HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
NOVEMBER 2012
77
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
NOVEMBER 2012
77
to understand, and so much more boring
when you don’t understand,” says Nelson
Piquet Jr., who competed inFormula 1 from
2007
to 2009 and now races in NASCAR’s
Camping World Truck Series. “And even
whenyoudounderstand, it’s a li leboring.”
F1, for instance, features a one-hour,
elimination-style qualifying session in
which the field is gradually winnowed
down—a far cry from NASCAR’s single-
car, fastest-lap format. And F1 earlier this
year formalized what had been a gentle-
man’s agreement prohibiting “blocking,” or
moving side to side on the track to stave off
multiple challengers. InNASCAR, “making
the car wide” is practically a victory staple.
Then there are the cars themselves. “In
NASCAR, the cars are similar to the ones
you have in your own garage, so you can
kind of compare things,” says Piquet. “An
F1 car, on the other hand, is like a NASA
spaceship. It has nothing to do with what
you’reused to seeing. Somethingbreaksoff,
and even theTVcommentator has to guess
what’s happening. He doesn’t have a clue.
Now imagine what it’s like for the public.”
FORMULA 1 SUPREMO
Bernie Ecclestone
is known for being hard-nosed, which
has earned him his share of controversy
over the course of his 30-year reign. As
successful as the Canadian Grand Prix
has been—running at Circuit Gilles Ville-
neuve in Montreal since 1978—it was le
off the F1 schedule in 2009 because Eccle-
stone insisted track improvements had
to be made. Likewise, although Istanbul
Park was built specifically for F1 racing
in 2005, the Turkish Grand Prix has been
dropped fromthe schedule this year, with
Ecclestone’s escalating demands for race-
hosting fees being among the reported
reasons. And in the U.S., when a dispute
between promoters brought construction
of Austin’s Circuit of theAmericas to ahalt,
he nearly canceled the event altogether.
Asked whether Austin fans should be
apprehensive about F1’s viability given
that shaky start, Ecclestone shrugs. “I
don’t see why they should,” he says. “It’s
a permanent circuit built for Formula 1.
They wouldn’t have built that with the
idea that it was disappearing.” (This from
a man who, back in September, wondered
aloudwhether theNewJerseyGrand Prix
would happen.)
For his part, Ecclestone sees the great-
est stumbling block to F1’s success in the
U.S. as a combination of less-than-ideal
start times (to better accommodate the
international TV audience) and too few
races. “If we had 10 or 12 races in America,
as we do in Europe, it would be a whole
different story,” he says. “To pop in with
one race a year, it’s just not enough.”
For all F1’s dogged efforts to conquer the
U.S. market, however, the stakes remain
low. The global financial services company
UBS recently predicted F1’s adjusted net
income will reach $588 million in 2016,
from $358 million in 2011, thanks largely
to increases in the number of races and in
sponsorships and advertising sales. On top
of that,
Forbes
has pegged the Ecclestone
family’s worth at about $2.8
billion
.
Such figures suggest that America is
more luxury than necessity for Formula 1
—
though what that means for a U.S.
Grand Prix over the long term remains to
be seen. When asked whether he expects
the Austin and New Jersey races to fare
better than previous stateside outings,
Ecclestone is blunt.
“
Let’s be sensible,” he says. “We don’t
know yet, do we?”
JOSH STEWART
is a motorsports and pro
wrestling writer whose work has appeared in
Newsday
and on ESPN.com.
THE FAN
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