Scott Speed would prefer not to have the weight of an entire nation on his shoulders, and would like to get to the point where he’s recognized solely as one of the elite race car drivers in the world.
But until that day comes, it’s impossible not to identify him as Scott Speed, American Formula One driver.
With that tag comes an overwhelming responsibility to promote a series few in the United States have heard of. Even fewer pay the slightest bit of attention to F1.
Speed, quite frankly, doesn’t really want the job. But he works in a world where everyone around him does care very much.
The future of F1 in America is in jeopardy as Speed heads into the United States Grand Prix this weekend in Indianapolis. The contract with Indianapolis Motor Speedway expires this year.
, and track officials are taking a wait-and-see approach before they begin negotiating for an extension.
Indy still is miffed about last year’s debacle, when 14 drivers boycotted the event over safety concerns with their tires. It left six cars on the track in a pathetic display that had confused fans showering the track with debris and heading toward the gates long before the race was over.
If the race goes off without a hitch this year, Indy wants to bring it back. And there’s a universal desire across the paddock to continue coming to America, where F1 teams want to tap into the lucrative sponsorship opportunities and fertile consumer market.
But if negotiations fail, and the event goes away, would anyone in the U.S. even notice?
That’s where Speed comes in.
Many believe it’s up to him, the first American to race in F1 since Michael Andretti’s short-lived 1993 attempt, to drum up support and make race fans realize there’s something else out there besides the hugely popular NASCAR.
“I think you will see an increase (in interest) with having Scott Speed around,” said seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. “At the end of the day, if you have your own sportsman there competing at the top, it will obviously help a lot.”
Speed is far from at the top right now.
In his first season driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso (Red Bull, in Italian), Speed is 17th in the standings and has yet to score a single point. His 10th place in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix was his second-best showing of the year, but came partly because seven cars failed to finish the race.
He won’t challenge for the win in Indianapolis, or anywhere else for that matter, any time soon. But Red Bull, which has spent millions on developing Speed, has given him a long learning curve to show a return on its investment.
There are some who believe Speed is in over his head, and his possession of a coveted F1 seat is an undeserved gimmick by a company determined to put an American – any American – into a car.
Although Red Bull conducted an official driver search that Speed ultimately won, his catchy name made marketing him just a little bit easier.
Speed doesn’t pretend those attitudes don’t exist, and acknowledges he’s more than once pondered his worthiness. But nine races into his career, he’s confident he belongs.
“It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, because at the beginning you question, “Is it something that I am good enough at? Is it something that I will be able to do for a while?”‘ he said. “But by the time we got to Imola and Nurburgring, it was something I felt very confident with.
“And ever since then, I have been so much more relaxed and able to enjoy it because I know that I belong here and I know that I will be here for a long time.”
That’s the hope, at least inside the F1 community.
If Speed can succeed, and create a buzz in the U.S. about a series that trails only World Cup soccer in worldwide popularity, everyone wins. But Speed isn’t interested in carrying that burden. He simply wants to race and pursue a childhood dream of one day joining idol Schumacher on the list of F1 world champions.
“I am in F1 because I know that F1 is the pinnacle of motor sports,” he said. “I know that it is the top level, and it has been my dream since I was a kid in karting.
“It would be great if F1 becomes more popular in America, but it is not something that puts added pressure on me.”
AP-ES-06-26-06 1649EDT
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