Tavo Hellmund becoming the team owner. He is a clever promoter and knows how to get attention. When he was trying to buy the team a year ago, he garnered headlines by saying that his first choice as a driver would be Dale Earnhardt Jr, the biggest name in NASCAR. It was not a realistic choice, as Earnhardt is 42, six foot one tall and has far more to lose than to gain by trying F1. However, it got people talking. It is clear that Tavo would like a US driver, but it should also be remembered that he is a Mexican-American, his father Gustavo having promoted the Mexican GP back in the 1990s. In recent years Hellmund has done a remarkable job to create the Circuit of the Americas and establish a new United States GP and, after a falling out with investors in Austin, he went on to revive the Mexican GP, in partnership with investors and the entertainment conglomerate CIE.
In recent months he has been working on a series of projects to try to get an F1 race in California and more recently in Florida, working with native Americans in an effort create a racing circuit on Indian land that has different rules to normal. This is most likely to be the Miccosukee Indian population, which has been involved in racing in NASCAR. The tribe has a perpetual lease for 189,000 acres in Florida, the largest of which is Alligator Alley, a 75,000-acre tract of land, west of Ft. Lauderdale. About 20,000 acres is available for development, with the rest being wetlands.
Hellmund and his backers clearly believe that there is money to be made from F1 in the United States and in Mexico, despite the problems that are likely to happen following the election of Donald Trump.
By: Joe Saward
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