There was a time in the history of Formula 1 in which Nascar Jeff Gordon’s superstar was being considered for a seat among the “best pilots in the world.” And this week, the main commentator of Indycar in FOX And experienced Formula 1 journalist, Will Buxton, spoke with the Nascar Kevin Harvick’s legend in his podcast, Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, About possible incursions of Gordon in the cars of cars, both in the Indycar and in Formula 1.
“Jeff was going to the Cool Green team in Indycar and run one or two seasons in Indycar, and Dario [Franchitti, tres veces ganador de la Indy 500] I was going to bar [British American Racing] In Formula 1, “Buxton explained.” And The long -term plan was that the alignment of bar in Formula 1 was going to be formed by Jeff and Dario. And he was going to run a couple of seasons in the Indycar to train. “
“That would have been a box office, and The F1 would have broken in America 20, 30 years before it finally opened with Drive to Survive. You have Jeff Gordon running in Formula 1 with Dario Franchitti, two great champions of all the American Open-Wheel and Stock Car races. And are they run as teammates in Formula 1? Boom. Work done. It would have been huge. “
That agreement was supposedly going to take place around 1999just after Gordon had won three of the last four titles of the CUP Series. The Bar team competed in the F1 from 1999 to 2005 and never won, but got 15 podiums with pilots such as Jenson Button and Takuma Sato.
Gordon never had the opportunity to run in F1, but participated in an exchange of pilots with Juan Pablo Montoya (who later left the F1 to go to the Nascar), piloting a Williams FW24 in 2003 in the Indianapolis Road Course, impressing the engineers for their good rhythm.
Gavin Ward, competition director of Arrow McLaren, Kyle Larson and Jeff Gordon, Vice President of Hendrick Motorsports.
Foto: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Larson’s potential
In the program, they also talked about the current superstar of the Nascar Kyle Larson, who once defined himself as “best versatile pilot” than the four times world champion of F1 Max Verstappen due to the different disciplines in which he competes. Larson also ran like a rookie in the 500 miles of Indianapolis of 2024 before a speeding for speeding at the end of the race derails his day. The chief of the McLaren team, Zak Brown, has even talked about wanting it to a car for a test with a F1 or a simple exchange of pilots.
“I would love to see the best Nascar pilots make the leap to Formula 1,” Buxton said. “I would love to see someone like a Kyle Larson not only attend Indy 500, but to go and try to run the Monaco Grand Prix or whatever. I would love to see children from the Indycar go to Formula 1 or the resistance races or the formula e, whatever it is. I hate the fact that we have such a restrictive license system. It prevents the possibility of transition.”
And he added that There is no excuse for a F3 title to be worth more on the Superlicancia.
-In its day, that system prevented the American star of Indycar Colton Herta for a possible movement towards F1 for not having enough points to receive a superícence.
