During this morning’s British Grand Prix, American driver Scott Speed made yet another bone headed play and caused on track havoc. Giant ego aside, pretty soon they are going to start comparing this guy to a long line of Japanese drivers who have been nothing but rolling pylons who happen to zig when they should zag.
Speed is a big boy and I’m sure his ego can stand to take a few bruises, but can the American racing reputation stand to take any more hits? Let’s face it, there hasn’t been an American driver in F1 since Michael Andretti’s hopeless attempt a bunch of years ago. Many excuses have been made for Michael’s pathetic attempt, and many (perhaps most) of them were valid. He is a family man who controls a large business empire and he chose to commute to the F1 circus so he could be closer to his family. It’s a no brainer that he didn’t have the time or the absolute focus he would have needed to succeed in Formula One.
European drivers are groomed for racing from the time that they are able to walk.The racing at every level is intense and the drivers are hungry. The races of the lower levels border on violence when compared to the on track action of the ladder series in the States, where political correctness extends on to the track. Over there, if you are in the way you are punted. here, if you punt someone you are moved to the back of the pack.
That’s not to say that the American racing world doesn’t have some great feeder series. Star Mazda. Formula BMW. Formula Atlantic. Infiniti Pro. They are all great series, but where does each one lead? Do they breed the best drivers, or is the talent pool diluted by the number of series and the fact that the best young driver’s are rushed to the top to fill empty grids. Perhaps they would be better served to spend 2 full seasons in a well populated lesser formulae, rather than a half assed attempt at champ car in a two year old car, just to improve the show.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but at the rate he’s going, Scott Speed is going to make a laughing stock of American racers on the world stage.
4 comments ↓
According to Speed, he had jumped Ralf by going to the outside of the previous turn, and Ralf chopped down on him at the next turn. Based on the collision, it appeared to me that Speed had the line.
Speed’s made a few boneheaded moves, but this doesn’t appear to be one of them. Usually the veterans are more than happy to hammer on a rookie for a crash.
Ralf doesn’t appear to blame Speed as much as he blames the Toyota’s poor launch control system:
“Unfortunately it was just one of those things that happens in racing. It all began with my very bad start. I lost too many positions and found myself in traffic. Cars were all around me so it was really difficult to see exactly what happened but I was hit from behind. That sent me into a spin, which meant that I couldn’t help veering into Mark’s path. It was a racing incident and no one is to blame because no one does anything like that on purpose.
“But it’s the second time in a row that we have struggled off the line so we should now work hard on improving that.”
good catch on the lack of journalistic research! really, i’m trying make the point that the ladder system seems to be failing somewhere. why is it that with the huge population & the enormous corporate backing, that the ladder system hasn’t been able to produce an american driver capable of competing on the world stage? Why is it that european and south american driver’s are able to outshine the homegrown talent in american pen wheel racing?
at least canadian drivers have an excuse…corporate canada refuses to spend the money on racing. canadian drivers have proven themselves, but most are doomed before they begin due to lack of funding. what is the excuse for american driver’s, where funding runs freely?
I think the feeder system doesn’t work because every young driver knows that NASCAR is where the opportunity lies.
With the ChampCar/IRL war decimating American open-wheel racing, young drivers don’t know where the future lies. Why commit to one or the other and take the chance that you’ll get left out?
Also, F1 has NO profile here in the states, so drivers rarely aspire to it. Even if they start out in open wheel cars (Tony Stewart), they eventually gravitate to the money and fame of NASCAR.
I believe an Amereican can succeed in F1, but they have to make the commitment. Speed has done so. But it all depends on whether he can translate his STR ride into a top level team ride. Many great driver shave gotten mired at the wrong teams at the wrong times and had their careers limited by it (Fisichella, Alesi, and Nick Heidfeld (Who never got over being passed over by Mclaren in favor of Raikkonen) come to mind.)
Hopefully, Speed can do it. Frankly, If I was at Toyota, I’d hire Bourdais and Marco Andretti (Even with my distaste for the Andretti’s) and take my chances. Bourdais has IT, and Andretti could give Toyota an American in F1 to drive sales and interest.
As a follow up, I don’t know why I’ve alwasy disliked Mario Andretti, and to a lesser extent, Michael. I have this twisted excitement every year to see how they’ll NOT win the Indy 500. I seem to especially enjoy it when they get all the hype (”Could THIS be the year the Andrettis break the hex at Indy?”).
Also, I was very disappointed in the way Michael handled his disastrous foray in F1 with Mclaren. Granted, the car was hopeless, but he never committed to F1. He commuted to the races, and never developed a relationship with the team that would have allowed him to succeed.
Leave a Comment