Formula One's Star Spangled Paddock

As American as apple pie

America loves motorsport.

It just does.

If you can make it go fast and race it then America seems to have an audience for it.

Whether it's NASCAR, Indy Car, Truck Racing, Demolition Derbies, Drag Racing, Monster Trucks, and even Tractor Pulling.

Lawn mower racing....yes, it's real

So why is F1 not automatically in that list?

Formula 1 feels like it has been loitering around the edges of the US motorsport scene like the awkward new kid at the disco who wants to dance but isn't sure the others will let them.  The one who has spent a lot of money on their outfit to look flashy but still isn't sure they are doing it right.

Miami's fake waterfront was the equivalent of wearing sunglasses indoors and everyone is just conjuring up mental images of what over-the-top fashion horrors await us all in Vegas.

But this is very unfair on America's relationship with F1.

It's not a recent gimmicky interest in the sport.

F1 has a long history with the US and, while it might be trying to break it's way onto the dancefloor again, it has seen champions be crowned.

From an outsider's point of view it seems the US does not care about F1. 

They are all for the show and don't understand the complexities nor the tradition of the sport.

As an outsider who has lived here for almost six years, I think that's a little wide of the mark.

America loves sport but also loves a winner.  Combine that with a hugely patriotic outlook and you can see that watching Americans win comes very high on the wish list.

There is nothing wrong with this.

A strong sense of national pride and a desire to be the best is what pushes the US to the top of most leaderboards and medal tables in sports.  In an era where maybe too many participation trophies are given out, the US still fosters the pursuit of excellence through competition.

However, with so much sport out there to consume, you have to be top of your game to retain the audience as there is one thing not high on the American viewers list of key attributes; patience for failure.

So, before we take a look at how F1 might be making a comeback now, let's take a look at the USA relationship with F1 down the years and how it went from looking like it was taking root to having to start all over.

If we keep the disco analogy going, it's fair to say the US bust some pretty sweet moves on the dancefloor down the years but then managed to stand on it's own feet and face-plant the floor on more than a couple of occasions.

F1 in the US traces back to the very first year the championship was held in 1950.

F1 but not really

We covered a list of tracks that had graced F1 more than ten times in last weeks blog and Indianapolis featured there.

The Indy500 counted towards the F1 championship for 11 years from 1950 to 1960 but it's hard to really count that due to the fact almost no F1 drivers came over to compete given the differences in regulations.

Towards the end of the fifties the US was seeing the need for a formal US Grand Prix and in 1959 the first US GP was held at Sebring in Florida.

Watch out for gators

With a rich racing history and the coveted "12 Hours of Sebring" event being held here, hopes were high that F1 would find a home.

While the race was considered a success from many points of view, the promoter did not see the audience up take expected so the race moved on to Riverside in California for the 1960 season.

Think it needed a longer straight

A huge prize to try and whip up excitement and interest was not enough to save Riverside as a poor (and dangerous) track layout coupled with poor attendance saw this be the one and only US GP held there.

Then F1 seemed to find it's sweet spot in the US; Watkins Glen.

Doing spray before Japan

The Glen held the US GP for twenty consecutive years and became a firm favorite on the calendar.

F1 in the US was growing and in the late seventies there was an addition to the calendar.  In 1976 Long Beach, California, hosted the US Grand Prix  West and did so until 1983.  It was one of the most popular circuits in the US and was designed to be the "Monaco of the USA".  

With it's shoreline drive, tight hairpin, and street circuit layout you can see why.  

Where is the swimming pool?

It's main issue was the cost to run it and the organizers decided that the money was best channeled into IndyCar so F1 left town in 83 although there have been rumors it could be looking to return.

During it's tenure, a couple of things happened.

First of all Watkins Glen dropped off the calendar in 1980, but then in 1982 the US saw it's biggest allocation of races as it hosted three races in an F1 season for the first (and so far only) time.

In 1981 the ill-fated Caesar's Palace Grand Prix was held in the parking lot of the hotel and, despite being widely ridiculed, it made a repeat appearance in 1982.

No words for this

That repeat appearance meant that it joined up with Long Beach as well as newcomer Detroit.

Motor City seemed a perfect backdrop for F1.

Where is RoboCop?

However, while the circuit as pretty good, it posed a huge physical demand on the drivers. For a short circuit of only four kilometers, it boasted seventeen corners and at one point crossed a railroad!

It also had a problem with the track breaking up in the extreme temperatures so 1988 was it's final appearance.

With Watkins Glen and Vegas gone, Detroit was then joined for one year in 1984 by the Dallas GP.  It was a temporary track and temperatures hit 100 degrees which was a contributing factor to the surface breaking up.

It is most famous for the sight of Nigel Mansell's Lotus breaking down just before the finish line and he got out to push it.  He collapsed and passed out from heat exhaustion right after the line. He was one of only eight finishers.

The Lotus Position

With the prior four circuits all consigned to the history books, the baton was passed to Phoenix in 1989 and it ran until 1991.

It's main problems was that it was a street circuit with a poor design coupled with the decision to hold it in June when Arizona is a little on the warm side.

After Phoenix closed it's doors in 1991 we did not get another US race until the year 2000.

This really killed any US F1 momentum and it was all to do again as F1 re-opened on these shores at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  

Now though this was a re-designed layout not just running on the oval but on a newly constructed infield section that incorporated one of the oval's turns. 

The race would be the aforementioned face-plant as it managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

First, in 2002, Ferrari tried to stage a dead heat finish between Schumacher and Barrichello.  Schumacher was the known name and heading to victory but as he slowed to create the dead heat, Rubens actually took the win by 0.011 seconds.  This did not go down well with either the sport as a whole nor the fans.

Timed to perfec....oh, wait

However, worse was still to come in 2005.

At this point in F1 history there was a tire choice and teams could go with Bridgestone or Michelin.

The oval corner had started to become a hazard and as it was banked and taken at high speed the Michelin tires did not seem able to cope with the strain placed on them.  Several tire failures were seen.

The sport could not work out either a layout compromise to the circuit nor a way in which Michelin could guarantee the tires would be safe.  As a result, after the formation lap, fourteen of the twenty cars simply returned to the pits.  Only the six Bridgestone runners would start the race.

They must be caught in traffic

The fans were not amused and boos rang out as this mockery of a race continued.  Unsurprisingly the two Ferraris ran off into the distance and finished miles ahead of the third placed Monteiro in the Jordan.  

Great for him, but not for the sport's relationship with the US.

2007 was it's last race and it was not until 2012 that F1 returned to the US.

This time, however, it was to a purpose built circuit designed with F1 cars in mind.  The Circuit Of The Americas or COTA has been on the calendar every year since it joined with the exception of the COVID hit seasons.

Get your COTA

It is now joined by Miami and from next year Vegas.

Miami was not that bad a race in reality but the "show" aspect did not go down too well with international fans.  But this isn't about them.  

Fully waterproof

This is about growing the sport in the US again and capitalizing on the surge in popularity following Netflix's Drive to Survive.

There needs to be a certain element of US showmanship, but the lessons that need learning from the past are that it cannot be at the expense of the racing action.

If Vegas and Miami help grow the fan base here in the states then maybe the money will be spent on replacing them with more custom built circuits to revive memories of Watkins Glen.  

Viva Las Pig

However, nobody is going to back that horse until they see the potential return on investment. 

Right now, F1 needs to have the show to pull in the eyes and convert some more folk to F1 fans.

It will be interesting to see how the race pans out in Vegas next year as three races in the US feels about the right number, but there can't be any room for standing at the edges of the dancefloor not willing to bust some killer moves.

Races aside, the other thing that does not help F1 here is the lack of the local driver to cheer on. Sure there is the Haas team to get behind but they are not exactly troubling the podium at the moment.  The real excitement would come from having a local lad to cheer on.

To lead with a Sap-Stat, there have been 57 US drivers down the years pulling off a combined 33 wins over 466 races.

However, you are really going back in time to start talking about ones with any success.  Mario Andretti won the title in 1978 after Phil Hill had won America's only other drivers title in 1961.  Andretti's win in the Dutch Grand Prix of 1978 is the last race won by an American.

Where is Luigi?

Despite an amazing name, Scott Speed never amounted to much driving for Torro Rosso in 2006/7 and Alex Rossi only took part in five races in 2015.  

It has been slim pickings for US fans for a very long time.

This is why all the pressure built for the Colton Herta entry despite his lack of points for the Super-License (another blog topic we did here on the Dirty Side) which was recently squashed by the FiA as they rejected Red Bull's request to grant him one.

With the circuits looking like they could all offer something it does feel like the missing piece right now is the American driver for the fan base to get behind.

They won't settle for someone making up the numbers though as they crave the winning feeling.

On that basis America only has one option.

Give a seat to Brian ;-)