Talented American drivers don’t have a clear path to success in Formula 1

In Portimao, Portugal, they played “The Star-Spangled Banner” three times during the Grand Prix weekend in Portugal.

It was most unusual.

Cameron Das, a 21-year-old from Baltimore, won all three races of the Euroformula Open Championship, which supported the Formula 1 race. That, as pictured above, is currently preparing for the FIA ​​Formula 3 Championship, which starts next weekend in Barcelona. Although he’s been in Europe for four years, he hasn’t really made much of an impression – and time is running out.

Juan-Manuel Correa throws his lot in F3 this season.

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The racing world in Europe is unforgiving and tough. There aren’t many second chances. It’s a different mentality and some find it brutal.

The list of participants for the FIA ​​Formula 2 this year includes drivers from 16 nationalities in the 24-driver series. But there are no Americans.

There are three in FIA Formula 3: the Florida-based Ecuadorian American Juan Manuel Correa (21), who is returning after a serious injury, Jak Crawford (16) from North Carolina, who is a Red Bull driver, and Kaylen Frederick from Maryland (18), who won the British Formula 3 title in 2020.

Integrating into European racing is seen as the way to go in F1, and jumping straight into F1 from IndyCar isn’t easy. It’s been a long time since anyone did it successfully.

There has been a lot of talk in the past few days about IndyCar drivers who may make it into Formula 1, with Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward mentioned. On paper, this makes sense. There are quite a few IndyCar drivers who have raced in Formula 1 including Alex Rossi, Sebastien Bourdais, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean, Max Chilton and Takuma Sato, all of whom came to America from Europe, but Rossi is the only American. None of them were winners in F1.

Conor Daly and Santino Ferrucci both raced in Europe but couldn’t take a break in F1, and so did Danica Patrick and Townsend Bell. Scott Speed ​​made it into F1 thanks to Red Bull, but he didn’t last long.

It’s pretty shocking to think that the last American driver to win an F1 race was Mario Andretti, who is now 81 years old and who took his last Grand Prix win at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix. Forty-three years ago.

Mario Andretti’s victory at the 1978 F1 Dutch Grand Prix is ​​the last victory of an American driver in Formula 1.

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Today in Formula 1 we have the Haas F1 team, which drives under the American flag. Three teams are led by American team bosses. So why do you think there are no American drivers in Formula 1?

Aston Martin’s Otmar Szafnauer, the American with the greatest experience as an F1 team boss, says US drivers have to go to Europe to learn the ropes.

“I think you have to spend time in the junior formulas in Europe,” he says. “I don’t know what he’s doing now, but last year there was an American, a boy from Florida. He’s done all of his junior races in Europe, but I don’t know what he’s doing now. “

The American Logan Sargeant finished third in the 2020 F3 championship.

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And, in a nutshell, there is the problem. Szafnauer cannot remember the name of Logan Sargeant. The F1 team bosses don’t have much time to watch the juniors race unless they have a particular interest in the driver in question.

The 20-year-old Sargeant finished third in the FIA ​​Formula 3 series last year. His main rivals switched to Formula 2 that season, but Sargeant didn’t have the money and didn’t make a big enough impression to get the support he needed. And now he’s gone from the European scene.

It has been a common problem for Americans going back more than a generation. And it’s not a unique American problem, a lot of other drivers go to the US (or Japan) because they don’t have the support to climb the F1 ladder.

The last American to drive in F1 was Rossi, who contested five races in 2015 – six years ago. He then returned to the US and became an IndyCar star, as did Danica Patrick before him. The US racing scene is a place where a top driver can make a living without speaking different languages ​​or understanding the different cultures in Europe and around the world. In addition, there is more money in NASCAR, so some of the best young American talent is leaving the open wheels early in their careers.

There is also the fear of failure. Michael Andretti was a great racing driver but he couldn’t make it in Formula 1 because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and because he was trying to live and commute in the US. It did not work.

Michael Andretti, a winner in the United States, was unable to achieve much success in Formula 1 during his 1993 run.

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There have been some disastrous failures in the past as well, if not specifically Americans. Just think of the French Sébastien Bourdais, who won the Champ Car title four times but made absolutely no impression in F1. Or Alex Zanardi, a two-time CART champion who joined Williams in F1 and only lasted a short time before returning to the US.

Haas team boss Gunther Steiner, an American citizen for 10 years, thinks it is more complicated than just being a good racing driver.

“In my opinion, if someone wants to make the career decision, it is possible to do so,” he says. “I rate Colton Herta very highly and he can get a super license, but he has to go through the system. What I always say is that racing is a pretty good life in America, so it’s not just a racing decision, it’s a life decision. It’s what you want to do. Being an American driver and settling down in the US is very difficult. I do, but I’m not a driver and I spend time in Europe every summer.

“If you want to do it, you can’t just think: ‘I’ll drive in America and then I’ll go to Formula 1’ because there is a license problem, you have to adapt and you have to learn. It’s a different kind of race. It’s a different way of life. You see it when F1 drivers switch to NASCAR or IndyCar. It’s not as easy as it looks. If an American chooses to do it, it is possible, but it is difficult. “

McLaren’s Zak Brown, an American who drove in Europe in the early 1990s, thinks it’s easier than you imagine.

“I think you can do it,” says Brown. “You just need enough tests. If you look at the people who have come from IndyCar, you have Jacques Villeneuve and Juan-Pablo Montoya. OK, Zanardi went back down again, but I think it’s about the drivers needing sitting time. “

Brown doesn’t make the point that both Villeneuve and Montoya had experience in European racing before heading to the US.

Colton Herta drove in the UK in 2015 and moved to the Euroformula Open Championship in 2016, so he knows at least some of the F1 circuits: Spa, Paul Ricard, Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Monza and Barcelona.

But there are still a lot of circuits that would be new.

“Pato O’Ward sure is good enough, but they just need testing time,” says Brown, forgetting that O’Ward is not American. “Do I think anyone on the IndyCar grid could be in Formula 1? Obviously not.” but I think Colton, Pato, Scott Dixon, Alex Rossi, and Felix Rosenqvist could be. “

Perhaps this is why Brown is quietly fighting for more testing time in F1. An American driver would support McLaren’s road vehicle sales in the United States, which is why the team has been committed to IndyCar over the past few years.

But in the end it all comes down to who you know and how much money you have in your back pocket.

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