F1: The Windsor Journals

Formula 1

F1: The Windsor Journals - Michael Lewis

SPEED.com's Peter Windsor chats with American F3 driver Michael Lewis about the fragmentation of the F3 series and his future plans...

Peter Windsor | Posted April 05, 2012 London (GBR)

I was intrigued by the Wind Tunnel interviews conducted at the end of last year by Dave Despain and Robin Miller with young American F3 driver Michael Lewis. Despain and Miller naturally asked him about his test drive in the Ferrari F60 F1 car in Italy, and Michael's response — that of an enthusiastic California kid with no "side" — was both refreshing and enticing.

And so the questions began buzzing inside my head: From where did Michael Lewis emerge? What was his background? What was a nice guy like this doing in Italian F3? Michael won rookie honors in the 2011 Italian F3 championship and finished runner-up in the series overall. And he has his fans.

This is from a recent forum thread: "When I found out that Michael is (a) a full-time college student; (b) cut his teeth racing midgets and was still in USAC when he was racing FBMW and (c) races a late-model stock car at Irwindale (speedway in California), I knew he was the American hopeful I'd always dreamed about — one who had a truly American upbringing in motor racing, driving everything possible and bringing car control learned on the short tracks of our grassroots to the big show in Europe. He even gives interviews with something of an Italian accent..." (Thanks to Jacques Rabbit for that.)

Peter Windsor has worked for SPEED since 1999. The winner of five major writing awards in an F1 career that began in 1972, Windsor was Team Manager of the Championship-winning Williams-Renault F1 team in 1992 and General Manager of Ferrari in the Prost-Mansell era. He currently hosts the online, weekly F1 TV show TheFlyingLap.com and also writes for Autosport Japan. Follow him @peterdwindsor and on www.facebook.com/theflyinglap