Nascar's Formula One Envy

[gbelday]

Interesteing Article in today's WSJ. I'll just post the gist of it. I took out a whole lot of paragraphs and posted only the interesting ones...
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Nascar's Formula One Envy

Drivers Dream of Faster Cars,
Glamour of Global Circuit;
Jeff Gordon Borrows a BMW


If a top Formula One team such as Ferrari or McLaren-Mercedes came to him with a solid offer to let him drive, Mr. Gordon says, he'd be "very tempted" to take it. "It would be a huge thrill to be on the grid for a Formula One race," he says. "That's something not many people can say they've done."

By any measure, the odds of a Nascar driver moving to Formula One are rather long. There hasn't been an American driver on the circuit since Michael Andretti in 1993, and no Nascar driver has made the jump. Some of the hurdles are obvious: The cars and tracks are vastly different, and Nascar keeps its drivers busy with a race calendar that stretches from February to November. And while top Formula One drivers are among the best-paid athletes in the world, there's plenty of money to be made in Nascar. Mr. Gordon, for one, makes roughly $20 million a year in winnings, merchandise and endorsements. Though he's had flirtations with Formula One teams, it's easy to understand why he's been hesitant to cross the pond for anything but a top ride.

In the meantime, Mr. Gordon continues to race in Nascar's Nextel Cup series, which is not exactly a driver's idyll. When it comes to racing, Nascar's philosophy is the polar opposite of Formula One's. The emphasis is on keeping the competition tight, the field large and the costs low enough not to scare away sponsors (a top Nascar team can operate for as little as $15 million a year).

On most Nascar speedways, driving one of these cars isn't the most technical feat. Other than accelerating out of the pits, drivers aren't required to shift gears on the speedway or, for that matter, to execute any right turns. And while a Nextel Cup car might reach 240 miles an hour on the fastest superspeedways, Nascar has forced them to restrict engine revolutions and horsepower at these tracks to promote safety, hold down costs and ensure close racing.

A Formula One car, by contrast, weighs 60% less while producing about 20% more horsepower with nearly double the engine revolutions. On the track, the cars have seven speeds, can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in about two seconds and have computer telemetry systems so advanced that engine adjustments can be made wirelessly from anywhere in the world. Top teams are widely believed to spend upwards of $300 million a year on their racing efforts.

In 2003, when Mr. Gordon took the wheel of Mr. Montoya's Williams BMW, the first thing that struck him was the physical challenge: The car generated such immense forces in cornering that it put an enormous strain on his neck. To operate the brakes in hard cornering, he says, it took all the strength he could muster in his left leg. At a speed where it would take his stock car 300 feet to stop, the BMW did it in 75 while generating enough force to mash his face against the steering wheel. When he switched into seventh gear while moving at 180 mph, he remembers, "the car was still throwing me back in my seat." He likens the difference between the two cars to "flying a big old Boeing 747 and flying an F-18."

The conventional wisdom in auto racing is that Nascar drivers wouldn't stand a chance in Formula One, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Starting in 2002, Christian Fittipaldi, a former Formula One driver, competed in 16 Nascar races -- but never managed to finish any better than 24th.

In last year's Nation's Cup in Paris, an event where drivers from several international circuits compete in match races in equally prepared cars, Nascar's Casey Mears beat Formula One standout David Coulthard. And in 2002, Jeff Gordon squeaked past a Spanish kid who was about to make his Formula One debut for the Renault team. The kid's name is Fernando Alonso, and he's the current Formula One points leader.

Even during his romp at Indianapolis in the Williams BMW, Mr. Gordon dispelled a lot of doubts: He put down a lap time that was only 1.3 seconds slower than Mr. Montoya's best of the day.

Opportunity Knocks

Mr. Gordon has had two opportunities to try Formula One. In 1999, he had serious discussions with the Williams team about coming to Europe to train and test for a possible gig. At the time, he had just won his second consecutive Nascar title and was leery of leaving to become an apprentice. Last year, while he was in Barcelona, Mr. Gordon says he met with officials from Jaguar who all but offered him a Formula One ride. He declined, he says, because he wasn't sure that the Jaguar team had the resources to put him in a winning car. (The Jaguar team, now under new management, was unable to confirm or deny the story).

The lack of an American star isn't lost on Formula One, which has had serious trouble making inroads in the U.S. market (a partial driver boycott at this year's U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis didn't exactly bolster the sport's image). In order to drum up interest, Formula One sponsor Red Bull has been operating a driver search program here in hopes of cultivating the first American driver in more than a decade.

But for those of us who would love to see how Nascar's top drivers stack up against the world, there's one sliver of hope. If given the chance, Mr. Gordon says he'd love to take a few months out of his schedule to get in shape, train in a Formula One car and join the starting grid in a single Grand Prix race to settle the argument once and for all.

Who wouldn't pay to see that?

[vkd_1717]

interesting article ... If all the American drivers arnt ready to start with teams like Jaguar its no surprise Scott Speed is the only American related to F1. For now, the best starting team you can hav eis RedBull/Sabur because no bigger team will be willing to give a driver a fresh start as it will be too risky for them.

i also noticed its a bit old

There hasn't been an American driver on the circuit since Michael Andretti in 1993