The idea that there might be a new GP2-style championship for the Americas should be treated with caution. Trace the story back to its roots and it comes from a leak from Formula One Management to its usual unquestioning pet “journalist”, who gobbles up everything lobbed at him without ever asking a question. One has to admire Bernie Ecclestone. Pavlov could not have trained dogs better. So, from the start it is a piece of PR. Probably a little bit of kite-flying to see what the response is.
Of course, in principle, GP2 Americas, or whatever one would call it, is a good idea. A feeder series to bring new stars, sponsors, engineers and teams to F1 from new regions. Perfect.
But what happened to GP2 Asia? How come that was so poor and disappeared without trace?
It is very easy to explain. It was not cost-effective. And the key question with all new championships is really very simple: who is going to pay for it? The fact that IndyCar is weak is a bonus, but an F1 feeder series in the Americas would still need to make financial sense. And one must ask why local drivers would pay large sums of money to race in it, when the cash would be better employed sending the youngster to Europe to learn F1-style racing properly, in the right environment, with all the different inputs that meld to create the F1 drivers of today. Racing in Europe is different to Asia and America. This is why drivers come to Europe to learn how to be F1 drivers. Those who turn up in F1 without that training rarely do well.
The primary problem, therefore, is a philosophical one: if the series will not provide the right kind of training, can it have a value? And thus, can it survive and flourish? In a US market now dominated by stock cars, is there room for such a thing?
My feeling is that best that such a series could aim to do would be to feed new drivers into the main GP2 Series, not into F1. So the question is rewally whether drivers would bother or rather go there directly and save money?
Leaving that aside, it is unlikely that such a regional championship would work unless there were seven or eight F1 races in the Americas. Currently there are only three: Montreal, Austin and Brazil. Yes, in future there ought to be a second, and perhaps even a third race in the United States. Yes, there are plans in Mexico, but the best case scenario is six events. GP2 only survives because it is held in league with F1 races. Without that link no one would be interested, as GP2 Asia has proved. The teams were willing to do it in the hope that they would find rich kids to pay for it, but they were hostages to the prices charged by GP2 – and the budgets were wildly bloated. The primary motivation for GP2 has always been profit, not to showcase young talent. This is why Red Bull sends its young drivers to the Renault World Series.
Are there really enough talented youngsters out there with budgets of $2 million to race in GP2 Americas? Why would they bother? This is why half the current GP2 grid is made up of drivers who will never be seen anywhere near F1. A new series in the US would be no different and in consequence would be bound to ultimately fail.
This is why the FIA is now looking at how to create more meaningful and cost-effective series for youngsters to get to F1.
joeblogsf1 
Atlantics would be a much better name given the history that series had before the open wheel war in the US gutted it. Using the old GP3 cars would make sense as they need somewhere to fob those off to.
Agree with Joe wholeheartedly
Not a fan of mr Sylt’s journalism Joe? 😉
From a cost perspective, I think GP2 in the Americas makes far more sense that GP2 in Asia, if only because the teams aren’t faced with flying everything everywhere for each round. It would still be expensive, yes, but not as bad as it could be considering that the teams could drive most places.
I think GP2 really suffered from escalating costs this season. Expanding the championship to include flyaway races in support of Formula 1 might have sounded nice on paper, but it drove costs up exponentially, and the end result was that the talent pool was shallow as teams padded out their line-ups with rich drivers so that they could afford the cost of travel and parts. “GP2 Americas” might be an effective remedy to that, and would probably restore credibility to the concept. I think that because of the rising costs, GP2 was out-classed by Formula Renault 3.5 this year in terms of talent and the quality of racing.
Good heavens Joe, could you be talking of, the self declared “Only journalist to write about F1 finances” ?
Surely all the things GP2 is guilty of, eg being expensive, bloated, for rich kids and existing only as a cash cow is true of a lot of motor racing formulae and always has been; with F1 now heading back that way too. As team sponsorship dries up, due to the effect of the current commercial arrangements, F1 is bound to go through a phase of pay drivers only.
Motor racing has always been about money even at club single make level, the driver who can afford new tyres and/or shocks each race will do better than most of the others.
You mean the guy who took at first in PPE at Oxford, interned at a M&A shop in the 80s, MBA from Harvard, made partner in a merchant bank at 30, wrote those books we all cite as classics, got a adjunct professorship on sabbatical and now runs a major hedge fund?
Oh, you mean *that* guy. . .
(you make it too easy, rpaco!)
Does two million buy an indycar rise these days?
Nope, but $6 million should get you a decent seat in a midfield team.
Yes it does KC, ($2M buy a ride?) but it’s a dead end series in that once you’re there – your pretty much trapped there – no moving anywhere else upwards (F1). Having a company support your racing in Indy Car or your rich family or in the case of Venezuelans, your country… is a lost cause unless you just want your kicks driving fast (kinda) open wheel cars. There is no income to speak of and there is not much respect given to the race winners or champion from this series by the F1 team principals. Certainly you would garner interest from any GP2 team if you were a successful Indy Car driver – as long as you brought funding…
There will never be a GP2 series in North America and I suspect the same is true for South America. All of the open wheel series currently in North America exists for one purpose – to make profits (by the owners of these series) off kid’s with dreams of open wheel glory. Gone are the days when series such as F Atlantic and Indy Lights were a stepping stone to the top level in North America. Now the ‘top’ step in North America is ‘ill’, some say dead.
The ONLY path to F1 IS Europe. Get your funding and go. If not, go sports car racing or open wheel racing and do it for the enjoyment. I’d suggest NASCAR, but I’d also suggest boxing lessons (or hockey skills!) before attempting that series.
According to Marshall Pruett (http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-silly-season-continues-to-develop/), the going rate is $5-7 million. He says that the $5 million figure is “a minimum” for “a competitive operating budget”.
This is why World Series by Renault is fast becoming the option for a lot of drivers (Sam Bird, Jules Bianchi, Robert Frijns and mountains of red bull drivers to name a few) as the cost in GP2 have now made it a pay driver paradise.
If it were to succeed it would need a GP2 and GP3 series at World Series prices (or even Formula 2) and a good TV deal. They might also need some touring cars or V8s or something as well. There is an appetite in America for watching racing live so with the right ticket prices it could all be achieved but not if they mill it for profit.
This is interesting. I work at a Kart circuit here in the UAE and we have been tasked with running the national UAE karting series. We have done so well since 2008 when we started, now we have 60 drivers, but how many locals? 3, all seniors in their 20’s.
We get lots of rich kids here (mainly British expat kids and Indian kids, some Russian and Singaporean too ) who enter 5-6 kart races then use Daddy’s millions to jet off to Europe to race in the European and British kart series and within 18 months-2 years they’re paying to race in Formula Renault, F3…you name it. In this part of the world everyone believes that if you throw enough money at something you automatically become good at it [racing].
They pay for mechanics to fly over from Europe to run them at race weekends, they [the mechanic] sense an opportunity to make some money… Strangely the mechanics always advise them to step up to cars….and take them with them. Funny that, a kart mechanic looking to move up to working in a car race team with a driver who couldn’t find an apex if it was taped to the inside of his visor.
Even Yas Marina and Dubai Autodrome, they are both struggling to find drivers, not just from the UAE, but all over Asia. Those with enough money want to race in bigger grids than the current 6 or so cars that race…where’s that? Europe.
Money can buy you a hotel that changes colour but not racing prestige or even a decent series!
Superb…..
Painful place to get a apex stuck, Martin! LOL 🙂
Of course, Pavlov did more than just train dogs, he physically altered them and when he was finished with them, they died. Could be interesting to see how far the analogy goes…
Something to do with salivating at the mere mention of money?
they were so warped by the experiment they started a prog rock band: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_Dog_(band) . .
I was told six years ago that a seat in a GP2 car cost about a million euros, while in WS by Renault used to cost half of it. How much do they cost currently? Thanks
About double that
Good article Joe with an interesting analysis. There has been so much ‘F1 news’ over the years that has never been heard of again.
What is a little strange is that your article appeared, for me at least, before the associated article on ‘that other site’. Are you psychic? 🙂
Joe:
what would you suggest is the right way to go about forming a propper successfull feeder series?…or is formula Renault good enough?
More “apparent news”, some football bloke is to take over from Bernie.
(Though I though it was horse racing.) 🙂
One of the biggest problems with getting Americans interested in F1 is the fact that it’s a “Euro” product. MLS has been trying to sell soccer to the US for 17 years and are only now starting to make progress in a couple of regions. Yes, there is a good fan base for F1 here–after the owners allowed themselves to take a huge financial loss at first–but unless there’s something here which fans can attach themselves too for more than a few years before Bernie starts asking for money, why should the they make the investment in the Series? No American teams, no American drivers and races which come and go as Bernie’s back account dictates. I love F1 but F1 has to work to succeed here. This ‘proposal’ ain’t it.
Yep. As far as I can tell there isn’t an F1 race in America this weekend. Nothing in the papers, nothing on the (sports) news. Not a peep nor a glimmer. PZ is correct – F1 will have to work to succeed here. F1 has had so many Mickey Mouse circuits here in the US it’s embarrassing; Las Vegas, Phoenix, Detroit, Dallas; we have some great tracks I wish would get used, such as Road America where I saw a fantastic CART race on a fantastic track. Sigh. At least Austin is a real race track and that’s a good start.
A full season of GP2 would only work if it is paired with another series’ race weekend. There are no US racing series that fit well with GP2. Certainly not NASCAR, nor IndyCar, which has its own feeders and no need to pair up with a rival that siphons talent. That leaves the Grand-Am, a sports car series, another unlikely choice. AutoGP races with the WTCC, but only once each season.
lol the mudslinging between sylt and saward is far more entertaining than most things in f1. hope sylt replies to this blog post.
I don’t know. I don’t him.
I’ve just clicked on the offending article and seen it even mentions that GP2 Asia went belly up so you are clearly right that this is nothing more than kite flying. But by bringing it to our attention all you are doing is directing people like me to click on an article about something which will never happen. Why do them the honour of increasing their traffic and clicks for advertisers??? Apparently this development comes from nothing less than the flotation prospectus for F1 so it is bankers at play inflating opportunities yet again. You would have thought they would have learned from the sub-prime collapse by now!
Talking of the US, have you heard anything more about the NBC line up? Here’s hoping that Leigh Diffey, Steve Matchett and David Hobbs are signed up.
GP2 Seems rather unlikely. What about something lower down the ladder like F3? It seems like many of the F1 drivers came up through the various F3 series. Wouldn’t F3 also be more cost effective?
Forget GP2, what this country needs (if there is a long term commitment to race here) is it’s own racing team. After you all stop laughing and before you throw USGP back into my face, think about it and you’ll agree.
Now all we have to do is find backers, engineers, facilities, and sponsors. THEN get a U.S. driver or two.
No laughing here. Might not be an easy thing to do but with well developed car, motorsports and aerospace industries in the USA already, it could be a lot worse.
The people running USGP didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory, but the basic premise of a US-based team isn’t a bad one. Though if they could try to be a little more “American team” and a little less “Team America” that might help too.