This year’s US Grand Prix will be the first time that a US driver has competed at home since 2007, when Scott Speed threw his Toro Rosso round the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Alexander Rossi, who is second in this year’s GP2 championship, will be making his second grand prix weekend appearance at the Circuit of the Americas, having driven in free practice a couple of years ago.
Ever since his debut in Singapore, fans have argued that Rossi should race for Hass F1, the new ‘American’ Formula One team debuting next year. These claims have been rightfully ignored by Gene Haas, who will most likely reveal his second driver this weekend.
For some reason, there is always an element of nationalism in Formula One. It is, after all, the pinnacle of motorsport, yet is not contested by countries, like other sporting world championships.
It’s not difficult to pair teams with countries. Ferrari has always been Italy’s representative, racing in an approximation of rossa corsa, Italian racing red. McLaren is Britain’s oldest surviving team, and ran an all-British line-up of Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton from 2010-12.
Coincidentally, during the same time period, Mercedes, the German challengers, ran an all-German line-up consisting of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher. The Russia part of Marussia refers to the Eurasian car company that sponsored the team. And who can forget Force India!
Haas F1 is not Team America. Gene Haas did not decide to enter Grand Prix racing because he wanted to impress his home country, or to raise Formula One’s profile in the states. He probably regrets the entire American moniker landed on him. He entered Formula One to promote his machine tool manufacturer Haas Automotive overseas. His company gets plenty of publicity at home from Haas’s successful NASCAR enterprise.
Haas also wants to stick around. His approach to entering Formula One is one of the most mature and feasible in recent years. By sheltering under the wing of a bigger competitor, Ferrari, Haas F1 will have enough time to find its feet and build a stable platform for itself, something which Caterham, Marussia and HRT struggled to construct.
With the Ferrari partnership guaranteeing that Haas F1 will be anchored in the midfield, the team will have enough financial safety to invest in innovation in their car and move up the field.
It’s perfectly reasonable then for Haas to opt for experience rather than youth. The best way to improve a car is to get feedback from experienced drivers. Romain Grosjean fits this bill perfectly.
Grosjean first raced at the top level at the tail end of the 2009 Formula One season for Renault and has worked with the Enstone squad as a test driver over the next couple of years, helping in bringing an ailing Renault outfit in 2009 to the front of the midfield in 2012 as Lotus.
Since he got a full-time drive, despite some first year wobbles, Grosjean has shown consistent pace and frequented the podium in 2013.
Estaban Gutierrez is a perfect fit for the second seat. With two years of grand prix racing under his belt, Gutierrez also has a year of successful testing with Ferrari behind his belt and will take vital technical knowledge to Haas from Ferrari.
Rossi has raced a Formula One car only a couple of times this year. He’s currently a full-time GP2 driver and while he is successful, he doesn’t have the technical knowledge of modern Formula One cars.
He may be quick and he may be American, but that isn’t what Haas F1 needs. Haas needs a way to keep their car with the pack, not slipping further backwards down the grid like the 2010 challengers.
Rossi is too young and too raw to be of any use to Gene Haas and Gunther Steiner. Is he ruled out for a drive in the future? No. But Rossi isn’t needed now.
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