Whats wrong with this picture?

I think you missed the point. The point is that we here in the USA have so many talented drivers (and lots of $$$), how is it that we are not in F1? No question EJ is a smart man, but I dont think F1 in general is looking hard enough or possibly, in the right places. EJ is known for bringing in lots of future talent to F1, unlike many other teams that just "buy low" and "sell high" or "buy high" and keep for a few years and get rid of them.

 

Yes. Look at Credit Suisse sponsoring the Sauber F1 team.

 

Another thing to look at is Bahrain. Its amazing how all of the sudden this place has just blown up with motorsports interest. That one prince has started the A1-GP series and I believe there is even a Bahrain based team that will be fielding a couple Maser MC12s this year. I bet if you look at Narian's background I am sure he comes from a very well off family. That is the thing about those countries, you are either poor or wealthy as can be. There is nothing wrong with that it just means he has had the funds available to him to get valuable seat time. Something also tells me that there arent a whole lot of karting tracks where he grew up so I am sure he had to travel great distances to compete on that level which would have taken a great deal of money as well.

In regards to the US and sponsorship overseas. I think its just a case of US sponsors wanting to see a return on thier dollar. I have been fighting the uphill battle of finding sponsors just to run series here in the US and it is no easy task. They just want to know how they will benefit from it (which I totaly understand) but more importantly if they are say a west coast based company and you are doing a number of races on the east coast they question why they need a presence over there and that it might be wasting thier dollar. My point is that I am sure some companies think that if they back a driver in F1 and even if he does extremely well, it is hard to translate that over here cause most Americans will be like "who the hell is that guy". Middle American is huge and they like all thier NASCAR boys and unless we send Jeff Gordan over there I think it will be Scott Speed who will be our best hope. I was hoping that Townsend Bell would get a shot at something after he tested the Jaguar and BAR cars, but he just decided it wasnt worth all the pain and is now back here running IRL.

I think we all know this is Bernie's fault for not trying to make the F1 presence in the US much larger and more commercial. I know you probably all cant stand the movie Driven with Stalone, but it suppose to be a movie about F1 and not Champcar. Bernie turned down the idea and movies and Hollywood here in the US is HUGE. A big bugget movie about F1 with some key actors would do well in US and for sure attract some interest. Especially if it was released a couple weeks before the USGP.

 

Ok, your talking about Montoya here, right?

I agree with the good Admiral. I think it all comes back to maybe the "Ugly American" mentality. I think that while all of the talent pool know about F1, it is not an All-American, born and bred, apple pie, hot dogs, and Chevy, kind of sport. So why acknowledge it? Besides, there a plenty of NASCAR cars that make up a field or even in the open wheel series. Bottom line, there are lots of seats. More oportunities to succeed. Why go to Europe and play by their rules! Jeff Gordon probably could have gotten a few test drives. And by his own admission, a lifelong dream (or so he wants us to believe). But why go over there and beat his head against the preverbial F1 glass ceiling, when he has the world by the screwbles right here in the US?

I work with a lot of Europeans and Japanese. One talking point I can always count on to break the ice is F1. Most, if not all, are flabbergasted that I know as much as I do about the series - and more-so that I have been following it for 30+ years. Most, if not all, are also fans. But I do not think it is quite as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, the USGP has been dropping attendance since 2000. So what! Is it still not the highest attended race on the calender? And not everyone (by a long shot) who puts their butt in the stands flew in from some other country. Yeah, you ask the average Joe-on-the-street about NASCAR and they know what it is. After all, the advertising and hype is all around. Ask the same guy about F1 and you will probably get a blank look. NOW, ask a race fan about F1 and they will at least know what it is, whether they follow it or not.

Jim

 

The story I got was that Bernie held final say on the use of "F1". This meant that he had to be provided with an advanced script/plot. He told Stallone to come back when he had something (this after allowing Stalone to follow the circus around for 1+ years). Stalone, being Stalone, said screw u, I will go to the Champ car folks, expecting Bernie to cow. Bernie basically said not to let the door hit you in the butt. So..... I would say Bernie got this one right.

Jim

 

they just released the first of the new Jordan F2005 spy shots
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Ohh Ohh wait revised reflection of smaller budget
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Those pictures are hilarious.

I am in agreement with the fact that it was a good idea for Bernie to pass on letting Stalone do the film, but I do think he should make a real effort to do something here in the US to build up the profile of the series.

 

^^ LOL

 

Er, it is very simple. India is a new market for F1 ... and importantly cigarette companies need somewhere to sell.

Remember Minardi and Alex Young as the first Malasian driver ... and why?, well I leave you to work that one out ... but here is a hint, F1 races there now.

Pete

 

You are right about the US companies looking at their ROI on sponsoring a racing event or series. The problem is the fact the U.S. has some many other sports compared to the rest of the world. The U.S. viewers will only watch if it was orginated in America. Take the world cup for instance, I have no idea how long the U.S. has played, but it wasn't until last year american viewers turned their TV's on to watch. Why, because the U.S. team had a shot to make it to the final round. Another example, would be golf. Golf did not become huge until Tiger Woods came in and won the masters. Another sport would be Tennis, which has quite a few americans in it, but is no where near as big as Football, basketball, baseball and Nascar. This is why F1 will never become known in America, even if we have an American driver. Look at the Indy 500, I heard the viewership has dimished over the last 2-3 years, partly because of very few American's racing. I think the only way for F1 to be known in the U.S. is if an American driver was racing with a top team or had won a championship. Personally, I think Bernie Ecclestone granting Tony George to put on an F1 event was probably the best way to go. I think Tony George is the only person who could pull it off. I have to disagree with Bernie Eccelstones efforts of promoting F1 here in the states. I think he has done everything he can. As for the movie with Sylvester Stallone and F1. Bernie never turned it down. Bernie approved, but it was about getting the teams cooperation to do it. They were to worried about showing classified information on the big screen. Finally, Stallone got the teams approval. Once filming was going to start, Bernie asked Stallone to let him view the final cut and approve it before it was released. Stallone did not want to take that chance, just in case if Bernie did not approve it. It would cost too much money. In result, Stallone went to Cart and of course they cooperated. Cart was in a hole and they needed something to promote their series. It was the worst mistake Cart made, instead of helping Cart it destroyed them.

 

This thread has a little bit of everything going, doesn't it? Here's what I'm not 100% convinced of: Over the years we've heard so much talk about the tepid American interest in F1 due in large part because of the absence of an American in the series. There are a few reasons why I don't immediately agree with that rationale:

Look at CART/IRL. Before the latter came along, CART was okay, but not exactly sweeping the country by storm with popularity. The Indy 500 was in much better shape, but that's really about it. The problem open-wheel racing faces is that it's not a sport we grow up on. Dad doesn't take Junior out into the back yard and play "race car driver", he tosses a football, baseball or shoots hoops. As kids we play these sports in the local leagues. Look how slowly soccer is progressing, and it's doing so by weaving itself into our culture at the earliest levels. As a result, racing at some point needs to reach out and "grab" its fan base which is obviously difficult.

That leads to TV. Even though SpeedTV is now in millions of homes, most of the races are shown while the country is asleep. Those that are watching are already converts.

Plopping an American into what's widely accepted as a European sport doesn't all of a sudden create American fans. This driver will have been living, training and competing in Europe and nobody will know who he is anyway. And most likely people will assume he's some rich kid who's just lucky enough to go off to Europe on somebody's dime. If a group of Americans were to develop a team, like was rumoured last year with Gurney, that might register on the national consciousness. But otherwise an American driver will do little to create American interest.

Racing fans are created by going and seeing first hand what it's all about. Real quick, of the Americans here, how did you get interested in open wheel racing? For me, it was my first trip to the Indy 500 when I was 11 or 12. I had always liked cars, but this pushed me over the racing edge. So, while it's a noble effort to get Americans into F1, I still think they're over-estimating the impact it will have over here on the public.

 

A sport does not have to be a backyard activity in order for it to grab lifelong fans. I grew up in a Kenya (3rd world), and motorsports is big there in the form of rally. I was hopelessly in love with it from a very young age and had my family had the funds, and the belief that I was not absolutely out of my mind, I am sure that I would have dabbled. The local drivers were always the ones from well-off families (the president's kids) or expatriates for whom the cost of living was ridiculously cheap...making racing affordable for them.
However, in a country with a long and rich rallying heritage there is not even one single "road race" and by this I mean the sort done on tarmac roads. There is no circuit and as such there is no big following of similar races in the media, no matter where in the world they occur. However if some nut were to buy some acres of land and tarmac it and get a few friends to bring their cars over and hang it out on the weekends, these nuts would bring their kids, who would bring their friends...pretty soon the aforementioned nuts would have to charge entrance, and also organise the whole deal. I believe this is how racing as we know it today began....with a bunch of nutcases who loved what they did enough. In the States, these nuts reside in Nascar....

There is nothing wrong if people in the States don't want to watch F1...or in this case send a driver. Its simply a matter of time...besides, it simply gives a chance for any Kenyan driver out there to hang up his jogging trainers and get into a "jumpsuit".........http://ferrarichat.com/forum/images/icons/icon6.gif