USF1 - part 2???

Is there more of a market for carbon fiber toasters, beyond what US F1 supplied? Perhaps the warehouse full of CF toasters is finally sold off and Haas is looking at a real marketing opportunity...

 

Even the always polite Canadians are mocking us.

 

Haha yeah. Canada. Thats a true racing power right there.

 

One word; Gilles.

 

Figured we'd get that. Should have at least mentioned Jacques considering he actually won a title. One name, Phil Hill. See how easy that was?

Stacking up Canadian racing achievements versus the United States would be like stacking up Canada versus the United States in, well, anything (aka a joke).

 

Motorsport named him Ferrari's greatest F1 driver recently.

 

That sounded really cocky, I apologize, but the facts don't lie. American chassis have participated in F1, scored points, gotten multiple podiums and even won. American drivers have won titles. Lest we forget that the mighty Cosworth DFV even existed thanks to Ford, it won a hundred races.

...and that's just F1. Nevermind the countless successes American manufacturers and drivers have had in all forms of racing all over the world. Sports cars, rally, etc. American cars and drivers have won and won big.

Thanks to the USF1 clowns, people tend to forget all this. An American team and driver would benefit the sport, IMO. We've landed on the moon, I think we could get something going in F1 .

 

I cannot understand why.

Nothing against Villeneuve per se, but he certainly didn't bring a lot of success to Ferrari compared to some other drivers.

Apart from Shumacher, there are Lauda, Surtees or Ascari to consider first.

G. Villeneuve better than Fangio, Hawthorn or P.Hill? I don't think so ...

When people die tragically, like he did, there are plenty of reasons to exaggerate their importance in their chosen field; I suppose it's the way we like to remember them...

James Dean's memory benefits from the same emotional distortion ...

 

Romanticism...

MS is Ferrari's greatest driver ever and it's not really close. With guys like Gilles (who was an incredible driver) people overlook mountains of wins and titles from a guy like MS and gush over some odd race that Villeneuve may not have even won. Shock value works to sell rags and generate hits.

Villeneuve was exciting, flamboyant, uber talented and died young. Just like James Dean, all those factors have a powerful effect on people reflecting on the past.

 

FWIW They put Massa twelfth out of twenty.

 

Well, I didn't add GoDaddy to the thread to add Danica. I'm not a fan. I'm just relaying what I was told. FWIW, though, there's no reason it would have to be Danica. I'm sure GoDaddy could put any number of drivers into a seat if they so desired.

 

I didn't say Americans weren't capable. I said it doesn't make sense (financially or logistically).

An F1 team based in Charlotte staffed by Americans would have as steep a learning curve as a NASCAR team based at Silverstone staffed by Europeans. the costs and logistics makes it an almost impossible task, at a huge price. it just doesn't make sense when you can buy an existing backmarker team and go from there.

 

These colors don't run.

 

Oh, I don't disagree there. However, I think Americans could easily set up their own team with a UK base - I don't think we would need to be relegated to buying into someone else's work just to be competitive.

Oh come on, according to F-chat any old bumpkin can enter Nascar and win. Europeans would dominate, it's just WWF taxi cab racing!

 

Danica has been pretty resolute about no F1 tests, she doesn't want to be compared to what a current F1 driver would do in the same car. She has a lucrative deal in NASCAR, I have a hard time seeing her switch anytime soon without a massive $$$ motivation.

Tony Stewart on the other hand, slimmed down enough to cram into Lewis Hamilton's F1 around Watkin's glen. The last time a F1/Nascar car swap happened, one of them ended up changing sports.(Montoya and Jeff brought their team's cars to Indy.)

Tony races in I believe a triple digit number of races a year across both dirt and pavement IIRC. If he had to give up the dirt racing to try F1, he might do it, but might not stick around. The dirt racing is an extremely high downforce car, so the transition to F1 might not be as hard. Unless there were dirt events around the F1 circuits for him to race in, he'd miss the dirt racing pretty bad. Maybe his broken leg last year has changed that, not sure, I kinda doubt it.

To pull off a USF1 team, you have to be willing to spend $200M a year for five years with the possibility of never getting a podium in that time. Its one of those "I'll believe it when I see it" things for a new F1 team to start up.

NASCAR engineers are incredibly creative with a rule book that gets changed to "fix" holes quite often. What they were doing with suspension bushings in 2012 for aerodynamic advantage from the car's bodywork relative to the track getting shifted was pretty darn creative.

 

we need an exchange program of F1 and either NASCAR or Indy Car. If I understand soccer correctly, the bottom few teams get relegated to the lower league, and the winners in the lower league move up to F1.

If you have to invent silly crap like extra points for the last race and etc, this is as good as anything!

 

In fact not a bad idea at all.

And if it weren't for funding issues it might work.

 

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here?

I've seen both Kimi Raikkonen and Tony Stewart run at my local rental indoor kart track. Its a completely different style than either F1 or NASCAR. Tony adapted much better than Kimi. Does that mean NASCAR drivers are better than F1? No, its just a different ball game so to speak.

I'm not sure how would consider one to be a lower league than the other.The ruling bodies of all three you mentioned, all do have "lower league" series already. The FIA has more than just F1 for open wheeled racing, NASCAR has more than just the cup series, Indy has Indy Lights, etc...

While I would like to see drivers in multiple series like they used to do, its become a game of building a brand with sponsors, the schedule doesn't really allow it.

Probably only 3 or 4 NASCAR drivers could make it in F1, probably only 1 or 2 F1 drivers would make it in NASCAR cup. Thing is, all of those guys in both series already have decent seats in their respective sports, so why switch? What really makes it harder, is learning to setup a car for a track is going to be drastically different between the two series.

 

Funny idea but it'll never work.

No team is going to invest many many millions into a top range driver, only for when he wins the title he gets booted to America to drive in a circle or hideous open wheelers.

Not sure many teams are dead keen to make Jim Steward fit, either.

Either way, It'd have to be Indy Car out of those choices as it's much more relevant.

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On the same line of thought, any driver that wins the GP2 championship should get a guaranteed drive (by the FIA) into F1. The FIA and/or GP2/Formula 1 should have a set amount of cash (call it 5mil) to the team that takes the driver. If none volunteer, simples, lowest ranked driver (bar any bizarre circumstances) gets booted out of F1 and give the new guy a chance.

These younger guys have spend upwards of €10m to get to and compete in GP2, with no guarantee to actually get the drive into F1. Marcus Ericson got the drive, but it was Leimer that won it. Despite disappointing results (I can't remember how many, but in the first 5 or so weekends he got pole/front row and managed to not score any points).

 

a) Danica's contract is up at the end of 2015, iirc.
b) I'd absolutely LOVE to see what Stewart could do in F1. I will never doubt his ability to drive pretty much anything on wheels.

 

Was just throwing a weird idea out there, what works in soccer probably doesn't translate to motor sports!

 

He's probably too old now (and coming off a HORRIFIC leg injury), but you're right, the man is a wheel man.

 

When you say "make it" . . . what does that mean exactly?

Aside from the commonality of 4 wheels on the ground, I don't see a lot of similarity between the two.

I seriously doubt that I could come up with 3 or 4 NASCAR drivers who would show top 10 pace in F1, but that's not really a fair assumption to begin with.

 

Think harder. Depends on how much time they got...Montoya was a race winner in F1 and didn't do squat in Nascar despite years and years of practice. I think if you gave a guy like Jimmie Johnson or Kyle Busch a crack in F1 they could post a top 10 time in a good car after a few months of testing.

 

Maybe so, but my point was not to get in a apples vs oranges squabble

I was only questioning the definition of making it. I'd contend that Montoya is head and shoulders more talented, but that had little or nothing to do with his record