https://youtu.be/38MLcsDDD5c
I’m not American so perhaps I’m not the most qualified on the matter, but I believe there’s a fairly simple explanation for why Formula One hasn’t been successful in the US: American exceptionalism.
Americans want to do things better - and different - to the rest of the world. Sports such as baseball and American football are barely played outside of North America, and yet really common sports everywhere else around the world - proper football, rugby, cricket etc seem to have little following in the United States. Same goes for motorsports. Eg I’m pretty sure the US never had a motorsport series run to Group A or Super Touring rules, but that was pretty common everywhere else in the world in the 80’s and 90’s - from Europe, to Australia, Japan etc.
Maybe Americans just aren’t interested in Formula One because it isn’t an American brand. Although who knows what will happen now that Liberty Media own the sport.
Video hit a lot of the key points, F1 is mostly hard for someone half a world away from where the events happen to get invested in.
As someone who likes Indy/NASCAR/F1 about the same, I think the big hurdles end up feeding into themselves a bit:
No American drivers/manufacturers if I remember right (The Celebrity Driver/Manufacturer Rivalry was/is a huge part of NASCAR, I don't think F1 could reach the same level in the US with this)
Few state-side events, it would cost a fortune for the average citizen to go to races in person
Most American who're into motorsport grew up watching NASCAR or Indy, and probably don't want to follow much else
Hard to watch live races when you have to get up at 4AM
Pack Racing in general is more popular with US audiences I guess, as opposed to F1 where overtaking and aggressive driving isn't as common
I don't think it has anything to do with "American Exceptionalism" or any other similarly silly reasoning. It probably just boils down to America having a large enough population at ~325M people to be able to fund and support massively successful but still exclusively domestic sporting events (NFL/MLB/NASCAR,etc.), and those are naturally the ones that most Americans are likely to see and get invested in, as opposed to soccer/F1/Cricket/whatever, where all the events are far, far from home, and it's hard to really get invested in any drivers/players to root for unless you REALLY like the sport on a technical level.
The distance thing isn’t a problem exclusive to the US. Formula One has a following in Australia despite being on the other side of the world from Europe, too. And let’s not forget that one of the sports’ greatest drivers is Brazilian.
Haas is an American team, even if they aren’t up there with Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull. But what does it matter? Is there anything wrong with supporting a team or driver from another country? Many people do that. I remember the last Australian Grand Prix where there were so many Ferrari fans, despite the team and neither of the drivers being Australian. But yeah apparently an American fellow is considering joining the sport from next year.
Yeah those may be factors why Americans don’t watch Formula One, but you can’t deny that America just likes doing things on its own in its own way and I think that’s the largest factor, eg wherever there’s a global standard for something, America insists on having its own standard. Hopefully Liberty Media can invoke some cultural change within America.
It'a hardly even televised in the states for one, and from what I've seen(not much) races seem to be more like time trials with traffic
Do Australia/Japan/etc. have a domestic sports presence as strong as NASCAR/Indy/other sports venues are here? I guess I sort of meant to say it'd be competing for viewership in an already crowded market that even a few well established domestic events are struggling to keep against. Another choice is never bad of course, though, I'm sure there are more than a few people who would watch it if it became easier for US audiences to follow.
There's nothing wrong with rooting for an international driver, but I think most people here would rather get involved and invested in a multinational sport if more of our dudes were out there to cheer on and root for. I certainly would, anywho.
I think you're really over thinking or assigning to much value to the notion of an over arching cultural desire to do things differently on our part, especially in regards to, uh, sports viewership. It's a new comer in an already over saturated, large market, basically. When there are already half a dozen domestic events people are already following, it's just a tough task to convince people to try and follow something else that's kinda hard to follow well here when there are easier events to follow live available here domestically, which is kinda a bigger deal than some innate desire to do things differently, methinks.
Well yes of course. Australia has the (V8) Supercars and the Australian GT Championship, both of which are broadcast nationally on free TV. And then there are a heap of supporting categories for each. Japan has the Super GT and Super Taikyu and their supporting categories, although I don't know how well they are broadcast in Japan.
Point is, yes, we do have domestic events. But we still watch Formula One.
I don’t think anyone’s touched on what I think is the biggest reason circle racing is so popular in the US: You can see it! No matter where you sit in the grandstands, you can see the entire track at any given time, so you can see the action at any given time. However in longer lap time road courses, be they nascar or Indy, you sit in the stands, and occasionally a car drives past.
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