Because the 2026 Components 1 season will get beneath manner, we’ve a brand new American outfit on the grid within the type of Cadillac.
Curiosity in F1 has been rising on america market, with Haas and Cadillac two full-fledged constructors whereas Crimson Bull Ford engines energy the Crimson Bull and Racing Bulls vehicles. Three grands prix happen within the nation, in Texas, Miami and Las Vegas.
Learn Additionally:
Given (or maybe due to) the power of American motorsport, there have been few American F1 squads because the world championship started in 1950. We’re excluding the quite a few groups that appeared on the Indianapolis 500 when that counted for the world championship between 1950 and 1960, as a result of they weren’t F1 groups and didn’t contest GPs.
There have been a lot of privateer American entries that made sporadic appearances at their residence GP, maybe most bizarrely Indy legend Rodger Ward along with his Chief Playing cards Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser Midget racer within the 1959 US GP. However we’re wanting on the groups that ran critical F1 efforts throughout a number of races.
So, listed here are our high 5 American F1 groups, primarily based on their success, affect and longevity.
For the report, the UK-based Crew Haas (USA) Ltd that ran Lolas on the finish of 1985 and most of 1986 scored six factors from its 19 begins. Its finest end got here within the 1986 Austrian GP, when Alan Jones led residence team-mate Patrick Tambay in a 4-5, albeit two laps behind Alain Prost’s successful McLaren.
We’d additionally like to provide an honourable point out to the Scarab workforce, which made simply two world championship begins in 1960. The front-engined machine was out of date by the point it arrived, however it makes an incredible sight and has proved a aggressive proposition towards its contemporaries in historic racing.
5. Parnelli
Parnelli had the driving skills of Mario Andretti and former Lotus designer Maurice Philippe, however it wasn’t a winner in F1
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
Years: 1974-76Starts: 16Best end: 4thBest qualifying: 3rdFastest laps: 1Points: 6
American racing legend and 1963 Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones arrange the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing workforce with Velko Miletich on the finish of the Sixties. The squad, usually merely known as Parnelli, initially targeted on Indycar, the place it discovered instant success.
Having received two Indy 500s and three USAC titles, Parnelli moved into F1 in 1974. It had ex-Lotus designer Maurice Philippe, plus Mario Andretti to drive the one entry.
The Cosworth DFV-engined VPJ4 made its world championship debut within the Canadian GP. Andretti certified sixteenth and completed seventh, only a quarter of a second off scoring a degree. He then began third for the Watkins Glen finale however was excluded for receiving help from his mechanics outdoors the pits.
Though Andretti was hardly ever a top-10 qualifier within the 1975 marketing campaign, he did rating factors in Sweden and France. Nonetheless, the lack of Firestone backing left a sponsorship gap that was by no means stuffed and the workforce folded simply three races into the 1976 championship, Andretti having completed sixth within the South African GP.
4. Haas
Kevin Magnussen’s fifth place for Haas within the 2022 Bahrain season-opener was the workforce’s first factors end since 2020
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Photos
Years: 2016-presentStarts: 214 (forward of 2026 season)Finest end: 4thBest qualifying: 4thFastest laps: 3Points: 386
Gene Haas’s squad needs to be thought to be probably the most profitable new workforce to enter F1 for a few years. F1 is notoriously laborious to interrupt into, however Haas scored factors on its debut within the 2016 Australian GP and completed as excessive as fifth within the 2018 constructors’ championship.
The workforce’s HQ is in America – Kannapolis, North Carolina – however it does even have a base within the UK for European occasions and a ‘hub’ at Ferrari’s base in Maranello, Italy. Haas was the primary American F1 workforce because the unrelated Haas Lola workforce closed in 1986.
Haas has a robust Italian affect. Dallara, builder of vehicles for a lot of one-make classes, has made the chassis from the beginning and Ferrari has all the time equipped its engines. It additionally has a technical partnership with F1’s most profitable workforce, serving to to maintain prices down.
Following its first season working Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez, Haas fielded Kevin Magnussen alongside Grosjean for 4 seasons. The workforce has but to attain a podium end however has recorded two quickest laps and its finest outcome up to now is a 4-5, scored on the 2018 Austrian GP.
With each drivers changed by rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin – and the choice to focus improvement on F1’s new guidelines for 2022 – the 2021 season was Haas’s hardest. It had comfortably the slowest automobile and failed to attain a degree for the primary time.
However Magnussen returning to switch Russian Mazepin following the invasion of Ukraine (which additionally led to the dropping of Uralkali sponsorship) offered an surprising increase. The VF-22 was a significant step ahead for Haas and Magnussen scored a preferred fifth place within the 2022 season opener in Bahrain.
Bringing the Schumacher title again to F1 didn’t work out, although. As Mick’s restore payments mounted up, the workforce opted to switch him with veteran Nico Hulkenberg for 2023.
The VF-23 might be fast over a single lap however went by tyres rapidly on race tempo, so the workforce ended the season backside of the constructors’ championship, and neither driver bettered Hulkenberg’s seventh place within the season opener. That led to workforce principal Guenther Steiner, whose vibrant persona led to Haas having fun with extra publicity on Drive to Survive, being dropped in favour of senior engineer Ayao Komatsu.
Haas would possibly even have completed sixth in 2024, however for rival Alpine scoring an surprising double-podium end within the moist in Brazil, which left Haas seventh. Magnussen was let go a second time at season’s finish, changed by promising rookie Oliver Bearman, who had scored factors on his F1 debut when he substituted for Carlos Sainz in Jeddah. Alpine refugee Esteban Ocon got here in to switch Hulkenberg, who left for Sauber.
Aerodynamic and chassis points with high-speed bouncing held the workforce again over the opening half of the 2025 season, whereas Ocon persistently complained of instability beneath braking. Regardless of a stronger season total in 2024, scoring extra factors, rivals improved to a larger diploma and Haas closed out the yr eighth within the constructors’ championship.
3. Penske
John Watson scored Penske’s solely F1 win on the 1976 Austrian GP
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
Years: 1971, 1974-76Starts: 32 (together with two working McLaren M19A and two working March 751)Wins: 1Podiums: 4Poles: 1Fastest laps: 0Points: 26 (excludes level scored by Penske chassis run by ATS)
America’s best motorsport workforce solely briefly tried its hand at F1, however its three-season spell was tinged with each tragedy and triumph.
Penske had run McLarens within the last two GPs of 1971, with Mark Donohue taking a high quality third within the moist at Mosport. However the workforce, now an Indy 500 winner in addition to a former Trans-Am and Can-Am superpower, returned with its personal chassis in 1974.
Donohue, coaxed out of retirement for the undertaking, completed twelfth on the Cosworth DFV-engined PC1’s debut on the Canadian GP. The workforce deliberate a full marketing campaign for 1975, working a single automobile for the 1973 Can-Am champion.
Donohue scored factors within the 1975 Swedish GP however turned pissed off at a scarcity of tempo and never having the ability to make the progress he wished with the PC1. The workforce switched to a March 751 and Donohue was fifth within the British GP earlier than being struggling deadly accidents in a warm-up crash on the Osterreichring.
Having missed the Italian GP, Penske returned for the US GP finale, now with John Watson aboard the PC1.
Watson drove the PC3 to factors within the 1976 South African GP and the automobile was quickly changed by the PC4, which turned a aggressive proposition. Third locations at Paul Ricard (the place he was excluded however then reinstated) and Manufacturers Hatch (after James Hunt’s disqualification) was adopted by victory on the Osterreichring.
Having certified second and overcome early challenges from Ronnie Peterson’s March, the Tyrrell of Jody Scheckter and the McLaren of poleman Hunt, Watson got here by to win by 10.8 seconds, a yr after the loss of life of Donohue on the similar venue. Famously, Watson then shaved off his beard following a guess with Roger Penske.
Regardless of the automobile’s competitiveness, there was just one extra factors end and Penske ended up fifth within the constructors’ desk, behind Ferrari, McLaren, Tyrrell and Lotus.
Roger Penske then determined to deal with Indycar and bought the vehicles, which ran with restricted success beneath the ATS Racing Crew and Interscope Racing banners in 1977. These outings should not included in our above figures.
2. Shadow
Shadow vehicles seemed nice, however had been fast too. This is Jean-Pierre Jarier at Interlagos in 1975, the place he took pole within the DN5
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
Years: 1973-80Starts: 104Wins: 1Podiums: 7Poles: 3Fastest laps: 2Points: 67.5
Don Nichols’ Shadow workforce began as an American outfit however raced beneath a British licence from the 1976 season. Its one victory got here beneath the British flag, however Shadow ought to have been a winner earlier than then and was very a lot American Nichols’ undertaking.
Tony Southgate’s svelte DN1 scored a podium second day trip within the 1973 Spanish GP, pushed by American George Follmer, and the DN5 set the tempo in early 1975. Jean-Pierre Jarier took pole for the primary two rounds and led the Brazilian GP comfortably till the cam arm of the gas metering unit seized.
Simply over a month later, Tom Pryce did win the non-championship Race of Champions at Manufacturers Hatch within the high-downforce automobile. There have been different flashes of tempo, together with Pryce taking pole for the British GP at Silverstone, however driver errors, unhealthy luck and unreliability prevented Shadow from scoring the win it deserved. Growing the Matra V12-engined DN7 was additionally a distraction, as was F5000.
The workforce was by no means as fast once more, however it did get its in the future within the solar, or moderately rain.
Alan Jones certified his DN8 14th for the 1977 Austrian GP on the Osterreichring. Most began on slick tyres within the slippery situations and Jones made good progress, quickly reaching second place. When Hunt’s Cosworth DFV blew with 11 laps to go, Jones moved to the entrance to attain Shadow’s – and his – first world championship F1 victory. Whereas Jones would be part of Williams and go on to grow to be world champion, Shadow sunk additional down the grid.
It misplaced a few of its employees and sponsorship to the brand new Arrows operation in 1978, there was a authorized dispute over the similarities between the DN9 and Arrows FA1 (which Shadow received), and Shadow turned a part of Theodore Racing earlier than closing its doorways in 1980.
It had additionally been a workforce tinged with tragedy. Peter Revson was killed in a testing accident at Kyalami in 1974, whereas Pryce died in horrible circumstances on the similar venue within the 1977 South African GP when he struck a marshal working throughout the street.
1. Anglo American Racers (Eagle)
Dan Gurney received 1967 Belgian GP in his personal Eagle automobile and was usually the closest challenger to the Lotus 49
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
Years: 1966-68Starts: 27 (together with three working McLaren M7A)Wins: 1Podiums: 2Best qualifying: 2ndFastest laps: 2Points: 17
It was solely round for 3 seasons, however Anglo American Racers and its Eagles made a huge impact on F1, not least as a result of the T1G is broadly thought to be one of many finest-looking racing vehicles of all time.
Certainly one of America’s best drivers, Dan Gurney left Brabham on the finish of 1965 to arrange his personal workforce, the F1 arm being primarily based within the UK. Ex-Lotus man Len Terry was introduced on as designer and Weslake developed V12s for the Eagle, thus it was not merely a Cosworth buyer as with the 2 earlier entries on this checklist.
Initially propelled by an underpowered Climax engine, the primary automobile made its world championship debut within the 1966 Belgian GP, with Gurney scoring the workforce’s first factors with fifth place subsequent day trip in France. They had been the primary F1 factors gained by an American machine.
The V12 arrived in the direction of the top of the season and Gurney received the Manufacturers Hatch Race of Champions early in 1967. The Eagle was quick – Gurney invariably certified close to the entrance – however reliability was an issue and the V12 tended to lose energy throughout races.
The arrival of the Cosworth DFV-engined Lotus 49 moved the goalposts however Gurney was usually its closest challenger. He brilliantly received the 1967 Belgian GP at a report velocity and would have received on the Nurburgring had the Eagle not suffered halfshaft failure within the closing phases.
Regardless of a 3rd place in Canada, the dearth of different finishes restricted Eagle to seventh within the constructors’ desk as Goodyear’s help for the workforce’s F1 effort waned.
Monetary points and the larger availability of the DFV in 1968 rendered the Eagle uncompetitive and AAR ran a McLaren within the last three races of the championship, with Gurney ending fourth at Watkins Glen, earlier than quitting F1.
All American Racers and Eagle chassis went on to grow to be highly effective forces in Indycar, scoring two Indy 500 wins and a USAC title within the Seventies, earlier than AAR ran Toyota’s profitable IMSA GTP programme within the early Nineties.
Eagle later loved nice success in Indycar and IMSA competitors
Picture by: Motorsport Photos
We wish your opinion!
What would you wish to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Crew
