Who will be the next Mario Andretti?

In 2023, another American race will appear on the Formula 1 calendar: the Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will complement the now well-known race on the COTA Texas circuit and the Miami Grand Prix, which debuts in May.

We quoted Stefano Domenicali, Formula 1 president and CEO, at a press conference on the future of the Las Vegas Grand Prix as saying: “Formula 1 really needs an American driver, but he has to be strong.”

The last time an American went to the Grand Prix start in 2015, it was Alexander Rossi, and on the podium in Brazil he drove the car of the now-defunct Manor team, which was downright weak and deserved the only point throughout its short history, and it was not obtained by Rossi.

By the way, Alex is a good professional, since then he has made quite a worthy career in IndyCar, including in 2016, in his debut season in this series, becoming the winner of such a prestigious race as the Indy 500.

And since the American’s last victory in Formula 1, almost 44 years have passed: then, on August 27, 1978, Mario Andretti won the Dutch Grand Prix with a Lotus 79.

If Domenicali says Formula 1 needs a new driver of this level, it would make sense to take a closer look at the representatives of the younger generation of American motorsport and find out which of them is worth betting on.

Logan Sargent, 21, has been in Formula 2 since late last year. He is now in his first full season in the series, driving a Carlin team car and has already earned points during the round in Bahrain that kicked off the youth championship . Admittedly, he had no luck in Saudi Arabia, but there is hope Logan will still pick up speed.

He has been part of the Williams Racing Academy since October last year and was already working on tests behind the wheel of a British team car in December. In F3, he also performed well at one point, most notably taking 3rd place in the 2020 season.

Now four racers from the US are following in his footsteps: 16-year-old Jack Crawford (Prema Racing), a member of the Red Bull youth program, is in Formula 3; Juan Manuel Correa (22, ART), in collaboration with Sauber; 19-year-old Kylen Frederick (Hitech Grand Prix) and 16-year-old Hunter Yeeney (Campos).

But so far none of them have shown themselves so well that we can say with confidence that we will definitely see this driver at the start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Colton Herta, a promising IndyCar driver for Andretti Autosport, has a much better chance. Incidentally, the 22-year-old Californian will test with McLaren this season, although their exact time and place are not yet fixed. In the meantime, he will continue to hone his skills abroad: in IndyCar, 22-year-old Colton has already racked up 6 victories.

At the same time, the fastest Mexican Pato O’Ward, who is also 22, also plays for McLaren Racing in this series and has already opened the scoring with victories. At the same time, Pato drove a McLaren car during testing in Abu Dhabi last December, and this year Zach Brown promised to give him the chance to spend two training sessions with McLaren as part of real race weekends.

The question now is whether one of these drivers will not only get a place in a good Formula 1 team in the coming years, but also show the results that Mario Andretti was capable of in the 1970s, who took 12 victories. driving Ferrari cars and Lotus.

One may recall that Michael Andretti, son of the 1978 world champion, made a failed attempt at glory in F1: over thirty years ago he spent 13 Grands Prix at the wheel of McLaren, but not only achieved no success, but didn’t even finish that season, in the fall of 1993, losing his place in the team to Mika Hakkinen.

But it is Michael, the now prosperous head of Andretti Autosport, who is knocking on F1’s door with his Andretti Global project in the hopes that his own team can start the World Championship in 2024. You don’t have to have a visionary talent to assume that at least one of this team’s cars will be driven by an American – if the project can be carried out, of course.