Lotus49 wrote:
pokerman wrote:
Exediron wrote:
pokerman wrote:
I don't understand why Liberty are not pushing to get Rossi into F1, he has a good profile in America now and has driven a few races in F1 without looking out of place.
Liberty are American who are wanting to increase American interest at home and to that extent they are looking to have more than one race in America, there is also an American team that are very competitive, what am I missing here?
I think they may be trying - I know they tried to get Newgarden into the Haas, as well. But the problem is: why would either of them leave a championship team in IndyCar to make up the numbers in F1? Unless they could find Rossi a seat at Ferrari, Red Bull or Mercedes, he doesn't have much reason to stop fighting for championships in America to come fight for 7th in F1.
For me that just shows lack of ambition you either want to be an American Champion or a World Champion, if you fail then then there's always the route back to Indycar.
A top team is not going to sign an unproven driver, you show what you can do in F1 first like what Leclerc did.
Leclerc got his chance because he's a Ferrari jnr at the right time. Perez and Hulk have both excelled in the midfield over the years and will likely never sit in a top car and its not for performance reasons. Even a proven race winner like Ricciardo didn't get a look in at either Merc or Ferrari.
Rossi or Newgarden could easily end up impressing in F1 and never be given the chance to fight for more than 7th, its a fair point being made by Exediron I think, without at least being affiliated with a manufacturer like Leclerc then there's little point switching series. And even the affiliation isn't a guarantee, whatever your success is performance wise, Perez* and to a lesser extent Ocon, highlight this.
(*Ignore this part if he left Ferrari ranks himself to join Macca, I honestly can't recall)
Perez left the Ferrari ranks himself but there was no guarantee of a Ferrari drive, I get the impression at the time that they were not as impressed with Perez as they are now with Leclerc?
You don't get gifted top drives just by being respectfully fast you need to show yourself to be something special, the problem with Perez and Hulk is they kind of cancelled each one out, Perez had known form against Button, a WDC when things unexpectedly fell into his lap, but ultimately a driver seen as being short of the ultimate fastest, then with Perez we see Ocon being able to match him, they can't all be superstars?
Leclerc was in a favourable position but he also destroyed his teammate, even if that was only Ericsson, but he was a rookie to boot, he showed himself to look like he was something special.
So say the likes of either Rossi and Newgarden got signed up by Haas then they have to beat Grosjean a driver with respectable speed, if they do that then surely there has to be a big commercial benefit to get such a driver in a top team?
I'm talking in terms of a WDC capable American driver not just putting a token American in a top team which the teams wouldn't allow anyway and circling back to the thread itself, Alonso making American based drivers look like amateurs in the wet conditions wouldn't be impressing the top teams either.