New Times ADVeRTisiNG sUPPLemeNT MIAMI RACE WEEK 2023 GUiDe 10 May 4-10, 2023 M I A M I RACE W E E K Putting aside the early days of the Indy 500, only five U.S. drivers have won Formula 1 grand prix races. Here’s a rundown of the rare but remarkable American victors. AMERICAN DREAMS W hen Logan Sargeant debuted at this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, the Florida native became the 50th U.S. driver to compete in races generally regarded as the main events of a Formula 1 season. And should Sargeant go on to win in F1, he’ll join an even more exclusive club. In the 72 years of the F1 World Championship, just five American drivers have stood atop an F1 podium. Before we dive into a roundup of that incredible quintet, let’s head off any statistics purists who want to quibble about the Indianapolis 500. Sure, it’s true that in the early years of F1, the Indy 500 technically counted toward the championship’s final standings, but the Brickyard classic went uncontested by the major stars and teams of those eras. So the answer is no. Deal with it. PHIL HILL Starts: 48 / Wins: 3 / First win: 1960 The first U.S. driver to win an F1 grand prix also became the first American to win the world championship. Born in Florida and raised in California, Hill abandoned business administration studies at the University of Southern California to pursue racing in the late 1940s. Over the next decade he achieved great success in sports cars, chiefly with Ferrari, and in 1959 he was elevated to the Scuderia’s F1 squad. Victory finally came at the 1960 Italian Grand Prix, though in strange circumstances. Unhappy that the bumpy banked section of Monza would again be used, F1’s British teams boycotted the event. With little competition, Hill romped to an easy victory. He’d win twice more in F1, though in infinitely more difficult circumstances. The last of these, at Monza in 1961, sealed the title for Hill. It came at great cost, however, as his teammate Wolfgang von Trips crashed on the deadly banking and was killed. “It was dreadful,” Hill recalled in 1988. “I couldn’t take it in: I’d won the race and the championship, but the accident took all the joy out of it.” DAN GURNEY Starts: 86 / Wins: 4 / First win: 1962 Where to start with the great Dan Gurney? Legendary driver, winning team owner, pioneering inventor of the Gurney flap? The New Yorker was all of those and more, achieving so much in a remarkable career that his F1 wins—victories that would likely have defined the careers of others— register as mere waypoints on a gargantuan CV. Still, Gurney’s wins have a resonance few can match, especially his first—which carried the romance of the Porsche name. The grueling nature of the French Grand Prix’s Rouen-les- Essarts circuit broke half the field, but in Gurney’s sensitive hands, the robust little Porsche 804 rose through the order steadily to take the lead with 13 laps left. That historic win remains Porsche’s only F1 grand prix win as a constructor. RICHIE GINTHER Starts: 53 / Wins: 1 / First win: 1965 After partnering his friend Phil Hill in sports car races in the U.S., Richie Ginther moved from California to Italy in 1960 to take up a four-race contract with Ferrari. Ginther, who had developed a keen mechanical sensitivity while working on planes during the Korean War, took on the role of development driver at Ferrari in tandem with racing duties. And it was his technical skill that led to Ginther’s crowning moment. After racing for Ferrari and then BRM, he was hired by Honda in 1965. Over the course of that season, Ginther helped Honda make its RA272 a genuine threat, and at the final race of the season, Honda’s first in high-altitude Mexico City, his talents were put to good use as he spent hours pounding around the track for three days before the race weekend to optimize performance. That testing paid off. Ginther roared into the lead, and with Honda’s engine performing perfectly, the American powered to a brilliant first win for driver and team. MARIO ANDRETTI Starts: 128 / Wins: 12 / First win: 1971 Super Mario was already a successful racer in the U.S. by the time he decided to try his hand All-around racing icon Dan Gurney piloted his punchy little Porsche 804 to victory in the 1962 French Grand Prix. p. 12 > PHOTO BY BERNARD CAHIER / GETTY IMAGES
