F1: NASCAR legend’s son wants to be a Formula 1 driver
NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick, a 60-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series., has revealed that his son wants to become a Formula 1 driver instead of a NASCAR driver.
Harvick’s son Keelan, who turns 11 this month, has his eye on Formula 1, with NASCAR as a fallback.
Luke Smith of The Athletic published an article discussing the barriers to entry for American drivers in Formula 1. In it, Smith discusses the youngest Harvick’s unconventional path and how it could well lead to a future in the international open-wheel racing series.
Smith wrote, “Standing on the apex of Mirabeau Bas, the downhill right-hand corner that is part of the Monaco Grand Prix’s challenging, legendary circuit, Keelan Harvick’s joy was evident.
“Keelan posed for a photo at that turn, arm raised with joy. When he posted it to Twitter, the caption read, “Maybe one day.” To him, the dream one day is to race in F1. For that to be the goal of a second-generation racer in a NASCAR family at such a young age makes him an outlier.”
Maybe one day 🏎️ 🇲🇨 pic.twitter.com/jZfCXKIxGW
— Keelan Harvick (@KeelanHarvick) April 25, 2023
As the only American in F1 can tell you, if you want to make it to F1, you have to race in Europe in the junior ranks.
The Harvicks have taken the first steps to make that happen. Keelan has been go-karting in Italy, getting a feel for the racing culture on the other side of the Atlantic. It gives him a crucial understanding of some of the most competitive kart categories.
Speaking to The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck last year, Kevin Harvick said the goal was to “take (Keelan) as far outside of his element as possible, race people he doesn’t know in a country where he doesn’t understand the language, do a lot of it on his own to figure it out.”
Harvick Sr. added: “You either sink or swim. So you can either figure it out, or you cannot do well.”
View this post on Instagram
“The racing in the States, in go-karting and then the junior levels, isn’t anywhere near as competitive as it is in Europe,” Trevor Carlin, whose eponymous team races in junior categories, told The Athletic.
“You can be winning in go-karting in the States, or Formula 4 in the States, Formula Renault in the States. But when you come to Europe, you haven’t learned enough, and all of a sudden, you’re P20 on the grid.”
“The ones that are going to go all the way, like Logan, they come here and suffer the bad weather, the bad food, the traffic, all that,” said Carlin.
“Imagine you’re a rich kid from Florida, living in Fort Lauderdale. Why would you want to be in a one-bedroom apartment in Milton Keynes? It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it!
“It then makes the European level drivers tougher straight away.”
“It is a big sacrifice,” said Logan Sargeant. “But I think if you want to reach Formula 1, that’s the way you have to do it.”
Other drivers from outside of Europe, such as Mexico’s Sergio Pérez and China’s Zhou Guanyu, faced a similar challenge.
Three American drivers currently race in F2, the final step before Formula 1: Jak Crawford, Juan Manuel Correa, and Brad Benevides. Crawford is a member of Red Bull’s driver academy and scored his first F2 victory in the Austria sprint race last weekend. Without Red Bull’s support, he’d have likely stayed on the American ladder.
“You really have to start in karting,” said Crawford. “I came over in 2018 for my first half-season of European karting. To be honest, I was going on an American path until I got the opportunity with Red Bull. I’ve somehow ended up over here, which is for the better.”
Back in April, Kevin Harvick spoke about his son’s F1 aspirations and the impact that the building popularity of F1 in America can have on the future of NASCAR.
“I live at the go-kart track and none of those kids want to race Indy cars; they all want to race F1 cars,” Harvick said.
Inspired by the Netflix Series Drive to Survive, “They all want to drive the Ferrari or the Red Bull.”
Time will tell if Keelan Harvick ultimately makes his dream of racing in F1 a reality, but one thing is for sure; the kid can drive.
The last American ‘born’ F1 race winner was Peter Revson in 1973.
A massive 50 years ago.