F1 needs US driver, says Rahal

Grand Prix racing has made several attempts over the last 40 years to find a permanent home in America, having staged races at Long Beach, Watkins Glen, Detroit, Riverside, Sebring, Dallas, and even a converted car park in Las Vegas.

The last attempt was the Phoenix street race in the early 1990s and more people turned up to a nearby ostrich race on its last running.

Now the sport has its best - and some believe its last - chance with a new £30 million development at America's most famous venue, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Last year, on its debut at the track, the race attracted a 200,000-plus crowd, but without the novelty factor, the second running is seen as make-or-break.

"Unlike anywhere else it's very much a kind of a niche sport in the United States and it will take an American to be driving in Formula 1," said Rahal.

"There's about three or four racing in England and Europe currently and ultimately I think that's what it's going to take," said the triple CART champion turned F1 team boss.

"Formula 1 was at its height in popularity in the United States when Mario Andretti was racing in the '70s. But ever since it left Watkins Glen and Long Beach to go to a series of, shall we say, less than ideal circuits, it really dropped off the radar screen. So it's going to take some time.

"Indianapolis will certainly speed up that gain in popularity but ultimately I think it's going to take either an American team or an American driver."