F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

http://qz.com/31446/formula-one-like-soccer-and-the-metric-system-is-ok-for-everyone-except-americans/

by antr • 14 years ago

65 69 14 years ago

As someone who's been an F1 fan for a while (although less so at the moment, but I digress), I've always found it curious that it's never really taken off in America like it could have. Americans love cars, and love racing, it's easy to mock the love of the oval and NASCAR but American teams show up in Le Mans quite a lot, and have a long history of racing on the long, winding and, well, non-American tracks.

Maybe it's just a quirk of culture, something that slipped under the radar and never made it back into vogue. No American drivers, previously no American tracks, no American teams, there's little to get a fan hooked in. F1 suddenly got a lot more coverage in the UK when we had a couple of drivers, and oddly more coverage still when we had drivers doing well, maybe having one really good American driver would change it.

ra• 14 years ago

It's the same with Cricket and Rugby.

By some quirk of history, Americans got into Baseball and Gridiron instead.

They're both fine sports so it's all good; but we all have a chuckle when you have a 'world series'.

jacques_chester2• 14 years ago

There's a theory (according to the relevant Wikipedia entry it's a controversial theory) that the World Series is named for the newspaper which sponsored early contests.

zalew5• 14 years ago

> it's easy to mock the love of the oval and NASCAR

Check out Top Gear s18e02 (edit: now I see you're British, so you probably have watched it). Not that I'm convinced or will watch Nascar, but how they pictured it in the show was hell damn exciting.

> F1 suddenly got a lot more coverage in the UK when we had a couple of drivers

Imagine what was going on here when Kubica appeared.

nicholassmith7• 14 years ago

If you've never watched NASCAR, you should definitely do it. I've not watched a race in years, but it used to be shown on Channel 5 around 10/11pm, it's perfect 'crack a beer' TV. Very fast, very aggressive, very loud, very full of crashes. The street brawl to F1's refined Queensbury Rules.

However, it is frankly ridiculous in many ways and it's very easy to pick on the fact it's beloved by red necks and so on.

objclxt• 14 years ago

> No American drivers, no American tracks, no American teams[...]

F1 was run at the Circuit of the Americas two weeks ago, in Austin. I think F1 is to the USA as NFL is to the UK: there's a dedicated, small audience in both (judging from my Twitter feed), and they're both trying to extend their reach - F1 with more races in the US, and NFL with more games in Wembley. I think F1 is planning a New Jersey street race in 2014 as well.

nicholassmith7• 14 years ago

Sorry I should have said 'previously no American tracks', was typing a bit too fast and I'll fix it.

djhworld• 14 years ago

I think it's more the time difference problem, A lot of F1 races take place in Europe/The Middle East/Asia

Only Brazil, Canada and Austin are in the "prime time" US timezones.

smoyer• 14 years ago

I'm American, like F1 and NASCAR but rarely spend time watching either (or any other television). I also prefer to drive on a winding country road in a European touring sedan versus more boring routes.

I played soccer (shouldn't he have said football?) when I was younger and I'm fine with the metric system (the real question is why they taught it in elementary schools starting in the '70s, but didn't bother switching).

I think there are a lot of people in the US like me, but we don't spend enough money to get sponsor/advertiser attention. When was the last time you saw F1 tee-shirts, or F1 drivers on beer cans? Which events are offered is all about the almighty dollar.

sjh• 14 years ago

It's 'football' in the UK, but in most of the rest of the Anglophone world, it's 'soccer'. Australia has its own 'football', as does Ireland.

nicholassmith7• 14 years ago

Oddly in most of Europe it's 'football' as well, EUFA, IFA, Ligue de Football and so on, seems to be quite fractured depending on whereabouts in the world you are, and with the rise in people learning American English through TV/movies/etc I can see it becoming more popular to call it soccer.

dbaupp• 14 years ago

Over the last few years, there has been a move in Australia to use "football" for soccer. The 3 other footballs (rugby league, rugby union and AFL) are more commonly "rugby" or "footy".

(At least, that's what I've noticed.)

rmccue• 14 years ago

> Australia has its own 'football'

In fact, we have multiple: 'football' here can refer to rugby league in QLD and NSW, AFL in pretty much every other state (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barassi_Line ), or soccer.

dkersten• 14 years ago

as does Ireland

Yet if you say "football" in Ireland, it is assumed you mean soccer.

antr2• 14 years ago

i have to agree on "...is all about the almighty dollar."

at the end of the day, one-directional media consumption (almost anywhere) is driven by maximising ad dollar expenditure. we just need for the Formula One Group to make the same sales effort in the US as they've done in asia. since the sales push in asia (during the past 3 years) a whole bunch of new asian sponsors/cars/drivers have joined F1. i guess it's a matter of time.

vishnupr• 14 years ago

Man, this website has the worst navigational experience ever. I accidentally flicked my magic mouse upwards and I was on another article, I tried to correct it by scrolling to the bottom but I ended up at yet another article instead of the original one.

Before I knew it, I was just lost.

wheaties• 14 years ago

Agreed. Can't use my android phone to nav around. It just flips articles.

sabret00the• 14 years ago

"You don't have Javascript enabled" so let's show you just how badly we can make rendered HTML look. Great work there Quartz!

As for the article, it's an article about racing, not sure why they mentioned football or the metric system at all, but to mention it in the context they have, they should've called it by it's proper name "Football" and then perhaps added "Soccer" in brackets.

sergiotapia2• 14 years ago

If you don't have Javascript enabled that's a conscious decision you've made, fully aware of what the tradeoff is.

Either turn it on for websites you want to read properly, or just accept the fact that it's 2013 and the vast majority of websites use it.

errnoh• 14 years ago

I do have JS enabled but still run into problems. Probably some script blocking plugin that's causing them but the cause doesn't really matter, what does is the fact that it's preventing one from reading the article.

There's really no reason at all to obfuscate text based information in such way unless you want to display ads or track the user. It even shows the actual article behind the loading screen but you can't read the article itself since the loading never finishes. That's just bad design.

It's not the first time I've had to open lynx in order to read an article that's behind some javascript nonsense. (note: the text data is fine, it's actually only broken on modern browsers which actually handle js)

pooriaazimi• 14 years ago

Believe me, their "badly-rendered HTML" is sooooo much better than the stupid, stupid "thing" they show you when JS is enabled...

buro9• 14 years ago

Chrome F12... then delete the overlay and enjoy the article.

zalew5• 14 years ago

wow, they are worst 'js for reading text' offenders than blogspot.

josefresco• 14 years ago

No real meat to this article. Americans don't love F1 because the track isn't oval? Really? And the shot about how poor F1 drivers do well in NASCAR ruins the credibility of the argument even more.

alpeb• 14 years ago

An article like this on the homepage is probably the result of someone gaming the system. This is when a down voting arrow would come in handy.

antr2• 14 years ago

feel free to check my submission/comment history. good day

jacques_chester2• 14 years ago

Thanks to the sheer weight of numbers of people in the Indian subcontinent, I'd say cricket is second only to soccer in global popularity.

Tloewald• 14 years ago

Driving on complicated non oval tracks is just in-American.

What I don't get is how a racing sport derived from bootleggers outrunning police on back country roads turned into driving around an oval track.

zalew5• 14 years ago

Streetracing is a topic I'm hoping to somehow appear in Boardwalk Empire in the future. I will be disappointed if it doesn't get mentioned even as a third-rate scene or side joke.

vaadu• 14 years ago

I'm an American and love F1. I hate NASCAR because ovals are boring, like soccer. Hockey is even better. NASCAR also sucks because it uses spec cars instead of letting teams be creative. NASCAR should include real muscle cars and allow the Camry to be front wheel drive if that's what Toyota wants.

rickmb• 14 years ago

This isn't just a lack of interest in F1, it's an almost complete lack of modern motorsports in general.

Oddly enough, for a country where cars are sacred, the US has barely any capability to develop racing cars of any kind (NASCAR is low tech, Indycar, like most other US racing series, buys its cars from Europe), and there is little to no serious competition.

There are no modern racetracks (besides Austin), the facilities at ovals, even Indy, are cheap, low budget and utterly outdated compared to modern racetracks around the world.

There is very little competition outside the major series compared to the many dozens of competitive racing series around the world, and no way for talent to develop.

NASCAR's commercial success aside, the US is a third world country when it comes to racing.

paulyg2• 14 years ago

"Third world country when it comes to racing." That is total BS. Maybe the problem is people don't know about all the different ways you can go racing in this country. It's a big country and there are a lot of different groups with different interests. Maybe you should check out the SCCA or NASA. Don't tell me there are no feeder open wheel series.

And there is tons of technology going on in the tin-top road racing and autocross world. I know folks working on open source engine management. There is currently an indie-go-go for an open source data acquisition system. The "import scene" is full of turbocharged four cylinder cars. Look at some of the cars we have now b/c auto enthusiasts have been screaming about why does Europe get them and not us: Mini Cooper, Fiat 500 Abarth, Mitsu Evo, Subaru STi, Ford Focus ST, Ford Fiesta ST. There are plenty of people in this country who like to turn left and right and are aware of what is going on in the rest of the world. We just do not make the evening news.

P.S. I also take offense to the metric system comment. I'm an mechanical engineer and in practice have to use both unit systems. I'd love if we could just switch to metric.

lumberjack• 14 years ago

>NASCAR is low tech

Isn't that a common myth?

snowwrestler• 14 years ago

Nascar is low-tech in many ways. The car bodies must fit production sedan templates, so the the chassis is welded tubular steel instead of carbon monocoque like on F1 or Indycar. The engines are carbureted instead of fuel injected. There's no turbochargers (although Indy just got those back this year as well). There are strict rules about spoiler size and type.

They do make extensive use of sensors and telemetry, but the cars themselves are pretty retro.

zeffr• 14 years ago

Nope. It's been what, only 2 years in to NASCAR actually having EFI engines? Even then, the teams were restricted from being able to use all of the data from the ECU, so everyone had to run at gimped tuning.

V8 Supercars, for example, debuts more tech in one race than NASCAR does in a season. Even WRC Rally cars are questionably more complicated.

edit: EFI was introduced 1 year ago.

brudgers• 14 years ago

The US isn't a third world country in regards to racing. Rather, it's motorsports heritage is somewhat antithetical to that of F1.

Motorsports in the US reflect this "run what you brung" democratic ethos. The high profile manufacturers in US motorsports are not Ferrari and Lotus. They are Ford and and Chevy and Dodge (and more recently Honda and Toyota). The manufacturer's badges in the parking lot correlate with those on the track.

NASCAR's racing culture is an organic extension of the cars and tracks that make up local races on Friday nights in rural areas. Compared to Formula 1, NASCAR's rules are designed to keep cost per race down and more participation (about three times as many teams in 2013). They are designed to allow frequent racing (about twice as many races, more than two every three weeks).

Instead, high tech motorsports in the U.S. has historically focused on straight line speed, but it always keeps the "run what you brung" ethos.

Got a nitro-methane mixture in the tank ? There's probably someone willing to go mano-a-mano down the track. Four G's and four seconds later, it's decided. And turbine heads with a surplus jet engine will always have Bonneville where the Art Alfonses of the world can take on the corporate Breedloves.

One of the NASCAR ovals mentioned in the article was Bristol. It's in the middle of nowhere, 290 miles from Atlanta, 340 miles from Nashville, and separated from both by the mountains. It holds 160,000 spectators. They don't generally stay in four star hotels, they camp. Good luck finding such rooms in the nearest metropolis. Johnson City Tennessee ain't Monaco.

pekk• 14 years ago

Lack of interest in soccer means that the US isn't very good in international football for lack of interest, not that it has 'barely any capability to develop' same.

Race cars are not development, they are entertainment. This is like criticizing Europe for not having enough pro wrestling/luchador stuff going on.

guelo• 14 years ago

I guess its the international America-hating crew on HN at this hour but come on, this story has nothing to do with tech and is not even a good sports story. It is just a way for smug Europeans to feel superior. Get over yourselves.

Maro• 14 years ago

But it feels so good. Europe out.

criley2• 14 years ago

It's so rare Europeans get to be superior -- let them have it. They do in fact have superior motorsports. It's okay, whenever an American feels bad, they can just look at the moon or Mars and smile.

alexkus2• 14 years ago

We got something to Mars, it just didn't work!

ohwp• 14 years ago

Every heard about Wernher von Braun? ;)

wildranter2• 14 years ago

That's a cheap shot on your behalf. Life isn't about bullying my friend.

tangue• 14 years ago

This article put on the same level two dumb sports and an international standard. I find it quite arrogant to judge Americans base on their favorite sports, but I'd be quite happy if the US adopted the metric system and other international conventions.

nir• 14 years ago

Just to note, any discussion of the issue that does not mention Talladega Nights is incomplete.

nikcub• 14 years ago

> Racing isn’t like professional soccer or curling; something that Americans don’t do.

Soccer it top 5 in the USA in most played for both men and women

> and driving a French car (Renault).

Don't tell Red Bull that their car is French

> Americans are too fond of their ovals

Both NASCAR and Indy race on regular racing circuits. The majority of the Indy season this year, 10 of 15 races, is on regular circuits.

> a 120,000-person capacity track. But, said Weaver, a large part of that audience was from Mexico, Latin America, and South America.

Ridiculous and unsubstantiated. I know a large number of US based fans who went to the race. It averaged 2.2M viewers in the USA.

This article is furthering poor generalizations from both sides of the Atlantic about the various sports.

For a better and more accurate take on F1 in the USA see The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2012/07/formula-on...

k-mcgrady• 14 years ago

Just to clarify a few things:

> "Don't tell Red Bull that their car is French"

It's not. They use Renault engines but the car is built in Milton Keynes, England by the team.

> "Ridiculous and unsubstantiated"

I'm not sure it's been confirmed but it was talked about that 40% of the tickets to the Austin GP were bought by Mexicans.

bobochan• 14 years ago

I am a little surprised that Grand Prix Montreal did not even get a mention in the story. F1 supporters travel all over the globe to watch their teams, so it seems odd not to include an event in a great city within easy driving distance of fans in the northeast.

debacle• 14 years ago

I think the culture of NASCAR really prevents people who would be more interested in F1 from approaching motorsports.

The reality is that the Venn diagram of people who shop and Wal*Mart and people who watch NASCAR is probably closer to a circle than a lot of people are comfortable with.

paulyg2• 14 years ago

Just another thought on this. We had an American in F1 just a few years ago. Scott Speed drove for Toro Rosso. Unfortunately I think he was mediocre and drove for a mediocre at best team. American Alexander Rossi tested for Caterham F1. And American Conor Daly is enjoying success in GP3.

coliveira• 14 years ago

The story of sports in America is the story of television interests. The reason the media doesn't promote F1 is that they cannot control the sport from that point of view. What TV (other than specialized channels) is interested in a sport in which half of the races happen before dawn (in Asia)?

The only sports that do well in America are the ones with a powerful league that can control all the TV rights and make the necessary deals with TV networks.

unkoman• 14 years ago

Americans getting defensive ITT

F1, like soccer and the metric system, is OK for everyone except Americans

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