The Ferrari finish in Indy. Does the US public care?

[Inigo Montoya]

My view is that as long as there is no US driver in F1, Americans simply will not follow F1. So that whatever Ferrari does or does not do at the finish of a race is really irrelevant.

[freud]

The race was on ABC... I do think there are thousands of people who saw the race and realized that it was a joke or a fiasco. I call them 'silent majority'. Certainly I know lots of people who saw the race and blasted the result.

[JonesF1]

Im the only F1 fan I know and honestly I didnt give a sh*t. The sporting news didnt either from what I can tell but NASCAR is the only league that gets good coverage over here (too much, 20 channels worth of ovals ). But its true that Americans racing fans arent used to that sort of thing and im sure many were ****ed or felt cheated.
Non-hardcore racing fans probably didnt care because were so used to controversy. Our basketball and football players are always getting arrested or caught smoking dope and its no big deal like it was with Enge.
Different strokes for different folks (cultures).

[rush1]

I am from Indianapolis and attended the race. F1 cars are great to watch. They have an amazing sound and are obviously very fast. People in Indianapolis appreciate the skill of the drivers and the technical brillance of the teams but please, no more scripted finishes

Such a farce reminds US fans that the US Grand Prix, though held at the most famous race track in the world, is just another race for the these drivers. Scumacher showed a total lack of respect for the track and the US fans when he let Rubens go by.

If anyone plans on attending a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, make sure its the Indianapolis 500. You will not regret it.

[Inigo Montoya]

Naw, thanks rush1, but I'll stick to real race cars - F1. Not a big oval fan.

[Liz]

Considering that out of 300,000,000 people in the USA, only .00067% attended the race and possibly another .0003% saw it on television, I'd say the vast majority of the USA doesn't even know there was an F1 race.

[f1manoz]

And don't care about F1. They've got enough sports on their plate without having to put with this pile of choreographed .

[Mr V]

The Americans must think that TGF's got something against them, last year he didn't want to go (9/11) and this year he trys to choreograph the finish.

[Valve Bounce]

I think that during the NFL season, few people would care about F1, and nobody would really care which Ferrari won of for those few who were interested.
Baseball, Basketball and Football (Gridiron) is just too entrenched into the American psyche for them to care all that much about how those foreigners run their funny little cars.


Valve

[Lee Janotta]

The few who watched it think it's a pathetic joke.

99.99% of Americans, though, if asked what they thought about the finish at Indy, would say "That there Paul Tracy feller dun got robbed!"

[RaceCarFanatic]

I live in the US and i've been watching F1 racing for 4years. F1 is not really advertised here. They only advertise indy lights,Cart,and Nascar. The only way to see it here is to have Cable or Satelite dish and the speed channel. I'm a huge fan of ferrari and I think Micheal got tired of winning and let Rubens win the race. I also think that if the other teams were more competive. Ferrari wouldn't be able to play with the results like that and they would have to race to the end.

[Peter Mallett]

The percentage of the Amarican public who watched is not important. If only one American saw it and was disappointed it's a failure.

[Adam43]

Maybe only Americans whould vote?

[BootsOntheSide]

"They only advertise indy lights,Cart,and Nascar"

Considering that Indy Lights was closed down alst year, I doubt it.

Rush1 seems to have missed the point- the US Grand Prix is just one race in a series. A global series featurign the best drivers in the world, each with self-built hardware on a higher technical level than we can imagine. Its much mroe important than one single race, one single American love-in which takes a month out of the schedule and still can't get an undisputed result this year (even cricket only takes 4-5 days!)

It probably sums up why the US can't open their eyes to F1, or soccer, or what CART is becoming, its too international, America can't maintain its feeling of superiority while watching 'Michael Schumacher', 'Juan Pablo Montoya' and 'Rubens Barrichello'. 'Sam Hornish Jr', 'Buddy Rice' and 'Rusty Wallace' are much easier. Of course assorted Gils, Helios, Darios and Felipes might put them off IRL and running back dummies in mouth to the staged displays of NASCAR.

[Liz]

Maybe next year they'll come to boo TGF like the Canadians did this year.

No, I think Boots has it right -- F1 is too international for most Americans, and the ones I know who are aware of F1 but don't follow it think Europeans cheat all the time (they have seen the soccer playing drama queens on "highlights" reels and they think it's all like that.)

But by and large the Americans are either following the baseball World Series playoffs or gearing up for the NCAA season and nothing else.

[kdr]

f1 is only at indy for u.s.based honda/toyota/bmw/benz execs and salesman to have a corporate day out at the races.

worried about u.s.reaction to staged finish...don't bother - no-one was watching anyway!

[rush1]

Americans, like anyother country, enjoy watching Americans compete. Boots, If your little island had no Brits in F1 would the popularity suffer? I am sure it would.

No American drivers, and most races start around 6:AM on sunday morning (4:00 on the west coast) so its difficult to start a following.

"Maintain our feeling of superiority" boots? We are the only major power in the world boots regardless of what happens in an auto racing series. Our economic and military power is unrivaled (and thanks England, your small island is always so supportive) and that power will be unchecked for many, many years. To sum up boots, Americans already feel superior no matter what happens in F1.

[BootsOntheSide]

The time point has some truth to it, but it never stopped Brazillian or Canadian fans tuning in, even post-Senna and pre-JV respectively. NBA is almost dominated by Americans (African-Americans specifically), as are NFL and NASCAR. CART and IRL are less so, and I'm sure the former has suffered for that among the parochial American nation (a strange thing really, since there are 'Americans' from almost every region, religion and race on the planet), and the latter will. The American bias appears to be the main reason for interest, as they are purely American sports, yet no doubt Thierry Henry, Lleyton Hewitt or Shane Warne could be brilliant in them.

Yet our football Premiership is more popular than ever, despite the champion team featuring lots of French players, a Nigerian, a Swede, two Dutchmen and several other non-Brits, and lots of other stars from overseas (most top teams now feature less than half British starting lineups). Wouldn't we be missing out on some spendid skill and style if we overlooked these players? The best in the world are never going to come form a nation making up only 5% of the world's population.

[rush1]

The number of non-Americans competing in the NBA has risen dramatically over the past decade. A Chinese player was picked first in the NBA draft last spring, and he is being welcomed into the league with open arms. None of this has lessened the support among Americans for the NBA. American Basketball fans don't care if a player is from Nigeria or Nebraska, so long as he produces for the team.

The same is true in Baseball. Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and many other countries field players in Major league baseball - our "National Pastime". In Chicago, baseball player Sammy Sosa (from the Dominican Republic) is a heck of a lot more popular than any driver in NASCAR.

To suggest xenophobia plays a part in F1's unpopularity in the states is a narrow, ignorant comment.

[SL]

I was in the USA during the GP. There was no coverage of the race in any of the sports bars, all either had the Baseball game or the NASCAR race. Very few people even seemed to know the F1 event was actually on.

We had to bribe the hotel bar to 'turn over' and even then during the 'Red Bull' advert most locals had lost interest and had walded away.

SL

[Neil C]

Boots, Rush, don't let this thread become another US/anti US debate. We have enough of them.

This is not the first thread in which someone is concerned that Americans "dont get it" when it comes to f1, soccer, cricket, what have you. People enjoy sports they grew up with. It is no more provincial or parochial for Americans to show little interest in your sports than it is for Brits to be oblivious to baseball or hockey.

[botsquad]

care?.....of course we care...
it was another perfect f1 race......

all america is buzzing about tgf...and grabbing up
signed minchamp 550 Barchetta Pininfarinas.

[neilap]

I think the US has some of the most educated race fans. Some people here that like F1 know more than many people in Europe do about the series. The issue is we have so many sports here that some just dont fit in. Between our version of Football, basketball, baseball and even Hockey there is not much more to follow. Even some fans of NASCAR know of and follow F1. Racing here has a certain connotation that does not necessarily include all groups of people. It seems the view of racers and people into racing are the "rag in the back pocket grease monkey" type. People that like open-wheel action without doubt know of and follow f1.

The state of F1 now does not do anything to get new viewers, especially from the US. First, it is not ours. Secondly all of the finishes are staged. We have pro Wrestling for that.

[Jay]

Americans care about F1 about as much as Brits care about NFL (American) football...not bloody much.

The only way the average American (ie not already an F1 fan) will turn towards the sport is if there is an American competing for the championship...even then, they'd still prefer Nascar.

[Liz]

I used to like F1 when I lived in the USA, but I started with Mario because I knew him from other forms of racing. Then Gilles of course -- everyone loved him -- and Prost, and after that I was hooked. But I had to start with somebody I knew so I could understand what the racing was all about. Of course in those days the races were not rigged, either, there was some unbelieveable racing to watch.

Still, it was much harder to follow F1 back then because it was not on TV -- it was more like following the BTCC now. (I only followed the BTCC because my second cousin was in it.)