America’s F1 hopefuls

Colton Herta is an American driver currently racing in IndyCar. Many suspect Herta could be the first American driver to race in Formula One since 2007, but he currently faces several obstacles to joining the gird. // Photo courtesy of Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press via APFormula One (F1) has experienced massive growth in the past few years thanks to the success of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive,” which has caused an increase in viewership around the world. The major market that Formula One has tried to break into throughout the years has been the United States. There is an argument to be made that they have already made it to the mainstream U.S. market with ESPN broadcasting every race and qualifying session on the ESPN cable networks. Additionally, in the 2023 season, there will be three Formula One races in Austin, Miami and Las Vegas. The Austin Grand Prix in 2021 had an attendance of 400,000 people over the course of the whole weekend, which made it the highest attended Formula One race in history at the time. On top of the races becoming mainstream, Haas F1 team, which joined the grid in 2016, is the first American Formula One team since 1986. Formula One has made a dent into the U.S. market but the question still remains: when will an American driver return to the grid?

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