2023 Japanese GP: Post Race Analysis

Same reason Andretti Global is going to be the 11th team in F1 because they're American whilst 3 teams did not get approved.

 

Logan Sargeant is hardly a crowdpuller for F1 enthusiasts in the States.

I don't think the American public will be very exited watching one of their nationals playing backmarker at COTA and Las Vegas.

 

I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that Andretti is in yet !!!

Approval from MBS means nothing.

 

And crashing more than often !

 

It's a great pity we don't have good Americans in F1; I can't even see one coming in future.
The US have a strong single-seater series, a good sportscar championship, plus NASCAR to keep young drivers at home.
With this choice, who want to adopt a nomadic lifestyle, compete in a 24-race series over 5 continents and live off suitcases?
The offers from F1 recently have been seats in underfunded teams, or jobs as simulator jockey; hardly attractive !!!

 

I honestly don't think anything American, other than the tracks(okay just COTA for the time being)) will help promote Americans to "getting behind American" in F1.

We got HAAS F1 and at the moment they seem paltry. Possibly Andretti Global will enter and I highly doubt they will be front runners. Quite possibly another backmarker team for the next 5 years. Let's see how long they last in this piranha like atmosphere.

 

Fully agree. I really hope that Lawson can be in F1 sooner than 2025. Very exciting driver and delivered instantly. He's doing a mega job.

 

If F1 wants a big following in America it needs an exciting American racer in a team that can win races and get podiums. Ford, Chevy, Dodge, whatever...they can all enter F1 but it won't amount to a thing. Like you say, Haas is there yet how many new followers did they bring?

If F1 wants did, they need to bring out their checkbook and start bankrolling a bunch of young American kids from karting onwards. 20 kids from age 10 onwards, station them in Europe and maybe 1 might succeed.

 

Agreed. An American in the European karting circuit is where it needs to start at a very young age.

 

Only drivers who have demonstrated some talents in the F3 and F2 championships (under the F1 umbrella) stand any chance of getting a seat in good teams (like Piastri, Lawson, Norris, etc ...) .
Let's not forget that these F3/F2 races happen at the same tracks at GPs, and under the gaze of F1 managers and principals.
This is where talents are spotted, and followed for years. There aren't many young Americans there to be seen. It's just an observation.
Scoring points in Indycar (a national series) on the other side of the pond will never have the same weight as a F2 graduation which may open the door to F1.

 

I remember that several US drivers came to Europe invited to drive sportscars by ... Ferrari: Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Richie Ginther, Masten Gregory, even Mario Andretti. Most were sent by Luigi Chinetti, the East-Coast Ferrari importer, who proved to be an excellent talent spotter.
They settled in Europe and found their way in various F1 teams, to win 2 WDCs.
That source dried up when Chinetti pulled out of endurance.

 

A friend of mine that lives in Towcester uk (a 10 minute drive to Silverstone) worked out it's cheaper for him and a friend to fly to Indianapolis, get a taxi, get a hotel, watch the Indy500, and fly home again, than it is to get a **** ticket at the British GP for 3 days.

Utterly insane.

 

The USA are the only country that can afford 3 GPs !!!

Other countries are lucky if a promoter can pay for one, and even some "rich" countries have given up: Germany and France.

 

Isn't Riyadh Saudi Arabia in the works? (I may be wrong).

 

Informed before the Japanese Grand Prix weekend that he hadn’t secured an AlphaTauri seat for next season, Liam Lawson says he’ll do his reserve driver stint and then “start looking at what options there are”.

 

Point taken, but the US is still one of the big markets for the manufacturers involved in F1.

Which is also why there is so much domestic racing to keep American drivers at home, rather than following the F1 caravan.

F1 is facing a lot of competition for eyeballs in the US.
Most Americans follow NASCAR before F1.
But then, getting a license in the US doesn't take the skill required in other places.
The US interstate system makes driving downright boring here.
So there's not a lot of discerning viewers in the US.

But the US is still a big market.
And while Nissan may sell more cars here than Mercedes or Ferrari, it's still a market they can't ignore.

 

Hope Lawson gets a good seat in the end.
Lawson looks a better prospect that Tsunoda who doesn't improve anymore, or Ricciardo who's fading, IMO.
I suppose Ricciardo and Tsunoda were kept because of prior contracts.

 

Lawson to Williams with albon! Then we could see if Albon really hs some pace. Does albon look really great because his team mate Sargent does not?

 

Sargeant is far from a great benchmark but Albon beat Latifi (also not a great benchmark) even harder than Russell did.

 

The best tracks in America…Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Road America, Watkins Glen, and a few others, can’t support F1 because of the logistical and facilities requirements, never mind the rights fees. Thus we get fake tracks like LV and Miami, and boring tracks like, imo, COTA. Of course, many of those tracks are far from highly populated areas which makes their viability for F1 even more problematic.

 

It's a pity that in the choice of circuits to host F1, hospitality takes priority over the racing.
Street circuits are prefered because they have all the amenities inbuilt, plus they have most of the audience residing in the vicinity.
But the quality of racing cannot be the same on these featureless tracks.

 

I find it hard to believe that he won't have a great deal of interest after his recent 3-race audition.

 

What’s a “lulu stain?”

A stain one might encounter in a bathroom? ( “loo” in UK parlance)