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

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

#31

Post by antr »

smoyer wrote: post #4

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 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.

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

#33

Post by dbaupp »

sjh wrote: post #13
smoyer wrote: post #4

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…

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.

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.)

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

#34

Post by zalew »

nicholassmith wrote: post #30
zalew wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm, I don't have channel 5 because I'm not in the UK nor I do have a tv ;) but I have watched some fragments and I don't buy it due to the oval thing. The crashes, yeah, they are cool, but it's a bit like watching gymnastics hoping that the chick will fall off and crack her arm. It's too bad tourer races (DTM, WTCC) don't get as much attention as F1. In the "sports I didn't watch" category I never expected motorcycl…

It was when you'd mention Top Gear and 'British' and I put two and two together and got 8. Honestly, you should try at least one race purely to see how aggressive some of the drivers can be. It's similar to the British Touring Car Championships, but even less polite. Superbikes is one of the reasons why I don't watch the F1 as much, it's far more entertaining, the drivers seem to be a lot more humble, and rules aren'…

Rallycross is very cool too, if we're talking only about contact sports. If not, obviously rallies are the shit, mad skillz.

Yeah, the rules mess is one of the reasons I kind of lost interest in F1 (the major ones were BMW dropping out and later the Kubica hiatus).

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

#35

Post by vaadu »

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.

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

#36

Post by rickmb »

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.

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

#39

Post by zalew »

Tloewald wrote: post #32

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.

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.

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

#40

Post by djhworld »

nicholassmith wrote: post #2

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…

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.

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