I won Formula Four. I went to New Zealand and won the Toyota Racing Series. I won the F3 European championship in 2016.
I was driving in Formula Renault 2.0... with Daniel Ricciardo.
Honestly, I think they need to work to improve the categories. If the driver goes from the go-kart to F3 one year and then to F1, why do we have GP3, GP2?
In Spain there were no TV rights for Formula One.
One thing I would like to see is a stronger ladder series for up-and-coming American drivers.
If the Indy Racing League didn't have the Indianapolis 500, do you think it would have lasted more than six months? No chance.
You do a period of go-karting until you're at the age of qualifying for a ride in a 'school-kart,' then you qualify for driving school. And several of the driving schools have a competition series for their own students.
In 1982 when I showed up, the average age of the drivers in the series was something like 40, 41. The crowds were small. There was not much prize money. The competition wasn't very tight.
I am part of a circuit called 24 Hours of LeMons, where it's a sort of riff on 24 Hours of Le Mans. It's a poor man's weekend warrior racer event.
We want to be a works partner. Ferrari and Mercedes have their own works teams so where would you be in the pecking order if you're a customer?
Winston Cup and the Busch Series are two totally different leagues. You get put in different situations.
Formula 1 will always have high and strong investment. Who can't make these investments will race in other series.
It makes great conversation to discuss what's wrong with open-wheel racing today.
[Formula One] is entertainment and it competes with other entertainments - and not with other racing formats. It competes with people's time on a weekend. So you have to deliver.
These regional series - we need to have them strong to feed drivers to the Truck series. Nothing against ARCA, but NASCAR needs to have their own series be their own streams.
CART is one of the safest racing series in the world.
You don't get a mix of ovals and road/street course racing with this level of competition and speed anywhere other than Indy Car, and I think that's why it has remained a popular choice for so many young drivers.
I was extremely underprepared for F1. So compared with that, I feel fine with IndyCar, quite honestly.
If the racing series does not exist for a year, then it disappears in its entirety. Teams that have been operating very close to the limit just wouldn't survive. They rely on racing to generate income and to fulfill their obligations to the promoter.
A lot of the kids we have coming up through our ranks now have been in stock cars since they were 12 or 13 years old. It's much different. I think you have to pick a path. If you want to race open-wheel cars and do those things, it's probably going to be carts and into an open-wheel series.
I think you're certainly going to see much closer racing. But, no, these are very good teams in the IRL. I just can't stress how competitive they all are and how close it's going to be.
When you're talking about proper competition, I think Formula E has good competition.
That's the only difference in Formula E from other championships - it's more unpredictable.
Every time I get into a Nationwide car after being in a Cup car, I feel so much more comfortable than I did previously.
