RaggedMan wrote:
jammin78 wrote:
@ Gimax and Minchy, yes it turns out Tom Pryce was Welsh, happy days
I can take comfort in that.
@ Minchy - its not really the same as saying you're from Texas but being classed as American.
Texas is a state... Wales is an actual country (apparently!). But I know what you mean, Wales isn't really considered independent, and is part of the country-collective. If I was a driver, I'd damn well deman to be classed as Welsh, not British. If they say "your passport says British" I'd demand that the England, Scotland and Wales football and rugby teams are all combined into a British team too
@ MistaVega23 - I'm the same, wanted to be an F1 driver and such, but I hadn't heard about Senna buying Pembrey circuit... imagine that!
Texas is the worst state to use as an example in this case because it was a sovereign country which allowed itself to be annexed by the United States. They maintained the right to succed, or split into 5 different states. Of course at this point they'd be crazy to do either, but that doesn't mean that you don't see t-shirts and bumper stickers all over the state calling for succesion.
Yep, when it was an independent republic from 1836 until its annexation, the republic contained the current state, part of Oklahoma and Colorado, and most of New Mexico, so it was broken up because Washington didn't want a new state that was about 1/2 the size of the then United States.
But if even considered separately for this discussion, we could still claim historic representation with A.J. Foyt for sure.
Though personally, it doesn't matter to me that there aren't any current US drivers or teams. Maybe because I've been used to there not being a US presence, but its not something I even notice. Outside of A.J., Mark Donohue (my 1st 2 big motorsports heros), and then Mario and Michael Andretti, Phil Hill and Dan Gurney, I'd be hard pressed to name many without giving a lot of thought (like I typically forget about Danny Sullivan and Bobby Rahal being in F1, and just completely forget about most like Scott Speed altogether.)
Anyway, there are a few US-born drivers that I suspect would be highly skilled in anything they drove that I might like to see give F1 a real shot just to see how they would do, but at the same time, I wouldn't necessarily root for a US driver or team on the basis of nationality. If I didn't like the guy's personality or character or a team's drivers, I'd cheer just as much for their competition as I would if they were from anywhere else in the world.
That's why I always find myself on a different page when the argument comes up about needing to get US driver & team involvement in F1 in order to be of interest here. I have no doubt that is very important to a good many fans though, and certainly it would be an asset in building interest quickly. But at least for me, its way down on the list of things that might bring me to the TV or a GP. But I also suspect that if a good many really got into F1, that eventually it wouldn't matter to them and they would still remain very interested fans after US drivers or teams departed.
Not a Texan myself, but my dad was.
As for the rest of your post I agree. I don't think an American driver is a must for F1 to get traction here. I will admit though that it's something I'd like to see, but only it's someone who has a chance to make a decent showing even if it's a lower team.
They had an hour long live chat with Conor Daly on Jalopnik earlier today that was fairly interesting even though some go the questions were plain stupid. He seems to speak highly of all of the young American drivers trying to get into F1. BTW I can't believe I never knew that he is Darek Dalys son.
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