Former F1 driver Gerhard Berger urges F1 to maintain European culture while expanding in America

Former F1 driver Gerhard Berger says F1’s success in America is important to the sport, but grand prix racing shouldn’t lose its core European culture by Americanizing the show. At the F1 Miami GP, a grand event was held in which rapper LL Cool J introduced the drivers to the audience on the main straight before the race.

This energetic moment was in keeping with the American conventions of sporting events, but was labeled by most drivers as an unnecessary distraction. Berger is in favor of F1 winning the hearts and minds of American fans, but the 10-time Grand Prix winner doesn’t want the American presentation to be the exception rather than the norm. Berger says F1 should not stray too far from European culture, which exudes sophistication and elegance that is so deeply embedded in the sport’s DNA. “With Liberty Media at the helm, we are finally able to bring America into F1 and I am happy for F1,” Berger told ServusTV. “I would say that there is a fundamentally European culture in Formula 1. Don’t twist this culture,” he said. , personally I don’t really like it, including the Netflix documentary.’ Nonetheless, Berger acknowledged that F1’s efforts to expand its visibility in the US have been very successful. “We raced in America and we didn’t have a lot of enthusiastic fans,” he said, referring to his time in F1 in the 80s and 90s. “We had rabid fans, 30,000 spectators at a race like that.” “But now we have 300,000 in Miami and 400,000 in Austin.” Miami, Austin in October Las Vegas will follow on the F1 calendar in November. Sin City’s pre-race mayhem will surpass anything the sport has seen before in energy and fanfare.