It’s probably your first thought the moment an F1 edit pops up on your Instagram feed—or when you’re waiting for Sunday football and ESPN2 suddenly features some British commentator losing his mind like Gus Johnson because the orange car passed the red one.
Why should you care? What’s in it for you? If you wanted to watch a bunch of European guys drive in circles, there’s always YouTube footage of traffic at the Arc de Triomphe.
Trust me—I was right there too.
As a kid, I loved fast cars. I had Hot Wheels Grand Prix brackets and a notebook tracking their “championships.” I even organized a neighborhood bike Grand Prix, which ended the moment our parents got tired of the hospital co-pays. Turns out unrestricted 8-year-old chaos is not a sustainable business model.
But eventually the wheels became helmets and pads, and the need for speed took a back seat to Friday night lights. Like most Americans, we fell in love with the blend of romanticism and violence that is football, along with the nostalgia and Americana of summer baseball.
Nothing wrong with that. In fact—I’m all for it.
But at our core, Americans love competition. We love underdog stories. We love Rocky and Rudy. We love dynasties like the Patriots and Yankees—whether we cheer for them or against them. Success, struggle, survival, victory, defeat.
(Thank you, Coach Boone.)
What if I told you Formula One has all of that—just on a global scale?
NASCAR and Formula One share little besides four tires. And F1 is nothing like American soccer fans picking a random European club to root for. The truth is, Formula 1 taps into values America has always cared about.
And what’s more: we’ve won this sport before. You might just be too young to remember.
Phil Hill—born in Florida—won the F1 World Championship in 1961. Then Mario Andretti—Italian-born but American-made—won it in 1978. And Americans helped build the Ford machines that famously beat Ferrari at Le Mans. We may see history repeat itself in 2026 when Ford returns to power Red Bull’s engines.
This isn’t a new love. It’s a revival of what we already are: competitive, intelligent, relentless, daring.
America is all-in on Formula One. Apple TV takes over broadcasting next season. Cadillac enters the grid as the newest team. Ford partners with Red Bull—one of the most successful organizations in sports.
So if America is committed… why shouldn’t you be? Why should the American sports fan start planning race weekends for next season?
Let’s tackle the biggest early questions.
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“There’s teams?”
Absolutely. Ten of them—soon to be eleven in 2026.
Choosing an F1 team is like choosing your NFL team: culture, history, values. Nationality plays a role, but these organizations are international in every sense. Haas is an American team with a British driver. McLaren is a British team with an American CEO.
There’s a team for everyone.
If you like discipline, precision, and a near-military approach, Mercedes is your squad.
If you like disruption and controlled chaos, you’re probably a Red Bull fan.
If you just enjoy being unhinged, confusing, and impossible to predict—well, Lance Stroll and Aston Martin are right there for you. (I’m kidding… mostly.)
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“I don’t know which racers are good.”
How do you figure out who’s good in the MLB? You watch. Same with the NFL—watch and argue about it on X.
Drivers have wildly different strengths and weaknesses.
Lando Norris has one of the best cars, but so does Oscar Piastri—and their seasons look nothing alike.
Max Verstappen is the cold-blooded assassin of the grid.
Charles Leclerc is the best defender in wheel-to-wheel combat.
And Lance Stroll… well… he’s best known for accidentally punting unsuspecting victims and occasionally himself.
Drivers are just players on a team. Some are elite. Some are solid.
And some are Lance Stroll. (If you take anything from this article, let it be this: Lance Stroll is a menace.)
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“Aren’t all the cars the same?”
Not even close.
Teams must design their own cars within strict rules—then find loopholes to exploit. Engineering brilliance is part of the sport’s DNA. Aerodynamics, tires, strategy, fuel load, and hundreds of micro-adjustments separate winning from finishing 12th.
If you love strategy, innovation, and pushing rules to the limit, F1 is your paradise.
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“I don’t have time to watch races.”
Yes you do. Stop it.
Races are only on weekends, usually every other week from March through early December.
• Practice: Fridays (optional unless you’re obsessed)
• Qualifying: Saturdays
• Race day: Sunday—usually under two hours
Record it. Stream it. Whatever. You have time.
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“Where do I even start?”
Take a breath. These are first-world problems.
The easiest entry point? Watch the F1 movie with Brad Pitt. The score hits hard. The speed is gripping. It’s already the highest-grossing sports movie ever.
Then watch Drive to Survive on Netflix. Learn the teams, drivers, principals, CEOs, and rivalries. Yes, the rivalries are just as real and vicious as college football.
After that—watch a race. Watch it the same way you watched your first baseball game as a kid: wide-eyed and ready to fall in love with something new.
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Formula One is a sport for everyone. It carries culture, color, and pageantry that can rival any Saturday in the SEC.
Go back to those childhood feelings—the adrenaline of racing your friends on bikes or go-karts. Feel the thrill of a perfect overtake, the devastating pace of a long straight duel, the shock of a collision.
And when your favorite team crosses the checkered flag for the win, you’ll flash back to your first victory in any sport growing up—and realize something important:
You didn’t just become a Formula One fan.
You were one all along.
