After Rossi's Friday appearance in Montreal, it prompted this thread and it's the big elephant in the room. F1 is (supposedly) a global brand, and yet since mid 2007 we haven't had an American driver in the sport since Scott Speed, there have been a few almosts and nearlies, NASCAR drivers Kyle Busch and Danica Patrick were scheduled to run tests for Honda and Toyota a couple of years ago but varying circumstances got in the way. At the moment it seems that Alexander Rossi is the only near future prospect of an American being on the grid, and this is only likely to be a 2014 drive with Caterham which will almost certainly be at the back of the grid all season. So where is the problem?
It hasn't helped that between 2007 and 2012 there wasn't a race in the United States and in 2009 there wasn't any race at all in North America, contrast this to the NASCAR and IndyCar series which have races every weekend pretty much and it's easier to see where the local talent goes (although comparing F1 to these two brands is impossible due to the varying nature of the sports). While some IndyCar drivers have made the switch to F1 over the years, most haven't made it work that well, Cristiano Da Matta and Sebastian Bourdais dominated the open wheel series' in America over the last two decades at various points before jumping to F1, but both were never any more than occasional points getters and soon drifted back to the states, I'd say that in recent years it's Montoya who's had any significant impact on the sport after switching and he's Columbian, and yet while he was a fairly regular race winner in Formula One, he's currently only a higher midfield driver in NASCAR at the moment, so it is evident that there are plenty of talented drivers in the States at the moment, albeit it's not a definitive answer as to a leading NASCAR driver could cut it in a Formula One car.
While F1 is never going to be huge in America, the success of the Austin race last November showed that there is a fairly considerable fanbase for the sport over the pond and it will be interesting to see how the 2013 race goes, if New Jersey can put a race together there will be three North American races on the calendar next season and if Bernie had any sense, he'd realise there was more money to be made in North America than there is in South Korea or Thailand, there'd certainly be higher attendances anyway and perhaps it could attract more younger drivers to lean towards the Formula One market, this in turn would make the sport more popular if there was a competitive American racing on the grid, it would only be a good thing for the sport if it wanted to portray itself as a worldwide brand.
It hasn't helped that between 2007 and 2012 there wasn't a race in the United States and in 2009 there wasn't any race at all in North America, contrast this to the NASCAR and IndyCar series which have races every weekend pretty much and it's easier to see where the local talent goes (although comparing F1 to these two brands is impossible due to the varying nature of the sports). While some IndyCar drivers have made the switch to F1 over the years, most haven't made it work that well, Cristiano Da Matta and Sebastian Bourdais dominated the open wheel series' in America over the last two decades at various points before jumping to F1, but both were never any more than occasional points getters and soon drifted back to the states, I'd say that in recent years it's Montoya who's had any significant impact on the sport after switching and he's Columbian, and yet while he was a fairly regular race winner in Formula One, he's currently only a higher midfield driver in NASCAR at the moment, so it is evident that there are plenty of talented drivers in the States at the moment, albeit it's not a definitive answer as to a leading NASCAR driver could cut it in a Formula One car.
While F1 is never going to be huge in America, the success of the Austin race last November showed that there is a fairly considerable fanbase for the sport over the pond and it will be interesting to see how the 2013 race goes, if New Jersey can put a race together there will be three North American races on the calendar next season and if Bernie had any sense, he'd realise there was more money to be made in North America than there is in South Korea or Thailand, there'd certainly be higher attendances anyway and perhaps it could attract more younger drivers to lean towards the Formula One market, this in turn would make the sport more popular if there was a competitive American racing on the grid, it would only be a good thing for the sport if it wanted to portray itself as a worldwide brand.
