Because the 2026 System 1 season will get underneath manner, now we have a brand new American outfit on the grid within the type of Cadillac.
Curiosity in F1 has been rising on the USA market, with Haas and Cadillac two full-fledged constructors whereas Purple Bull Ford engines energy the Purple Bull and Racing Bulls automobiles. Three grands prix happen within the nation, in Texas, Miami and Las Vegas.
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 quite a few privateer American entries that made sporadic appearances at their dwelling 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 prime 5 American F1 groups, based mostly on their success, impression 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 greatest end got here within the 1986 Austrian GP, when Alan Jones led dwelling team-mate Patrick Tambay in a 4-5, albeit two laps behind Alain Prost’s profitable McLaren.
We’d additionally like to offer 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 The front-engined machine was out of date by the point it arrived, but it surely makes an amazing sight and has proved a aggressive proposition in opposition to its contemporaries in historic racing.
5. Parnelli
Parnelli had the driving abilities of Mario Andretti and former Lotus designer Maurice Philippe, but it surely wasn’t a winner in F1
Photograph by: Motorsport Images
Years: 1974-76
Begins: 16
Greatest end: 4th
Greatest qualifying: third
Quickest laps: 1
Factors: 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 Nineteen Sixties. The squad, typically merely known as Parnelli, initially targeted on Indycar, the place it discovered quick 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 only 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 some extent. 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. Nevertheless, the lack of Firestone backing left a sponsorship gap that was by no means crammed 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
Photograph by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Years: 2016-present
Begins: 214 (forward of 2026 season)
Greatest end: 4th
Greatest qualifying: 4th
Quickest laps: 3
Factors: 386
Gene Haas’s squad must 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 – but it surely 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 powerful Italian affect. Dallara, builder of automobiles 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 greatest 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 automotive and failed to attain some extent for the primary time.
However Magnussen returning to exchange Russian Mazepin following the invasion of Ukraine (which additionally led to the dropping of Uralkali sponsorship) offered an sudden increase. The VF-22 was a significant step ahead for Haas and Magnussen scored a well-liked fifth place within the 2022 season opener in Bahrain.
Bringing the Schumacher identify again to F1 didn’t work out, although. As Mick’s restore payments mounted up, the workforce opted to exchange him with veteran Nico Hulkenberg for 2023.
The VF-23 might be fast over a single lap however went via 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 sudden 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 exchange 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 underneath braking. Regardless of a stronger season general 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
Photograph by: Motorsport Images
Years: 1971, 1974-76
Begins: 32 (together with two working McLaren M19A and two working March 751)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 4
Poles: 1
Quickest laps: 0
Factors: 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 ultimate 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 mission, 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 automotive for the 1973 Can-Am champion.
Donohue scored factors within the 1975 Swedish GP however turned annoyed at an absence 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 automotive 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 via to win by 10.8 seconds, a yr after the loss of life of Donohue on the identical venue. Famously, Watson then shaved off his beard following a guess with Roger Penske.
Regardless of the automotive’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 offered the automobiles, which ran with restricted success underneath the ATS Racing Crew and Interscope Racing banners in 1977. These outings will not be included in our above figures.
2. Shadow
Shadow automobiles regarded nice, however have been fast too. This is Jean-Pierre Jarier at Interlagos in 1975, the place he took pole within the DN5
Photograph by: Motorsport Images
Years: 1973-80
Begins: 104
Wins: 1
Podiums: 7
Poles: 3
Quickest laps: 2
Factors: 67.5
Don Nichols’ Shadow workforce began as an American outfit however raced underneath a British licence from the 1976 season. Its one victory got here underneath the British flag, however Shadow ought to have been a winner earlier than then and was very a lot American Nichols’ mission.
Tony Southgate’s svelte DN1 scored a podium second day out 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 gasoline 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 automotive. There have been different flashes of tempo, together with Pryce taking pole for the British GP at Silverstone, however driver errors, dangerous 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, but it surely 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 circumstances 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 a part of Williams and go on to grow to be world champion, Shadow sunk additional down the grid.
It misplaced a few of its workers 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 identical 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 automotive and was typically the closest challenger to the Lotus 49
Photograph by: Motorsport Images
Years: 1966-68
Begins: 27 (together with three working McLaren M7A)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 2
Greatest qualifying: 2nd
Quickest laps: 2
Factors: 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 extensively thought to be one of the finest-looking racing cars of all time.
One among America’s best drivers, Dan Gurney left Brabham on the finish of 1965 to arrange his personal workforce, the F1 arm being based mostly 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 record.
Initially propelled by an underpowered Climax engine, the primary automotive made its world championship debut within the 1966 Belgian GP, with Gurney scoring the workforce’s first factors with fifth place subsequent day out in France. They have been the primary F1 factors gained by an American machine.
The V12 arrived in direction of the tip 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 typically 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 shortage 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 ultimate 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 Nineteen Seventies, earlier than AAR ran Toyota’s profitable IMSA GTP programme within the early Nineteen Nineties.
Eagle later loved nice success in Indycar and IMSA competitors
Photograph by: Motorsport Images
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