What would seduce an US manufacter to enter F1?
I think a strong US manufacturer in F1, US based, US driver(s) would do a lot of good for F1 in the US.
Haas doesn’t really ooze US-ness. Doesn’t help either that they buy half the car from Ferrari. A bespoke US chassis that does well in F1 would give the Americans something to be proud of their engineering.
Not sure what you mean by Haas doesn't ooze US-ness.
If you mean: The Haas F1 Team does not source materials and people from the US that's probably accurate. It appears that the racing-specific aspects of running a team are all out of the UK. However, the management of publicity, operations, and possibly a small amount of parts manufacture, is in the US. Describing it as a UK-based team run by a US outfit is probably fair.
IMO, most potential fans via the Haas tie-in will not be too concerned with that. They would certainly recognize it is reasonable that a series that has half the races in Europe should probably be primarily operated out of Europe.
If you mean: Haas as a team name/operation doesn't ooze US-ness, I'd pick an argument with you. Stewart-Haas racing has been competing in various NASCAR series since 2002, current competing in two series. They've won 2 drivers championships and dozens of races, particularly over more recent years. They have very popular drivers, notably the recently retired Danica Patrick. The early years were definitely rough. Haas is very well known and respected among NASCAR fans. So, it's possible to make them a bit curious to watch Haas compete. My impression is Haas is not yet really promoting their F1 team in the US. One reason is the main purpose of the team is to spread the Haas machine tool brand name worldwide. The other reason is Haas knows that Americans will probably only care if they think that Haas has a genuine chance to win some races. (Americans only care about the Olympic sports that Americans are doing well in, period.) In the current two-tier system of F1, Haas (or any other 2nd tier team) winning is terribly unlikely in any given race and certainly won't be consistently the case. He will only start pushing for US promotion if he feels his team can genuinely reach the top steps in several races per season. If he pushes, he will get traction among the public because he has good name recognition and respect from NASCAR.
How many more fans would watch F1? Let's look at a particular weekend: July 31, 2018. That weekend had NASCAR, Indycar, and F1 all racing:
NASCAR had 2,750,000 viewers and was the most watched sporting event on TV in the US (Pocono)
Indycar had 644,000 viewers (Mid-Ohio), airing immediately after NASCAR on the same channel. That means 2.1 million fans just turned the TV off or to other channel rather than watch a less familiar, but US-based series.
Formula 1 had 433,000 viewers (Hungarian Grand Prix)
Put in that context, Formula 1 already does pretty well. And, it suggests a top end at the Indycar levels. Maybe US fans don't like spec series much, tolerate it for the Indy 500 because It's The 500. If that's the case, maybe the marketing push should be about how F1 teams have unique cars.
If a US manufacturer such as Ford, Chevy, etc. were to go all in like Mercedes, that would be a different marketing machine with great power. But, I doubt they see it as advantageous compared to NASCAR.
Source: https://racer.com/20...-leads-weekend/
Edited by BalanceUT, 23 December 2018 - 02:16.
