The search for the next American F1 champion...

Interesting article I thought people would enjoy discussing:

Finding the next Mario Andretti - America's long wait for a Formula One champion

 

I think that being based in Europe and climbing through the lower formulae in Europe is essential to be spotted by an F1 team.

It's the same recipe for a Brazilian, an Indonesian, an Australian or an American.

You can be very good in your country, but what matters is to be seen in Europe, and to be available there.

 

Yup - I agree...for F1.

What I find interesting is that there are some kids following the Mario Andretti model in the US that are racing everything - dirt, nascar, openwheel...and come from world karting. It will be interesting to see how their careers pan out.

I also found it interesting how close Michael Andretti and Scott Speed were to being in the right place at the right time...with it not working out for a variety of reasons.

I'm also told that Rossi senior had F1 as a goal for his son as early as his first car series. So that shows the time, money, and dedication needed to just get a start in the worst car on the grid ; )

Hopefully the new ownership in F1 will mean a renewed focus on the US market, but I'm not sure that it will change the outcome with all the main feeder series (save US F4) in Europe.

 

Didn't have a chance to read the article yet, but North America's next F1 participant will be Canada's Lance Stroll, who will supposedly be driving for Williams in 2017.

 

Parallels with getting Americans in high level European soccer are amazing.

 

I can say from my own F- Renault experience in 1990, that not only do you have to have Money, Live in Europe, you have to be super fantastically good.... you have to come up through the Karting world, and be able to manage all the "stuff" that racing requires .... while I was ok, there were guys younger than me, that had ZERO fear, Millions, and were way faster - and still did not make it past F-Renault or F3000 (at that time)

When I did the Winfield School at Paul Ricard, I remember AGS was testing one afternoon... it was like we were in a Cessna 172 and they were in the Space Shuttle... and they were at the back of the grid!

 

Indeed. Having crushed it in F3. We shall see what he can do.

 

There are plenty of kids with zero fear in all levels of motor sport that scare the hell out of me but they have to do it ALL the time to get to the top of F1.

Schumacher once said that the best driver in the world has never been near a track ......... I think he was wrong, I have been to the track many times

Seriously though, he has to be right, the number of talented kids that fall by the wayside due to lack of money

 

Didn't read the article either but part of the problem is that it's hell of a lot easier to make much more money in Nascar/Indy etc than going to Europe...which costs more money and the chance of getting a seat is much smaller.

Quite a few active F1 drivers are making (well) below 1m per season. Their marketing for outside sponsorship monies is low as well.

The money part (cost and earnings) is in the end a huge factor. Ask any racer (in the States especially): Spend more to get a very small chance at an F1 seat, a tiny chance at a decent car and making decent money, and a virtually non existent punt at a quick enough car for fighting for the title (and still having to at the very least beat your teammate)...or spend less money, have a go in equal cars and a relatively easy chance at making a nice chunk of change.

That's the decision they're facing, and unless your dad is a billionaire so it doesn't matter to you anyways, 99/100 would go for the stateside route.

 

You can also throw out any lure that the F1 format may inspire. Indy Car is now predominantly road/street circuits.

 

Lets start an fchat crowd fund and maybe we can make it to a billion and sponsor someone

 

The Stroll family for instance...

I've given up on F1. I'm tired to see boring racing, cars that sound terrible, and seeing people from super wealthy backgrounds jump in and out. I don't even recognize half of the drivers given how many changes there have been over the past few years...

GT3 racing is much more appealing to me. After seeing a Bentley Continental GT3, McLaren 650S GT3, Nissan GTR, etc, on the track at the same time in person in the PWC, I've switched. Great looking and sounding machines with competitive racing.

 

Pretty accurate summary I would say.

The one thing I do wonder though is how many Indycar drivers actually are paid. There are a lot of pay drivers. Some of them are quite good also; just the way it is. I can tell you one of the drivers who basically won the entire ladder system had to pay to drive after his deal from winning Indy Lights expired. You can do a season of Indycar for under 4m USD, and there is no special license required.

NASCAR is hard to break into, but it does pay very well.

Interestingly, one of the most legitimate ways to make money in the US as a driver, purely based on skill, is dirt racing. The best guys in late models World of Outlaws can make over a million a year in prize money alone.

Finally, and perhaps obvious - the ladder systems really aren't compatible.

In the US, the basic path is:

karting -> school racing -> F1600 OR F2000 OR USF2000 OR F4 -> Pro Mazda -> Indy Lights -> Indycar

They just added US F4, but the next step would presumably be to head to Europe for F3 or GP3. Although they will have a "world champion" in F4 next year, so that could potentially open opportunities if a US driver were to win.

As another example, you can do a whole season of USF2000, which is on the undercard to Indycar races, for roughly the same price as Renault 2.0 in Europe.

 

I agree that Lance probably couldn't get to where he is now without the money, but the kid crushed the competition that was put in front of him. You can't blame him, or his dad really, for working the system. If people really want change, then the FIA has to change things. They are attempting to control costs in F4 for instance, but it's still higher than anticipated of course.

 

Hahahaha! That is actually a great idea.

A dream of mine is to have a racing scholarship for a deserving kid each year one day - maybe in association with a racing school. Unfortunately, I can barely afford my own racing currently! ; )

 

I also did Winfield at Paul Ricard in the 90's Great racing school, too bad they shut down.

Back on topic. Many drivers who deserve a shot at F1 never get it. Then plenty of pay drivers that haven't done anything special get to be in F1. Politics, money and contacts.

The most successful karting drivers of all times never made it to F1, Wilson and Fore.

 

+1

Though the ''school racing'' remains a weird concept to me...

EU the path is (roughly):

Proper karting (title challenging can top 1m per season) - F3 (750-1m) - GP2 or FR3.5 (1.5-2m) - Win all of that and still risk being looked over for F1 (if you come with a sack of money, anywhere from 5-30 Million). Most end in FIAWEC, luckily for them GT3 racing is also very strong in Europe where wealthy amateur racers race with them in the pro-am.

After last season, where he was reasonably quick but a complete loose cannon even Maldonado would call ''a bit crazy''. Keep in mind all the guys quicker than him left F3, so he already had a year experience under his belt compared to most for this year; it's one of the reasons why I'm a bit skeptical about him.

 

There is no large FF field here like in GB. So there are a few schools that run their own FF-type cars. They do this for multi day schools, but also run their own race series. Some schools do awards and scholarships for the next level. It's arrive and drive so no need to get into big investments. Nice way to transition from karts to cars without having to spend huge money.

Josef Newgarden followed this rough path and also represented Team USA in FF in GB. He's driving for Penske next year. So that is probably one of the best examples of the system working for the truly talented.

Those figures match what I've heard. Actually I was speaking with the father of one of the best, arguably the best, young karter in the US and he echoed it can get to 1m a year and that was totally out of his budget. So they were switching to school racing which is where we crossed paths. He is now in NASCAR (feeder), dirt, and another spec formula series here. You can do all that for well under a million here although I don't know the exact figure. I would guess 500k or less.

You can do a whole season of Indy Lights for 1m which I think is interesting since it lines up w F3.

F4 costs about 120-150 here. Crazy that the jump to F3 is that large.

I just actually watched the Hockenheim races and he had a total bull**** pass on a teammate with contact. Lol. It's going to be interesting for sure.

 

I wonder how many $$ he's bringing.

Best of luck to him regardless.

 

Error on my part, I know what the system is like, I just find it a bit weird...to my mind, it seems anyone can join (after getting a racing license which is pretty easy), so the field has a HUGE variety in talent. For cost it's absolutely fantastic though and very well thought out, certainly nothing us Europeans have.

Yep, cost is simply astranomical. F3open is much cheaper, but then no one looks at that. Winning that, no one cares (Even F4 here).

Exactly what I mean...That sort of stuff will not be tolerated in F1. Though few of the lower teams will say no to 30m, so he'll be in F1 for a few years.

 

30m