How Will Alexander Rossi's Indianapolis 500 Victory Affect His Formula 1 Future?
By now, you've read all about Alexander Rossi's victory at the 100th Indianapolis 500. After a lifetime of trying—and briefly succeeding—to break into Formula One, the 24-year-old Californian sputtered over the finish line in his first try at America's most famous race.
During the inevitable media storm that followed his Indy win, Rossi was asked several times about his F1 ambitions. "I'm not even thinking about F1," he told ESPN F1's Nate Saunders. "I've not even been able to think about the race I have this weekend, so I've got no idea! I'm very happy in IndyCar at the moment and feel very fortunate to be able to drive in this championship with Andretti, which is by far one of the best teams in the series."
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In a week or a month, though, when Rossi finally does have time to think, you can bet he will be thinking about F1—even if he doesn't want to say so publicly. He may be wary of doing so after receiving some minor backlash when he was announced as Manor's reserve driver for this F1 season, with questions raised about his commitment to IndyCar.
The real question is: How will Rossi's Indy 500 win affect his chances of scoring an F1 ride?
F1 has always been Rossi's target. That is why he gave up any semblance of a normal teenage life to move to Europe at age 16 and work his way up the single-seater ladder.
After nearly signing an IndyCar deal for 2015, he instead chose a third year in GP2, one of the main F1 feeder series. That led to a five-race cameo with Manor at the end of last season, but he was passed over for a 2016 race seat at both Manor and Haas, the new American F1 team.
His reserve role with Manor is keeping him on F1 teams' radars, and the Indy win can only raise his profile. Since the 500, though, "it’s been completely silent on the other side of the pond and all of the exposure, happiness and the growth of my name has happened stateside," Rossi told The Drive's Sean Evans.
Other drivers have used an Indy 500 victory as a springboard into F1, but the most recent was Juan Pablo Montoya. He won the CART title in 1999 and at Indianapolis the following year before jumping to F1 with Williams-BMW.
After five-and-a-half moderately successful years in F1, including seven grand prix victories, Montoya returned to the U.S. to race in NASCAR before eventually returning to IndyCar.
Before that, Jacques Villeneuve won the 1995 CART championship, along with that year's Indy 500, and joined Williams in 1996. The Canadian won four times in his first F1 season and took the world championship the following year.
An ill-advised move to the new British American Racing team in 1999 stifled Villeneuve's career, though, and he scored just two more podium finishes over the next eight years before he left F1.
More recently, Dan Wheldon won the 2005 Indy 500, as well as that year's IndyCar title. He considered a move to F1 as a BMW Sauber test driver for 2006, but chose to remain in IndyCar, as he was not guaranteed an F1 race seat, according to the Sun.
"I do want to race in F1," he said at the time. "When my contract expires with Chip, I'll take a serious look at Formula One—maybe more serious than I did this year."
Sadly, Wheldon never got the chance, as he was killed in an IndyCar race in 2011.
Dario Franchitti was also frequently mentioned as a potential F1 driver during his IndyCar career. The Scottish driver won four IndyCar championships and three Indianapolis 500s, but he never quite made the jump to F1.
In 2012, he told Sky Sports (h/t Motorsport.com), "It would have been great to race in Formula One at some point, but when the chances were there I didn't take them; I didn't feel that they were better than the opportunities I had in America."
So there is a precedent—in Montoya and Villeneuve—for Rossi to follow from Indy to F1. But an Indy win is no guarantee of an F1 future, even if a driver does want it.
Rossi does have an advantage that Franchitti and Wheldon did not have, though. He already has a place on an F1 team and a bit of grand prix racing experience.
Indeed, talent is not the problem for Rossi; sponsorship (or his lack thereof) is.
Smaller F1 teams often rely on sponsorship funding brought in by their drivers, and that is the case at Manor. Rossi was arguably the more attractive choice for a Manor race seat this year, but it went to his old GP2 team-mate, Rio Haryanto, who offered €15 million from the Indonesian government for the seat.
Recently, Haryanto began a crowdfunding campaign to secure more funding. Asked by the official F1 website whether he would be able to finish the season, he said, "I have no answer for that right now. I will give my best and of course the funds are an issue—but this is handled by my management so that I can fully concentrate on racing."
Rossi would be the logical substitute if Haryanto cannot finish the campaign. As ever, though, it might depend on how much money he can offer.
You would think, being the first American in F1 in nearly a decade, Rossi would be fending off potential U.S. sponsors with a stick. But that is not the case.
There are 16 IndyCar races this season (all but one in the U.S.) and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has 36. It is not hard to imagine an American company seeking a sponsorship deal with one of those series as a better investment than a deal to fund Rossi in F1.
Most F1 races start late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning for U.S. viewers, and only one is on American soil.
Perhaps Rossi's Indy win will convince more personal sponsors to come on board, but there are still several things that need to fall into place if he is to return to F1. And now, no matter what happens with Haryanto or elsewhere, Rossi might have other priorities.
After the Indy win, Rossi told the New York Times' Dave Caldwell, "This has put me in championship contention, which I wasn't three days ago, which has really changed my perspective on 2016."
You get the feeling we haven't seen the last of Rossi in F1, but, for right now, a shot at the IndyCar title is probably more attractive than trailing around near the back of the field in F1—even if that opportunity were available.
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