Drivers

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...

Realized this man doesn't have his own thread yet, so thought i'd give him one! Jackie Stewart started his F1 career at Owen Racing Organistion (BRM to you and I) in 1965 and raced alongside Graham Hill thats year. On his debut he scored his first World Championship point in South Africa coming in 6th. The very same year he went on to win his first F1 Grand Prix Race in Monza going head to head with Graham Hill for the win. Stewart ended his rookie season in F1 finishing in 3rd place of the Championship. In 1966, Stewarts BRM team went through a tough season ending up with 2 designed cars to fight for the championship. Stewart did win one race this season at the opening round in Monaco. Jackie went on to finish the season 7th in the...

An homage to my favourite driver. Fast, honest and one of the unluckiest Grand Prix drivers ever. Jarier was born in 1946 and after competing in Formula France moved on to F3, finishing 3rd in the French Championship in 1970. 1971 saw him in F2 and debut in F1 in a rented March at Monza. For 1973 Jarier raced in F1 for March and also in the F2 Championship. His exploits in F1 were pretty unremarkable that season and he was replaced at various points by pay drivers as the March team were struggling for cash. However, he took the F2 title with seven wins beating the likes of Jochen Mass,John Watson and Patrick Depailler. For 1974 Jumper, a name he acquired at March as Robin Herd's son pronounced Jean-Pierre as "jumper", moved on...

This will be the first in a series of profiles of F1 drivers from days gone by. My ambition is to learn more about drivers who were great personalities in F1 but never won a Championship or, perhaps, even a race and I hope you will enjoy finding out what I discover. To that end I will kick you off with "Monsieur Mans", Jacky Ickx. As his nickname suggest, Jacques Bernard Ickx is probably mostly remembered by motor racing fans for his exploits at Le Mans and, until Tom Kristensen came along, Jacky was indeed the master of Le Sarthe with 6 class wins starting in 1969 and ending in 1982. Like many, Ickx came to motor sport via motorcycles and was Belgian Trail Champion in 1963. He moved on to racing saloon cars and was Belgian...

It's going to be a long, slow day at work so here's a profile of Rene Arnoux, one of the most difficult drivers to pigeon hole. On occasions blinding quick, on other occasions a mobile road block who made Jarno Trulli look like a rank amateur. He was also very well balanced with a chip on both shoulders. I first saw Rene racing in 1980 when at the all French Renault team partnered with Jean Pierre Jabouille. There's an interesting comment in his Grandprix.com entry: I think this explains the enigma that is Rene Arnoux, not very technically gifted but a real balls out racing driver as this video of the closing laps of the 1979 French GP demonstrates perfectly. Jean Pierre Jabouille won Renault's first ever Grand Prix at that...

So after the news yesterday that Pedro will once again be on the drivers list - this time at HRT - I thought I'd put a thread up to discuss his exploits. Spain's second greatest racing driver - unless Jamie Alguersauri finishes above 9th in Brazil on Sunday - in which case Spain's 3rd greatest racing driver! Started out as test driver for Jordan back in 1998 before getting a race seat with the Arrows team in 1999. He joined the exclusive 'scoring points on your debut' club by finishing 6th in his first race in Australia. Back then points only went down to 6th so it really was an achievment. He did benifit from both Mclaren's breaking down and Schumacher getting a puncture and ending up a lap down. Having said that he was running as...

Today marks the 45th anniversary of that most tragic day at Hockenheim when Jim Clark, the greatest driver I ever had the pleasure of seeing in action, was killed when his Lotus crashed. Clark amassed some incredible statistics: 33 F1 poles in 73 races, 25 wins in 72 starts. What always amazed me was how effortless he made it all appear. The one race of his that I will never forget was Monza in 1967. Clark was leading, but had to pit with tyre issues, thereby losing a lap. Upon rejoining, his brilliance was such that he not only recovered the lap he lost, but he regained the lead. Ultimately he ran out of fuel on the last lap, handing the win to Surtees in the Honda, but EVERYONE knew who was the "real" winner. And it's not like the...

When I first started taking a serious interest in F1 in 1980 John Watson was driving a very un-competitive McLaren M29 and was partnered with a young driver, fresh from F3, called Alain Prost who was showing him a clean pair of heels. I didn't take much notice of this bloke at the back and had no idea of his history in F1. Come 1981 John led the non-championship South African GP for a few laps as other drivers stopped for fresh tyres in a wet dry race and all of a sudden the specialist magazines were full of articles about this softly spoken Ulsterman who would be team leader of the new McLaren team under the stewardship of Ron Dennis. A few races into 1981 the McLaren MP4 appeared and things changed, but I'm getting ahead of...

Elio de Angelis' rise to F1 was quite phenomenal. In only his 3rd season of racing, with backing from his rich Roman parents, Elio entered F1 with the Shadow F1 team at Monaco in 1979. Prior to his F1 debut Elio had won the Italian F3 championship in 1977 and the Monaco GP F3 support race in 1978. However, Shadow was not a team on the up and de Angelis and team mate Jan Lammers both struggled at the back of the grid. The highlight of the '79 season came in the last race where Elio took fourth place at a wet Watkins Glen and this, combined with a a cash injection, secured Elio a seat alongside Mario Andretti at Team Lotus for 1980. 1980 was a season of rebuilding at Lotus after the disaster that was the type 80. The type 81 was a...

So a fan favourite is no longer in the series so Lando is drafted in to soften the blow for all the hardcore fans........but enough about Star Wars we're here to talk about F1. Yes the only other Lando you know will make his F1 debut with McLaren this year and if McLaren aren't already in talks with Disney about a special Star Wars promotion on the car for some races this year then they really are out of touch with the world. Lando Norris (cue FB posting a pic of Norris from Coronation Street) is a 19 year old whizz kid from Bristol. I've watched him quite a bit over the years and from the very first moment I saw him drive the words 'next Lewis Hamilton' floated into my brain. He has won championships in every series he has raced...

When I started these retrospectives of F1 drivers I said I wouldn't cover any World Champion's, so now I'm going to break my own rules but, as you will see, Keke Rosberg won his title in the most bizarre year F1 ever suffered. Most of you youngsters will know Keke as the father of Nico Rosberg and someone who used to drive an F1 car, back in the day. How best to describe Rosberg senior? Balls out probably just about sums it up. Whenever Keke got behind the wheel of an F1 car I don't think he knew how to give less than 100%. His record in the lower formulas isn't exactly stellar. In four seasons of the European F2 Championship he won 3 races, one each in 1977, '78 and '79. But when you consider he was racing against the likes of...

So I went to post Narain's response to Vettel's comments on his thread only to find out that he is the only driver on the current grid who doesn't have one! bless his little cotton socks. So I thought I'd write him one. Born in Madras in 1977 the son of a rally driver and also related to Indian motorsports legend Karivardhan its not surprising that Narain grew up with the ambition to be India's first ever F1 driver and if you look at his junior career its no surprise really he made it. He won British Formula Ford in 1994. He won Formula Asia in 1996. He came 4th in the championship for the Stewart team in British Formula 3 in 2000 and then spent the next 4 years working his way up the leader boad in the Formula Nissan World Series...