Once again, if the FIA is serious about making a big impact in America, it needs to get to work immediately on romancing the domestic media and getting them to cover
F1 on a more expansive basis. The only American press in Montreal last weekend were Jenna Fryer of AP, a man from NASCAR Scene who was writing about the arrival next year of the Busch Grand National series in Montreal, and myself and my old friend and photographer Gary Gold working for
Road & Track. We also counted three American photographers, but none were shooting for a major media outlet of any description.
And indeed, the results were there in Monday morning’s newspapers with just a few inches coverage from Montreal. It was the eve of the much-discussed United States GP at Indianapolis and not a single sports editor in America - not even the
Indianapolis Star! - cared to send a reporter to write about the Canadian GP or prepare some pre-race stories for this week’s editions. The ball is rolling backward rather than forward.
If the
FIA, Mosley, Ecclestone and F1’s engine manufacturers are serious about making an impact in the USA, they will have to work much, much harder to attract and nurture this country’s media. Frankly, I don’t think they have any idea how to do this, nor as I wrote last week, does their misapprehension of America’s sports culture provide them with a basis to tackle this job.
The fact is, USGP at Indianapolis or not, F1 appears doomed to exist as a marginal sport, or less, in the United States. A cultural revolution within F1 is required before there’s any hope for something more, and that’s unlikely to happen.
In closing, I must report a brief conversation with Renault’s F1 team boss Flavio Briatore about
Sebastien Bourdais. I asked Briatore why there’s no interest in Bourdais from
Renault or any other F1 teams. “He’s a very good driver,” Briatore shrugged. “I have no idea why he’s not here.”
