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I think a lot of sponsrs will be looking to join by 2004. The series should put on some good racing this year, despite the issues I have mentioned. The IRL's attendances are minimal for 11 months of the year, their second best is about equal to CART's worst, except for when they are supporting NASCAR, and CART gets a massive US audience plus huge market shares in Mexico and Canada, and impressive elsewhere, a bonus for US firms looking to expand.
Having a few clear backmarkers is ok in a 26-car series, but not in an 18-car series. The guys in F1 are all capable of running at a reasonable pace, now that Yoong is gone, but the hardware gaps are too big. The technical prestige of F1 makes this less of a problem that it would be in a spec series.
We don't yet know how good these guys could become with the right guidance (although realistically, probably not very far), but lots of rookies in new or 1-car teams are going to have lots of crashes, possibly pile-ups, meaning less track time and confidence than they would otherwise gain. Its the problem that sank Bell last year, perhaps magnified.
I was hoping for more experienced drivers like Papis, Herta and Gidely to be involved, especially as 2 of those are American, and more blue-ribbon promising youngsters such as Pantano, Fogarty, maybe guys like Davidson and Zonta.
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