James Hinchcliffe believes Connor Zilisch could be a star in F1 based on what he’s done in NASCAR and other racing leagues. The IndyCar star and F1 pundit wrote a story for F1’s official website and named Zilisch as one of the five U.S.-based drivers for Cadillac’s F1 team. “Zilisch had a promising road racing […]
James Hinchcliffe believes Connor Zilisch could be a star in F1 based on what he’s done in NASCAR and other racing leagues. The IndyCar star and F1 pundit wrote a story for F1’s official website and named Zilisch as one of the five U.S.-based drivers for Cadillac’s F1 team.
“Zilisch had a promising road racing career going, winning in everything from Trans-Am cars to prototypes to stock cars,” James Hinchcliffe wrote. “Without the financial freedom to simply choose the route he wanted to go, opportunities came up in stock cars before anyone in the open wheel world took notice – and that is our loss.”
“Competing full-time in the Xfinity Championship in 2025, he already has (six) wins in the season, including his first oval victory,” Hinchcliffe continued. “Given his road racing background, it is incredibly impressive that he is now competitive on the types of track that a lot of the drivers he’s racing against trained on exclusively on their rise to this level.”
Connor Zilisch may need surgery on his injured collarbone
Hinchcliffe believes that Connor Zilisch can succeed in F1 because he is “one of the most adaptable drivers that I’ve ever seen.” The question is does Zilisch want to go that route or continue his career in NASCAR and succeed in the Cup Series?
The focus for Zilisch right now is getting healthy. After winning at Watkins Glen this past weekend, Zilisch fell off his car and broke his collarbone. While appearing on the Door Bumper Clear podcast this week, Zilisch revealed that he might need surgery.
“I think it might be something that I might have to get surgery for,” Zilisch said. “But in this case, I think surgery is something that speeds up the process, so you can get plates and screws and get it reconstructed back together. Shane [van Gisbergen] talked about it — he had an injury in 2021 and broke his collarbone — he had plates, screws, everything done and he was racing back the next weekend. Thankfully, the collarbone is a relatively quick bone to fix and heal.”
Along with the six victories in the Xfinity Series, Zilisch has recorded 14 top-10 finishes and 12 finishes in the top five. He leads the Xfinity Series in Xfinity points (823) and playoff points (36).
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