F1 is a sport historically dominated by the Europeans – do you know how many Asian drivers have managed to make the cut at this top level?
Formula One is known to be a very expensive sport and it doesn’t come across as a surprise that the Europeans have dominated this sport over the years. European society is financially more stable than Asia or any other continent and it is often hard to compete against the Europeans when it comes to racing gear and equipment. However, there have been some Asian drivers who have made the continent proud at the topmost level of car racing. Let us take a detailed look at Asia’s flag-bearers in Formula One.
There have been 28 Asian drivers in F1 history. Japan has had most representatives (21) followed by two each from India and Thailand. Malaysia, China and Indonesia have produced one F1 driver each till date. In the current F1 grid as of 2023, there are three Asian drivers – Zhou Guanyu (China), Yuki Tsunoda (Japan) and Alex Albon (Thailand).
When it comes to popularity and statistics, no Asian driver so far has matched the exploits of Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi. In just three full seasons of Formula One, Kobayashi earned 125 points and the striking highlight of his career was achieving a podium finish on home turf at the 2012 Suzuka Grand Prix. He is also considered one of the most entertaining F1 drivers of the modern era.
Some of the other popular F1 drivers from Asia include Japan’s Takuma Sato, Aguri Suzuki and Satoru Nakajima while Indian duo of Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok are also quite familiar names in the F1 fraternity. The current Asian trio of Zhou, Tsunoda and Albon are doing pretty well as of now and we can certainly expect to be at the top of this list by the end of their careers.
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