In 1975 Andretti drove for the full season for the American team Parnelli. Three weeks later he won the non-championship Questor Grand Prix in the US. It is with Ferrari that he won the first Grand Prix, the 1971 South African Grand Prix. Andretti drove sporadically in Formula One between 19 for Lotus, March and Ferrari. Mario Andretti, the most successful American driver in Formula One was born in Italy and later became a US citizen. Many of them competed in NASCAR, Ind圜ar, 24 Hours of Le Mans, World Sportscar Championship and other series.īut no matter how you look at the statistics, the answer is clear: Mario Andretti is the best American F1 driver to date. There were many Americans that performed well in Formula One. If the competitors who contested in only one race per season were considered, the count of Americans that competed in Formula One would go up to 233. It is a pity that statisticians now discount the competitors who raced only in the United States Grand Prix.
But it is Dan Gurney who is greatly admired for his contribution to F1, both on the track and off it. He won a total of three Grands Prix, two of them in 1961, the year he won the championship. While Mario Andretti has been the most successful American F1 driver with 12 Grand Prix wins, Phill Hill is the only American born World Championship champion. Joie Chitwood was the first American driver to win a point in F1 while Mario Andretti was the last. The most recent American participant in Formula One is Alexander Rossi who last raced in 2015. Mario Andretti was the last American to win a Grand Prix, the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix, the year he also won the Drivers’ Championship. 15 drivers have won at least one Grand Prix with five having won more than one race. Only two American drivers, Phil Hill in 1961 and Mario Andretti in 1978, won the World Drivers’ Championship. But only 19 American drivers have competed in 10 or more Grands Prix. If all the American drivers are to be included in the count, it means 233 American drivers have competed in F1 since 1950, most of them in the US Grand Prix only.
The Indianapolis Grand Prix was conducted on different rules than those governing F1. In the early years very few Americans raced in F1 in Europe and the participation of Europeans in the Indianapolis 500 wasn’t something to write home about eitherĪ majority of the American drivers drove in the Indianapolis 500 which was included as a part of the World Championship from 1950 to 1960. While 175 Britons have competed in F1, 162 Americans have participated in the prestigious series. The United States ranks second only to the United Kingdom in its contribution of drivers that competed in Formula 1 racing. Why are there no American drivers in Formula 1?Ĭontrary to popular belief, there have been quite a few American Formula 1 drivers who raced in both the US and around the world.
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