[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Flyin Ryan

I know friends of Peter Windsor that told me their takes on it. It was never going to happen from the start, although Peter was blinded by the hope it would.

The only way an American driver will ever have a fanbase for driving in a series where almost all events are on at 7 in the morning is if it's a crossover from NASCAR or Indycar because they'd have a pre-existing fanbase that followed them, as well as having some level of success. That's what Bernie and Frank Williams tried to do with Jeff Gordon in the late '90s and Gordon declined. No one beyond the diehards knew who Scott Speed was in F1, he was not "the American hero". And so we were supposed to cheer for him...for what reason? Having an American that's somewhat successful isn't even likely enough, Eddie Cheever has a lot of F1 podiums to his name and no one ever cared about him. In MotoGP, Ben Spies, Colin Edwards, and Nicky Hayden are all successful, Hayden is a former world champion, and they would all fail the New York waiter test.

The reason it's highly unlikely a NASCAR or Indycar driver will ever come to F1 is because they would be driving in a more difficult series for in some cases for the guys less money, and no driver is going to go to a series like GP2 where they have to pay for their ride instead of getting paid to drive every week.

Where does Mario Andretti fit in, or indeed Michael Andretti?