Who are the Stars of Tomorrow?

If we're talking Canadians, Jacques Villeneuve anyone? :D

P.S. Welcome to the site O_Danny_Boy (where did you hear about us?).
 
I'd agree with all of TBY's stuff about US sports being fairly tedious*, having tried to watch all of them. Except for Ice Hockey, having seen that live it's bloomin mental!















*Although with (V)alencia up next we really are ones to speak!
 
teabagyokel said:
I think the American psyche kind of seems to regard Canada as a little brother state, especially sport wise.

My big knowledge of this is Toronto FC's place in MLS (football), but a little bit of Wikiresearch suggests that the big American sports leagues contain:

NHL (Ice-hockey): Montreal Canadiens, Ottowa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canuks.
MLB (Baseball): Toronto Blue Jays
NBA (Basketball): Toronto Raptors

Now, I'm no expert on these sports (mainly because they're all crap) but they seem to be mainly American national leagues with way too many teams which seem to regard Canada as a part of their social scene that deserves at least lip service (or a single franchise in Toronto).

I can see a Canadian taking the seat if a US driver is unforthcoming!

The reason that most sports outside of hockey in America are fairly ignorant of Canada is simply because of the location of the talent base. Outside of hockey and to a lesser extent baseball (Latin America, though most teams have a facility/winter team in the area) they are dominated by American athletes. American football players are mainly American and the fan base is mainly American (outside of those sideshows in London and Mexico City on occasion) so it makes sense for everything to be in the US. They tried NFL Europe and it was essentially a German league and a failure but it comes down to the way the different continents like their sports. Europe for the most part likes continual sports that build to a climax ie soccer and to a lesser extent hockey. Most American fans like hyper strategic games such as baseball and football that are more of an explosive/burst of action style. It's just different, neither way is crap as you put it.

On the subject of racing, I do not think a Canadian driver would be accepted as the second driver. Sure Jacques Villeneuve can be the first driver but I feel if they are going to push having an American driver as they have been in their small amount of American press then they need to follow through, substituting a Canadian driver would be like having an Irishman pretend to represent England. Sorry it doesn't work and it would be another blow to something most people find to be a bit of a joke already. There is certainly some American driver that can do it, the pool is smaller just based on the interest base in F1 here. Similar to soccer it is not a dominant sport/style of racing so a smaller amount of the driving talent base will train in the open wheel road/street racing disciplines. But as in soccer with people like Oguchi Onyewu and Jose Altidore there are fully capable Americans that can fill the positions.
 
I spent my honeymoon in the states and actually got quite into Baseball. It is a tactical game and there is a lot of stats that come at you from all angles about averages etc, most of which went right over my head but it is quite compelling to watch and I could see myself watching it again.

There was a time in the 80s when American Football really took off in the UK. I remember before NFL Europe there was a few teams playing in England and Bristol had a side. The US team that every one followed was the Miami Dolphins and everyone knew the name of Dan Marino. There was also "The Fridge" Perry who I think played for the San Francisco 49ers. I think he ended up playing in NFL Europe.

I feel a bit sorry for Amercian based sports because they always seem to come in for a lot of stick because they have a wider audience than just the US but they don't have as wide a fan base. Has anyone tried to watch Aussie rules football or Irish Curling for example. Two sports that seem bonkers to me?

Anyway back on topic.

I would think that it would be vital for USF1 to put an Amercian in at least one car for next season. Surely to go to the effort to promote yourself as a US team then not to have a US driver would defeat the object. One of the reasons I have little interest in this "Superleague Formula" is because the driver selection seems totally random. You would have thought that the country where the football club was based would be represented by a driver from that country but for most teams this isn't the case which seems pretty pointless to me.
 
Also

I played American Football here in the UK many years ago. I was the lone Brit' in a squad of Americans. I quite liked it.

And Aussie Rules Football is great :D
 
Aussie Rules football LOL , I think its funny; they've just come up with a game with as few rules as possible! I'm not a big fan of American sports, sorry, I just feel they are about as subtle as a punch in the face by Nikolai Valuev!

BACK TO OPINION: I don't think that USF1 will go down the Canadian route, I'm just speculating that, in answer to this question:
GordonMurray said:
Any chance of a Canadian (Robert Wickens) getting the drive, or would that be even worse than a European?!
I believe USF1 would rather a Canadian than a European.
O_Danny_Boy said:
But as in soccer with people like Oguchi Onyewu and Jose Altidore there are fully capable Americans that can fill the positions.
Maybe an alternative example would be Landon Donovan, who is a fantastic player but never really made it in Europe. Did you know that the 23 man American squad in the Confederations Cup (that so entertained us by beating the Ladies In Red in the Semi-Final) all played for different clubs?


Altidore - gone to Hull... mistake?
 
Rahal or Andretti, realistically. Rahal in particular has done reasonably well on the road and street courses. The other top American drivers in IndyCar are mainly oval specialists, or too old.

I wouldn't rule Danica out completely for marketing reasons, but I very much doubt that she could cut it in F1 on ability.
 
I think Danica has ruled herself out GM.

Several times now she has stated that she is not interested in F1.
Of course with the right pay-packet she might change her stance...
 
Must admit I can't see a team starting out with no past or present F1 drivers in their line up, to be honest, can't even see them relying on the likes of Rubens in a test/development role (especially with those pesky testing rules), so if they're stuck on US continental then we're looking at Bourdais, Speed or Vielleneuve being front runners.

But then with US backing, US engine, US name.... let's face it, Renault is Spanish these days!
 
Danica is a side show mediocre driver, she is on the third best team and still produces mediocre results with a terrible road/street course record. She keeps her ride based purely on marketing/sponsorships and if she is looking for money than she would certainly go with NASCAR because F1 is hardly even mentioned here and she would fall out of the public eye and therefore lose money/status stateside. She is more attractive for NASCAR in that she could bring in a sponsor fairly easily which is becoming a bit of an issue in the series. I certainly don't think she could remotely hang with the boys in F1 and she would be exposed for being an even more mediocre drive than she is already thought to be.
 
Brogan said:
Is Danica Patrick the only driver to ever have a rule named after her?

Mysterious 'Danica rule' rankles competitors

I agree she probably wouldn't cut it in F1 and won't be a realistic prospect.

If you think about it the bigger guys are probably 200 lbs or so and she is about 100 lbs, thats a huge difference and advantage. From the article they said it was only an extra 35 lbs, which still is leaving to big of a difference. At least that is one thing that NASCAR got right, all weights are taken with driver in car.

As far as I know she is the only one with a competitive rule named after her, there are some guys in NHRA that have had saftey rules named after them, there is one that is loosely named the Darrell Russell rule that requires a metal plate be mounted around the rear of the head cage as he was killed by shrapnel when his tire exploded.
 
O_Danny_Boy said:
If you think about it the bigger guys are probably 200 lbs or so and she is about 100 lbs, thats a huge difference and advantage. From the article they said it was only an extra 35 lbs, which still is leaving to big of a difference. At least that is one thing that NASCAR got right, all weights are taken with driver in car.
Veering slightly off topic....it's something that the MotoGP guys are starting to complain about.
The shorter, lighter guys have an advantage when it comes to accelerating and braking although there are claims that the taller, heavier guys offset that somewhat as they have more "ballast" to shift around.

As far as I know she is the only one with a competitive rule named after her, there are some guys in NHRA that have had saftey rules named after them, there is one that is loosely named the Darrell Russell rule that requires a metal plate be mounted around the rear of the head cage as he was killed by shrapnel when his tire exploded.
Ouch! What a horrible way to go.
Interesting stuff, thanks.

I think we've taken this thread way off topic now :D so to bring it back on, I expect to see Nico Hülkenberg in F1 next year.
Most likely replacing Nico Rosberg who will be off to McLaren.
 
Three years ago?! Time flies eh? I should point out, for balance, that they weren't predictions, pure science, and Alguersuari is well down the list.

I still think Jani should have got a drive. Shame Switzerland is such a poor country.
 
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