How American is Formula One? – Deseret News

In the recently released movie “F1,″ Brad Pitt stars as a racing driver who returns to F1 after years away from the sport.
Pitt’s character is American, even though F1 is typically considered to be a more European sport. There are currently three different F1 races that take place in America every year in Miami, Las Vegas and Austin.
Here is a look at how Americans are currently involved in the sport and how they’ve been involved in the past.
There are currently no American drivers in Formula One.
The most recent American driver to be in the sport was Logan Sargeant, who made his debut in F1 at the beginning of the 2023 season as a driver for Williams. Sargeant, who is from Florida, was dropped from the team partway through his second F1 season in 2024.
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Sargeant’s highest finish in F1 was 10th place, which he secured at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, in 2023. Before Sargeant, the last American to drive in F1 was Alexander Rossi, who now competes in Indycar, per an F1 press release.
While there are no current American drivers in F1, there is one significant American figure in the F1 world and that is Mclaren team CEO Zak Brown.
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Though there are no American drivers currently in F1, there are a few in some of the sport’s feeder series.
In F1 Academy, a racing series meant to help women advance in the sport, there are currently three Americans: Chloe Chambers, Courtney Crone and Utahn Lia Block.
F2 has two American drivers, Jak Crawford and Max Esterson, according to Motorsport.com.
There is currently one American driver in F3: Ugo Ugochuckwu.
There is currently one American team in F1, but next year a second will be joining.
Haas F1 team joined the sport in 2016 and in 2026 Cadillac Formula 1 Team will be joining the sport backed by TWG Motorsports and General Motors.
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Since making its debut in 2016, Haas has yet to secure a race win or put a driver on the podium, per an F1 press release.
The last American driver to get on a podium in Formula One was Michael Andretti, who took third place in 1993, according to an F1 press release. Mario Andretti, Michael’s father, is the last American to win an F1 world championship which he achieved in 1978.
Out of the 22 times an American has won an F1 race, 12 of those have been by Mario Andretti.
Another American, Phil Hill, won the world championship in 1961, per F1.
There are currently 10 teams in the sport, and with two drivers per team there’s 20 drivers who compete in each race.
Next year with the addition of the Cadillac team, there will be 11 teams and 22 drivers.
The “F1″ movie was filmed at actual F1 races throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons, meaning that many of the drivers currently racing had cameos in the movie, including Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Here’s a look at both drivers for each of the 10 teams:
Mclaren’s two drivers are Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Piastri currently leads the world championship with Norris eight points behind him.
Championship leader Piastri is a 24-year-old Australian who joined the sport at the beginning of the 2023 season and took the championship lead in April, according to The Guardian. Piastri has won seven races since getting his first race win in Hungary last year.
Norris is a 25-year-old from England who joined the sport with Mclaren in 2019. Both of the team’s drivers have been with Mclaren for their whole F1 careers. Norris’ first race win was in Miami in 2024 and total of eight race wins.
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The two drivers for Ferrari this year are seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton joined the team at the beginning of the season after over 10 years of driving for Mercedes. With his seven championship wins he is tied with Michael Schumacher for most championships in F1 history. The 40-year-old also served as a producer for the movie.
Leclerc is from Monaco and at 27-years old is currently ranked fifth in the standings. He joined F1 in 2018 and got his seat at Ferrari in 2019, since then he has won eight races and has stood on the podium 47 times.
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Mercedes’ 2025 line up includes George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli.
Out of the six rookies on the grid this year, 18-year-old Italian Antonelli is the only one to stand on a podium so far this season. He secured his first podium at the Canadian GP in June.
Russell joined F1 in 2019 with Williams but started driving for Mercedes in 2022 and has had four race wins and 20 podiums. He is currently ranked fourth in the drivers standings.
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Red Bull’s team includes the most recent world champion, Max Verstappen, alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
The reigning champion, 27-year-old Verstappen from the Netherlands, has won four consecutive world championships. Since joining F1 in 2015 as a 17-year-old, he has set the record for being F1’s youngest point scorer and youngest race winner. Verstappen is currently third in the drivers standings.
Tsunoda is from Japan and started this season on Red Bull’s second team. He was moved to Red Bull after two races. He first joined the sport in 2021 and the highest he has ever finished a race is fourth.
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Williams’ two drivers are Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Albon was born and raised in England but races under the Thai flag. He joined the sport in 2019 with Red Bull and he joined Williams in 2022. At 29 years old, he has been on the podium two times, both times taking third place.
Albon’s Spanish teammate, 30-year-old, Sainz joined Williams for the 2025 season after he was replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari. Sainz has been in the sport since 2015 and has won four races.
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Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto make up Kick Sauber‘s 2025 driver lineup.
Hulkenberg held the record for most F1 starts without a podium, but on Sunday at the British Grand Prix, during his 239th F1 race the driver took third, standing on the podium for the first time. The 37-year-old German driver made his F1 debut in 2010.
Bortoleto is a rookie who won F2 in 2024 and his highest finish in F1 so far has been 8th place. The Brazilian driver is 20 years old.
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Red Bull’s second F1 team, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, also known as Racing Bulls or VCARB, has two rookies on their lineup this season: Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar.
Lawson, who is from New Zealand, started the season driving for Red Bull but was swapped with Tsunoda after two races. The 23-year-old had previously driven a few F1 races in both the 2023 and 2024 seasons when he served as a reserve driver but this is his first year as a full-time driver.
Racing Bulls’ other driver, 20-year-old Hadjar, was born and raised in France but his parents are both Algerian. His highest race finish so far has been sixth.
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Aston Martin’s two drivers are Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
At 43 years old, Alonso is the oldest driver on the grid and first debuted in the sport in 2001. He has won two world championships, in 2005 and 2006. The Spaniard is the first driver in history to reach 400 F1 race starts.
Stroll is a 26-year-old Canadian and his father Lawrence Stroll owns the Aston Martin F1 team. Stroll made his F1 debut in 2017 and has had three podium finishes.
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This year the American team’s two drivers are Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon.
Bearman is a 20-year-old rookie from England who competed in three races last season as a reserve driver for Ferrari and Haas. The driver’s highest race finish so far has been seventh.
The team’s other driver, Ocon, is French and first joined the sport in 2016 when he replaced another driver partway for the season. The 28-year-old has one race win in F1 and this is his first year as a driver for Haas.
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Alpine’s lineup has changed since the beginning of the season. The team started 2025 with Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan but after six races swapped Doohan out for Franco Colapinto.
Gasly has been with Alpine since 2022 and he made his F1 debut in 2019. The French driver is 29 years old and has had one race win in his career and has stood on the podium five times.
Colapinto, a 22-year-old, made his debut in 2024 after he replaced Sargeant on Williams and drove the final nine races of the season. The Argentine driver’s highest finish in his career has been eighth place.
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