NASCAR does F1

Greenlantern101

Super Hero And All Round Good Guy
Contributor
So Gene Haas the 62 year old NASCAR team owner has indicated to the FIA that he is interested in entering a F1 team in 2015 or 2016. He currently owns what is thought to be the most advanced automotive wind tunnel in the world and has plenty of money behind him with also being the largest CNC machine manufacturer on the planet.

With it being very likely that we will at last have 2 US grand prix by 2015, it would surely be a massive boost to the American viewing figures to be able to watch a Haas F1 team racing at them.

Stewart Haas Racing is a successful NASCAR team and has a strong following. With 22% of US tv audiences watching the Daytona 500 last year, some 17.5 million people, make no mistake this could bring a huge number of American viewers over to F1 to follow the Haas team.

Gene Haas plans to use Ferrari engines and do everything else in house. He already has former Red Bull manager Guenther Steiner on board to be team manager.

So could this be it? With 2 races in place for 2015 and now a feasible, rich, race experienced American team entering F1. Could this be the moment that F1 finally breaks America?
 
I don't see F1 becoming really popular in the States until there is an American driver in a top team. Sadly, I don't see that happening any time soon, since the perception is that, the last time that happened, with Michael Andretti, he got so thoroughly screwed over by F1 insiders (Ron Dennis), that he had little chance to succeed.

Unless and until that perception changes, I can't imagine a top American risking their career to attempt F1.
 
You make a good point siffert_fan but I don't think the quallity of drivers is an issue I think its more that Americans don't even consider F1 as an option because it is unpopular in the US. Hopefully if Haas and the 2 American races do happen then it will become a real option on many American drivers radar.
And once an American is driving possibly even for Haas, hopefully the fans will follow in even bigger numbers.
 
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Sadly, I think the demise of Speed Channel makes the task even more difficult, as there is no longer a station where even a die-hard racing fan can get his fix. Being dependent upon a network that has no racing history is never a good thing when it comes to spreading the word about a particular form of racing.
 
I'm sure the FOM will be able to negotiate some TV rights for the American viewing public they will just have to pay for them the same as we have to if we want full coverage with no adverts and to be honest from what I've seen of American sport broadcast on American channels they are literally impossible to watch as "these quick words from our sponsors" seem to outweigh the sport viewing by a factor of 10 - 1
 
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Not sure about that siffert_fan, I think a specialist channel will offer better value for the zealot, but in spreading the gospel, the uninitiated might just see it on NBC.
I'm not sure it is the mainstream fta NBC channel though. AFAIK, the races are on NBCSN which is a premium channel targeted at European sports fans. Other sports are the premier league etc.

Any channel that puts ads in the middle of the action is bound to fail. But, 2 hours without ads is a business model that is going to be hard to make work.

FOM needs to play the long game in my view and pay a US network for ad free coverage if necessary.
 
NBCSports is worse than Speed, if that can be imagined, when it comes to running the number of commercials, and the timing of interviews being conducted during qualifying. I can't remember which race that this incident occurred, but during Q3.....Q3 those genuises at NBCSports decided to conduct interviews with 2 drivers while cars are running on the track, to discuss the reason why these drivers weren't able to get out of Q1.....Q1....un :censored: believable. That's one reason why I try and watch Sky's F1 coverage, whenever it's available to me on my computer, whose coverage if far more comprehensive, and something I would gladly purchase.
 
New teams are always a plus. If my memory serves they allowed provision for up to 4 new teams when the latest crop of new teams joined the formula. Manor(Marussia) Lotus (Caterham) Campos (HRT) & USF1 were the successful candidates. USF1 never made it and HRT folded so the places are there.

Is the maximum of 26 cars due to the amount of garage space available at tracks like Monaco, Canada & Brazil?
 
I've heard a rumour the newly accepted team run by Kolles is in fact Campos again!

Marussia and Caterham will be delighted that some new teams have come in for them to beat......or massively embarrased when they lose to them.
 
Haas has resources up the wazoo, don't see them being too slow. If anyone can break into midfield its them. Kolles on the other hand... all I can really say is maybe we can see some close racing between them, Marussia, and Caterham.
 
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