Last American F1 Driver: Who Was the Last Driver To Race in F1 Before Logan Sargeant?

Tanish Chachra | 07/02/2023
Last American F1 Driver: Who Was the Last Driver To Race in F1 Before Logan Sargeant?

Williams, this year will bring an American driver— Logan Sargeant, to their fold to compete for them in the upcoming season. The Florida man joined Williams academy in late 2021 and got their backing for the 2022 season.

In his rookie F2 season, Sargeant showed enough promise and, in 2023, got promoted as their second driver by replacing Nicholas Latifi for the season.

With this, he becomes the only American driver representing his nation in the current F1 grid. However, before him, there have been some significant spells from the United States, but he’ll be first in eight years.

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Last American F1 driver before Logan Sargeant

While F1 took time to cut its share among the US audience, a few US-born drivers have earlier raced in F1 and have had considerable success in the racing series.

However, there hasn’t been a regular inflow of drivers from there for a while. The last driver to race in F1 was Alexander Rossi for Manor in 2015. Though, he was only limited to five starts in an F1 car.

Before this, Scott Speed with Toro Rosso was the only American driver to complete a full-fledged F1 season back in 2006. Though, the United States’ history in F1 isn’t as poor as in the recent past.

They have seen two drivers from their land winning the championship Phil Hill in 1961 and Mario Andretti in 1978. With Sargeant’s arrival, drivers from the United States have a new life in F1.

There were others

With the rising interest from the US in Formula 1, teams are looking to have some American figureheads penetrate further into their sports market. In 2022, Red Bull tried hard to get IndyCar sensation Colton Herta into their fold to replace Alpine-bound Pierre Gasly

However, the FIA denied him a position in the team as he lacked eight points in his superlicense. The governing body didn’t make an exception despite several requests by the Milton-Keynes-based team.

If that had been successful, Herta would have been another American entry in F1 with Sargeant in 2023. But that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, Herta is the most desirable American name in F1 right now.

Andretti Autosport is trying hard to get into F1 to make an All-American team in the series. And they have pledged to have Herta if they get an entry there. Also, even Mclaren gave him a few testing runs last year.

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Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Logan Sargeant Williams

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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