Passing in the Corner: F1 and Soccer cross paths
As two of the world's most popular and action-packed sports, F1 racing and soccer ("football" to just about everyone outside North America) share more in common than you'd think. This past season, the F1 race calendar was adjusted to avoid conflicting with the World Cup. No wonder, as grands prix are consistently second only to the World Cup (and the Olympics) for global television ratings.
Nearly all of the F1 drivers are avid football players, and routinely play friendly matches against each other. In a recent article in F1 Racing magazine, most of the drivers seemed to agree that Giancarlo Fisichella was the best player among them (though Schumacher and Alonso came close). Schumacher himself plays for FC Echichens, a third division Swiss team, whose coach (ironically named Patrick Ferrari) is hoping Michael will spend more of his new-found free time with the team. In the past, Schumi's demanding schedule had meant he'd leave in the middle of games to get to the track. And it was none other than soccer legend Pele who was on hand to present the retiring champ with a parting trophy at last Sunday's season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix.
Most of these intersections between soccer and grand prix racing are ad-hoc, but the Real Madrid football club is making it official. The team is going to sponsor an F1 car for the 2007 Spanish Grand Prix, and Williams appear the likeliest candidate, not least because, as an independent team, Williams.F1 wouldn't pose a problem for Audi, Real Madrid's sponsor.
NASCAR racing and American Football are undoubtedly the more popular forms of the two sports in the United States, and aside from the occasional special edition Ford truck, the two don't often cross paths. But everywhere else in the world, F1 racing and soccer are the be-all-and-end-all of sports. The FIA World Championship and the FIFA World Cup, it seems, share more than similar names, they share common fans with a common passion.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lemmiwinks 11:42PM (10/26/2006)
Oh dear. NASCAR and American Football aren't comparable to F1 and Soccer. Everything was going so well until then.
In the UK we don't have anything like NASCAR. The nearest thing would be banger racing.
The nearest thing to American Football we call Rugby, or perhaps more correctly - Rugby Football. Admittedly only about 8 countries play the sport in anger, but that's 7 more than American Football.
'Soccer' is more correctly called Association Football - shortened to football in every country apart from the USA (and perhaps Canada?)
There's more than one kind of football. There's room in the world for many people and ideas folks.
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osnofla 12:33AM (10/27/2006)
Lemmiwinks i'm pretty sure he meant they are comparable in terms of popularity...'tard
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MacroEQ 7:36AM (10/27/2006)
football... not "soccer"
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Ken 8:30AM (10/27/2006)
Soccer & F1 racing, the two most boring sports that are available for TV viewing. And therefore, some of the lowest rated sporting events on American TV.
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yoyo 10:22AM (10/27/2006)
Football exciting? 10 seconds of action followed by 2 minutes of a bunch of guys standing around not doing anything. The only time football is exciting is during a no-huddle offense.
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Peter 10:14AM (10/27/2006)
Reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:
"I just think it's rather odd that a nation which prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby."
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leo 12:20PM (10/27/2006)
to #4,
I guess the 100million views that watch American Football somehow add to be more than the few Billion viewers of Football (Soccer) uh.
and BTW American Football shoould be called Handball as that's what they do, they thru the ball like girls and someone katches it once in a while, as they all wait around like overgrown dummies , as #5 said, wearing 40lbs of gear to play rugby
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MacroEQ 1:48PM (10/27/2006)
"Soccer & F1 racing, the two most boring sports that are available for TV viewing. And therefore, some of the lowest rated sporting events on American TV."
Football not "soccer" is getting bigger in the U.S year by year. I'm sorry you feel threatened by this but you can either like it or lump it.
*gives you a patronising slap on the back*
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