Alexander Rossi

[A2K78]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/01/s...der-rossi-us-grand-prix-formula-one.html?_r=0

The sad thing about it, the same can be attributed to individuals such as Nicky Hayden, Ben Spies, Colin Edwards, Schwantz, to name a few.

Overall Rossi's lack of noteriety is a prime reason why F1 have a huge uphill battle in the states among the mainstream.

 

[GTPorsche]

I thought this was December 1st, not November 1st.

 

[Northstar]

First off, Rossi hasn't done anything to make me think he is worthy of an F1 drive at all, let alone a championship contending one.

Secondly, there are quite a few reasons F1 isn't all that big here, not having an American driver isn't even close to the top.

 

[Swagger897]

First off, Rossi hasn't done anything to make me think he is worthy of an F1 drive at all, let alone a championship contending one.

Secondly, there are quite a few reasons F1 isn't all that big here, not having an American driver isn't even close to the top.

Maybe since NASCAR will be on NBCSN, F1 might pick up a few viewers from ads and what not... But most likely not.

I have never seen him race, let alone have a drive in the car, so I'm not really sure I can compare him to someone...
It was also a shame to see someone like Lotterer come in for a weekend, and know that Marussia or Caterham (at the time) seemed as if it were possible for anyone with a license to get in the car and do a full GP.

 

[mustafur]

The only way I can see F1 getting mainstream popularity is if a World champion Material driver comes through the ranks. new tracks will do nothing.

 

[Rich S]

HAAS F1 will have to choose someone eventually to drive. American CART/Indy guys never too F1 seriously,it was a place for failed Euro drivers who were looking for a drive to go. The reverse was never true though, but in this case if they want an American driver on an american team they might need to pick somebody from Indycar if they find Rossi isn't fast enough, I think Rossi can drive though. If I'm not mistaken they'll be using the same power unit as Vettel in 2016 so maybe that will be helpful.

 

[GTPorsche]

An engine does not make a fast car.

 

[Swagger897]

Hail Mary....................................................................................... Montoya?

 

[TenEightyOne]

Old story and may be better in the '15 driver transfer discussion/speculation thread?

 

[spacecowboy73]

HAAS F1 will have to choose someone eventually to drive. American CART/Indy guys never too F1 seriously,it was a place for failed Euro drivers who were looking for a drive to go. The reverse was never true though, but in this case if they want an American driver on an american team they might need to pick somebody from Indycar if they find Rossi isn't fast enough, I think Rossi can drive though. If I'm not mistaken they'll be using the same power unit as Vettel in 2016 so maybe that will be helpful.

Jacques Villeneuve and Sebastien Bourdais both used their success in Indy/Champcar to go to F1. Also, it revitalized Zanardi's career to get a second chance at F1. Maybe you're talking from a strictly American driver's perspective?

As far as the subject of this thread, I've watched Rossi quite a bit in GP2, and he always seems to fall back from where he qualified, even if it was in the midfield, or he gets caught up in some incident that messes his car up. I wish him luck but I have not seen anything to be impressed with. Maybe I missed the races where he put in the impressive drives, but his points tallies at the end of the year don't suggest this.

 

[mustafur]

I would say the Team he is in probably a big reason, Pierre Gasly when in the same team was trundling around the back just like him, now he switched to DAMS and has instantly dominated the testing timesheets.

Keep in mind he came 3rd in his rookie year in F3.5(even outscored Ricciardo, who to be fair was juggling F1 and F3.5 at the time).

The importance of being in the right Team for GP2 is almost as important as it is in F1.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

It was also a shame to see someone like Lotterer come in for a weekend, and know that Marussia or Caterham (at the time) seemed as if it were possible for anyone with a license to get in the car and do a full GP.

Given the choice between Lotterer and Rossi, I'd pick Lotterer every day of the week. He might not have come up through the open-wheel ranks like Rossi, but he's got an incredible amount of experience in sports cars, including wins at Le Mans. He wasn't just some guy who showed up in the paddock with a fat pay cheque.

Rossi, on the other hand, has been bouncing around the junior categories for years. He's not a Lewis Hamilton, with a prodigal talent to his name. He's got far more in common with Max Chilton - solid, but unspectacular results, and not even close to making the list of the twenty drivers who deserve to be in Formula 1 based on talent alone.

 

[ukfan758]

I blame the lack of Americans in world motorsport on the fact that American motorsports are basically in their own catigory here instead of being somewhat uniform with the rest of the world. A GP2 and GP3 America would be a good start of you want more american drivers.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I blame the lack of Americans in world motorsport on the fact that American motorsports are basically in their own catigory here instead of being somewhat uniform with the rest of the world. A GP2 and GP3 America would be a good start of you want more american drivers.

That's the core point, I think, I quite agree. The thing is though... if the current American motorsports are what America want (as a majority at least) then it's hard to see anything changing. The core motorsport audience there like what they like (and more power to them, of course) so as we've seen again-and-again it's very difficult to promote any alternative there.

That said the uptake for the Austin GP has been very good, maybe the revolution's beginning

 

[Rich S]

An engine does not make a fast car.

Well I said it might help. Like the Mercedes power unit. But of course Ferrari have been prone to failure too.

Jacques Villeneuve and Sebastien Bourdais both used their success in Indy/Champcar to go to F1. Also, it revitalized Zanardi's career to get a second chance at F1. Maybe you're talking from a strictly American driver's perspective?

As far as the subject of this thread, I've watched Rossi quite a bit in GP2, and he always seems to fall back from where he qualified, even if it was in the midfield, or he gets caught up in some incident that messes his car up. I wish him luck but I have not seen anything to be impressed with. Maybe I missed the races where he put in the impressive drives, but his points tallies at the end of the year don't suggest this.

Yeah I suppose its happened once or twice. I haven't really watched many indycar races recently (ok none, I admit). I know poor Bourdais didn't do very well in F1 compared to CART. What maybe could happen is to choose a very young American from Indy and give it a try. I dont see the point in having an American team with a foreign driver. I know it sounds fascist of me but Haas is not really a constructor from milton keynes its more of a nationalistic thing to have a US based team. Many people around the world dislike America and it makes me wonder if that isn't a huge factor.

 

[Swagger897]

Given the choice between Lotterer and Rossi, I'd pick Lotterer every day of the week. He might not have come up through the open-wheel ranks like Rossi, but he's got an incredible amount of experience in sports cars, including wins at Le Mans. He wasn't just some guy who showed up in the paddock with a fat pay cheque.

Experience wise, yes Lotterer is most definitely the better choice of the two. However, skill wise in the car, I am unsure of that because I have never seen what he can do in the car compared with the rest of the team. Being reserve driver might just tell me the answer to that, but I'm not going to base an assumption as a fact. And I thought Lotterer had always wanted to drive one and did so without pay?

Rossi, on the other hand, has been bouncing around the junior categories for years. He's not a Lewis Hamilton, with a prodigal talent to his name. He's got far more in common with Max Chilton - solid, but unspectacular results, and not even close to making the list of the twenty drivers who deserve to be in Formula 1 based on talent alone.

I hope eventually he would bounce to a Red Bull program, but I'm not too sure how plausible that would be. And as far as who deserves and who doesn't I don't feel confident to give an opinion on that either.
Maybe Haas will steal him? Maybe an upcoming team other than Haas, or maybe they might choose a different American...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I hope eventually he would bounce to a Red Bull program, but I'm not too sure how plausible that would be.

It's extremely unlikely, and that's a generous assessment. Red Bull tend to poach drivers early; as far as I know, they have never taken a driver as late into their career as Rossi. At this point, the only thing Rossi has going for him is his American licence, and nationality doesn't translate into speed. If he were, for example, British, then nobody would give him a second look. Rossi isn't some unjustly undiscovered talent - he's at the top of of the GP2 midfield.

 

[mustafur]

I would put my money on a American Indy driver over rossi easily at this stage even if it was a short term situation.

Ryan Hunter Reay would be the best American for the job at current even if he is in his early 30s.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

HAAS F1 will have to choose someone eventually to drive. American CART/Indy guys never too F1 seriously,it was a place for failed Euro drivers who were looking for a drive to go. The reverse was never true though, but in this case if they want an American driver on an american team they might need to pick somebody from Indycar if they find Rossi isn't fast enough, I think Rossi can drive though. If I'm not mistaken they'll be using the same power unit as Vettel in 2016 so maybe that will be helpful.

Um okay, so I guess when a champion driver named Nigel Mansell wins his first WDC then comes to America races Cart and wins that...it's because he was a failed driver? Or better yet when a driver like JPM wins and then goes overseas and wins in F1 it's cause he was lucky? Same with WDC winning driver and son of the hailed Gilles...

No one in Indy car is doing all that great, and it'd be like Force India taking only Indian drivers...it's stupid cause it doesn't guarantee the success they need or help them be even somewhat with a decent or great car. Also Marussia would like a word with y...never mind they're gone. See, engine means squat.

Rossi's only glimmer of he'd be someone to watch was 3 years ago in WRS 3.5. A second season unraveled that and a single season in GP2 helped put him out of mind.

 

[Rich S]

Um okay, so I guess when a champion driver named Nigel Mansell wins his first WDC then comes to America races Cart and wins that...it's because he was a failed driver? Or better yet when a driver like JPM wins and then goes overseas and wins in F1 it's cause he was lucky? Same with WDC winning driver and son of the hailed Gilles...

No one in Indy car is doing all that great, and it'd be like Force India taking only Indian drivers...it's stupid cause it doesn't guarantee the success they need or help them be even somewhat with a decent or great car. Also Marussia would like a word with y...never mind they're gone. See, engine means squat.

Rossi's only glimmer of he'd be someone to watch was 3 years ago in WRS 3.5. A second season unraveled that and a single season in GP2 helped put him out of mind.

Well I think the Ferrari power unit helped Marussia. They finished ahead of Sauber. With a Renault engine they would have arguably been slower than Caterham. Anyways, driver success in a series seems to depend on how comfortable they are not how fast. Rossi might not be really fast but he's comfortable in F1 paddock. Michael Andretti you could say is a far superior driver to Rossi but he was never comfortable in Europe.

 

[Dotini]

I would put my money on a American Indy driver over rossi easily at this stage even if it was a short term situation.

Ryan Hunter Reay would be the best American for the job at current even if he is in his early 30s.

Some American Indy car drivers, like Michael Andretti, were too uxorious to perform well on the road in Europe. Not sure about Hunter-Reay, but he is clearly a family man.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Well I think the Ferrari power unit helped Marussia. They finished ahead of Sauber. With a Renault engine they would have arguably been slower than Caterham. Anyways, driver success in a series seems to depend on how comfortable they are not how fast. Rossi might not be really fast but he's comfortable in F1 paddock. Michael Andretti you could say is a far superior driver to Rossi but he was never comfortable in Europe.

That doesn't prove anything, considering Sauber also use Ferrari and only beat them due to everything falling into place and having a good driver in Bianchi at Monaco. It wasn't a faster car, quali and overall race season shows this. Also Caterham had no direction weren't allowed to under Fernandes and thus the car suffered, it had horrible aero grip (hence the entire front section change after Kolles came in). Also comfort doesn't mean you get a drive, most people who have spent time around the teams such as members will grow use to it, doesn't mean that they'll need to do what the team is asking, which is winning or placing the car high enough to get them to win.

Um Andretti had a in team fight with Ron Dennis, it had nothing really to do with the comfort of Europe...not sure where you got any of this info.

 

[Rich S]

That doesn't prove anything, considering Sauber also use Ferrari and only beat them due to everything falling into place and having a good driver in Bianchi at Monaco. It wasn't a faster car, quali and overall race season shows this. Also Caterham had no direction weren't allowed to under Fernandes and thus the car suffered, it had horrible aero grip (hence the entire front section change after Kolles came in). Also comfort doesn't mean you get a drive, most people who have spent time around the teams such as members will grow use to it, doesn't mean that they'll need to do what the team is asking, which is winning or placing the car high enough to get them to win.

Um Andretti had a in team fight with Ron Dennis, it had nothing really to do with the comfort of Europe...not sure where you got any of this info.

That's a lot of excuses for the other teams, I think the power of the engine is a factor, it might not be the biggest factor anymore but it still helps a bit to have a better power unit. Next year the power units will probably be closer together and hopefully back to how it was before the changes.

I would like to see an American F1 driver, the money in US racing I think is just too high it seems. I can only hope (not sure about some on here I think some would love to exclude anything American from FIA sanctioned racing.)

 

[mustafur]

I think it more comes down to the fact there is no American Talent suitable for F1 at this stage.

 

[Rich S]

I think it more comes down to the fact there is no American Talent suitable for F1 at this stage.

I would agree that racing in USA is substantially different from F1. I consider Americans to be as good as the rest of the world at "racing" in general although it would be nice to see an American F1 champ rather than British and Germans dominating affairs. With the token Finn or Spaniard.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

That's a lot of excuses for the other teams, I think the power of the engine is a factor, it might not be the biggest factor anymore but it still helps a bit to have a better power unit. Next year the power units will probably be closer together and hopefully back to how it was before the changes.

I would like to see an American F1 driver, the money in US racing I think is just too high it seems. I can only hope (not sure about some on here I think some would love to exclude anything American from FIA sanctioned racing.)

A lot of excuses? Um no it's reality, if Marussia are actually letting their engineers build a car that can compete (2015 mock up shows this) and Caterham are being held back by management (see Fernades Football team as further proof) then how is this an excuse? It's not it's a flaw which helps provide a reason why Marussia were able to do better, and good on them. The engine unit isn't the biggest factor at all, if it was why did a Cosworth powered FW32 get pole or even close to it and finish high in the points several times compared to the next season when virtually that same engine didn't come close and hardly made the points. Simple, the engine doesn't make the car it's just a means of powering it's who has the best aero device that matters. Same thing for this year, yes Mercedes had arguably the best engine, but also the overall best aero package that the engine could compliment the car with this is obvious due to the Renault factory car finishing second in WCC rather than another powered Mercedes piece.

Where do you get this idea that the power units will be back to where they were?

I think any American F1 fan would like that, but many F1 fans enthusiasts that are American would like to see an actual driver that can win and not just pander there for the nationality highlight. Also what do you mean the money in American racing is high? Too expensive to get into compared to F1, or pays better than F1, what exactly?

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Without looking at their spending, we don't really know if Caterham or Marussia did better. From the stories out on the web, Marussia ended up with more debt by a good amount. It would make sense that they were faster than Caterham. However, this is all speculation.

 

[Swagger897]

As far as American drivers in F1, or any other racing series, they aren't all that popular in the highest levels of racing. Not many (none as far as I know of) in LMP1 for WEC, none in F1, none in Formula E... not many in the top level racing (although Formula E isn't really top level).

 

[Earth]

That's the core point, I think, I quite agree. The thing is though... if the current American motorsports are what America want (as a majority at least) then it's hard to see anything changing. The core motorsport audience there like what they like (and more power to them, of course) so as we've seen again-and-again it's very difficult to promote any alternative there.

That said the uptake for the Austin GP has been very good, maybe the revolution's beginning

Americans (average joes and the media) for the most part dont take racing as seriously as Europeans. And I'd be cautious about Austin GP attendance numbers. Many Americas have a shallow sense of wanting to belong and 'not be left out' when it comes to international events like the World Cup. Any attempts to actually truly learn the sport or to follow it are half hearted at best.

If I were to try and trace the problem back to its root I would say its American car culture. American auto manufacturers usually make boring cars (Ford has made how many supercars in how many years?). For the most part they arent involved with any of the highest levels of motorsport. And its been like that for decades. The stereotypical average American car guy likes his Mustang and Camaro. Nothing wrong with that, but dont expect them to really like anything other then NASCAR, as their favorite manufacturer does very little beyond that.

So then you have no fan interest and nobody aspires to be a F1 driver.

Also, NASCAR pays too well to make F1 a sensible business decision. On average I think the top 10 NASCAR drivers make as much money as the top 10 F1 drivers. So why go to cut throat F1 when you can just stay in your own country and have alot more job security and make the same amount of money?

I dont really see F1 ever becoming very popular in the United States. Unless theres a major culture change and the US auto manufacturers decide to start racing F1 and NASCAR falls and doesnt pay its drivers at much very little will change.

 

[Swagger897]

I agree with most all of your post, except this...

Also, NASCAR pays too well to make F1 a sensible business decision. On average I think the top 10 NASCAR drivers make as much money as the top 10 F1 drivers. So why go to cut throat F1 when you can just stay in your own country and have alot more job security and make the same amount of money?

I see "on average" but I highly doubt that's true. Besides, how they are paid is different from the two. F1 drivers are paid via the team, while NASCAR drivers earn most of their pay through sponsorship alone...
Hendrick probably pays 1/5 the amount that Amp/Mountain Dew does...