Even if the Haas F1 team is at the start, Formula 1 has missed a trick for too long not to use the USA as a talent pool for drivers; without an American driver in a top team, a huge market remains untapped.
In addition, even with American-owned F1 – a project to synergy with Indycar, even Indy Lights, with youth programs, etc. to discover talent – was not promised.
However, with the advent of Miami on the F1 calendar, coupled with the COTA lap, the time is more ripe than ever to head to the Indycar paddock for a young hotshot amid an impressive class of young savages competing in the premier open-wheel Show up series of the country.
This begs the question: what is the Haas F1 team, sponsored by a Russian billionaire and led by Austrian Günther Steiner, doing to promote US drivers?
“Formula 1 wants an American driver and we want an American driver,” Steiner said in an interview with F1.com. “At the moment we are of course looking into it, but there is a super license that not many have at the moment, and then it has to be a talent.
“We’re always looking. I’m talking to Stefano [Domenicali] about what could and could not be done and we are trying to make a plan for the future. I think it has to be something, not immediately, but in the short term. It will come.
“We just have to be patient. There are a few guys in Formula 3 who look very promising and see what we can do, ”added Steiner.
Haas has barely embraced the Stars & Stripes theme since the start of their F1 adventure, inexplicably unwilling or unwilling (or both) to cultivate American supporters for the dream, with Gene Haas apparently discouraged to the point of disinterest in the project. Ditto American fans.
No wonder, as they are currently the worst team in the field, with two rookie drivers, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, who not only struggle with a miserable car, but also with questionable leadership, lack of resources and no light at the end of the field at the end of the tunnel.
Is that a “For Sale” sign on the Haas F1 team door?
Joking aside, hardly the outfit you would put a young American driver in because it would be invisible and irrelevant, like the two current boys and their very experienced predecessors Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.
Clearly putting a talent like (for example) Colton Herta in the chaos of Haas would be counterproductive and negative when it comes to seriously captivating the US audience.
Marussia 2015 was what Haas is today. At that time they gave Alexander Rossi five insignificant and unforgettable starts in Formula 1, which barely paved the way for more such “experiments” with drivers from the States.
The reality is that in today’s landscape it takes a native talent at Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari for the US to wake up to F1 because it has so much potential – anything else is a waste of time.
Placing an American driver with Haas, in his current sad state, would be the worst possible tonic for F1’s USA dream.
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