Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Gorman’s Abbate aims to be F1 driver

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

Now that Las Vegas has produced a NASCAR Winston Cup driver in Kurt Busch, can a home grown Formula One driver be far behind?

Michael Abbate, a 16-year-old junior at Bishop Gorman High School, hopes he'll be the one. Abbate is one of 15 drivers going through an extensive five-day test session this week in Southern France with the goal of becoming the first American to compete in F1 in nearly a decade.

Michael Andretti was the last American to compete in F-1 in 1993 when he partnered the late, great Ayrton Senna at McLaren.

Abbate, a national shifter kart champion, is one of 15 candidates for the inaugural Red Bull F1 Driver Search program, designed to groom American drivers for a Formula One ride.

Abbate is the youngest of the 15 candidates taking part in on-track evaluations this week at Circuit Paul Ricard in France. At the conclusion of the run-off, four finalists will be financially backed by Red Bull energy drink to race in a European junior formula series in 2003.

"Formula One is what I've strived to do since I was 10 years old," Abbate said before leaving for France. "No one has tried to get an American driver into Formula One in quite a while.

"I consider it an accomplishment just to be picked (as one of the 15 candidates). I'm by far the youngest driver to be picked and I have driven only go-karts; most of the other guys have a lot more experience. Even if I don't make the cut, this is something I can put on my resume."

The candidates this week will test in Formula 3 cars and will be evaluated by a panel of judges that includes Red Bull F1 Driver Search program director Danny Sullivan (the 1985 Indy 500 winner who drove for the Tyrrell F-1 team in 1983) and racing school founder Skip Barber.

Abbate said he was told the four finalists would be notified before they leave France at the end of the week.

"They're going to be narrowing (the field) down until the last day and when we leave, they'll be telling us whether we made it or not," Abbate said. "It's either going to be a long plane ride home or a very happy one."

Once the four finalists are determined, they will be assigned to various minor-league racing series in Europe such as British Formula Ford, Formula BMW, German F3 and British F3.

Because each of the four finalists will be required to live in Europe for two to five years, Abbate said he is prepared to finish his high school education through the use of tutors if he is selected.

"I definitely will finish my education," he said. "My parents are behind me because they know this is my goal and my dream."

"Any time I can find the time to run a USAC Midget, I'm going to do it," Stewart said. "My roots are in USAC and racing Midgets is my way of having fun so I'll be there."