usa following f1.. LOL

[ZequeArgentina]

I would love to see F1 run in Laguna Seca, even with the dust right there at the limit of the track!!

[edv]

Maximillian got it right.
Almost all big-time racing in the N America revolves around personalities and soap-opera drama. To have a chance at popularity, F1 would need to feature an established American driver in the mix, like Johnson, Busch, Patrick, etc. Not an unknown like S Speed.
F1 was really popular back when the likes of Mario Andretti were on the grid.
Same in Canada, F1 became really popular when both Villeneuves were drivers.
Unfortunately, the development of drivers here concentrates on stuff like track-bars and spring rubbers. LOL

[garyshell]

I believe it boils down to that Americans get interested when Americans are successful. They couldn't care less about a bunch of Euros racing around, there is no way to really associate with that. Supposedly the lack of good American drivers in CART kicked off all the problems in that series, as it was becoming more popular in places like Japan, Brazil and Canada, but supposedly lost market interest in the US. If there was a young American phenom tearing up the ranks, it would quickly catch on in the news, and the fans will come knocking. Everybody loves a winner.

"Supposedly" is the operative word there. Witness the popularity of Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya when they ran in the CART series. I don't believe the public here is anywhere as parochial as has been suggested, and not just by you. The problems CART had were much more political in nature and I don't want to get into that here, it's not the proper forum. But I truly don't believe Americans have any problem embracing foreign drivers. Look how well Juan has done building a fan base in NASCAR. If ANY American series is going to exhibit that sort of thinking it would be NASCAR. But fans love him, and they have embraced Marcus Ambrose and "Mad" Max Papis as well.

Gary

[maximilian]

"Supposedly" is the operative word there. Witness the popularity of Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya when they ran in the CART series. I don't believe the public here is anywhere as parochial as has been suggested, and not just by you. The problems CART had were much more political in nature and I don't want to get into that here, it's not the proper forum. But I truly don't believe Americans have any problem embracing foreign drivers. Look how well Juan has done building a fan base in NASCAR. If ANY American series is going to exhibit that sort of thinking it would be NASCAR. But fans love him, and they have embraced Marcus Ambrose and "Mad" Max Papis as well.

Gary

That's true, Gary... some of the foreigners were definitely popular, at least with the core CART fans. I still think that Americans need American stars to associate with and to really follow a series (a la NASCAR, which has mostly American drivers) - you see it every time the Olympics comes around, sports no one gives a crap about for 4 years suddenly become interesting, because some American athletes excel for the GOLD. Even an exotic sport like Sumo gained popularity in the US in the 90's when the 3 big Hawaiians became huge stars in Japan, and 2 of them became Grand Champions.

In a way the success-popularity-ripple effect is true for all other countries, too. For so many years, Germany struggled to finally have a good driver in F1, and look at it now, after MSchumacher. The same is happening with Spain... we may have as many as 4 Spaniards on the grid in 2010... and 51,000 spectators showed up just to see a testing session!

[garyshell]

That's true, Gary... some of the foreigners were definitely popular, at least with the core CART fans. I still think that Americans need American stars to associate with and to really follow a series (a la NASCAR, which has mostly American drivers) - you see it every time the Olympics comes around, sports no one gives a crap about for 4 years suddenly become interesting, because some American athletes excel for the GOLD. Even an exotic sport like Sumo gained popularity in the US in the 90's when the 3 big Hawaiians became huge stars in Japan, and 2 of them became Grand Champions.

In a way the success-popularity-ripple effect is true for all other countries, too. For so many years, Germany struggled to finally have a good driver in F1, and look at it now, after MSchumacher. The same is happening with Spain... we may have as many as 4 Spaniards on the grid in 2010... and 51,000 spectators showed up just to see a testing session!

Are the Olympic sports suddenly popular because an American is participating or because the sport is available to be seen on TV? Was sumo wrestling suddenly popular because of the American being there, or because we suddenly had coverage of the sport? My point is the COVERAGE of the sports is very parochial, but the Americans taste isn't quite so. We get painted with this broad brush, not because we feel this way but because our news and entertainment PROVIDERS are so narrow minded.

Gary

[maximilian]

Are the Olympic sports suddenly popular because an American is participating or because the sport is available to be seen on TV? Was sumo wrestling suddenly popular because of the American being there, or because we suddenly had coverage of the sport? My point is the COVERAGE of the sports is very parochial, but the Americans taste isn't quite so. We get painted with this broad brush, not because we feel this way but because our news and entertainment PROVIDERS are so narrow minded.

Gary

Coverage comes when there is success, or at least a chance of success. You won't see more obscure (Olympic or not) sports on US TV when there is no American medal/win hope, but LOTS of it if there IS!

And yes, the providers are partially to blame for this. Definitely guilty of spotlight syndrome.

[jens]

But then again coverage providers offer more coverage of a certain sport event, because they know that more people would watch the sport if a local hero was successful. So it works both ways. People wouldn't care if there was no local hero to follow and TV stations should know it better than anyone else.

[ykiki]

Thought I'd weigh in on this one as well. Everyone I know is familiar (on some basice level) with NASCAR. If they see a car, they know what it is. Some of them are even fans, and know names like Gordon or Earnhardt. Most have heard of, or are familiar with, the name "Formula 1". They'll tell you that it's those cool looking, rocket-nosed cars that race in exotic/foreign places. Only a few are fans that have heard of anyone besides Schumacher. Ask them about "IndyCars" and they'll more often than not get that confused with F1 - but more American (by sight, open wheel is open wheel to them). They may watch the Indy 500 simply because it's the Indy 500. Thanks to her ads, they know of Danica Patrick. Aside from that, they don't really watch.

Then there's the Olympics. People tend to watch for the spectacle of the whole thing. Americans cheering on other American who are trying to kick butt on a world stage. Americans are intrigued by that - plus the Olympics only take place every 4 years (well, 2 years if you take into account the staggered Summer/Winter thing), which makes it even more special. The average American can't tell you who's the best American athlete in track & field or figure skating is in a non-Olympic year.

All of this leads me back to USF1. No main-stream media coverage because, well, there's nothing to really cover yet. A driver no one has heard of and a car no one has seen will not make them media darlings. When there's a car, you'll see that covered in the motorsports press (in this country = SPEED). If by some MIRACLE they achieve Brawn-type results, then yes, I would expect a whole lot of coverage. Americans love underdogs, and nothing makes a better story than an American underdog team winning on a world stage.

Are the Olympic sports suddenly popular because an American is participating or because the sport is available to be seen on TV? Was sumo wrestling suddenly popular because of the American being there, or because we suddenly had coverage of the sport? My point is the COVERAGE of the sports is very parochial, but the Americans taste isn't quite so. We get painted with this broad brush, not because we feel this way but because our news and entertainment PROVIDERS are so narrow minded.

Gary

Tis the same everywhere, my cross-atlantic brethren!

We had to endure hours of Curling because some Scottish bint who looked like Colin Hendry with breasts (trust me, not an attractive thought) was good at it a few years back.

For those of you not au fait with this thrilling, death-defying and athletically astounding sport, it is basically Crown Bowls on ice. Yet even more dull.

And played by pretty much nobody.

Yet you would think, from the BBC coverage, it was our equivalent of the Superbowl.

[stephenw_us]

Thought I'd weigh in on this one as well. Everyone I know is familiar (on some basice level) with NASCAR. If they see a car, they know what it is. Some of them are even fans, and know names like Gordon or Earnhardt. Most have heard of, or are familiar with, the name "Formula 1". They'll tell you that it's those cool looking, rocket-nosed cars that race in exotic/foreign places. Only a few are fans that have heard of anyone besides Schumacher. Ask them about "IndyCars" and they'll more often than not get that confused with F1 - but more American (by sight, open wheel is open wheel to them). They may watch the Indy 500 simply because it's the Indy 500. Thanks to her ads, they know of Danica Patrick. Aside from that, they don't really watch.

Then there's the Olympics. People tend to watch for the spectacle of the whole thing. Americans cheering on other American who are trying to kick butt on a world stage. Americans are intrigued by that - plus the Olympics only take place every 4 years (well, 2 years if you take into account the staggered Summer/Winter thing), which makes it even more special. The average American can't tell you who's the best American athlete in track & field or figure skating is in a non-Olympic year.

All of this leads me back to USF1. No main-stream media coverage because, well, there's nothing to really cover yet. A driver no one has heard of and a car no one has seen will not make them media darlings. When there's a car, you'll see that covered in the motorsports press (in this country = SPEED). If by some MIRACLE they achieve Brawn-type results, then yes, I would expect a whole lot of coverage. Americans love underdogs, and nothing makes a better story than an American underdog team winning on a world stage.

USF1 right now is actually harming the F1 story in America...I'm pretty upset about it.

It's really disturbing to me that everything Peter said was going to happen, is actually being pulled off by Virgin Racing, including the idea of embracing new media.

I can't believe that in all that funding for USF1 there isn't 20k or so for a real design firm to executive both the logo and website in a halfway competitive way...

USF1 to me is a bad joke....so so so so embarrassing...