Denthúl wrote:I don't really know, I haven't paid much attention to that scene for a while. Apparently they're interested in Rahal, but who knows? I hope they don't go for Scott Speed, 'cause F1 doesn't need him back at all.
As much as I agree, damn you for being right. That said, I think it was good for America having him in F1 and he did a decent job for STR. He did no worse than Bordais has done for the last 2 years!
I've posted this elsewhere and I'm sure I'll get hollered at, but follow my logic. USF[one] would be wise to have a team of Marco, Danica, and [fill-in-the-real-F1-driver-here] as a back-up/test-driver. Assume that USF[one] won't pull the coup Brawn did this year and that they'll be midfield competitors at best, most likely fighting with the likes of STR, Force India, and other new comers.
US drivers won't know F1, they won't know the circuits and they won't appreciate the demands of travel & the race schedule until they've been through the season. Peter Windor knows this and I'm sure Ken Anderson does, too. IMHO, season 1 for USF[one] is a write-off to get the team to gel. So what do you do? You get sponsorship not by being successful, but by having recognizable names. The Andretti name is legendary and Danica is a marketing juggernaut. You bring those two players into a F1 team and you will likely bring more sponsorship money than if you bring in Hunter-Rhea, Rahal, or any other driver.
Marco likely has the pedigree and support system to be successful. I don't think Danica could compete at the F1 level, but I'd wager she could compete with the likes of Sakon Yamamoto and Narain Karthakain and other perennial backmarkers. She could do BETTER than the likes of Speed and Bordais if she could manage to stay of out of the way when being overtaken and not cause wrecks.
So year 1 is about getting the team running and getting in the groove of running a F1 season while making money from the drivers. Going into season 2, they keep the #1 driver and bring in another driver to learn the ropes, maybe a NASCAR young gun like Kyle Busch who has both driving skill and name-appeal to attract fans or someone less known by America like RHR or Graham Rahal or try to snipe disgruntled F1 experience like Massa (when Alonso or Vettel takes his seat in 2010) to help with mentoring and car development.
I get the sense that USF[one] intends to entirely write off Year 1 with inexperienced F1 drivers without wide American (or international) appeal and cross their fingers that the American audience (and sponsors) will come to an unknown sport with unknown drivers, so I expect that my prediction won't pan out, but I could absolutely understand their choice if they put some combo of Marco/Danica/Kyle Busch/Speed/Franchitti in the seat for first year.
would be a sick team lol and is it true the us team in gonna be based in the states and only have american drivers ?
) i wonder if they'd get a 'well known foreigner' from [the current form of] Indy Racing...
- By hass25