Alexander Rossi

I couldn't find a thread on him so apologies of there is one already.


Alexander Rossi (21) is a racing driver from Auburn, California USA currently competing in GP2 and reserve driver for Caterham F1.

Regular readers of Clip The Apex discussions may have noticed that I rarely get involved in discussions about new or relatively new drivers until they do something stupid. One of the reasons for this is that few of the newcomers have really grabbed my attention in their pre-F1 careers. However, having had a little look at Rossi's statistics, I have a feeling that at the very least he is one of the best young American talents that we have seen for a while. Not only that, he has clocked up a couple of championship wins, third place finishes in a few more in his host of season finishes in the top ten.

In 143 lower formula races, he has clocked up 53 podiums including 36 wins, 31 pole positions and 21 fastest laps.

Granted the most recent championship under his belt was the 2008 Formula BMW Americas but he drove in both GP3 and GP2 in 2010 ending up in 4th and 9th in the respective championships, which is okay I guess. However, out of the twelve open wheeler championships in which he has competed he has finished in the top 10 in ten of them and currently runs 10th in this years' GP2.

Rossi missed the season opener in Malaysia and so far this season has finished 3rd in the feature race and 20th in the sprint in Bahrain, 6th in both races in Spain,. He DNF'd in the Monaco crash-fest and came 19th in the sprint. Maybe after the events of the day before it's quite a good show that he was in the Monaco sprint race at all.

Taking all of the above into account, is Alexander Rossi going to make it in F1? Well having heard him in the Beeb commentary box during the P2 coverage I have to say that I was quite impressed. A bit like Karun Chandhok, he sounds older than his years and I was surprised to find out that he was just 21 since he came across as having been in the sport for more years than he has been alive!

Well, although his career stat's fall short of what I, personally, would like to see in an F1 prospect, I must confess that I think Ross could just be the Yank to break the Yankee duck. I have yet to pay any real attention to how he drives. Methinks that from now on, I'll be keeping more of a watching brief on his progress in GP2 and his forays in Friday F1 practice.
 
Years in single seater racing

Rossi - 9
Chilton - 5

My point was cider_and_toast that Max gets a lot of criticism for being a pay driver but Rossi's record is not too different to his. This is a like for like swap really not a talent takes out money moment some people are suggesting.

The record in WSR you listed is indeed impressive but all those wins and podiums came in the same year back in 2011. I was a big fan of Rossi because of that but his season after was mediocre at best. His switch to GP2 showed promise but then dropped away again.

I suspect his F1 career might go the same way with a flourish of brilliance at the start before fading. I hope he proves me wrong.
 
Fair point mate, and you know a lot more about Rossi's route to F1 than I but I'm just making the point that you have to be careful comparing like for like stats in race series. I've no idea how good the cars that each driver was using were or who had the better / bigger team etc.

It's easy for anyone to go on to Wikipedia and just look at results. It's what each driver made of the opportunity when it presented itself.
 
A shame for Rossi when he was all set to be in. He obviously has a bit of funding though if not as much as Chilton so maybe Marussia will put him in for Texas.

cider_and_toast. I take your point on going to wikipedia and just pasting results but I was just trying to show how perception can twist peoples thinking on drivers. Chilton has a lot of money behind him and probably shouldn't be in F1 but his record is certainly comparable to other drivers also bidding to get into F1 with less obvious funding.

I'd be pleased to see Rossi get a drive but I'd be far more pleased to see someone like Frinjs get in.
 
Last edited:
Looking through the 2011 YDT picture pack I came across this one. Pretty much sums up Rossi's Lotus/Caterham tenure in a nutshell.

lotu_ross_abud_2011.jpg
 
Haas had just gone on record as saying that there are just no American drivers good enough to drive in F1 at moment.

I think I can actually hear Alexander Rossi's hopes and dreams cracking in two.
 
I guess Haas were felt obliged to make an announcement soon given there are few seats left but saying no US driver just crushes the hopes of the US market who want to see a US driver and potential sponsors as well

I would have thought maybe give him 3rd driver role
 
im Quite surprised at this, Guenther Steiner ruling out Haas having an American driver in 2016 saying."There is nobody out there at the moment. Yes, there are drivers in GP2 & F3, but having a rookie in a new team is difficult for both sides," because there are some good American drivers in indycar like Marco andretti, ryan hunter reay, Graham rahal or even youngster josep newgarden you wouldve thought help them get sponsorship with home driver.

Also yes I can understand the rookie tag but then everyone got to start at some place red bull couldve put verstappen in gp2 sighting his inexperience but he impressed
 
I think the opinion of Haas on American drivers is rather different to the opinion of Red Bull on Verstappen. There's certainly no "once in a generation talents" amongst the American crop at the moment. Red Bull believe that Verstappen will be mentioned in the same breath as Fangio, Senna and Schumacher within twenty years.
 
They also thought that about Alguersauri though.

I have to say Rossi has flashes of talent but is not consistent enough for me so I see where Haas are coming from.
 
I don't know if it is a just a tactic to say " Yes we are an American team but we will not be swayed to pick an American driver" seems like they still had to bend over backwards to field a Ferrari driver

It shows who holds more clout with that team at the moment - the engine partners over the sponsors
 
I think Haas running a Ferrari reserve driver is more about them keeping in with Ferrari and mooching their data rather than Ferrari demanding they run them.
 
Well it was the same situation when Force India came into F1 and there was expectancy that they would run an Indian driver but VJ was adamant neither were good enough.
 
I don't know if it is a just a tactic to say " Yes we are an American team but we will not be swayed to pick an American driver" seems like they still had to bend over backwards to field a Ferrari driver

It shows who holds more clout with that team at the moment - the engine partners over the sponsors

Or maybe they believe that if they run a German (just an example, I don't think they're even considering any Germans) driver they could get sponsors from both America and Germany.
 
Back
Top Bottom