Mr Payne, what the heck is up with you?!?!?! We are having a nice discussion about a possible American team and you come off with your usual JPM obsessive convulsions comment that is completely off topic?!?! I just do not understand. Imperial had the class to ignored the dig, good for you! Jim
That was a joke. Chill out. Once again, the failure of humor over the internet....I knew I should have put a smilie on there.
No, just the wrong columnist in the right mag. Yates has a clue, just a contrarian. Am I the only American that thinks Nascar has as about as much raw talent as WWE? I TRULY believe that ANYONE can be a competitive Nascar driver in two weeks of one-hour track sessions.
Not even a remote chance. American car companies are looking for ROI with a two-year or less payback. Ferrari, Williams/BMW, and Renault couldn't care less about the returns. For them, it's about pride and credibility. Americans might feel pride for F1 at Indy, but that's quite a stretch. We still like the wrecks best...
Not all of us like wrecks!!! I think you will be surprised at how many Americans want an American Driver in F1 and an American F1 team.
Hmm, it pissed me off enough to let my subscription expire. Comments like these are unacceptable from a serious magazine. No, you're not the only American. I think the same. Having said that, I think Gordon has a lot more talent than your average Joe Blow Nascar driver and would do well in other cars. What a wasted talent!
Ford and Jaguar both have their reasons. One reason is that if Jaguar were to become Ford F1 then they would have to pay the $60m (I think) entry fee again. Trust me, it is not a Ford F1 team. When you will see a real Ford team you will know it.
F1 has been available to those who've wanted it for years. it seems F1 is doing ok without a trumped up pilot shoved into an inferior ride. if you want to kill the idea completely let Joe Sixpack see captain america get his butt kicked by some one who's name he can't even pronounce. americans hate losers. they have their roundy track thing, it's simple, it's loud and they don't have to pay much attention to it. let them enjoy themselves. all a nascar celeb could do is be a clown in the F1 circus.
There was one other besides Jeff that was in the running. I will say, I'm not a huge Nascar fan, and I'm really not a big Jeff Gordan fan either, but I will say, if the guy did go F1, he would deffinatly have my support. I do think though the best man for the job would probably be Tony Stewart... He's driven just about everything. CART, IRL, Nascar, Sprints. Just seems more logical to me to pick the man with more experience with open wheel racing, that's all.
I get "SVT enthusiest" and "Inside the Oval" for being a charter member of the Team Ford Racing (Cobra ownership thing)... Anyway, for not really flaunting there Ford name in F1, via jaguar, they sure do hype Team Jaguar alot in there articles. Nothing wrong with that, I'm just saying, for Jaguar not being a "Ford F1 Team" they sure do get there fair share of the spotlight in the Ford circle.
That's for sure! That said, Jeff was here in town a couple months ago and was being interviewed by the afternoon DJ of the radio station we had on in the office, and eventually the question about F1 came around. If I recall correctly, Gordon said his ultimate career goal would be to get a seat in F1 and that he will eventually get there. I was surprised by his candor, but perhaps he felt since he was being interviewed on a good 'ol boy local hard rock station, 99% of the listeners wouldn't give a 'hoot about dem wine and cheese racing cars.
Jeff Gordon will end his career in NASCAR. He makes about $25-30 MM per year through contracts etc in the fastest growing ($$$ and spectators) sport in the USA. Why would he risk this and jump to F1 which has a devoted but marginal following in the USA and unless he gets to drive for Ferrari will unlikely have any real chance at winning. As for an American driver in an American team. This is unlikely to happen given the current F1 structure. It costs $250-300MM to run a competitive team in F1 (Toyota - $325 Million) and it is unlikely that anyone is going to shell out that kind of money for exposure on SPEED at 7:30am on Sunday mornings. It's really an issue of return on investment. And, as some have pointed out, any new team would have to invest funds to join the "club" and then deal with Bernie.
Budwieser has a F-1 team now??? what did I miss? In all fairness. If someon is a good driver and can get the times, who cares where he came from. So yur telling me that if you met a really hot girl and she told you she was from Kansas you wouldnt sleep with her? Get real Antony
Ok, let me correct myself. F1 has a $48 Million new team bond that is paid to Bernie. F1's $48m bond, designed to detract frivolous team entries, was seen as one of the obstacles to teams like Arden or Carlin joining the grid as early as '05. If Jaguar were to change to Ford F1 it would have to put up that new bond again. Ford certainly enjoy a share of the limelight by having a team in F1. But they do not want a team that is there to win. They are content to be Jaguar and stay in the middle or back of the field. The day wining becomes a priority they will change to Ford F1 and makesure that all the focus is on the parent Ford company. You won't even see a Jaguar livelry on the car then.
All of the Americans listed above are too old to go to F1. F1 wants an American driver, but I believe it will have to be a younger driver. F1 teams just don't like to give older drivers without previous F1 experience a chance. I believe it will be A.J. Allmendinger (great natural talent), or one of the Red Bull kids like Scott Speed (I think that's his name)
Gordon is probably pushing it to be young enough to start a new career in F1, but he probably still has a window of two or three years where it would be feasible. One important thing is that many of the intangibles: travel, fame, and PR are already second-nature to him. His adjustment period with respect to these things will be very short if at all. He can concentrate more on testing and learning the new car. A wide-eyed 20 year-old rookie would have more things to adapt to, IMO.
