Ecclestone misses the boat when it comes to the USA
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| Alexander Rossi (top) and Conor Daly (above) will be ready for F1 in 1 and 2 years respectively |
A reader writes to agree with AR1.com and reinforce the notion that F1 will fail again in the USA without Americans in car capable of winning. Dear AR1.com, Bernie Ecclestone may well be right when he says that "America wants to see a profit before they start something significant in motor sports. Without a doubt though, he knows that without an American F1 driver, its doubtful that F1 will be successful in the US.
The only way to grow Formula One in America is to have national pride wrapped around it, period. National pride only gets activated with a home grown success story. This is the same formula for any successful sports franchise – its all about the elite athlete. Cars engines and locations are needed ancillaries but NOT the success anchor.
The NFL & NBA understands that its future elite athletes must be invested in and developed; they even have a system in place starting in high school to do this. American open wheel motor sports does NOT grasp this basic fact. The need for an American hero has never been greater in IndyCar and F1. Successful sports franchises are fueled by human drama stories and hero's. The attendance at Las Vegas for the IndyCar final proved that there are no significant current hero's worth watching.
If there is no American investment in future American F1 hero's, there is no reason to believe that the New Jersey and Austin contracts will not see out their terms and disappear, just like past F1 contracts. If you do what you've always done, you'll continue to get what you've always got. $250M circuits with no national pride hero's competing, have failed many times in the past.
Alex Rossi would be a great start to make sure he has the support to develop his talent to the highest possible level. Conor Daly is in the mix and there are others with the raw talent who can be the future headliners. The fall out of failing to develop the elite athlete is the events disappear (a proven fact).
When the elite athlete creates the human drama story, the national media pays attention. When this happens corporate sponsorship is naturally attracted and the platform grows. The commercial supporters who wish to take advantage of the motor sports platform when its big, need to sew the seeds of success to help make it grow big – the seed that produces the most fruit in the history of successful sports franchises across the world is that which grows the elite athlete. Derek Daly.
12/17/11 Bernie Ecclestone doubts that Formula 1 will become a big success in America even with two grands prix in the nation from 2013.
Asked in an interview with Al Jazeera whether he thought this would allow F1 to become 'big' in America, Ecclestone expressed doubts.
"We've got a maximum of two races in America and when you consider the country is as big as Europe and we've got several races in Europe, it's difficult," he said.
"If we had a lot more races there and a lot more television it would be okay.
"It's a bit like the rest of America in that they want to see a profit before they start something and it's not easy to do that."
What Ecclestone fails to understand us that Americans tend to be Xenophobic so unless he gets a couple of American drivers with teams that can win, indeed Americans will not fall in love with F1. It is why we said Bernie should be pushing to Alexander Rossi to replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari in 2013.