Only one American-born driver has won an F1 driver championship and no one from Russia has managed to achieve the feat till date. The US and Russia have provided the best sports-persons in various sports, but not Formula One. The sport needs champions from the US and Russia to give it a global feel.
THE HISTORY of Formula One can be traced back to 1950, when there were only seven races held in a season. It has come a long way since then, as a total of 20 races are held in a calendar year. The sport has just become bigger and scattered all over the world, as a result of which Indian Grand Prix was also added to the F1 calendar, which made its successful debut last year.
This year's Indian Grand Prix is scheduled for 26th, 27th and 28th October. Though, the sport has been globalised, we have not been able to find a driver winning the championship from Russia and the US, which has only one driver winning the championship. Both these nations are considered to be strong sporting nations of the world. Their performance during the Olympics is testimonial to the said fact. The only US born-driver to have won the title was Phil Hill,who achieved the feat in 1961. Though, another American Mario Andretti also won the championship in 1978, he was not born in the US, so does not qualify for the list. After these drivers, there has been no big name from this sport, who has won a driver's championship.
It is primarily drivers from United Kingdom, Brazil and Germany, etc that have been successful in winning the championship. One fails to understand as to why countries like the US and Russia don't hold a good record in this sport. These are the two most developed economies, so the question of money should be thrown out of the window. Even if one may say that it is an individual and a private sport, aren't there many rich people in the US or Russia who can take up this sport. Asians not having an impressive record in the sport, is understood as the Asian nations are only growing of late and producing billionaires who might splurge in this sport later on. Some like Vijaya Mallya has started to splurge.
But, on the contrary, the US has been dominating many sports around the world, such as Baseball, Basketball, Track and Field etc. The same may go for Russia as well, who have produced grandmasters in Chess and great boxers. But, the sport needs champions from Russia and the US to give it a more global feel.
