Formula 1

F1 News: Red Bull Chief Wants An American Driver On The Grid

Christian Horner has admitted to the press that it’s much more important for F1 to have an American driver than a second American team alongside Haas. This comes after the sport has become incredibly popular in America, allowing for the first-ever Miami Grand Prix this weekend and next year, the addition of Las Vegas to the sport’s calendar.

But while America is loving the motorsport, there’s no American driver on the grid. Adding to this, we haven’t had an American driver in the sport since 2015 when Alexander Rossi raced in only five races. Christian Horner has picked up on this, and has given his view on the state of F1 and its driver diversity:

“I think bigger than that [American team] is an American driver, though,” he told Sky Sports. “I think that we need another Mario [Andretti].

“You need a driver that’s an American driver that’s going to be competitive, that’s going to run at the front.

“There’s some great young talent coming through, we’ve got a young guy that we’re backing in Formula 3, Jak Crawford. He’s an exciting young talent, there’s other guys around as well.

“I think hopefully with this excitement that there is about Formula 1, there are going to be more boys and girls coming into karting at the junior levels, and it’s only a matter of time then hopefully before we see a really competitive World Champion American driver.”

The Red Bull team principal is adamant however that their driving performance is much more important than their nationality, however.

“It’s not enough [to be American],” he noted. “We did that with Scott Speed, he’s a good driver, we backed him all the way through from karting but if the guys are running [in] midfield, it’s not enough.

“You’ve seen it with Max in Holland, with Fernando in Spain or Senna in Brazil, you need that driver to ignite the passion.”

Currently, the F1 grid is home to one American team, Haas. But Michael Andretti is looking at adding Andretti Global to the sport. This is yet to be confirmed.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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