FOM possiby creating US junior series

[astrosdude91]

From ESPN F1:

Formula One's management is considering creating an American version of GP2 or GP3 in order to drive popularity of the sport in the United States which this weekend hosts its first Grand Prix for five years.

Company documents show that it has the working title of the 'Americas Series' and, if given the green light, will feature races in the United States, Canada and Brazil. The aim is to stimulate the development of grass roots motorsports in these countries and generate publicity for F1 so that it eventually attracts more local drivers.

This year only three of the 20 F1 races are in the Americas. In addition to this weekend's race, which takes place in Texas, there are well-established Grands Prix in Canada and Brazil. However, F1 has struggled to gain popularity in the United States. There are no American drivers currently competing in the sport and the last was Scott Speed who raced briefly for Toro Rosso in 2006 and 2007 without scoring a point.

According to the company documents, F1's management believes that it will eventually be able to develop its business in North and South America to a level comparable with that in its traditional European base.

A regional variant of GP2 has been attempted before with little success. A GP2 Asia winter series was launched in 2008 but its last season was in 2011 when it only held four races with two of them taking place at Imola in Italy. Although teams were encouraged to run local drivers, many still chose Europeans or South Americans instead despite restrictions on the number of points they could score.

Since GP2 launched in 2005 it has been a major success story in producing F1 talent, with former champions including Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean. The series was acquired by F1's parent company, the F1 Group, in 2007 and three years later it launched GP3 to provide upcoming drivers with another clear step on the ladder to F1.

GP2 and GP3 generated $44.8m in revenues last year. This represents around 2.9% of the F1 Group's total revenue and it was made up from the sale of cars and parts to the participating teams, plus promotion and advertising fees and maintenance services.

It isn't only the F1 Group that would benefit from an expansion of GP2 or GP3. Publicity generated by an American junior series could be very useful to the organisers of the proposed Grand Prix in New Jersey, who recently shelved plans to host a race in 2013 amid budget concerns. It would also be beneficial to the F1 teams because as the sport's profile grows in the US it is likely to increase interest in sponsorship from American companies. However, the teams would not receive any additional revenues directly from the series itself as turnover from GP2 and GP3 is excluded from the F1 prize money fund.

Although there have been a number of plans to improve the profile of F1 in the US in recent years, the race in Texas is so far the only one to come to fruition. Despite being granted an entry slot for 2010, new team USF1 collapsed under the weight of financial troubles before it even made it to the grid. Earlier this year Red Bull was rumoured to be looking at creating a 'Stars and Stripes' F1 team piloted by American drivers, but so far nothing has materialised.

Link to the story

It will definitely be interesting to see if it comes into fruition. But I have my doubts if it'll be successful.

 

[GTPorsche]

They should have done this before bringing F1 back. That way the interest is there before they arrived.

 

[Blitz24]

It would only make sense. Problem is how many circuits can they realistically put on the schedule? Only 4 are current so where else do they go to?

 

[The Gran Finale]

It would only make sense. Problem is how many circuits can they realistically put on the schedule? Only 4 are current so where else do they go to?

Well, there's Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Sonoma (Infineon/Sears Point), Sebring, Road America, and Road Atlanta. Then I guess, if you wanted to do oval infields, there's those. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Of course not all these tracks are FIA approved and they're all in the US. So, some work would need to be done to gain FIA approval. Also I'm sure there's plenty of others not in the US that would work.

 

[HeXoSKEL3t0n]

Well, there's Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Sonoma (Infineon/Sears Point), Sebring, Road America, and Road Atlanta. Then I guess, if you wanted to do oval infields, there's those. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Of course not all these tracks are FIA approved and they're all in the US. So, some work would need to be done to gain FIA approval. Also I'm sure there's plenty of others not in the US that would work.

Didn't the article mention about how it was a regional American Series? With races also planned to be held in Canada and Brazil, besides the USA? At the second paragraph.

...Company documents show that it has the working title of the 'Americas Series' and, if given the green light, will feature races in the United States, Canada and Brazil...

There should be quite enough, if they're actually making use of all the tracks in the American region that is.

Besides, I don't think they're intending to hold a full scale championship of nearly 20 races (that kind of thing). I think they'd be realistically looking at a championship with around maybe 4-7 races, similar to the GP2 Asian Winter Series.

 

[Signal52]

Hmm, would love to see it, just not sure they will actually pull it off. Hope they do.

 

[Wilbur]

This might be totally off base but how will this affect Indycar if it works out?

 

[The Gran Finale]

Didn't the article mention about how it was a regional American Series? With races also planned to be held in Canada and Brazil, besides the USA? At the second paragraph.

Didn't I mention that there are other tracks not in the US that would work? I'm just simply not as aware of many western hemisphere circuits outside of the US. If I knew some, I would have listed them.

 

[GTPorsche]

This might be totally off base but how will this affect Indycar if it works out?

It won't.

Indycar isn't a feeder series for F1.

As for American tracks, most of them need modernization as it is.

 

[HeXoSKEL3t0n]

Didn't I mention that there are other tracks not in the US that would work? I'm just simply not as aware of many western hemisphere circuits outside of the US. If I knew some, I would have listed them.

Noted 👍. Sorry, didn't notice that.

On another lighter note, can't wait for the USGP at Texas

 

[The Gran Finale]

Noted 👍. Sorry, didn't notice that.

On another lighter note, can't wait for the USGP at Texas

No problem. 👍

Anyway, I agree with GTPorsche. The feeder should have been established before F1 returned. And NBC should have been doing the broadcasting before F1 arrived, as well.

 

[Wilbur]

It won't.

Indycar isn't a feeder series for F1.

As for American tracks, most of them need modernization as it is.

I knew that but I was wondering how many might switch or if it kind of will take over for that style of car since IndyCar is having issues.

It would be nice to see it take off though

 

[hawkeye122]

Well, they could do Texas, Montreal, and Brazil alongside F1, Bring back New Jersey, and theres 4.

Mosport, Infineon/Laguna Seca, Indy Road (Like the week before the 500), Road America. That would be a solid line-up. Plus, there are all track which could already (or with minimal upgrades) run cars of the GP3/2 caliber. Indy WAS an F1 circuit, IRL use Infineon already, the only trip-ups would be Mosport and Road America.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Mont Tremblant in Canada is an awesome track that I'd love to see used in this.

 

[daan]

FIA possiby creating US junior series

Miss-leading title.

The FIA is not FOM. FOM, the Formula One Management of the first line of the story, is basically Bernie.

 

[astrosdude91]

Miss-leading title.

The FIA is not FOM. FOM, the Formula One Management of the first line of the story, is basically Bernie.

Whoops my bad. You are right. Title has been changed to reflect the article.

 

[The Bman]

I can think of some tracks that this series could possibly race at:

Circuit of the Americas (as mentioned)
Laguna Seca
Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the old F1 circuit)
Watkins Glen
Sonoma/Infineon
Road America
Sebring Raceway
Barber Motorsports Park
Lime Rock Park
Road Atlanta
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
Portland International Raceway
Virginia International Raceway

And those are just in the USA. I'm not too familiar with road courses in Canada and Brazil (other than Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Interlagos). And as previously mentioned, it depends on what tracks are/would be FIA approved and what ones wouldn't.

 

[GTPorsche]

Other than COTA and Indianapolis, the others need lots of work to upgrade them to modern standards. Some of those tracks don't even have proper garage areas.

 

[Ardius]

Other than COTA and Indianapolis, the others need lots of work to upgrade them to modern standards. Some of those tracks don't even have proper garage areas.

Not according to the FIA:

Circuit of the Americas = Grade 1
Laguna Seca = Grade 2
Indianapolis Motor Speedway = Grade 1
Watkins Glen = Grade 2
Sonoma/Infineon = Grade 2
Road America = Grade 2
Sebring Raceway = Grade 2
Barber Motorsports Park = Grade 2
Lime Rock Park = Grade 2
Road Atlanta = Grade 2
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course = Grade 2
Portland International Raceway = Grade 2
Virginia International Raceway = Grade 2

All of those tracks can hold races below F1.

Seeing as we're talking about an GP2/GP3 series here, there aren't many tracks they can't go to. Look at all the Formula 3 championships around the world.

The US has badly needed something like this for a long time, the junior ladder in single seaters seems to be currently limited to Skip Barber, Star Mazda, Indy Lights and Indycar. We can't expect many US drivers to get far if they always have to keep travelling to Europe to prove themselves - they need a decent set of series on their own continent.

They should have done this before bringing F1 back. That way the interest is there before they arrived.

I don't see any difference. You need interest and money to get a decent series going - and then you need some decent drivers to make it competitive enough that teams from higher series will want to recruit from it.
Basically you need to kick off a circle which is incredibly hard to get rolling. F1 being there or not is kind of irrelevant.
In my opinion its probably better that F1 is there in the first place to generate the interest among sponsors to actually help drivers through the open-wheel ladder. For most US companies, they are better off sponsoring drivers in NASCAR if they want directly valuable coverage. The only you change that is by getting the interest up in open-wheel.
Indycar sure isn't doing that lately.

I mean, look at Jonathan Palmer's F2 series. Its almost a joke that they consider it a valid championship for a super license. It doesn't attract much talent and all of the drivers have found they needed to race several seasons of FR3.5 and GP2 to even get close to F1.
You need to have the carrot for the sponsors and the competition to attract the drivers.

Mont Tremblant in Canada is an awesome track that I'd love to see used in this.

👍
And its an FIA-Grade 2 circuit!