“It’s perhaps more a cultural thing,” Lewis Hamilton not surprised by the lack of American drivers in F1

“It’s perhaps more a cultural thing,” Lewis Hamilton not surprised by the lack of American drivers in F1

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton seems to be in love with the United States. It was evident from F1’s most recent trip to the country during the Miami GP, where the Briton seemed to have a great time as he spent time with Tom Brady and other celebrities.

When the seven-time champion was asked about the absence of the F1 drivers, he believes it was because of the prominence of NASCAR and Indycar and termed it a “cultural thing.” Expressing his view on this deficit, Hamilton said, “It doesn’t really surprise me. I think it’s perhaps more a cultural thing. You know, here in the States it’s the NFL, NBA. It’s NASCAR, IndyCar. Unfortunately, the Americans have to wake up at odd times in order to watch a Grand Prix.”

The last American driver to race in F1 was Alexander Rossi in 2015. And while the popularity has soared in the country, annother driver is far from the sight. Good talents such as F3 driver Jack Crawford are believed to be in pipeline but will take up years to reach the top tier.

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Lewis Hamilton on capitalising on the popularity

Lewis Hamilton with Michael Jordan, David Beckham and Tom Brady
Lewis with Michael Jordan, David Beckham and Tom Brady

It’s a common understanding now that the F1’s popularity can be largely attributed to Netflix’s drama Drive to Survive. The show has in some sort led to a movement in F1, so much so that we’ll have three races in the United States from 2022, with Las Vegas GP being the latest addition to the calendar.

Hamilton speaking on bringing in more talent for F1, said, “I think this new step that’s been taken, into bringing awareness, the Netflix show, has really just brought in that amazing fan base, a sport fan base that we have that there is here in the US. I’m sure there are some amazing drivers here somewhere as they have so many great sporting talents. So it would be a good mission for us to find the next one.”

With the lack of talents and potential drivers still being bleak in numbers, Christian Horner said there’s more of a requirement of a good American driver than another team on the grid, something which can be made possible due to growing popularity.

Lewis’ opinion, too, seems to be in line, and maybe F1 starts hunting for talent to grow the sport more in the country, or one comes up naturally. But it’d be fair to assume that in the coming years, there’s a high probability of American drivers coming through.

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