American interest in Formula 1 is on the rise. The success of the United States Grand Prix in Austin has helped Miami join the calendar, with Las Vegas set to become the third American race on the 2023 calendar.
Michael Andretti also wants to put his team on the grid. It faces some tough hurdles but, if successful, would be the second American structure in F1, joining Haas.
Given, or perhaps because of, the strength of American motorsports, there have been few American F1 squads since the world championship began in 1950. For this list, we have not taken into account the many teams that appeared in the 500 Miles of Indianapolis when they counted for the world championship between 1950 and 1960, because they were not F1 teams properly speaking and they did not compete in other grand prix.
There were a number of American privateer teams that made sporadic appearances at their home GP, but we have focused on the teams that have made serious efforts in F1 over the course of several races.
So here are our top five American F1 teams, based on their success, impact and longevity.
Before we begin, there are two honorable mentions: Haas (USA) Ltd. (not to be confused with the current Haas), who scored six points in just 19 appearances, and Scarab, who despite only appearing in two racing, managed to be competitive with an obsolete car.
5. Parnelli
Parnelli driven by Mario Andretti
Years: 1974-76
Races: 16
Best result: 4th
Best classification: 3rd
Fast laps: 1
Points: 6
American racing legend and 1963 Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones created the Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing team with Velko Miletich in the late 1960s. The squad, often simply called Parnelli, initially focused on Indycar, where it found immediate success.
After winning two Indy 500 and three USAC titles, Parnelli entered F1 in 1974. He had ex-Lotus designer Maurice Philippe as well as Mario Andretti to drive the team’s only single-seater.
The Cosworth DFV-powered VPJ4 made its world championship debut at the Canadian GP. Andretti qualified 16th and finished seventh, a quarter of a second away from scoring a point. He then started third at Watkins Glen but was excluded for receiving assistance from his mechanics outside the pits.
Although Andretti rarely qualified in the top 10 in the 1975 campaign, he did score points in Sweden and France. However, the loss of support from Firestone left a sponsorship gap that was never filled and the team folded after just three races of the 1976 championship had been held, when Andretti finished sixth at the South African GP.
4. Haas
Kevin Magnussen, quinto in Bahrain in 2022
Years: Since 2016
Races: 126 (including the Imola GP)
Best result: 4th
Best classification: 5th
Fast laps: 2
Points: 212
Gene Haas’ squad can be considered the most successful new team to enter F1 in many years. F1 is notoriously difficult to break into, but Haas scored points on his debut at the 2016 Australian GP and went on to finish fifth in the constructors’ championship in 2018.
The team’s headquarters are in the United States, specifically in Kannapolis, North Carolina, but they also have a base in the United Kingdom for European events. Haas was the first American F1 team since the unrelated Haas Lola team folded in 1986.
Haas has a strong Italian influence. Dallara, a car builder for many one-make categories, has built the chassis from the start and Ferrari has always supplied its engines. Its technical partnership with the most successful team in F1 helps keep costs down.
After his first season, with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez at the wheel, Haas fielded Kevin Magnussen alongside Grosjean for four seasons. The team is yet to claim a podium, but has posted two fastest laps and its best result so far is a 4-5, achieved at the 2018 Austrian GP.
With the replacement of both drivers by rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, as well as the decision to focus development on F1’s new rules for 2022, the 2021 season was the most difficult for Haas. He had the slowest car and for the first time failed to score points all year.
But Magnussen’s return to replace the Russian Mazepin after the invasion of Ukraine (which also caused Uralkali to withdraw sponsorship) provided an unexpected boost. The VF-22 was a huge leap forward for Haas and Magnussen took a strong fifth place finish at the start of the 2022 season in Bahrain.
3. Penske
John Watson at the 1976 Austrian GP
Years: 1971, 1974-76
Races: 32 (including two with McLaren M19A and two with March 751)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 4
Poles: 1
Fast laps: 0
Points: 26 (does not include points earned by the Penske chassis used by ATS)
America’s best motorsports team only briefly tried its luck in F1, but its three seasons were colored by tragedy and triumph.
Penske had run McLaren cars in the last two races of 1971, with Mark Donohue taking a good third at Mosport in the wet. But the team, now an Indy 500 winner and former Trans-Am and Can-Am superpower, came back with its own chassis in 1974.
Donohue, who came out of retirement for this project, finished 12th in the Cosworth DFV-powered PC1’s debut at the Canadian GP. The team planned a full campaign for 1975, putting a single car on the track for the 1973 Can-Am champion.
Donohue scored points at the 1975 Swedish GP, but was frustrated by the lack of pace and not being able to progress as he wanted with PC1. The team switched to a March 751 and Donohue was fifth at the British GP, before sustaining fatal injuries in a warm-up accident at the Osterreichring.
After missing the Italian GP, Penske returned for the final race of the season, the United States GP, with John Watson aboard PC1.
Watson brought the PC3 to the points at the 1976 South African GP and the car was soon replaced by the PC4, which became a competitive proposition. Third places at Paul Ricard (where he was disqualified but later reinstated) and Brands Hatch (following James Hunt’s disqualification), were followed by victory at the Osterreichring.
After qualifying second and overcoming early challenges from Ronnie Peterson’s March, Jody Scheckter’s Tyrrell and poleman Hunt’s McLaren, Watson won by 10.8sec, a year after Donohue’s death at the same venue. In a well-known move, Watson shaved off his beard after a bet with Roger Penske.
Despite the car’s competitiveness, they were only able to finish inside the points once more, with Penske finishing fifth in the constructors’ table, behind Ferrari, McLaren, Tyrrell and Lotus.
Roger Penske then decided to focus on Indycar and sold the cars, which ran with limited success under the ATS Racing Team and Interscope Racing banners in 1977. Those races are not included in our figures above.
2. Shadow
Jean-Pierre Jarier at Interlagos in 1975, where he took pole
Years: 1973-80
Races: 104
Wins: 1
Podiums: 7
Poles: 3
Fast laps: 2
Points: 67.5
Don Nichols’ Shadow team started out as an American team but raced under a British license beginning in the 1976 season. Their only win came under the British flag, but Shadow could have won sooner and was primarily the American project of Nichols.
Tony Southgate’s slim DN1 took the podium for the second time at the 1973 Spanish GP, driven by American George Follmer, and the DN5 set the pace early in 1975. Jean-Pierre Jarier took pole in the first two rounds and comfortably led the Brazilian GP until the fuel gauge cam arm seized.
Just over a month later, Tom Pryce won the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in a high-downforce car, but he was not part of the world championship. There were other flashes of pace, such as Pryce taking pole at the British GP at Silverstone, but driver error, bad luck and unreliability prevented Shadow from taking the victory he deserved. Matra’s development of the V12-powered DN7 was also a distraction, as was the F5000.
The team was never that fast again, but they had a day where the sun shone for them, or rather the rain.
Alan Jones qualified his DN8 14th for the 1977 Austrian GP at the Osterreichring. Most of the drivers went out on slick tires in slippery conditions and Jones made great progress, soon moving up to second. When Hunt’s Cosworth DFV blew up with 11 laps to go, Jones moved to the front to claim Shadow’s – and his – first win in F1 world championships. As Jones joined Williams and became world champion, Shadow sank further down the grid.
It had also been a team tinged with tragedy. Peter Revson was killed in a testing accident at Kyalami in 1974, while Pryce died in horrific circumstances at the same location, at the 1977 South African GP, when he collided with a marshal crossing the road.
1. Anglo American Racers (Eagle)
Dan Gurney at the wheel of his Eagle
Years: 1966-68
Races: 27 (including three with the McLaren M7A)
Wins: 1
Podiums: 2
Best classification : 2nd
Fast laps: 2
Points: 17
It only lasted three seasons, but Anglo American Racers and their Eagles made a huge impact on F1, not least because the T1G is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful racing cars of all time.
Dan Gurney , one of America’s best drivers, left Brabham at the end of 1965 to found his own team, whose F1 branch was based in the UK. Ex-Lotus driver Len Terry was hired as designer and Weslake developed the V12s for the Eagle, so he wasn’t simply a Cosworth customer like the previous two on this list.
Initially powered by a low-output Climax engine, the first car made its championship debut at the 1966 Belgian GP, with Gurney taking the team’s first points with a fifth-place finish at the following race in France. They were also the first points scored by an American single-seater in Formula 1.
The V12 came towards the end of the season and Gurney won the Brands Hatch Race of Champions early in 1967. The Eagle was fast, allowing Gurney to always qualify near the front, but reliability was a problem and the V12 tended to to lose power during races.
The arrival of the Cosworth DFV-powered Lotus 49 changed the situation, but Gurney was often his closest rival. He brilliantly won the 1967 Belgian GP at record speed, and would have won at the Nurburgring if the Eagle hadn’t suffered a shaft failure in the closing stages.
Despite a third-place finish in Canada, a lack of other strong results limited them to seventh in the constructors’ table as Goodyear’s support for the team’s F1 effort waned.
Financial problems and the increased availability of the DFV in 1968 made the Eagle uncompetitive, and AAR ran a McLaren for the last three championship races, with Gurney finishing fourth at Watkins Glen, before leaving F1.
All American Racers and Eagle chassis became powerful forces in Indycar, scoring two Indy 500 wins and a USAC title in the 1970s, before AAR ran Toyota’s successful IMSA GTP program in the early 1970s. The 1990s.
The Eagles would later triumph on American soil
