A plaque unveiled at the Circuit of the Americas during the United States Grand Prix race weekend has drawn criticism on social media after fans noticed factual inaccuracies.
Installed as part of the circuit’s Andretti Corner celebration, the plaque describes Mario Andretti as “the only American to win a Formula One World Championship”.
As many have pointed out, Phil Hill also won the title with his 1961 win ferrari,
Turn 20, COTA’s final corner, is named after the 1978 World Champion, celebrating his long relationship with American motorsport and the venue. Although he has never raced there, he has been a Grand Prix ambassador, and with former drivers heavily involved with the newly formed Cadillac F1 Team, his contribution to the championship cannot be denied.
But it also cannot be denied that two Americans have won the F1 World Championship. Born in Miami and raised in California, Hill became the first American to win the title. And in fact, he is still the first and only American-born driver to do so. Andretti, while he is an American citizen, was born in Montona, Italy, before immigrating to the US in 1955.
Andretti’s career has included many major successes on top of his F1 titles, including an Indy 500 win and an IndyCar Series championship, a Daytona 500 win, and three wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Hill competed in F1 from 1958 to 1966, scoring three Grand Prix wins. He also became a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring, and in 1964 he won the 24 Hours of Daytona.
The 1961 Italian Grand Prix was a difficult one for the championship winner. Hill’s teammate, Wolfgang von Trips, collided with the wheel of Jim Clark’s Lotus as his car went airborne and into the crowd. He was killed along with 15 spectators. Hill won the race, but something changed for the driver that day.
“I went ahead and won the race,” He told Autosport in 1988“And all the other Ferraris went out with broken valve springs. Even though none broke before the race, the damage was done. We didn’t know von Trips was dead until it was all over.
“For me it was terrible, quite terrible. I didn’t really know what was happening, I couldn’t accept it: I had won races and championships but the accident took away all the happiness.”
Hill died in 2008 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on motorsport.com?
– Motorsport.com Team
