For avid Formula 1 fans, it is easy to deride the value of nationalities in the competing web of factors on driver-team decisions. The entire mantra of the pinnacle motorsport ought to put driving skill ahead of any other considerations.
And yet it is a matter of undeniable commercial realpolitik that national markets benefit from star driver focal points: it took a double champion to ignite Spain’s passion for F1, and inversely if Felipe Massa was to have successful second attempt at retirement this year it might contribute to Interlagos failing to make the calendar in 2018.
No American driver has taken victory in F1 since Mario Andretti won the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Whilst Alexander Rossi made some largely anonymous appearances with backmarkers Manor at the end of 2015, no American driver has had a full-time seat in F1 since an alleged physical altercation with Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost in 2007 brought the curtain down on Scott Speed’s short and turbulent F1 career.
Of course, a lack of American success in F1 is not the only reason the sport has struggled to crack the lucrative stateside market: the American sports market as a whole is very much out on a limb. Sports that have massive followings in the US don’t necessarily work in the rest of the world, and favourite European sports have not reliably drawn American interest.
Similarly, a homegrown hopeful in Daniil Kvyat who was driving for a prominent champion team up until last year’s fateful Russian Grand Prix failed to fuel the levels of local interest F1 has comparatively enjoyed in Mexico City. As a unique sport, F1 arguably has the potential to jar with national sporting culture.
And yet, be it Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone, Daniel Ricciardo in Melbourne or Max Verstappen at Spa, homegrown heroes repeatedly serve to spark local interest in the grand prix and bolster the standing of the race more broadly.
With a new F1 administration strongly targeting the American market in its plans for commercial expansion, and with a moustachioed Irish-American at the helm, it is true to say F1 would like and would benefit from, a competitive American driver.
But has F1 already passed up on two potential American star drivers? In newly crowned IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden the series has the blueprint ambassador; the driver of F1’s dreams. The Tennessee native is an electric and devastatingly fast driver on-track, and an articulate, marketable brand representative off-track.
In defeating team-mates of the calibre of reigning champion Simon Pagenaud and stalwart protagonists Will Power and Helio Castroneves, in his first season with Roger Penske’s powerhouse outfit, Newgarden produced a performance indicative of a wider generational changing of the guard in IndyCar.
Josef’s terrific season saw him contend for victories on speedways, short ovals, street circuits and road-courses, and produce daring, race-winning manoeuvres on his team-mates in Mid-Ohio and Gateway.
Now that the Skip Barber graduate and former Indy Lights champion has reached the pinnacle of American motorsport, the conversation naturally shifted to whether the 26-year-old might set his sights on higher prizes in the future. Even fellow American IndyCar racer Conor Daly has argued, “right now, the pace Josef has been on with his steady development, he should be receiving calls from Formula 1 teams.”
But why would Newgarden even consider the advances of an F1 team? Is there not a hubris and an arrogance in the suggestion that the young American might relinquish the chance of perhaps more than a decade spent winning races as the thumbnail of American motorsport in exchange for, at best, a midfield car in F1? What incentive does Newgarden have when the illustrious stateside CVs of Michael Andretti and Sebastien Bourdais were marred by their F1 adventures?
F1 might wish it had the new golden boy of American motorsport on the grid, but in reality, so long as he is winning races and titles for “The Captain’s” distinctively F1-flavoured professional squad, that will remain a pipe-dream.
To add further insult to injury, whilst discussing his European schooling, Newgarden told USAToday,
“I was in England and I really wanted to work up the ladder to F1. It reached the point where there wasn’t enough support, I didn’t have the sponsorship to race in Europe and you really have to have substantial backing.”
Josef’s short European career was not sensational, but as runner-up in the British Formula Ford standings in 2009, and having collected a pole position at Hockenheim in GP3 a year later, there was easily enough potential to merit some financial backing.
However arguably counting against Newgarden was the fact that he was not the most eminent American racing in Europe at that time. That honour was held by current IndyCar rival, Alexander Rossi. The Californian has unquestionably enjoyed the most illustrious European career of any American driver in recent times.
The Formula BMW Americas champion took victories in GP3, Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2, and spent the 2015 GP2 season as the stiffest opposition to an imperious Stoffel Vandoorne in a campaign that would reach its zenith with a superb victory over the Belgian at Monza.
Impressive as some moments of Rossi’s European vacation were, he was never on the same level as those vying for F1 seats on merit. For a time Alexander looked to be the prime candidate for a fledgeling Haas squad openly courting the idea of an American driver.
Ultimately, the practical inducements of the experience and pesos of the Telmex-backed Esteban Gutierrez put pay to Rossi’s F1 hopes, with a five-race cameo for Manor the consolation prize. Gene Haas’ hard-headed decision not to take Rossi is understandable, admirable even; little did he know just how underwhelming the Mexican would be.
Compared with the political factors at play on the F1 driver market, commandeering an IndyCar seat, with Andretti Autosport no less, must have felt simple; a respectable European CV and the admiration of F1 teams are good credentials on whatever side of the Atlantic you are on. Indeed, Rossi’s two years in IndyCar have predominantly been plain-sailing.
A genuinely remarkable rookie win in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, and a second season trajectory pointing towards wins and championships in the future (indeed, if you compare Rossi’s form with the lowly form of Newgarden’s formative years, you could argue Rossi has the potential to be an even bigger star): Alexander couldn’t be blamed if he questioned why he didn’t abandon the chase for an F1 career sooner.
And therein lies the point: F1 can lament missed opportunities to field American drivers, but it must also realize that it has no monopoly on career prestige. Realistically, unless their careers turn stale or find some Alonso-style cul-de-sac (which is unlikely – marketable home heroes will always be able to find a winning car in IndyCar), F1 is unlikely to become an attractive prospect to Newgarden and Rossi anytime soon.
In accepting the pair as likely lost causes, F1 needs to ask itself just how important an American driver could be for its stateside commercial strategy, and what proactive steps it would be willing to take. Of course, no action of any kind is wise unless the driver in question has the potential to justify his place on the F1 grid; another Scott Speed would do little for any stateside scheme. And yet, it remains important that F1 thinks carefully about what it will do when the next fast young American comes knocking.
