USA GP in Austin: Wanted – New Mario Andretti / Formula 1

Motorsport fans in America have rediscovered Formula 1. America has always had a core of Grand Prix fans, but now ratings are soaring.

The popular Turbo Formula 1 documentary called “Drive to Survive” is on Netflix. The new racing car generation offers the most attractive games. A third race in the USA intensifies interest in the US – after the USA GP in Austin (Texas) since 2012, there will be a GP in Miami this year and a night race in Las Vegas in 2023.

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali wants to keep the momentum going. At the press conference to present the Las Vegas GP 2023, the Italian said: “It is very important to have an American driver at the start again. The drivers are the protagonists. But it must also be true.”

That is: the next American pilot should not be a field filler as an alibi exercise, but can achieve better results. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen in the end.

Be honest: Did you know that an American was last at the start of a Grand Prix? We left out Miami-born Pietro Fittipaldi, who stepped in for Romain Grosjean in late 2020.

Today’s IndyCar driver Alexander Rossi was with a Manor race car at the 2015 Brazilian Grand Prix. Of course, there was nothing to win with this team, so Rossi had to settle for 12th in Austin after five starts.

Amazing: Before Rossi, no American had contested a home GP for eight years. In 2007, Toro Rosso driver Scott Speed ​​finished thirteenth at Indianapolis.

Unbelievable: It’s been over 44 years since the last GP win by an American! Mario Andretti won in Zandvoort (Netherlands) in 1978 with his Lotus.

How about junior divisions with pilots from the US?

Logan Sargent competes in Formula 2. The 21-year-old from Fort Lauderdale (Florida) has shown very good results this year with the Carlin Racing team. Sergeant, a Williams junior driver since October 2021, is third intermediate and will conduct his first practice session at Williams during the GP weekend on October 21.

We see four Americans in Formula 3: Red Bull Junior Jack Crawford from Charlotte (North Carolina), 17 years old. He ended the F3 season as his country’s best representative in seventh place (one win, five podiums).

Juan Manuel Correa (23) battled back in 2019 after a bad crash at Spa-Francorchamps and celebrated for a second time at Zandvoort, the ART driver finishing 13th in the championship.

20-year-old Kaylen Frederick from Potomac (Maryland) drives high-tech and took seven top 10 places in the first nine races, but then the thread broke, not many points, 17th place.

17-year-old Hunter Yanni of Virginia Beach (Virginia), competing for the Campos race, suffered a wrist injury in a crash in Austria and was later replaced.

A completely different person was given much bigger opportunities: Colton Herda, a 22-year-old IndyCar driver from Valencia (California) who was testing for McLaren. But as the seven-time IndyCar race winner did not obtain a Super license, interest from Formula 1 racing teams faded.

Final words from American racing legend Mario Andretti: “With Haas, there is a GP racing team from America. Awesome. But now we need an American pilot. We’ve always had a huge fan base in America, but we’ve just scratched the surface. What we really need to allow this fire is a symbolic figure – an American on an American race track in an American race car, and that’s what it is! I’d love to see Colton Herda in Formula 1.”

Unfortunately, this has been superseded by the points system of the Formula 1 Super License driving licence. In early October, Herda signed a new multi-year contract for Michael Andretti’s IndyCar racing team.