myoung

A (speedy) star is born

By Bob Margolis and Jon Baum
December 10, 2005

Scott Speed has been named the first American to drive full time in Formula One since Michael Andretti's ill-fated attempt more than a decade ago. The news was, well, for the most part ignored here in the United States.

After all, does anyone here still care about Formula One?


That's questionable, especially after the series' embarrassment earlier this year at the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis, where only six cars competed because of a feud over tire safety between the FIA, which is the F1 sanctioning body, and Michelin, one of F1's two tire suppliers.

Fans booed and Indianapolis Motor Speedway handed out refunds.

So should American race fans care about Formula One?

Absolutely – especially considering the racing snobs in Europe begrudgingly have begun to admit that there is much more auto racing talent here in America than they've ever given us credit for.

When four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon swapped race cars with F1 regular Juan Pablo Montoya at Indy a couple of years ago, word spread quickly throughout the racing universe that Gordon was able to run just a second off Montoya's practice time while Montoya ran off in Turn 1 in Gordon's stock car.

Gordon's performance made race fans worldwide – many who consider auto racing to be near religion – sit up and notice, wondering whether those guys who drive around in circles really can drive.

Why should we care what they think?

Because Americans always want to win when they're competing on the world stage.

Ever hear of the Olympics?

So if Americans routinely compete for gold medals on the world stage, why shouldn't an American driver have the chance to show off his American-bred talents against the best in the world?

Speed has been winning championships since he was 12. Now 22, the California native is the first American driver to successfully work his way up to F1 through the untapped-until-now North American open wheel racing ladder. He was the winner of the 2003 Red Bull American F1 Driver Search and then went to Europe and won both the Formula Renault and German Eurocup championships.

Most experts, including several current and former F1 and Indy car drivers, consider Speed to be the best young talent in decades. He is expected to do well even though his new F1 team, which was formerly the lowly Minardi squad, doesn't have the best equipment.

Could one of NASCAR's best be competitive in Formula One?

Probably not, although many of his peers will tell you that Gordon could be competitive in any kind of car.

Likewise, I doubt someone with Speed's background would be able to hustle a 3,400-pound stock car around Bristol or take Turn 1 at Lowe's Motor Speedway flat out.

How then does one compare a talent like Speed's to a talent like Gordon's?

You can't; it's like apples vs. oranges. But therein lays the real story. The U.S. breeds drivers who are good at both.

I doubt Speed will replace drivers like Kimi Raikkonen, current F1 champion Fernando Alonso or six-time champion Michael Schumacher at the top anytime soon. But if he does perform well with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team next year, chances are he'll be noticed by one of the bigger teams – and then, well, who knows ...

Speed has shown he possesses a level of talent and skill that has him poised to be the next great American in the international road racing arena, and perhaps the first American F1 champion since Mario Andretti in 1978.

Now is the time for all good American race fans to come to the support of one of their own.

And you just gotta love the name!



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Jon Baum: First, let's establish this: there is nothing bad about Scott Speed getting a ride in Formula One. Nothing at all.

Sure, it remains to be seen how strong the team formerly known as Minardi can be. But it's a great opportunity for Speed and hopefully can open doors for American drivers interested in F1.

That said, will anyone on this side of the pond care?

More specifically, will fans of the biggest and most popular racing series in the U.S. – NASCAR – notice at all?

Probably not.

There has long been a disconnect between American sports fans and the most popular international sports, with soccer and Formula One being the most prominent examples. Sure, American open wheel fans who clash in the Champ Car-IRL battle generally have a solid grasp of other open wheel series, including F1. And many NASCAR fans also follow other forms of motorsport.

But in order to create an F1 buzz in NASCARLand, it probably would take a big-name driver heading across the pond. Michael Andretti did somewhat provide that during his less-than-spectacular experiment in F1. Who knows, had he done better maybe F1 would have caught on a bit more and established a lasting foothold.

But that was a different era. Back then, before the CART-IRL split, open wheel racing ruled the roost. Now the U.S. is NASCAR territory, meaning it probably would take a well-known stock car driver defecting to make the majority of fans notice.

Read: A Jeff Gordon or Tony Stewart type.

Gordon flirted with F1 a couple of years back and later proved with that dazzling lap in Montoya's old Williams car at Indy that he's got the chops, while Stewart's open wheel and road racing prowess are obvious. And surely there are a few – but not that many – others that probably could come close to hanging with Schumi, Kimi and Alonso under the best of circumstances.

And while the money would be great – Schumacher typically is only bested, and barely at that, by Tiger Woods in terms of annual athlete incomes – those guys already have the glory and fame over here. Would they risk that, like Andretti did, for a shot in the circuit widely seen as the world's best?

No, not when many others on this side of the pond, rightly or not, view NASCAR drivers as the best there are – or at least the best that they care to pay attention to.

Incidentally, how great would it be to have an IROC-like series including different types of cars and tracks invite the top drivers from different series worldwide – going far beyond what we see annually at the Nation's Cup – so we could really find out who is best? Draft the best from NASCAR, F1, IRL, Champ Cars, Rally, MotoGP, sports cars, whatever series Travis Pastrana is in at any given moment ...

Some in open wheel look down on NASCAR and/or American drivers in general, believing them to be inferior. And for a while, that was difficult to refute. After all, Michael Andretti arguably was the best the U.S. had to offer (though he might have succeeded under different circumstances).

But Gordon helped to silence many critics at Indy. At the least, maybe Scott Speed eventually can do the same in Formula One.

But most American sports fans still might not care.

On the other hand, if Speed manages to pull a Danica and score a great finish at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ... actually, that's not likely. His team is switching to Michelin tires for 2006.