Which Formula 1 driver has won the most USGPs?

Sebring, a somewhat remote Florida town, was deemed an unusual choice for the event as New Zealand's Bruce McLaren in a Cooper became the youngest driver in Formula 1 history to win a Grand Prix.

Since that low-key start, the USGP has taken place on 43 more occasions at some decidedly more popular racing venues than Sebring. There've been five others, beginning with the Riverside International Raceway, 50 miles outside Los Angeles, in 1960. On that occasion, Stirling Moss won in his Lotus Climax, starting a two-decade-long love affair between British Drivers and the USGP.

Including the Moss victory at Riverside, six drivers gave Britain an almost-clean sweep of USGP wins in the 1960s, with the United States Grand Prix moving to Watkins Glen in New York from 1961 onwards. After Innes Ireland won that year, Jim Clark and Graham Hill dominated for the next six years, with three wins each.

Jackie Stewart made it nine straight in 1968 before Austria's Jochen Rindt ruined the British party with victory in 1969. Stewart won his second USGP in 1972, with James Hunt recording back-to-back wins in 1976 and 1977, meaning drivers from the British Isles had won 12 of the first 19 editions of the United States F1 Grand Prix.

After Hunt's second win, who would have guessed that British drivers' dominance of the event would halt for 29 years? Over this time, only two motorsport legends from anywhere recorded multiple USGP wins. Ayrton Senna won twice at the Phoenix Street Circuit, where the race moved to after an eight-year break following two decades at Watkins Glen.

Then Michael Schumacher made the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway his own with five victories over the eight years that the Indy track hosted the event. It was only in the final running of the US Grand Prix at this location that a British driver won again, and it started a sequence of USGP wins that would take Lewis Hamilton's name into the record books.

As a McLaren driver, Lewis Hamilton was 22 when he won his first United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis in 2007 on his way to finishing second in the Drivers' Championship. By the time he won his second USGP in 2012, this time at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) track in Austin, Texas, he was already a World Champion and entering the prime of his career.

After Hamilton's win in 2007, the United States Grand Prix moved from Indianapolis to Austin. The four-year gap between his first and second USGP wins was no fault of the Britons as no further United States Grand Prix was held between Hamilton's two victories, meaning they were successive. The USGP at COTA quickly became a highlight for spectators and bettors on the Texan sports calendar.

With sports betting not legal in Texas, Hamilton's four additional wins at COTA from 2014 to 2017 were likely not appreciated as much by bettors in the Lone Star State as they were in other areas across the globe. Some Texans may have used offshore betting sites to back their favorites, however.

Residents can access a number of offshore sports betting sites, but this is not advised. Since the operators aren’t licensed in the US, customers don’t benefit from any protection or guarantee that the winning bets are actually paid accordingly. It is also not uncommon for offshore sportsbooks to close suddenly and leave users with blocked funds. (source: https://bestsportsbettingtexas.com/)

Victory in 2017 took Lewis Hamilton past Michael Schumaker's five wins to establish a new mark as the Formula One driver with the most United States Grand Prix wins in history. The record remains intact, although current World Champion Max Verstappen is creating a streak of his own, with wins in the last three USGPs.

The question is whether Lewis Hamilton can extend his record or whether the Flying Dutchman will continue to narrow the gap between them. 2024's United States Grand Prix at COTA next October has the makings of a classic.