The Americans, it seems they dominate most sports. Look to the Olympics, they are always 1st or 2nd in the medal table. They create and make some of the best sports stars in the world, some of the greatest. Phelps, Williams, Ali, Woods just to name a couple they have produced. But a category they lack in, F1. Oh and of course the beautiful game (football, actual football). But in 10 years not one American has entered formula one, why is that?
In total, to race in over 10 races or more, there have been 19 Formula 1 drivers from the USA. It can become a strange one when looking at it because the Indianapolis 500 once counted as a F1 round. America has produced only 2 world champions in Mario Andretti and Phil Hill, whom both took their championships over 40 years ago.
But now, in 2018, there are no American drivers at prominence. The nearest drivers they have are not exactly exceling in their current series. They did have Ferrucci, whom was backed by Haas. (I don’t know if he still is) But he wrecked his own chances, we all know what he did. But currently they have Ryan Tveter and Juan Manuel Correa racing in GP3, whether they have not really been at the forefront of the last season of GP3 or this season of GP3. Tveter and Correa have chance but there are drivers who seem to be proving themselves as better drivers which leads team to look over them. It isn’t like there have been a flood load of Americans in formula 1 over time with only 19 drivers ever having raced over 10 races. But, it almost feels like we expected one, we even have a Kiwi on the grid which is surprising.
Unlike Europe, I feel as though the American public do not grow up watching formula 1, I’m sure a lot do but at the same time, F1 is not the biggest form of motorsport in the states. They have their own series’ which mainly take the public eye over there. IndyCAR, which was formed in 1994, but only races through The US and Canada. Meaning us within Europe it seems really cut off to as they never enter our territory to race. Within the UK, it is not a motorsporting category that is reported on often, it is really rare you find it on the national news, whereas formula 1, it is extremely common. The same goes for the other major series in America, NASCAR, I don’t personally know much about it, but I’ve seen it here and there.
NASCAR and IndyCAR take the cake for being the most popular forms of motorsport in the USA. This is where the majority of the talent from the US is heading to, they head to Indy and NASCAR because that is what they know, these young guys see it as the pinnacle for them. It is the form of motorsport where people will know their names and the American public will watch them and see how talent they really are.
The last American to enter formula 1 was Alexander Rossi, who drove from Marrussia, he had seven starts in total and never contested a full season of F1. He left F1 in 2015, and headed to IndyCAR in 2016.
In 2016, he took a stunning and almost unexpected victory in the Indy500. Now this year, 2018, he sits 2nd in the championship to Scott Dixon. Which, I’m sure we can all question whether we got it wrong about his talent but in F1, we’ll never know because he seems content in IndyCAR.
The current reigning IndyCAR champion, Josef Newgarden, is an American, whose history complements a point I will get to, but he only raced so far in Europe and didn’t seem to get anywhere nor prove himself as a star in the making.
But he headed to indylights and won.The lower categories for single seater, to get young talent into F1, are extremely competitive and prove who has the talent and who has the aggression to get into F1. But the juniors from the states never seems to shine, but put them in IndyLights they will. Is it that F2 and F3, are more competitive and have better drivers in them or is it that they don’t have as much passion for winning those series? Who knows but it seems a lot of them cope better in their native America. You look at the IndyCAR field and it really is full widely of American talent.
The teams a lot of them American, the drivers a large amount American. A lot of them do not entertain the chance of formula 1 anymore. On the field, I believe from my counting there are roughly 9 American’s driving in the series. That is exactly where the talent is heading. It’s not that the USA isn’t producing talent, and yes we can weigh up whether it is filled of F1 rejects, which it seems to be. But the states are producing talent just not talent that Europe or the F1 fans are seeing.
Commentaires