American driver unlikely for Haas lineup
Sep.7 - Gene Haas has delivered a blow to American GP2 driver Alexander Rossi, all but ruling out a F1 race seat for his fellow Californian.
It is believed Haas, set to make its F1 team debut in 2016, is now close to deciding its first driver lineup, and 23-year-old former Marussia and Caterham tester Rossi had admitted to keeping his fingers crossed.
When asked about his deliberations, Haas told Speed Week: "The silly season is almost over now and we were surprised to find that so many big names are staying with their current teams.
"It would be great to have an American driver," he added, "but there is no one who really makes an impression. I think America needs a better development programme that brings drivers to formula one.
"Our dream lineup would be a driver from the Ferrari squad and then someone with formula one experience," said Haas.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
Unfortunately there are no active American drivers with the skill, experience, or even potential to be competitive behind the steering wheel of an F1 car. Here, in "Good Ol' Boy" land the money is in the bumpercar circuit, which is spectacularly unsuited to training an actual racecar driver for top flight racing. Even Indycar has to rely on the International racing community to field enough pilots for their events. In sports car racing Americans are pretty much absent in the P1 class. I've followed F1 since before it was F1, and I fear thatmyself, and the other three to four hundred Americans who love that form of motor racing, are inadequate to provide much impetus for talented youngsters to aspire to be F1 drivers. There's no money to be made in it for an American. Sad, but factual.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.