Originally posted by Louis Mr. F1
I've been wondering, if Lewis managed to perform vey well in F1, would it help the popularity of the sport? (perhaps the black people community?) maybe in the same way that Tiger Wood does?
Bernie has always said that F1 needs a black driver, I'm sure Bernie can't wait to see Lewis arrives.
I've been following F1 since, what, 1980. I'm a Black American. I followed Willy T. Ribbs. I don't think F1 "needs" a Black driver, but they could
possibly get some percentage of the 25 million Blacks in America to pay attention. Hell, I see Blacks wearing NASCAR leather jackets in Detroit and NASCAR aint exactly renowned for being "open to racial diversity".
Don't overlook Brazil. There are 75 million Black Africans there. They already had Ayrton, but now that have their racial kin which could mean money as well.
I also think that LH could market many products where race shouldn't be an issue:
Tyres
Watches
Fashion
What will be required is to have US products marketed by him - even though the US economy is tanking. This means that the sponsors will have to simply MAKE A DECISION as opposed to the Marketing Research and simply state, "Hey, LH, we want you to market this for us."
I'd like to think that his race would not make a difference on the track, BUT nationality plays a huge role in F1 (if not on the actual track) so having a Black-Brit can be a grand slam homerun for F1, McLaren and LH if it's managed properly.
I've managed to get several Blacks in the US interested and they ACTUALLY watched the Canadian and US Grands Prix and asked me many questions during the US GP - including "when is the race in France?" Hey, I'm doing my part. I think Lewis and Ron need to "help a fellow brother (that would be me) out" for doing his part.