he sees at the USGP are basically 'europeans' living in the US, he is perfectly right! See, thats the whole issue.. Not many 'real' north americans follow f1. Most are europeans who migrated to US within the past 25-50 years. And that's a major reason why not many american drivers/wannabes devote themself to f1 or even care about f1.

[Kicking-back]

Fair point.

[QuickSilver]

I would also like to see an American Team in F1

It takes a serious fan to get up at 7AM on a Sunday morning for the Euro races or stay up till 1AM for the Far East races, especially with no American drivers, teams, or manufacturers involved!

I'm pretty sure those are Ford Cosworth pistons in that Jaguar and I'm pretty sure those are Ford engineers working on that Jaguar and I'm damn sure Ford holds the purse-strings at Jaguar.

Jag IS F1's American team.

[Kicking-back]

Ford is an American company, but Jaguar is British.

It's based in Britain, using a British brand, and when it wins a race we will hear the British national anthem.

[QuickSilver]

Ford owns Jag. Jag is British only in the history books.

[Kicking-back]

It races on a British licence.

[QuickSilver]

... and don't confuse marketing with geography.

[Kicking-back]

No one sees Jaguar as an American brand though.

[QuickSilver]

... now your confusing perception and reality. you've been sold a bill of goods by a marketing company - and you're buying it.

[Kicking-back]

Er, no.

[QuickSilver]

as long as you thing Jag is British, er yes.

[Kicking-back]

The parent company is American.

Jaguar is a British-based arm of that company.

It's a British brand.

The team is based in Britain.

The team uses a British entry in Formula One.

[garcon]

Jaguar Racing Ltd is the company that runs the Jaguar F1 team. (And does nothing but that.) It is a British company, registered at Companies House, and does not have a parent company as such. Obviously, FoMoCo has an interest in the company, by allowing them to use the Jaguar name for a start, and Ford does provide a proportion of the budget, but Jaguar Racing is an independent concern that Ford decided to buy into rather than a Ford team.

[Kicking-back]

How long till we hear God save the Queen when they take their first Grand Prix win?

[crozier74]

Yeesh, keep it down in there!

I agree with KB on this one. Jag may be part of an American consortium, but that's only one side of things. All the other stuff makes it a British team. National anthem on the podium, location, staff, entry, history. It was formed in Britain, by Brits. Jaguar IS British. Case closed.

Now let's get back on topic before a rant between two members turns into a bashing which leads to the closure of an otherwise decent thread.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by crozier74

Now let's get back on topic before a rant between two members turns into a bashing which leads to the closure of an otherwise decent thread.

It wasn't a rant, or bashing!

I was just standing my ground.


Anyway - on the subject of an American driver in Formula One, do we think Richard Antinucci could be the one?

European-raised, he's currently in Japanese F3.

Has the family contacts and appears to have decent backing.

[crozier74]

Could well be. I think he's one of the top US road course drivers atm, and certainly helped boost his status with his victory in the Korean GP last year.

I think that Antinucci, Hunter-Reay and Allmendinger are the ones with the best chances at this point in time. But are of them on any F1 team/manufacturer's junior training/ladder scheme? If a US driver can get into the Renault, Toyota or McLaren young driver training groups, they'll boost their chances of making it to F1 significantly.

[QuickSilver]

My apologies to KB and crozier if my opinion caused any undue angst. It certainly wasn't intended that way.

As for up and comer American drivers, how 'bout A.J. Foyt VI. If genes account for anything (Andretti's, Uncer's, Villeneuve's, Earnhart's etc.) he may have a bright future. His grandfather won Indy 4 times and could drive the wheels off anything with an engine in it.

AJF VI was the 2002 champion in the Infiniti Pro series. Last year he was the youngest starter ever at Indy. Admittedly it's still early days (he's 20 years old) but it will be interesting to watch his career. Whether that includes F1, who knows.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by QuickSilver
My apologies to KB and crozier if my opinion caused any undue angst. It certainly wasn't intended that way.

No worries! It didn't offend me!


As for your point about AJ Foyt IV - I think his IndyCar drives this year confirm he'll never be F1 material.

[QuickSilver]

What constitutes F1 material? This is the sport than suffered underacheivers like HHF, Tora Takagi, Shinji Nakano and arguably Eddie Irvine and DC.

At 20 years old and with a name like Foyt, I think one would be allowed to stumble (once). But I'll admit if he stays on current form, he's toast.

[Kicking-back]

HHF - a grand prix winner on several occasions.
DC - a grand prix winner on 13 occasions
EI - a grand prix winner on several occasions

Hardly underachievers!

And Takagi regularly shows Foyt IV the way home in IRL races.

It just seems to be a bizarre suggestion as a potential F1 driver.

If you want an American IRL driver in F1, Buddy Rice has much better credentials than Foyt.