This morning on NPR (I'll post the audio link when its available) they did a story on why Formula 1 racing isn't very popular in America, despite being the largest car market in the world.

One commentator explained that the reason was because there are no American race teams, confusing race team names, and no American drivers.

When Michael Schumacher was interviewed he said

"I like visiting America, nobody there recognizes me, so I can watch people instead of them watching me"

Is there any chance of an American team breaking into the F1 game?

I think it would do tons for the popularity of F1 in the US.

Brian

There are so many hurdles to there ever being an American F1 team that it hardly seems possible.

First, there is the not inconsiderable hurdle of all but one of the season's tracks on the calendar being on other continents, which would make testing almost impossible.

Second, there is the massive engineering challenge. You would need experienced builders, fabricators and engineers. So most of the staff would have to be British, German or Italian.

Third, there is the fact that our domostic series are extremely popular and therefore almost all the driving and engineering talent is naturally inclined to go racing in those series.

Fourth, there is the massive budgets in F1. Sauber pays around $18 million per season for use of Ferrari's year-old engines. An entire season of NASCAR costs considerably less. So you would need someone like Roger Penske to pull together all those resources and focus them toward the goal of winning a championship which most people have never heard of.

Put all that together and it seems alsmost impossible. In truth, I like the exotic nature of F1. It feels "foreign" and, to me at least, that is part of its appeal.

Why NASCAR has become so overwhelmingly popular is beyond me -- and I live in the Southeast, where it's been big all along. It's boring.

F1 definitely owns NASCAR.

NASCAR is the WWE of motorsports.

Originally posted by dallasbboy
This morning on NPR (I'll post the audio link when its available) they did a story on why Formula 1 racing isn't very popular in America, despite being the largest car market in the world.

Damn. Wouldn't you know.....

I usually listen to HPR, but our local station is having a funding drive and it's just too much to listen to all day. Bummer that I missed it.

Originally posted by AAM429
There are so many hurdles to there ever being an American F1 team that it hardly seems possible.

Well......

Technically the Jaguar team could be considered an American F1 team.

Personally, I just wish CART would get their shit together and the IRL would finally fold.

The reason why F1 is not popular in America is because

A: Not many people know about it.

B: It's too cerebral for most Americans

C: Most Americans do not like foreigners and probably couldn't even name the countries in Europe.

did anyone find the link to the interview? i looked all over the NPR site...

regards,
terry

F1 will never be popular in this country because you can only go to one event in the series unless you travel overseas. Would NASCAR be popular if the only race in the US was at Daytona?

Besides, you can't get an ear of corn, a brat and a Budweiser in Monte Carlo. Savages.

Originally posted by jsp98m3
F1 will never be popular in this country because you can only go to one event in the series unless you travel overseas.


huh?!?!

montreal? brazil? looked at a map lately? :awink:


anyway....i would not want F1 to be as popular as NAS-CRAP.....and for this very reason.....


Besides, you can't get an ear of corn, a brat and a Budweiser in Monte Carlo.

thank god (and bernie)

regards,
terry

i agree,,, americans already hate people that come from different american cities. hahaha,,, of course that is just a joke, but represents the subconcious attitude any country feels about another country.

i doubt having an american driver in F1 would make any difference at all. you have americans riding in superbike, and no one gives a damn. michael andretti did nothing to raise american F1 awareness in the early 90's. villenueve was the most popular almost-american driver there is,,, he won a world championship and still, no one in america cared about f1.

i blame abc sports for the horrific failure of the previous two year's of u.s. gp coverage.

Originally posted by pikachu

i doubt having an american driver in F1 would make any difference at all.

Of course an American driver would make a difference.

Before Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong starting winning, coverage and fans of the Tour De France was next to zilch in the US.

The same thing happened with Juan Montoya in Colombia and Ayrton Senna in Brazil.

Having someone native who you can root for does wonders for sports enthusiasm.

Brian

I'm pretty much kidding.

I think it's not that popular because TV is not very daring and stays with what works. Today, that's NASCAR. Tomorrow it may be lawn mower racing.

F1 would be popular in the US if a few steps were made:

1. GET EUROPEANS TO TAILGATE - sure barbecued pate and croissant burgers dont sound so good now, but give em a chance

2. TATTOOS - get a couple fat ladies with 80s hair to get michael schummacher's name tattood on their tits, gets the word out

3. REPLACE NATIONAL ANTHEMS - instead of the lame ceremony with national anthems, you can just play "dueling banjos" while the drivers spray each other down with magnum bottles of icehouse

4. CHANGE THE NAME OF THE SPORT - F1 sounds so small, make it F500, or better yet, The F 500, whenever Americans hear the number 500, they think NASCAR, they'll end up at races, and we'll be stealing fans in no time

Originally posted by dallasbboy
Of course an American driver would make a difference.

Having someone native who you can root for does wonders for sports enthusiasm.

Brian

i already said there have been american drivers in f1 in the past. even someone as big a name as michael andretti and his father mario andretti. two legends of motorsport that carry the andretti name and has become a household term in america. any american, racing fan or not, knows that andretti is to racing what kennedy is to policitics. despite that, no one knows what is F1.

The new RUMOR (and I want everyone to understand RUMOR) is that Penske and Tony George just went it on Team Jordan, and they have since hired Gil de Ferran to drive.... Rumor?

this is something i could never understand. i'm from europe where soccer is bigger than all american sports combined in america. it is more important than anything. governments shut down when their countries played in the world cup. formula 1 is almost just as big. it's like that everywhere in the world except in the usa. it's sad that americans don't experience that. it's much more than watching a football game on monday night and not even caring who wins. it's much more important when it's international. you can't even compare it to anything here in the us. i like watching football, but you don't know anything until you experience a soccer game or a grand prix.

and also BAR is an american team (British American Racing). at least half

Put all that together and it seems alsmost impossible. In truth, I like the exotic nature of F1. It feels "foreign" and, to me at least, that is part of its appeal.I agree. You figure that up and coming American drivers most likely grew up watching NASCAR or CART or maybe lawn mower racing, so that's what they hone their skills to. These up and coming drivers wouldn't take a testing position with a Jordan or Minardi because they could be on the starting grid for -insert name of some team that races in a series I could care less about-.

I think it's not that popular because TV is not very daring and stays with what works.That's very true. Another reason why F1 isn't very popular here is because it doesn't have the exposure. Why doesn't it have the exposure? ... because networks have dictated that Americans aren't interested in F1.

Tobacco adverts would also help. :) F1 is expensive, the most expensive form of motorsport. It doesn't help that 3/4 of Americans can't locate Hungary on a map - it also doesn't help that you have to get up either very early or stay up very late to watch the races live (which us die hard fans do - as well as watch the replay :) ). There are too many factors limiting F1's success in the US.

I think the closest that many Americans get to civilized racing is SWC and watching the crappy coverage of WRC on Speed.

f1 is by far the best racing series in the world. that's were the best of the best race. even NASCAR and CART drivers dream about driving in the f1. i don't know why but there just don't seem to be any good american drivers. even in the CART series most are not american. i think the only american who ever won the Indy 500 was Andretti and he is Italian. everyone can race in circles in NASCAR, it takes more to be a world champion.

Originally posted by 98BMW318ti
i think the only american who ever won the Indy 500 was Andretti and he is Italian.

What about Al Unser Jr.?

Brian

Originally posted by 98BMW318ti
f1 is by far the best racing series in the world. that's were the best of the best race. even NASCAR and CART drivers dream about driving in the f1. i don't know why but there just don't seem to be any good american drivers. even in the CART series most are not american. i think the only american who ever won the Indy 500 was Andretti and he is Italian. everyone can race in circles in NASCAR, it takes more to be a world champion.

Buddy Lazier, Rick Mears, Al Unser Jr, Al Unser Sr, Danny Sullivan, Bobby Rahal, Bobby Unser, Gordon Johncock, Sneeva, Mark Donohue, etc.

Plenty of Americans have won the 500.

Road racing isn't popular in the US, it hasn't been in 30+ years. Why? Because there aren't enough wrecks. Americans have an incredibly short attention span, and can't stand to watch a race that consists of merely attempts at passing. Big ovals guarentee that their will be huge wrecks, which is what the average american racing fan wants to see.

Nascar wins because it knows how to package itself. It sells the drivers and their personalities, not the equipment. No other series in the US can seem to manage this. Watch the average nascar race, 30-45 minutes before the race you see 7-8 interviews of drivers, 30 minutes after the race it's the same thing. The backstories are built up, keeping interest in the product. Compare this to a CART (OWRS) race, or even worse, the IRL. The broadcast starts with the green flag, and you're lucky if you even see the winner of the race in the winners circle after the event.

-Charlie

Another reason oval racing is so popular is becuase of the actual spectators point of view. I'm talking about at the track. An oval track, for the most part, allows a spectator to see the entire track. And I mean for the most part, sure there are parts of the track that can't be seen by all people, but the spectator makes the difference. Once a spectator enjoys the show at the track, they're hooked at home next to their TVs. Therefore you really start to develop a solid fan base. NASCAR and the IRL also heavily market their drivers with their teams, and NASCAR also allows a viewer to see a common car (even though those cars are the farthest thing from stock) that they can associate with the car in their driveway. This has always been, and always will be a major factor in popularity.

oh come on. those cars all are the exact same car except that one says taurus and the other says monte carlo.

F1 sounds so small, make it F500, or better yet, The F 500, whenever Americans hear the number 500, they think NASCAR, they'll end up at races, and we'll be stealing fans in no time

Sweet... lol :clap:

I also think they like the bigtime crashes that involve 20+ cars.

F1, errrrrr, F 500 owns ASSCAR!! I am so sad that it is done for the year.

You'd think that a bunch of "cultured" Motorsports snobs who are so in tune with what "real" racing is, would know that there's already a Formula of racing called Formula 500. Then again... :)

In America, F500 cars are 500cc open wheel Formula cars. In England, New Zealand, Austrailia and other places, it's a 500cc winged sprint car class that races on mostly dirt ovals.

BTW, there's also a series called ASCAR over in England. ;)

I think it's not that popular because TV is not very daring and stays with what works. Today, that's NASCAR. Tomorrow it may be lawn mower racing.

i would rather veiw lawn mower raceing that nascar they turn left and right:biglaughb

man. they have like 30-something races and every time they turn left in a circle. i know there is one road course i think. why don't they at least go the other way sometimes. no they have to race in a circle turning left all the time. i feel sorry for the people who enjoy it.

I would love to hear that... anyone know where to find the link?

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1464430

This might be it.

Brian

interesting interview....however that was with a journalist, not M$...any links to the interview WITH M$ interview?

regards,
terry