Bob Varsha talks F1 In The USA

in OPINION by admin — March 13, 2010 at 5:37 am | 2 comments

With the recent news that the USF1 team will no longer be on the grid for 2010, it seems that Formula 1 has taken yet another hit in the United States of America, but that’s not to say that it is gone altogether. Even in a country whose motorsport genre is dominated by stock car racing, a small but dedicated contingent of F1 fans still fly the sport’s flags, even though their hemisphere is only visited twice in a year.

While the viewing figures for the races, broadcast nationally by SPEED TV, may not come close to those of NASCAR, fans make it quite evident that they are watching in their own way. Take, for example, the fact that the Formula 1 message boards on SPEED TV’s website have the most posts and replies of any of the other sections including NASCAR and IndyCar, or the fact that there are multiple groups on the social networking site Facebook for bringing back the U.S. Grand Prix (some want it back in Indy, but there are other groups supporting a return to Watkins Glen or the west coast). While F1’s presence on sites like Facebook may be surprising to some, Bob Varsha, the head F1 commentator for SPEED TV isn’t surprised at all.

“US F1 fans are smart and sophisticated, very knowledgeable about the sport and its history,” said Varsha, who is, for many, the voice of F1 in America. “The lack of a US Grand Prix is a shocking oversight on the part of the series, and one I hope will be rectified soon.”

It seems that through all of the talk about Formula 1 in the U.S., many share Varsha’s view that the lack of a Grand Prix is an enormous loss. Bernie Ecclestone had been quoted on a few occasions claiming that the sport didn’t need the United States to survive (which, economically, may be true), but one cannot ignore the facts: When the race was run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 2000 to 2007, the U.S. Grand Prix was perennially one of the highest-attended races on the F1 calendar. This was surprising as the years went by since attendance dropped annually (from a high of nearly 225,000 in its first year at the speedway).

Perhaps the biggest hit that the fan base took came in 2005 when six cars (the only Bridgestone-clad cars on the grid) started the race after all the cars running Michelins boycotted due to safety concerns. For the ensuing week news agencies spoke of the debacle, and for many in the crowd who were attending their first F1 race, they announced that it would also be their last. It was a huge punch in the stomach to dedicated US F1 fans (including this author, who was in the stands that day and for every ensuing USGP) to hear such things.

Also working against the sport’s establishment in the states was the fact that it cost so much to ship the cars and equipment across the pond for a two week stint spread between Montreal and Indianapolis. Once the economy began to take a downturn, coupled with decreased attendance and Ecclestone’s annually-rising fees, Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials and the FIA confirmed that 2007’s USGP would be the last for the foreseeable future. Later, when the Canadian Grand Prix was axed from the calendar as well, it seemed as though F1 would never take hold in America.

Things seemed to be looking up when Ecclestone announced that Montreal would be hosting the Canadian Grand Prix again in 2010, yet a similar announcement about a US Grand Prix hasn’t come. Many point to the fact that in a German magazine Ecclestone was quoted as saying he would “never” return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but it seems that many of the teams would disagree. Numerous team principles and high-ranking Formula 1 personalities have noted the U.S.A.’s importance to the global automobile market is a deserving reason to return, and that’s a notion with which many agree.

“I think the USA remains F1’s most underserved, and underexploited, market,” Varsha explained. But he noted that not all may be lost.

A week before the opening round of the 2010 season in Bahrain, Ecclestone announced that a deal had been reached for a street race in Rome in 2013. A few sources close to Ecclestone even reported that he had been mentioning plans of a street race in the New England region.

“Bernie has been very public in his preference for a major-city street race in the US, and he has mentioned New York,” Varsha revealed. He went on to say that a few people have supposedly spotted the F1 supremo in downtown New York City, perhaps talking to potential investors in a street race which, as of a year ago, Ecclestone claimed was “not currently do-able.”

U.S. Grand Prix talks aside, F1 has very limited ways in which it can increase its appeal to American viewers. An obvious way is to have an American team, or at least an American driver, on the grid. USF1 came close to making it for the 2010 season (how close remains open for debate), but at this point is hoping for a guaranteed spot in 2011. The question is, will it make a difference? Unfortunately the straight answer is no unless the team does a much better job than F1 does in promoting itself stateside. Just like the success of the US Grand Prix was dependent on letting as many people know as possible (something Bernie criticized Tony George for failing to do), the success of USF1’s attempts at fostering F1 growth will lie in their ability to market themselves and garner interest.

That certainly won’t be an easy job, though, given NASCAR’s status and the fact that nearly every Grand Prix is broadcast either in the early morning hours or late at night. Granted, that’s not taking into account the countless fans who record the races as opposed to watch them live (only some of which can be rated by Nielsen Media Research) or download them off the internet after the live broadcast. These kinds of fans are the intangibles who may never be properly quantified.

They are the key market, though, in spreading the word about F1. They are the kinds of people who, just like this author, tell their friends about the sport and watch it with them. They are the ones who start the cycle, and certainly their role in growing the popularity of F1 in the states cannot be overlooked. As grass-roots as it may seem, the sport of F1 is not extinct from the minds of Americans. And with any luck, or a team, or a race, a resurgence in Formula 1 in the United States is just around the corner.

Greg Woods