17/06/2007
NEWS STORY
Having claimed that Formula One doesn't need America, telling the Daily Express earlier this week that there are "bigger markets for us to be in " and that the sport doesn't "have a lot of sponsors from the US, no American teams and only one driver". F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone is now laying the blame for the sport's failure to win over the American public at the door of race organizers.
"They haven't done anything to really get behind it have they?" Ecclestone told Reuters when asked if he was satisfied with the race at the Brickyard. "We arrive in town, what do we get? We get banners saying the Indy 500. It's not really the way to promote Formula One.
"They haven't got behind it, full stop," he added.
IMS President Joie Chitwood has already said that the Indianapolis Motor speedway hopes to continue hosting the United States Grand Prix, though he stresses that a decision needs to be made by the middle of next month. Meanwhile, the manufacturers make no secret of the fact that, unlike Ecclestone, they do recognise America's significance, indeed several teams have openly expressed their desire to see a couple of races in the USA.
While the automobile is king in the USA, so too is the customer, and despite Ecclestone's complaints at the lack of promotion, Formula One has done little to help its own cause in America.
Other than the manipulation of the 2002 race result and the outrageous debacle of 2005, when just six cars contested the race, there is the fact that F1 chooses to keep fans at arms length, unlike home grown series. Then again, other than the lack of local teams and drivers, there is the fact that quite often F1 fails to deliver on track.
Finally, F1's future in America is hardly helped when it's spokesman is forever telling the nation that he and his sport have better places to go.
If that is one's attitude, one runs the risk of being told; 'well go there!'