Motorsport Musings Ramblings of a racing enthusiast…

Alexander Rossi – The next competitive American driver?

It has been just over two years now since we last saw an American driver participating in Formula 1, ever since Scott Speed failed to live up to his namesake and was given the chop mid-season by Toro Rosso under rather acrimonious circumstances.

In the meantime, despite the occasional murmurings surrounding the likes of NASCAR’s Kyle Busch and the easy on the eye, media-savvy Danica Patrick possibly applying their trade in Formula 1, there haven’t been any American drivers appearing on the radar – until now.

Alexander Rossi is putting together a substantial case to be the next stateside driver to make his way into Formula 1 in the not too distant future, be it with the American-based USF1 team or any of the other more established teams currently competing in the sport.

The 18-year-old’s racing career to date makes for impressive reading. After a couple of years racing in karts, Rossi progressed on to the American variant of the Formula BMW series for Team Apex Racing and finished third in his first season. Driving for the more competitive Euro International team the following year, he clinched the title after scoring a record-breaking ten poles and ten wins out of 14 races. The icing on the cake then came as he won the Formula BMW World Final (a race among all the Formula BMW champions) and with it came a test drive with BMW Sauber.

Reaching the single-seater formulae ceiling in America, Rossi ventured across the Atlantic Ocean at the start of this year to participate in the International Formula Master series. Initially driving for the Hitech Racing team for the first four rounds of the season, he then switched across to the more favourable ISR Racing and despite being the novice in the field, finished the season in fourth having achieved three wins.

Buoyed by his relative success in IFM, Rossi recently found himself behind the wheel of a GP2 car for the first time this month during testing at Jerez for both Piquet GP and DAMS teams, and despite not appearing at the sharp end of the timesheets, did show his worth by being the quickest in the wet session before suffering from a mechanical failure and eventually emerged ahead of a certain Bruno Senna.

Receiving rave reviews from both the GP2 teams he tested with, the young American was promptly snapped up by Ocean Racing Technology for their 09/10 GP2 Asia campaign, driving alongside fellow rookie and Formula Master Champion Fabio Leimer and Rossi’s season has got off to an impressive start already in the opening round at Abu Dhabi.

Typically the GP2 Asia series is often regarded as not having the greatest level of competitiveness, but this season the field consists of a lot of regulars from the main European series. His fourth place today, following an impressive run from 12th on the grid, is hopefully indicative of more to come from the youngster who definitely looks like being one to watch out for in the future.

Should he continue to flourish this winter, it is more than likely that Rossi will find a seat in Formula 1’s feeder-series, so long as he can find the necessary finance and sponsorship needed to fund his way through an entire season of GP2.

Someone who will be definitely keeping an eye on his progression has to be Peter Windsor who has stated on numerous occasions his desire to fill at least one of the seats at the newly formed USF1 with some American talent.

Something tells me however that if he keeps this up, Rossi will not only find his way into F1, but may find a number of other opportunities to drive with more established teams present itself. The guy has some serious talent on offer with his raw pace, and at this stage of his career, is shining brighter than Scott Speed ever did with all his Red Bull backing.

Easily the brightest current young American talent with a real F1 perspective. Watch him with interest.