Sir Patrick Head on humble origins as Williams reach 750th GP planetf1.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from planetf1.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Formula 1 history is littered with tales of racing teams who came and went, some managing wins or even championships before fading away, others barely troubling the scorers before being snuffed out, squeezed to extinction in the tough and cash-hungry world of Grand Prix racing.
Just surviving as an independent F1 team is hard enough, let alone going on to win. It is remarkable then, that this weekend in Monaco, Williams will celebrate their 750th Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix. Quite the achievement for a team that started life in an old carpet warehouse in Oxfordshire, with Frank Williams and Patrick Head, some big ideas, and not much else.
Tales of Trevor behind the Kennedy collection citynews.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from citynews.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
As Miami joins Austin on the F1 calendar next year and American viewing figures, driven by a new fanbase won over by Netflix and F1’s investment in digital media, consistently hit their highest numbers of all time, the sport’s popularity Stateside is hitting a purple patch.
But the holy grail of engagement appears to remain an American driver. Quite incredibly, America’s second world champion Mario Andretti remains the country’s last race winner. In 1978.
So why aren’t the best of America’s best ending up in Formula 1? And what, if anything, can be done to uncork the bottle and bring America’s finest racing talent back to the sport?