Reaction to the official announcement of USF1 yesterday has varied from complete skepticism to enthusiastic (if cautious) welcoming of the news. Generally, the most supportive comments have come from American sources and one can sense the need of Stateside fans to see their country once again involved in the sport. Conversely, many of the strongest doubts that anything will ever come of the project have an undercurrent of anti-Americanism. Some people will always be eager to rubbish anything from the US of A, as though driven by feelings of inferiority.
Bob Varsha, Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor discuss USF1
This subject of nationalism has also been cited as one of the possible drawbacks to the USF1 concept, presumably because of the stated intention to employ American drivers. Yet this is little more than Force India's intent to bring Indian drivers into the sport as soon as they are ready. Vijay Mallya will have to spend a few years building up a talent pool of racers in India before he can achieve his dream but the States already has a huge racing fraternity; the talent is there and it is only a matter of finding it.
It is pretty obvious that the decision to put American drivers in the cars is driven less by nationalism than the desire to bring the States back into F1 and to encourage Americans to take a look at the sport. Since USF1's strategy depends heavily on extending and serving the US fanbase, it makes sense to have drivers who are known to the American public. That was the major impression given by SpeedTV's coverage of the announcement - that Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson have devised a new means to enter F1 that may well become the norm in the future.
Their strategy may not be effective (time will tell) but F1 had better hope that it succeeds. Toyota and Honda have demonstrated that it is not enough to throw huge amounts of money at a team for it to win GPs; McLaren and Ferrari may now be spending multi-millions to stay in front but even they are being forced to cut back on expenditure. If USF1 can show that it is not necessary to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to be at least respectable in F1, the others will follow.
I see no point in rubbishing the project as some are doing - it is not as if the team is unaware of the difficulties confronting it. Guarded optimism seems the most sensible stance at the moment and any reiteration of the pitfalls awaiting is curmudgeonly at best. Note that American fans (as exemplified by today's special podcast from Formula 1 blog) are cautious in their hopes for the team; they know the obstacles confronting any attempt to enter F1 but are prepared to support rather than criticize.
Personally, I am glad when any new team decides to have a go at F1. The sport needs diversity and every team was once a beginner. Have we forgotten so soon how Eddie Jordan came in and embarrassed the big teams in a very short time? That can happen again - in fact, it must or we will be left with a two- or three-team sport. And, if USF1 can achieve any success at all, it will give me great delight to crow at the doubters of today.
I am with Todd and Grace on this one - come on, Peter and Ken, sell us the T-shirts and caps and we'll wear 'em!