Good Sunday morning!
Another break from the tedious horror of the nowadays with another Sunday Serenade (last one here), with a quick glance into a sporting event for mostly non-Americans in an international forum of auto racing — Grand Prix. Especially the focus on today’s running of the Monaco GP in Monte Carlo, won this morning by Max Verstappen of Belgium.
And as I said, no Americans. One big reason is to be successful, you have to work in Europe — AutoWeek earlier this month:
It’s rather shocking to think that the last American driver to win an F1 race was Mario Andretti, now 81 years old, who scored his last Grand Prix victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Forty-three years ago.
Today in Formula 1, we have the Haas F1 team which races under the American flag. Three teams are led by American team principals. So why do they think that there are no American drivers in Formula 1?
Aston Martin’s Otmar Szafnauer, the American with the most experience as an F1 team principal, says that he thinks U.S. drivers have to go to Europe to learn the ropes.
“I think you have to spend time in the junior formulae in Europe,” he says. “I don’t know what he’s doing now but there was an American last year, a kid from Florida. He did all of his junior racing in Europe, but I don’t know what he’s doing now.”
And there, in a nutshell, is the problem. Szafnauer cannot remember Logan Sargeant’s name … Sargeant, 20, finished third in the FIA Formula 3 Series last year. His main rivals moved to Formula 2 this season, but Sargeant didn’t have the money and he didn’t quite make a big enough impression to get the support he needed. And now he’s gone from the European scene.
Anyway, Americans haven’t quite worked well in F1 for decades, four of them to be exact, which is how long I’ve been away from the scene myself.
My near-obsession with the sport began in the late 1960s and extended into the late 1970s, about a decade, and for some reason (so long I can’t remember) I lost interest, maybe due to other shit taking its place, like Ron Reagan and shit politics, or maybe life in general. I still don’t know.
GP racing in the 70s, though, did have Americans involved, the above-mentioned Andretti, and Peter Revson, the most notable, but Revson didn’t fullfill his full potential — he was killed in 1974 while testing for the South African Grand Prix. Death a big factor in the 70s. For a good recap of that era’s GP, watch Ron Howard’s”Rush,” a great showcase contest between James Hunt and Niki Lauda for the 1976 title, including Lauda’s fiery crash at the Nurburgring — he recovered and won the title back (he won in ’75) the following year. (Daniel Bruhl portrays Lauda, Chris Hemsworth as Hunt).
So back to the present and today’s feature from Monte Carlo — if you’ve the time, the following is a neat lead-up to today’s race, slow-paced, but interesting:
And a turn through the streets, maybe during qualifying:
And the movie that really charred my F1 racing bones, “Grand Prix” (1966), and launched my full-blown, decade-long love of the sport, despite the death and destruction. I even pondered about going to the Jim Russell Car Racing School, then in the UK, but of course, never really considered it in real life. (GP racing great, and Indy 500 winner, Emerson Fittipaldi, attended Jim Russell).
Steve McQueen wanted to do this movie at first, but director John Frankenheimer beat him to it — five years later McQueen did his wonderful, “Lemans.”
This part of the opening sequence at Monaco:
And cut…
