I always liked the idea of A1GP. Even as a Formula One purist, employee and fan, the idea of competing for one’s country as the zenith of an athletic career is a concept I understand. And it’s a concept I am happy to support with my heart, my voice and my wallet every time I enter Twickenham, Wembley or Lord’s.

My former F1 colleagues decried A1GP as being sufficiently inferior to F1, technically and commercially, as to be irrelevant, a place where driver careers went to die rather than peak. I suppose that they were right.

Yet the appeal of competing for one’s country in motor sport doesn’t die with one series. Instead, I think we’re about to witness its resurgence in Formula One. USF1 is a good example: viewed positively by F1 aficionados for its promise to rekindle interest in the world’s biggest commercial market, it will doubtless sell itself well in the USA, become sponsored by US companies, employ an American driver and run the stars and stripes on its livery. Yee-hah!

In 2010 the team will compete against Formula One’s oldest brand, Ferrari, which recently rediscovered the commercial effect of running an Italian driver in an Italian car at an Italian circuit. Ferrari has always been, in varying degrees, Team Italia. F1′s newest team before 2009 was Force India, which aims to bring Western brand sponsors to the huge Indian market and 2010 entrant Lotus, though it hides behind an English brand will be based in, owned, sponsored and supported by Malaysia and Malaysian businesses.

Enough cash is being invested in driver development programmes in developing markets like India and Malaysia that it won’t be long before we see drivers from these nations in F1. It is only natural that they should drive for their nation’s teams, employing indigenous support staff. Meritus Racing, a Malaysian-backed GP2 Asia team is already on record as saying ”We would be honoured one day to race as the national team in F1 and we hope to be ready to build our own F1 car, with Malaysian engineers, to achieve that goal by 2016.”

I think that this sense of national pride is something that F1 has been missing. I think it could add a certain frisson to proceedings. Not that Formula One needs it necessarily, but I like the irony that the raison d’etre of a series so heavily criticised by the techno-snobs of Formula One might be a key factor in keeping the series alive as motor manufacturers wave good-bye.

By Scott Garrett on September 21st, 2009

Tags: Formula 1

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