Drivers

Sebastien Buemi - know to some in these parts as The Moose - has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I go through stages of rating him and stages of just thinking of him as an avergae midfield driver so thought I'd put an article up there and see if the rest of you are as confused about him as me. His junior formula record is not that impressive. He's was a front runner in the majority of series he ran in but champion in none. The season before he came into F1 he finished runner-up in GP2 Asia and 6th in proper GP2 season - including 2 wins. One of the wins came in France where he started 21st on the grid - which is pretty impressive. He arrived in F1 with very little fanfare and you can pretty much say he's not made much louder...

Nick made his debut in F1 in the year 2000 for Prost Peugeot finishing his first season in the sport in 20th position scoring no points. In 2001 he moved to Sauber and was joined in the team by rookie Kimi Raikkonen and scored a respectable 12 points finishing 8th in the WDC standings for the midfield team beating his rookie teammate. At the end of 2001 is was widely reported that Nick would replace retiring F1 legend Mika Hakkinen at Mclaren but he was left disappointed because it was infact his rookie teammate that landed the drive at Mclaren ahead of him. So in the end he ended up spending another two seasons with Sauber paired with rookie Felipe Massa in 2002 scoring 7 points and in 2003 he was partner by fellow German...

Hoping for a good debate on this one because I change my mind about him about every other week. Antonio has a decent background in other formula and was Formula 3000 champion(pre-GP2) in 2004 - only his second season in that formula. Graduated in to F1 the following year and was originally going to get the second car at Red Bull alongside DC but in the end Red Bull decided to give him and Christian Klein a share option of the car. Antonio only go 4 races and Klein got the rest of the season. To be fair to Liuzzi he was coming into F1 for the first time with little testing and Klein had already done a full season with the same team(then the Jags of course). Records show he scored a point on his debut at San Marino after the BARs got...

Nico Erik Rosberg, son of Keijo "Keke" Erik Rosberg, is about to have his 100th Grand Prix meeting this weekend in Hungary. I was about to write my "best wishes" to him in 'his' thread...but I couldn't find one...so, I figured I might as well start it off. What is very interesting is that his father, Keke, took part in 114 Grand Prix races in his entire Formula One career, winning 5 of them - all for Williams from 1982 to 1985 - as well as a World Championship. It's interesting in that Nico is approaching that number quickly and he's already about to finish off his 6th season in a few months...but without a win to his name...and no win in sight given the current pecking order of the cars. Some say Nico is a great talent...while...

Arguably the best ever driver in mixed conditions, all his wins at Mclaren have come in those conditions. His last race win in the dry came at the 2009 Turkish GP. Button is known for his smooth driving style and is normally seen in must races doing one less stop than his rivals for tyres. Buttons also know to be a bit of a practical joker and will take part in anything fun. Since his debut in 2000 Button has won the majority of hearts in this country. But what is your favourite JB win? Mine has to be Hungaroring 2006, in argubly a midfield team and he won the race in those mixed conditions to take his first win. I can remember James Allen been in tears almost and that was the first race Anthony Davidson ever commentated on.

Personally, I'd be very keen to know what people here think of Nigel Mansell - who had a very similar record in some ways to Button.... Autosport ran a very interesting article a few weeks about some of Nige's stats - did you know that Mansell only outqualified his team-mate 87-83 over his entire career? Yes Mansell did win 3 times as many races as Button has during his career, but you have to just compare their careers - Mansell won in his 6th season of F1, Button his 7th, but whilst Mansell then had the best car on the grid the following year, Button had just about the worst! Mind (And I know this is off topic) - Mansell regularly gets tarnished for his time at Ferrari as team-mate to Prost - but did you know that the qualifying...

Alain Marie Pascal Prost OBE, Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, is always mentioned whenever a list of the greatest F1 drivers is written. 4 times a World Champion, 51 Grand Prix wins, Alain pitted himself against some of the best drivers ever to race in F1, often in the same team - Senna, Lauda, Mansell, Rosberg, van de Poele, Schumacher. Known as the "Professor" Prost started his F1 career at McLaren in 1980, moving on to the French national team, Renault, in 1981 Prost came close to winning the title but had to return to McLaren to fulfil his ambition to be World Champion, taking his first title in 1985. Prost's career is often defined by his rivalry with Ayrton Senna but Prost the driver and Prost the man was far more than just...

Today (19 August 2011) "Senna" opens in Toronto and i'm taking off early from work to catch a matinee' viewing. This is about as good a time as any to open this thread... From Prost's thread: There was no greater expert on the sights and sounds of a Formula One car at Aida that day than Senna himself...And if his expert ears and eyes noted that only Schumacher's B194 sounded and reacted like it had traction control then i'm going to believe it. Period. As per the accident at Tamburello...well, the saftey car that day wasn't exactly a Mercedes-Benz AMG...I believe it was an Opel and, as a result, a bit 'too' slow. The tyre pressures dropped significantly and that would have affected the ride height. Tamburello had a few bumps and...

He built up a reputation as a good qualifier in the mid-late 00's. We also had the famous Trulli train back in those days too. Jarno's one and only win to date came way back in 2004, but IMHO he should have won more races in his career. He was famously dropped by Renault for losing a poduim finish at the French GP in that same season. Jarno's list of teams include: Minardi Prost Renault Toyota Lotus Jarno also owns his own vineyard out in his home country of Italy.. I've always thought Trulli was a average racing driver and even though i did feel slightly sorry for him when he got publicly sacked by Renault, i've never been given the impression by him that he's ever tried in races to go for that extra point. What are your opinions...

Now here's a driver who polarises opinion. A really nice bloke or a bitter man who should have grown a pair at Ferrari instead of bitching about it after he left. The most experienced driver ever in F1 but now, perhaps, past his sell by date? A brilliant car sorter who helped Jenson Button realise his title ambitions at Brawn or someone who failed to take an opportunity when it came his way? Rubens Barrichello: 314 GP starts 11 wins (No. 25 in the list of GP winners - ahead of Ronnie Petersen but behind Alan Jones) 14 poles 17 fastest laps Everyone's favourite No.2? The best choice Williams could could have made to lead there team or would they be better off without him?

So what do we think of Virgin Racing's No1, one of 6 (5 if Nick Heidfeld doesn't get his seat back at Lotus Renault) German drivers on the grid? Timo debuted in F1 back in 2004 with Jordan and scored a couple of points on debut. After a few more races in '04 he went Champ Cars for '05 and then GP2 for '06 and '07 - winning the GP2 title in 2007. For 2008 and 2009 he partnered Jarno Trulli at Toyota but lost his drive when Toyota pulled the plug on their F1 project at the end of '09. He managed two 2nd places, one 3rd and 1 fastest lap at Toyota, probably not much of a return for the money invested in the team. He found refuge at Virgin but has been hampered by a pretty rotten car for both 2010 and 2011. So, Timo Glock, the real...

Congratulations to young Bruno Senna for a fantastic qualifying session today. I'm sure his uncle would be very proud knowing he's starting the Belgian Grand Prix - his first race of the year - from 7th on the Grid. Spa-Francorchamps is a special circuit. A real challenge and known as a "driver's circuit" which "separates the men from the boys". Add to that the tricky, greasy conditions you had today and Bruno's consistency in ALL 3 sessions at this circuit means there's some talent there. The Renault is by no means a Top 4 car...so to be 7th on the grid ahead of the likes of World Champions Alonso and Button (both of whom have superior Ferraris and McLarens) and his somewhat highly rated teammate Petrov, is a very good achievement...