F1 has had 58 American drivers – but 275 race wins less than the UK as US lags

When it comes to excelling at sports, there aren’t many disciplines where the USA doesn’t sit near the top of the tree. Whether it’s boxing, tennis, athletics or golf, the country has produced some of the finest competitors in the history of planet Earth and has the medals to prove it.

Americans love motorsport and Formula One’s recent boom in popularity stateside only strengthens that position further. Since 2017, F1 itself has been owned by Liberty Media Group, an American mass media company ran by Connecticut billionaire John C. Malone.

The group’s American influence is reflected in the modern F1 race calendar with no fewer than three US races included in the 2023 schedule. The Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive has only helped to grow the popularity of the sport over the past four years, rivalling IndyCar and NASCAR for audience figures in the states.

But with this huge growth in the global motorsport brand, the real question is, where are all the successful US F1 drivers?

For a country that has winning engrained in its DNA, the lack of American Formula One drivers over a sustained period of time is quite remarkable.

In the current F1 campaign, the USA is solely represented by Williams rookie Logan Sargeant, who is yet to score his first championship point. Expectations will be low on the 22-year-old, who has just graduated from a solid season in Formula 2, but a look back through the history books reveals a mediocre past for Americans in F1.

Before Sargeant, you have to go back as far as 2015 for the last time there was an American on the grid. That was when Marussia gave Alexander Rossi a drive for the final five races of the season. He was never seen in an F1 Grand Prix again, moving to Indycar, where made a name for himself by winning the Indy 500.

As it happens, it was when the very same race was part of the F1 calendar in 1950 that America had its first GP victory in the sport, courtesy of Johnie Parsons. The country did hold something of an advantage, however, as it was only drivers from the US who took part.

Only two American drivers have ever become F1 World Champions in the history of the sport – Phil Hill in 1961 and more recently, the great Mario Andretti in 1978, who is still regarded as one of America’s greatest-ever racing drivers.

Despite retiring in 1981, Andretti is still the last American to win an F1 Grand Prix, triumphing in his final race at the Ceasars Palace Grand Prix in Nevada. His son Michael raced for McLaren in 1993 for 13 races but was eventually sacked for poor performance, even though he finished third in his final outing. The Andretti family are plotting a comeback however, with plans to launch a new F1 team in the pipeline.

With next to no representation in the past 30 years, it will come as little surprise to learn that the USA’s F1 record is a miserable one compared to the United Kingdom. The 58 drivers who have raced for the USA in the history of F1 have managed to produce 33 wins between them. But 164 drivers from the UK have clocked up 308 wins – 275 more than their trans-Atlantic counterparts.

But that is the past, so what of the future? Rookie Sargeant is only just making his way in the sport but arrives after performing well in both F2 and previously F3, where he only missed out on the world championship in 2021 on the final race of the season.

Colton Herta is a 23-year-old talent who has been growing his reputation in Indycar but is close to a switch to F1. He has previously done a testing programme with McLaren and was expected to land his first drive via the Andretti family had they succeeded in their bid to take over the Sauber-run Alfa Romeo team in 2021. Could next year be his time?

Another one to watch is 18-year-old Jak Crawford who is showing huge promise in Formula 2 and was named as a new signing for the Red Bull Junior Team in 2020.

Whoever emerges as America’s next F1 star, it will be long overdue, but as the sport continues to boom in the sports-mad country it is not hard to imagine that US fans will not have to wait too long to enjoy the level of success they are accustomed to.