The second of this two-part series on nationalities in Formula One will be focused on regions outside of traditional European dominance, covering the finest drivers from all of the other continents around the globe.
United States
The United States has a rather chequered history when it comes to Formula One drivers. It has provided two worthy champions in the form of Phil Hill in 1961 and Mario Andretti in 1978, but since then American talent has been rather thin on the ground. Despite fielding numerous race-winning drivers such as Dan Gurney, Peter Revson and Richie Ginther in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the increasing popularity of the domestic IndyCar championship meant less and less American talent crossing the pond to compete against Europe’s finest. After Andretti left full-time Formula One at the end of 1981, it was largely left to Eddie Cheever to represent his nation throughout the 1980s, clocking up nine podiums along the way. Since then, there’s only been a frankly embarrassing attempt by Andretti’s IndyCar champion son Michael to adapt to Formula One in 1993 as McLaren teammate to Ayrton Senna, and a more recent foray by the Red Bull-backed Scott Speed for Toro Rosso in 2006-7 which yielded nil point. American interest in F1 is likely to remain extremely low until not only is there once again an American on the grid, but a competitive one.
Canada
Canadian success in F1 can be just about summarised by one word: Villeneuve. Enzo Ferrari, founder of the famous Italian team that bears his name, decided to give the young Gilles Villeneuve a shot in one his cars in 1978, faith that was rewarded with a fine maiden victory for Villeneuve in front of his home crowd at the brand new Circuit Île Notre-Dame that season. The following year, Villeneuve pushed teammate and eventual champion Jody Scheckter all the way in that year’s title chase, and was widely regarded to be fast enough to win a championship of his own before his tragic death at Zolder in 1982. Fourteen years later, Gilles’s son, Jacques, made his debut for the Williams team, finally adding the Villeneuve name to the roll of honour in 1997 after coming close on his first attempt. Circumstances conspired to prevent Villeneuve from having any real chance of defending his title though, prompting him to move to the brand-new BAR team in 1999, where he mostly struggled in the midfield until being sacked just before the end of the 2003 season. Villeneuve threw in the towel after a couple more discreet seasons with Sauber, leaving Canada with no representation since.
South & Central America
South America is the second most successful continent after Europe in terms of championship wins, starting almost at the dawn of the sport. Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio won an unprecedented five titles in the ‘50s, leading to several of his compatriots attempting to emulate his incredible achievements, the only race-winner among them being Jose Froilan Gonzalez. In the ‘60s, the baton was passed to Mexico, but the promising Rodriguez brothers, Ricardo and Pedro, both unfortunately died in racing incidents in 1962 and 1971 respectively. In the ‘70s, Brazilian interest was ignited by championship wins for Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and 1974, whilst the Argentinians were able to get behind Carlos Reutemann, though the latter never quite managed to win a championship. Three championship victories apiece for Nelson Piquet and the late Ayrton Senna during the ‘80s and early ‘90s have given plenty of expectation to current Brazilian drivers Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa, whilst Pastor Maldonado flies the flag for Venezuela in 2011, though he isn’t the first driver from his homeland; Johnny Cecotto drove for Toleman in 1983-4. Colombia has also had a recent race-winning driver in Juan Pablo Montoya, whilst Chile was briefly represented by the slightly lesser-known Eliseo Salazar. Today, Mexico enjoys its first representation in thirty years courtesy of up-and-coming Sauber star Sergio Perez.
Africa
As one might expect, the only drivers from Africa to have contested a full Formula One season are those from by far the continent’s most prosperous nation – South Africa. In all, there have been only three full-time South African drivers in the history of the sport, Tony Maggs becoming the first of them in 1962 as he began a two-year stint driving for Cooper. He scored three podiums over the course of those two years, but was generally outpaced by his teammate, Bruce McLaren. In 1974, Jody Scheckter brought the South African flag back to the grid, joining the Tyrrell team on a permanent basis in 1974 after sporadic outings for McLaren in 1973. He won a total of ten races in an illustrious career for Tyrrell, Wolf (for which he delivered their first win at the team’s first race) and Ferrari, whose car propelled Scheckter to championship glory in 1979. However, after a horrendous title defence in 1980 that yielded just two points, he decided to retire from the sport at just 30 years of age. His elder brother Ian contested a full season in 1977 for March, but couldn’t match the accomplishments of his apparently more talented sibling, failing to score any points.
Asia
Although Asia is the most populous continent in the world, it has fielded just 24 drivers in F1 history, 20 of whom are Japanese. The first full-time driver from Japan was Satoru Nakajima, who made his F1 debut for Lotus in 1987 as part of an engine-supply deal with Honda. Although he couldn’t touch teammate Ayrton Senna, he scored a respectable 16 points by the time of his retirement at the end of 1991 after two more seasons at Lotus and another two at Tyrrell. A year earlier, Aguri Suzuki had become the first Japanese driver to score a podium for Larrousse, incidentally at his home race, but that was the highlight of an otherwise unremarkable F1 career. Takuma Sato matched this feat in 2004 at the wheel of a BAR, but a lacklustre 2005 saw him moved by Honda to Suzuki’s new Super Aguri team, which died in early 2008, leaving Sato without a drive. Happily though, Kamui Kobayashi seems to have the talent to become the third man from Japan to ascend the F1 podium in the not-too-distant future. Outside Japan, Thai Prince ‘B. Bira’ contested twenty odd races in the early ‘50s, Alex Yoong became Malaysia’s only driver with a season to forget with Minardi in 2002, and India has brought us more recently HRT drivers Karun Chandhok and Narain Karthikeyan.
Oceania
Jack Brabham’s is one of Australia’s earliest F1 drivers as well as its greatest F1 driver statistically, having taken three titles in 1959, 1960 and 1966. While the first two were for Cooper, the third was clinched whilst driving for his own team, giving Brabham the unique distinction of being the only owner-driver to have won the championship. Since then, the only other Aussies of note have been Alan Jones, who became the first in a long list of men to have won the title for Williams in 1980, and current Red Bull star Mark Webber, who of course came painstakingly close to last year’s crown. New Zealand also boasts a triumvirate of celebrated F1 drivers – Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Denny Hulme. McLaren won several races for Cooper before following in Brabham’s footsteps and establishing his own eponymous team, which has gone on to be an enormous success story after the premature death of its founder in 1970. Amon scored eleven podiums but no wins for Ferrari and Matra from 1968-72, setting a record since surpassed by only Stefan Johansson and Nick Heidfeld, and Hulme became the first and only Kiwi F1 champion in 1967 for Brabham before going on to win more races at his countryman McLaren’s team.
Next weekend is the Spanish Grand Prix, so don’t forget to return here for comprehensive reports on all the action from both Saturday’s qualifying session and Sunday’s race.
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