F1 and the USA

Don't we all wish the USA would get interested in F1 again? I was reading an article in Autoweek and that mentioned how in 1975 there were three F1 teams(Shadow, Vels-Parnelli Jones and Penske) plus two drivers, Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue. Other than the UK, that's the most teams from any one country. What happened in the last 35 years to cause the USA to loose interest in F1?

 

One Word: NASCAR

Today's American wants fast-paced action, lots of lead changes, and rivalries to companies they recognize (Ford/Chevy).

In a modern F1 race, whoever is on pole usually ends up the winner. Some races can be super-snoozers (Monaco 2007, anyone?).

 

A paucity of American teams, technology and drivers.

Historically, Americans have had a proclivity for a provencialism and isolationism. F1 is considered a "foreign" endeavor.

Not enough wrecks = boring to most Americans.

Having to get up in the wee hours of the morning is not most Americans idea of entertainment.

 

I would place most of the blame primarily on the F1 hierarchy. They have it so good in most other markets, they do not know how to deal with Americans. Actually, they have it so well, they don't need Americans.

F1 drivers are unreachable. NASCAR, even IRL drivers are considered approachable. They appear in funny TV ads. Sure, some F1 drivers appear in entertaining TV ads, but none broadcast in the USA. Possibly that would work here?

If the powers that be in F1 made an effort to bridge the drivers to the race fan, F1 may have a chance to grow in America.

Another reason is that no American auto brand particpates in F1. If Chevy or Ford sponsored a car/chassis/engine in F1, you would likely double today's American F1 fan overnight. When Penske, Vel's, and Shadow (I thought they were British?) raced in F1, an independent team could actually afford to build a car and race. Today, F1 is so expensive, and the exposure is so limited in America, it would not make economical sense.

I don't see F1 becoming any more popular in the USA in the next 5 years than it is today. Too bad.

 

I have to say I don't think it's true that F1 doesn't need America. They surely don't need our fan base but we remain the largest market for almost all the manufacturers and they all really want exposure here. The problem is Max and Bernie don't care about that - but they should, because its an opportunity that could easily be exploited by a competitor and that would leave them SOL.

As for the drivers and nature of the sport, I find that Europe is very used to class distinction and have/have-nots. In the USA, we dont have the same mental and social barriers. When I lived in Europe, I found most people look at wealthy people as above them, and look at them with envy, disdain and in general feel they do not deserve what they have and did not get it fairly. But those people still love to worship the upper crust which just pushes them more out of reach. We don't have that here in the USA - nowhere near to the same extent anyway.

But because the have's in Europe absolutely do NOT want to allow the mere plebians among their ranks, the sport will never open up. Bernie wants it to be MORE elite, not less. He will never agree to letting the mere commoner into the heart of F1. And as long as that mentality exists, F1 will never be that popular in the USA. It does need US teams, sponsors, drivers and races, but those alone are not enough. They also need a hook to get Americans interested, and elite drivers above the commoners ain't gonna cut it.

 

God, how many times have we been through this ?

No, it isn't 'nascar' - you cannot blame them. I don't know ANYONE that started as an F1 fan and moved to nascar, or vice-verse.

It's ALL sports.

Face it, 30-35 years ago, how many TV channels did we have ?

3.

And how many college football, basketball, and how many Pro football-basketball-baseball-hockey games did we have on each week ?

Letsee..... 2 or 2, 2-1-1-1. and not all together.

And look at the evolution of toys - do you see anyone PLAYING with toy cars anymore ? Hot Wheels ? Slot car sets ? Nope.

And look at the evolution of pro sports- dominated by 1) sports itself 2) high-dollar contracts 3) crime.

30-35 years ago, nobody knew what pro athletes made, it was never reported, now it is, so it's easier today to be growing up and saying
'I wanna be Peyton Manning and win a Super Bowl and make millions of dollars'.

When I was a kid, we all played with toy cars, we all 'raced', and we all wanted to be a racecar driver when we grew up, today we don't have that as much, across the board, in the USA. And we all wanted to be a jet fighter pilot. And a fireman.

Heck, look at yurrup - they didn't have pro basketball, now it's everywhere, and pro soccer was exploded over there, so it's different everywhere.

But the biggest deal here is - money. And the number of channels to air stuff.

 

Yeah!!!

I hate going to the USA and not being able to watch the GP's!!

Get with it guys!! It's the most elite form of racing in the world! Period!

PS - I have watched the every Busch Race this year so I understand the Nascar thing. I just think F1 is far superior.

 

I've had more non F1 people ask me about F1 this year than I can ever remember. They wanted to know of Lewis Hamilton and the $50mil McLaren fine.

There is just a limited pool of fans who really know of race cars. A great majority of NASCAR fans are fans of driver personalities and billboard cars.

As for Indy F1, Bernie was selling a race date to the highest bidder and Tony George could not compete with government subsidised race promoters on the other side of the world.

 

All the little boys I know do play with toy cars and also like racing video games...its just that if they want to watch it on TV or go to a race, it has to be either NASCAR or NHRA or one of their feeder series as road racing events are few and far between...unless you are actually involved, few people even know when and where SCCA road races are being held...

 

I do not think it has anything to do with the actual F1 races. Americans will watch people playing cards on TV, watch golf, heck golf has its own channel! So boring races is not the answer. (I still see pet rocks for sale!) I suspect like anything else Americans need to be "sold" the sport, they need to be attached to the soap opera of prima donna drivers, teams and the technology and how it effects the future cars. F1 is not willing to spend the capital to gain market share. Why should it? Competition maybe too fierce for F1 in the US. Especially when you have other countries bending over for Bernie.

 

I have had several discussions about this with my brother in-law and I think that if they moved the US GP to Vegas it would greatly increase amount of exposure in the states. The atmosphere of vegas combined with its ability to draw in celebrities would definitely catch the eye of the Hollywood-obsessed American culture. They could even design the track incorporating a hotel and casino to include some of the vegas appeal. I'd definitely make the pilgrimage if they moved it that much closer. It almost seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

I love Vegas I'd be there for 2-wks hate the long haul flight but if F1 was on I would be thats 100%

 

i think we filled up indy as much as any other venue. i think it's just the tv market. but that's f1's fault. if they marketed it and it was on nbc, they could sell it. i love ITV's marketing and production of the races. speed basically sucks and no one gets it. hell, alot of the bars around here don't even have it.

 

I liken the dilemma to that of bicycle racing. Once the USA had a lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond, people here took notice of the Tour de France.

If the US had a driver racing and winning in F1, there would be more interest. Maybe a Marco Andretti or someone with similar name recognition, but having a Scott Speed driving a backmarker is not going to do it.

 

I love Vegas and would go to F1. But street races suck because you have few unobstructed views. Get in a high rise for a passing glimpse and you couldn't hear. This may be fine for F1 fanatics but I doubt this view from a grandstand would turn newbies into fans. On top of that the deals in Vegas are during the week because most weekends with tolerable temps are already full.

This is Champ Car in April. We were going to Vegas anyway and any race is better than laying around the pool, even if it's the Wynn. Street courses become events, not races.
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Yes, even a classic F1 grid gets lost in all that fishnet. Think street race and it's difficult not to think walls of ugly catch fencing... bleccch. Difficult to believe Vegas (yes, $$$ , I realize..) has to be the site when there are so many incredible racetracks Stateside that could host F1 and make it look like it belonged there for decades.

To return to the original question, I believe America's traditional independence from influences abroad perpetually marginalized F1's significance to most U.S. race fans. Combine that with the towering marketing strength of Nascar, and the fans you have left remain a relatively obscure slice of the pie, just as they were in 1975, despite the spike in Amercan F1 participation that year. Since that time, the loss of CART, as we knew it, probably had a large hand in deteriorating local F1 interest also, through what could be termed as open wheel osmosis. CART had young American stars competing with ex F1 drivers, close racing involving every kind of track, an assortment of factory engine suppliers, fairly solid teams and a growing number of fans. When TG singlehandedly turned it into the shell both series are now, a substantial number of those fans moved into something which was gaining momentum at the time (Nascar) and those who did, lost a certain amount of their interest in F1.
I wish I knew the numbers, but I'd bet the typical fan of Champcar or IRL (or ALMS or Grand Am for that matter), tends to follow F1, and likely knows to what's going on in Nascar, whereas the typical fan of Cup racing could care less about any other series (including Busch).

 

reasons?

OW split

sign the Indy petition:

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/USOpenWheel

death of Trans-Am Series

dumbing down of sports car racing (Grand-Am)

some positives

possible return of Trans-Am Series

http://www.trans-amseries.com/

http://www.fordracingparts.com/announcements/news68.asp

http://www.millercup.com/newsDisplay.php?news_id=29

http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/bfgapp/events/index.jsp

p.s. Shadow was British

http://www.***************.com/search/&brand=Shadow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Racing_Cars

 

You're right, having a winning driver really sends a country into F1 mania. Just look at what Alonso did for Spain. However, its not the only reason a country loves F1. Think about England, Before Lewis, they hadn't had a winner since Damon Hill, but they still were diehard F1 fans.

 

Yes I can verify that well I was..

 

England is the home of the F1 industry and most of the teams. A better example is Brazil.

 

Think about Japan.

They've never had a world champion driver but they sit in the rain to watch their drivers and teams lose.

 

I think F-1 IS more popular in the USA than it ever was. Why else would Speed show the races if they were not able to sell advertizing?

I remember back in the 70's you would have to wait for about a week after a european race before you knew who won! today you can see it live!

I think F-1 and the USA are just not mass market compatibale... NASCAR has that figured out, and the F-1 guys just dont want to dilute the "brand"... what I find so funny is that apart from Ferrari... there are no other traditional Sports car - exotic car mfg's in the sport any more....

At one time you had, Lotus, Alfa, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, etc.... so today you have ... Such super exotics as

Toyota... Honda... Renault....BMW.... and former Cosworth/Ford guys.... Ferrari is the only one left that makes it "exotic".... I think the real reason F-1 is not more popular is that there are other ways for Americans to get their speed fix....

back in the 70's and 80's you only had F-1 doing open wheeled road races, sports cars were around, and you had Indy for ovals... CART had a great thing going then pissed it away and along with that American intrest in open wheel racing... F-1 suffered as well... then came Tony George... who did a good job... but it was just not right... if you want modern F-1 in the USA today ... I truly beleive you have to have it in or around NYC, for ease of access... or LA... Las Vegas... will work for a couple of years, untill the promoter goes belly up... cause Bernie et al... will not help.

F-1 is really gone... the true spirit is gone.... been gone... I guess the next generation have taken it over... good luck with running GP's in India... and China....

 

I was following you until your mix-up of what happened to open wheel in the US. I believe Mr. George was the butcher.

 

One strong reason F1 suffers in the US is the start times of races. The potential fans here will not sacrifice sleep to watch races in the wee hours of the morning. I have friends who are interested constantly asking me to record the race for them because they refuse to watch it live. My gf was like this when I introduced her to it. Since she watched a few races and was hooked, she has been up with me watching the races live for the past 3 years.

Races would need to be broadcast on a major network during prime-time hours and have a reality show precede every race in order to capture an audience large enough.

F1 will never be as big in the states as it is in the ROW. Bernie and co will never sell-out the ROW to pick-up a few thousand more fans in the US.

 

I'm betting Speed would not have the races on if there was nobody to sponsor them. This is why every other commercial was a Mercedes or BMW commercial - THEY paid for it.

I was in negotiations years ago for ESPN to air a race, and ESPN said 'if you can ante' up $40,000, or find $40,000 worth of sponsors, you just bought an hour of air time'.

I still think it's because of all the other sports available to watch - too much competition in our minds.

Let's throw CURRENT Ferrari out and ask this question:

Would you rather watch an F1 race today, or a vintage F1 race from the 80's, 70's, 60's or even the 50's ?
(and the reason I say to throw the current Ferrari out is because we are all biased)

I just don't think F1 will EVER be able to compete with the 5 major sports here.
And yes - Alonso is a 'God' in Spain. Schumacher is in Germany. Senna was in Brazil.
Because they had no real competition for the title aside from a couple of soccer stars.