American F1 Team – USF1 Who Cares?

Since moving to the US four years ago, I have found it extremely hard to find someone who I can hold more than a 30 second conversation with about Formula One.  In fact, 30 seconds can usually only be achieved when the other person is informing me, usually in a fake Southern drawl, that “folks around here don’t much care for open wheel racing”.

I’ve given up trying to sell F1 over here – it’s a lost cause, and like all good sales people will tell you; it’s time to give up when you hear no three times – and I passed that milestone a long time ago.  It initially surprised me because each F1 race attracts 600 million viewers across the globe.  And where else in the world do people love cars and sports more than in America?

So if conventional logic dictates that America should really be madly in love with Formula 1, it was about time I spent some time digging around a little to try and find out why this country, of all places, is failing to get on the F1 bandwagon.

In the same way as you wait for your favourite rock band to come to your city, maybe not having a regular F1 race is behind F1’s lack of success.  However, in the past 50 years, there has been a race in the US more often that not. OK, there wasn’t an awful lot in the 80s and 90s, but notably, F1 raced on US motor sport holy ground from 2000 to 2007, but still with little impact.

2000-2007           Indianapolis

1989-1992              Phoenix

1961-1980              Watkins Glen

Was this because the races weren’t memorable?  Probably not, as who could forget the US race in 2005; the most controversial motor race in modern history.  This was the year of the big fight between Bridgestone and Michelin; where Michelin had developed a more flexible tire wall than Bridgestone to assist in grip and getting up to racing temperature quickly – but had a nasty side-effect of exploding on the banked corner of Indianapolis.  This resulted in all cars running Michelin’s retiring after the parade lap, leaving only the six Bridgestone runners in the race.  This certainly attracted attention in the US and across the world.  Now, some of you may say that it’s the wrong kind of publicity – but it’s still publicity forcing Formula 1 into the public consciousness.

OK, so we had a bit of controversy, what about the racing though, has that been memorable?  A big YES on this too, as any F1 fan of the past 20 years will tell you.  The 1990 race in Phoenix was a real humdinger.  Jean Alesi, then in his first full year of F1 took the fight to the mighty Senna in his all conquering McLaren and made moves on Senna that would’ve made Prost think twice about – the stuff of legends.  The audacity and skill on display was quite something to behold, and consequently lives on in F1 folklore.

So is it all about American drivers then?  America dines out on stories about good ole boys coming good on the world stage and showing everyone who’s the daddy.  As true as that might be however, two world champions later and numerous race winners, most notably Mario Andretti, and still America is unmoved.

On recap then, F1 should be in rude health; regular races, great circuits, amazing action, a couple of American F1 Champs and a nice piece of world news publicity thrown in for good measure.  So why is it not?  What is the root cause of America’s disinterest in such a global phenomenon?

Could the latest in a long line of American F1 teams be the holy grail?  At first glance it looks unlikely, I mean F1 has tried really tried hard to conquer America, they have even raced in a casino car park in Vegas for Pete’s sake.  F1 fans and journalists alike pontificate about only the sport being quintessentially European and that only EU based teams have a chance of winning – but is that what turns American’s on/off – where cars are built?  I personally don’t believe USF1 will make any discernible impact to the level of support in America.  They have already reneged on their ambition to field two American drivers.  What this means is, that they have not found enough interest in an All-American team that would cause their decision to hire an Argentinean driver detrimental to their quest to secure American corporate funding.

In conclusion, I think it’s much simpler than all that, and something I could never have fully understood until living here.

Americans are very passionate about a lot of things; and most if not all of those things are distinctly American.  NFL, “World” Series Baseball, Basketball, SUVs, Pick-Up Trucks, McDonald’s, Starbucks and tasseled shoes – these all SCREAM America.

It is my view that Americans simply will never embrace F1 because they didn’t invent it and they don’t see it as being American.  Being an F1 fan means seeing flags other than the stars and stripes in the crowd, you have to wake up early to watch most of the races and shaving the number of your favourite driver’s car in your back hair is far from common-place.

People think that American’s don’t have room for another sport.  I don’t think that’s strictly true.  I think it’s more that they don’t have room for something that isn’t American – and when you’re the size of America and you have all these homegrown treasures; why import?  This could also answer the question as to why F1 Impresario Berni Ecclestone has not seemed too fussed by not having a US race on the calendar despite the US being the world’s largest car market. – Go Figure! – as they like to say here.

Distinctly American Footwear

Last week’s Blog – Jenson Button – Crown Prince or Clown Prince?

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