WHY F1 HASN'T CAUGHT ON IN THE USA?

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:32 pm

Yes, Its coming over the top, into the corkscrew I was thinking about

RE30B#16 · Post by **RE30B#16** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:47 pm

VTEC wrote:All valid points but I also think F1 is looked upon here as an elitist sport and not mainstream making people shy away from it.

Some of the biggest snobs don't have 2 pots to piss in! I hear a lot of NASCAR fans complain about attitudes in racing, but the simple fact is most Americans who like Formula 1, pay attention to world sports prototype racing, CART, IRL, and sometimes NASCAR. You cannot say the same about the vast majority of NASCAR fans. I don't mean to bag on NASCAR, but there is a reason for this.

Most Americans are not very well travelled. As a culture these days, we are so self-absorbed that we cannot see anything else. Even that is limited to what's on TV tonight. Most people in Los Angeles can recite the first and last names of each character from the popular sitcom "Friends," but they can't tell you the name of the major and even one city-coucilman!

CART is losing the media battle with NASCAR which has gone from being a good-ole boy sport to "America's racing" with a fan response almost like some misplaced national pride. It is creepy. Having said that, I think it's great for American racing in general that NASCAR has some terriffic driver/personalities like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earhardt, Jr.

Formula 1 needs to have a race at one of America's premiere race tracks like Road America in addition to Indianapolis, but they should open qualifying to any privateer who may want to contest only those races with their own drivers. Can you imagine Chip Gannassi showing up with Tomas Schekter to qualify against Jacques Villeneuve in Indianapolis? AJ Foyt shows up with a car for AJ Foyt IV!

That would get America's attention!!

Americans need to be more visable in the sport for F1 to flourish like it once did in the 70s, but it's gonna take more than just an American driver. It has to be a charimatic American driver like Dale Jr or a leadfoot like Tony Stewart to do it. The team needs to be sponsored by CocaCola or Starbuck's Coffee and Pennsoil. Americans need to feel like something is at stake or else it won't matter. It's sad but true.

Chris

Shifter · Post by **Shifter** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 4:42 am

RE30B#16 wrote:CART is losing the media battle with NASCAR which has gone from being a good-ole boy sport to "America's racing" with a fan response almost like some misplaced national pride. It is creepy.

There was a groundswell of criticisim of NASCAR by a sizeable portion of its fans for part of the series racing in Mexico. The politics of illegal immigration aside, the criticism was, at its roots, founded on racism

. You won't get THESE people interested in a world sport like F1 where Spaniards battle Brazillians battle Germans. To them, if a fat slob like themselves can't fit in the race car or work on it than the whole thing is no good (of course, they could just lose the weight and stop being so stupid).

Thats my rant.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:52 am

Maybe McDonalds could sponsor Scott Speed, with additional signage from Bud, hungry jacks, Starbucks, and Krispy Kream donuts, with Homer Simpson as the team mascot

Horoldo · Post by **Horoldo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:13 am

Hi,

I Don't think Laguna Seca is the answer either. I think the best way would be to run a street circuit at either LA or Las Vegas and one in NY or Miami.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 11:23 am

Street circuits have been tried in the past, with poor results.

Shifter · Post by **Shifter** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:24 pm

Horoldo wrote:Hi,

I Don't think Laguna Seca is the answer either. I think the best way would be to run a street circuit at either LA or Las Vegas and one in NY or Miami.

Ceaser's Palace all over again? That would drive the sport out of the U.S. altogheter.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:29 pm

Alan Jones still shakes his head about U.S. street circuits

RE30B#16 · Post by **RE30B#16** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:37 pm

Shifter wrote:There was a groundswell of criticisim of NASCAR by a sizeable portion of its fans for part of the series racing in Mexico. The politics of illegal immigration aside, the criticism was, at its roots, founded on racism . You won't get THESE people interested in a world sport like F1 where Spaniards battle Brazillians battle Germans.

That is a damn shame! America is in serious trouble, but don't take my word for it.

No wonder we are at war.

Chris

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:58 pm

I think we had best keep American Politics and War out of the threads. We start plenty of 'wars' on F1 as it is.

I think, if an American was doing well in formula one, American interest would swell. But he or she would have to do well for some time and attract household name Sponsors, for it to really take off

The interest in F1 in OZ has risen dramatically since Mark Webber started racing for Jaguar, and more so since he moved to Williams, because of the name association with Alan Jones, and WINNING!

Both countries sit up and take notice if they have a winner, esp., a CHAMPION

Severian · Post by **Severian** » Wed May 04, 2005 4:54 pm

I've read through this topic and many good points are introduced.

I have many friends, but only two are racing fans and of those two only one is an F1 fan like myself. The three of us go to the local dirt track every Saturday night. It's a well run track and draws a good fan base. It would probably would seat around 3,000 people if you packed them in. Compare that to the minor league baseball (Single A) stadium 10 miles away that seats 6,500+ and they pack them in every night there's a home game. They have about 60 games a season compared to a little over 20 for the dirt track and you can drink beer at each event so there's no differnce there (hey, it's important... hehe). This illustrates one problem - there's just not a whole lot of racing fans in the US per capita.

There's a lot of discussion about the proper venue. Which track(s) would be best for an F1 race in the US? This is another problem - none. We need some billionaire racing fan to build a new facility. Of all the new F1 tracks that have been built around the world in the past few years, none of them really grabs my attention as a great track. Why can't they build more tracks like Spa-Francorchamps??? That's always my favorite race of the year and the drivers love it. If you've ever played an F1 computer game you probably love it too.

Build a great track and as others have said get an all US team with US sponsors and we might stand a chance. Just don't put it in North Carolina... hehe.

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Wed May 04, 2005 5:08 pm

That's a good point, how about starting a groundswell movement for a new track? Paul Newman might kick in a few bucks, or Buds

JayVee · Post by **JayVee** » Wed May 04, 2005 6:26 pm

Severian

We need more F1 fans from across the big pond so eventually there could be another US driver and so eventually there could be a US team and so eventually there could be some great racing tracks

Or is that not the way it is supposed to work

Put 6 races in North America. 3 in the US, 2 in Canada and 1 in Mexico and watch the interest skyrocket

Julian Mayo · Post by **Julian Mayo** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:10 pm

JayVee wrote: Severian

We need more F1 fans from across the big pond so eventually there could be another US driver and so eventually there could be a US team and so eventually there could be some great racing tracks
Or is that not the way it is supposed to work

Put 6 races in North America. 3 in the US, 2 in Canada and 1 in Mexico and watch the interest skyrocket

Then the Americans willl take it over, change the specs, and call it CART

Severian · Post by **Severian** » Wed May 04, 2005 7:33 pm

Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah, don't give us too many races or we'll ruin it.. hehe. Tony George ruined CART, ruined the Indianapolis 500 and created the IRL which sucks! Basically he single-handedly destroyed open wheel racing in the US and inadvertently made NASCAR as popular as it is. Other than local tracks, US racing has really gone down hill. I used to be as big a CART fan as F1 back in the Mansell/Senna days. Then, the 500 was a yearly spectacle, now it's just weak.