What makes americans think that their NASCAR drivers are better than F1 drivers?

Question

First off this has nothing to do with the perceived difficulty of racing so lets not bring that into it.

F1 drivers are the best of the best. People from all around the world, from every country in the world aspiring to get into it. That is pretty much every road racers dream. The fact of the matter is that more people take part in racing in the UK(with a population of 60million) than in the whole of the US (population of 300million). Now think about this, there are as many racers again taking part in Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, South America, Eastern Europe, Finland(small population but its a religion over there), pretty much every country in the world.

It is the very best of those that make it into F1. Those who won championships in Karting, formula renault, F3, F3000, GP2, Touring cars, etc.

What makes people here think the average NASCAR driver is better than the average F1 driver. There are so many more trying to get into F1 that the standard must be higher

This is only asked in reaction to the idiots who keep saying F1 drivers are **** and cant beat the good ol' boys which is plainly inaccurate.

Think of it like this would you say the best players in the MLS is good enough to be compared to the best players in European football leagues? Of course not. Less people taking part = less talent.

Answer 1

F1 drivers ARE the best of the best. they take ~4 G's in the average turn about 12 times a lap depending on where they are. My friend likes both Nascar and F1 and he agrees w/me that F1 drivers are the best of the best. even though nascar drivers do 250 laps

Answer 2

I agree that F1 is the best and shows it. I hate team orders though. The average Nascar driver would be crap in F1 but i believe that a couple would do alright.As far as Juan, JV and other open wheel drivers going Nascar well all I can say is its money and if Ferrari or another high profiled team offered anyone a seat they would jump at it including the good old boys. The F1 title is a true world title(18 races - 18 different countries) and Nascar is an American title. I did hear a mouth piece on Nascar call their title a world title and I just started to giggle. I think this shows that the Nascar nation are just self-absorbed. Another point, in dependant tracking showed web site visitation and JV was the most visited site even more than the golden boy JR. This just shows that F1 is on a global scale and Nascar is on a regional scale.

Answer 3

I am a long time Formula 1 fan here in America and have always believed that Formula 1 drivers are the top of the food chain along with Rally drivers. If you dont think rally drivers are that great watch an onboard and you will understand.

But it comes donw to being ignorant and pride is what makes people think one or the other is good. They have to believe that what they like is the best and there is no other. I believe Schmumacher was impressed with some of the stock car drivers. And even said that they are good at what they do. He was offered to drive a stock car, but declined. What else does he have to prove? All in all everyone is good at what they do. They might not be good at driving Formula 1 cars but good at Stock Cars and vice versa.

There have been some F3000 drivers that drive in Champ Car and totally suck! Bruno Junqueria and Nicholas Minasiann were team mates at Target Chip Ganassi years ago and they were terrible. But there are exceptions like Justin Wilson and Robert Dornboss. I always thought that Juan Pablo Montoya was a great driver in open wheel. He raced the 3 different open wheel series at one time or another IRL, Champ Car, F1. He is competing for mid to rear of the field in Nascar now. Jacque Villenuve is also in the same situation.


But there is a reason that F1 drivers go over to Nascar. There is possibly more money involved. There isnt as much stress. There isnt many test session throughout the whole year. But the reason I strongly believe that F1 drivers dont drive in F1 any longer is that there skills are not up to par anymore. Jacque Villenuve winning the WDC in 1997 was a perfect storm. He was driving the best car out there. You could have put Sakon Yamamoto in the seat and he would have won a couple of races. After he left Williams he didnt do anything great. He ran people off the road many times (Montoya Japan2005) and caused Kimi to flat spot his tire which lead to a suspension failure on the last lap at European GP 2005.

There was a caller that called into WindTunnel and said that Formula 1 is boaring for 1 1/2 hours. But Robyn Miller (long time open wheel writer)said the only difference is that Nascar is boaring for 4 hours. Good Point!!!

In the end I don't care what anyone says. I like what I like. If you need to put down what I like and say your's is better then check your insecurities out. The International Race of Champions is coming up next month. 2 years ago the 2 Nascar drivers were eliminated in the first round and I think were almost lapped. Lets see how good they do this year.

Answer 4

If you turn the question around and ask why F1 fans (myself included) think their drivers are better than NASCAR drivers?

Like it or not it is a fair question!

Why are trying to compare apples and oranges! Driving fast is not driving fast if your not talking similar types of cars! Stock-style cars and F1 open wheel cars seems to be a very different monster! Look at Montoya for proof! He was an average F1 driver won a few races, in Nascar in his 1st year he won a race and looked good some weeks and terrible some others!

Don't they take the best drivers from various forms of racing and have a World Drivers title? It's a small event but I think the rally guys usually win it but some Nascar guys have won a few times!

If you take the best from both series and put them against the best rally drivers on a rally course the rally guys would kill them!

It is impossible to compare driver within a series let alone in totally different style of cars! In F1 and Nascar no matter how GREAT you are you aren't going to win if you don't drive a great car! The great Schumacher in a Spyker would do just a bad! The Great Jeff Grodon would be equally as pathetic in a back marker in Nascar!

Answer 5

I believe I am the most guilty party regarding saying F-1 and open wheel drivers were crap in stock car racing.

F-1 drivers are the best in the world in F-1 and the best in all the feeder series from the many countries you listed. They just aren't the best stock car racers, drag racers or bicycle racers.

My somewhat rude comments came from an atmosphere of F-1 fans constantly calling Nascar drivers rednecks who can't turn right. They have come and said that hundreds of times. They have said any F-1 driver could come and instantly beat all the rednecks. They say Nascar technology is antique. It isn't, Nascar just had the foresight to freeze technology 30 years ago to try to contain costs just as F-1 is starting to do now.

Nascar cup drivers are the best stock car drivers in the world. F-1 and Nascar driving can't be compared. F-1 drivers are the best at what they do.

I hope many F-1 drivers come to Nascar, the more that come the better. Some may even become great in Nascar after a long learning curve.

I apologize if anything I posted this weekend was hurtful. It came from the years of frustration listening to the elitist F-1 fans not recognizing Nascar for what it is.

Answer 6

Hey I for one know Americans who love F1 and tune into NASCAR. F1 yes is the best of the best hence the 1 in Formula. But F1 is the pinnacle of F3, F3000, GP2, Touring Cars, Le Mans, A1 etc. While NASCAR is the pinnacle of it's respective league (sorry I don't exactly know much NASCAR). When people say F1 is boring, let me explain this to you. NASCAR has it's own charm. F1 does too, if you fail to see it fine because there are tracks that are boring and tracks that are exciting. So bottom line,it's comparing two very different things.

Answer 7

Well I think you are stereotyping Americans a bit. I hate NASCAR. Always have, probably always will. Always watched CART/CHAMP/Indy Car growing up (yay Rick Mears!) until the big split, then it became more difficult to follow. Plus thanks to Speedvision I could start watching Formula One so in the Mid-90s I switched over.

Anyway, I always wondered why NASCAR seemed to be much more popular than open wheel in USA and I think a lot of it has to do with marketing. NASCAR does a brilliant job marketing themselves and also portraying themselves as good ole boys that anyone can identify with as opposed to the elitist blueblood snobbery that is associated with F1, etc.

Also, in NASCAR there are tons of lead changes, etc. while F1 can often look like cars parading around with the only chance to pass coming out of pit strategy. Ferrari's and Michael Schumachers ridiculous dominance from start to finish didnt make for compelling television. The six car race at the USGP a few years back also didnt help matters much.

In truth, the two are so different I don't know how you could compare the two. Success in one doesn't assure success in the other. I also think what team/car you are driving matters a ton. JPM is middle of the pack, but with if he was in Jeff Gordon's car with his team, etc. Probably be nearer the top I'm guessing. Also, Jeff Gordon probably would do well in F1 if he was driving Ferrari as opposed to Spyker.

Answer 8

Umm since it's an entirely different set of driving skills it's comparing apples an oranges. I've honestly tried to watch F1 objectively and didn't see what was so special about it. I mean it was basically a parade, the Ferraris and McClarrens up front and everyone else just following. Compare this to the 2006 Daytona 500 where you had 32 lead changes among 18 drivers. And as we've found out in the last couple years, F1 and Indy drivers are learning that driving in circles is not as easy as it seems. Keep this in mind, a NASCAR driver's trying to control a 3400 lb car without all the electronics a F1 driver has to control a 1300lb car. Not to mention I read somewhere that the steering wheel on an F1 car costs as much as an entire Sprint Cup car. There's also the exposure factor, think about it NASCAR's everywhere here, on the major networks, F1's limited to early in the morning on the Speed Network although they did actually get shown on Fox this year. Crazyguy the reason most Americans haven't been to a F1 race is simple F1 had only one race in the US and they dropped it which leaves one race on this continent (in Canada) the expense of going to Europe, Asia, or South America for a race is a bit prohibitive. Trust me there are a lot more people racing in the US than you think. Or maybe it's that people think that NASCAR just is one single series, NASCAR runs about 6-7 different racing series alone(Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Craftsmen Trucks, Whelen Pro Modified, Busch East, Busch West. and sanctioned local series as well). And that's just NASCAR, that's not including things like IRL, Champ Car, ARCA, SCCA, Rolex, USAC,etc, right on down to the folks who bring a beat-up late model to the local tracks week in and week out. NASCAR Sprint Cup just happens to be the most watched series. As for comparing the drivers that seems to be a fan thing, a lot of NASCAR drivers are F1 fans(found this out during a rain delay where a lot of them were watching the F1 race), hell Dale Jr. even acknowledges that he's an F1 fan on his website. So it's not the drivers making these comments.

Answer 9

Probably because they have never given f1 A chance. They just watch their nascar and think it's the best. If they could open up their eyes a little.... The F1 market is not very large in America and maybe the Indy 2005 fiasco is still fresh in their minds

Answer 10

Everyone has a different opinion. I personally think F1 drivers are the best. F1 and NASCAR drivers can't be compared because F1 is worldwide and mention names like Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher and people will think, "F1". As for NASCAR...that's a different story.