Published: June 16, 2007 11:26 pm            

American driver Scott Speed disappointed in his Formula One lot

INDIANAPOLIS — Scott Speed cut a forlorn figure in the Formula One paddock after Friday practice for the U.S. Grand Prix.

His Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso was proving itself to be a clunker on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course — a harsh reality he reluctantly accepted and which was proven in Saturday qualifying when Speed earned a dismal 20th spot on the grid.

Expectations will have to be modest, but Speed said expectations are a dangerous thing.

“Expectations? You wait to see what’s possible. Results are not something I can control. I don’t set the goal that I want to finish 10th or I want to finish 12th. I try to do my best in the car and the results will come or they won’t, but it’s not in my own control,” Speed said.

Speed is the only driver who calls the USGP his home race, and barring massive attrition in today’s race, it is very likely Speed is not going to be scoring his first career point at home.

That’s unfortunate for Speed, who could be racing for his Formula One career and America’s recent history in the sport.

Unless Speed and Toro Rosso’s fortunes turn for the better, the only epithet next to Speed’s name in future Formula One racing tomes will be “the lone American driver in Formula One.” Speed is the only American in the sport since Michael Andretti’s disastrous season at McLaren in 1993. Unfortunately, it’s the only claim to fame that’s distinguished Speed to this point.

Despite hope that an American F1 driver would boost the sport’s profile here, it hasn’t panned out, thanks in part to Speed being on the uncompetitive Toro Rosso team.

Does Speed feel pressure about carrying the American load? He’s candid about how burdensome that load really is.

“It’s not much of a spotlight [to be the only American driver]. I don’t feel any added pressure from it,” Speed said. “I almost feel, in some ways, European. I live there 90 percent of the year, I race with all Europeans and the American presence within Formula One — forget the drivers, the people who control the sport, the people who run the teams — it’s a European sport.

“The American presence is almost nothing. The only time I feel it is when I return to Montreal [site of the Canadian Grand Prix] and Indianapolis.”

Speed admitted his disappointment that American inroads into the sport have been minimal.

“It’s certainly lonely [to be the only American] and I wish it was different. The more Americans there are in Formula One, the better and easier it is for me. In any case, I’ve adapted and get along fine. That’s why I consider myself a bit of a European racing driver,” Speed said.

Speed’s F1 career had a promising start. Along with teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, Speed was tabbed as Toro Rosso’s first driver. Toro Rosso is the former Minardi team bought by Red Bull impresario Dieter Mateschitz in late 2005. (Toro Rosso is Italian for Red Bull.)

Speed was the only prospect from Red Bull’s American driver program — a program designed to put more Americans in the sport — to make it to F1. The program no longer exists.

But Speed has not been able to cash in on his promise. The California native has not scored a point (points go to the top eight finishers) since he joined F1. He’s come close. He finished ninth at the Monaco Grand Prix in May, and he finished in the points on track in 2006 at Australia, but was penalized.

More often, though, Speed’s had trouble.

He just barely held on to his seat at the beginning of the season and has had little to shout about since. Speed has had four DNF’s and has been outqualified by teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi in six of seven races so far, the acid test many Formula One observers use to gauge driver performance in equal equipment, though Liuzzi has matched Speed’s four DNF’s.

There are already rumors that Speed could lose his seat, perhaps to ChampCar driver Sebastian Bourdais, who has tested with with the team. Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost has denied that Speed’s ride is under threat.

And Speed isn’t completely down. He noted that Toro Rosso has a new gearbox it is ready to bring online that should improve the team’s performance.

But it won’t make his U.S. Grand Prix any less bittersweet.

“If I was able to score a point at all this year, I’d like to do it here,” Speed said. “But I knew it would be unlikely based on where we are in our development.”

        

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