Drivers

Some time ago I was nominated to write a thread about Brendon. I'm not sure why, never met the bloke and don't really like him. Anyway, he's 28, comes from New Zealand and his wife is called Sarah. What more do you need to know? More serioulsy, in 2010 he was dropped by the Red Bull young driver programme and now drives for Toro Rosso and is (probably) the oldest driver to debut for the Bulls ever. If this assertion is wrong I'm happy to be corrected. Looking back through his junior career there really isn't anything that jumps out as to why Red Bull would have taken him on in their young driver programme but with their support he won the Formula Renault 2.0 series in 2007 so Dr Marko must have seen something. He was 3rd in the...

Who is this guy? asked Fernando Alonso. Well Fernando log on to Clip The Apex, click the link to the drivers section and I'll put you in the picture. Will Stevens was born in Essex and was karting from a young age with some success in the Asia-Pacific Championship. He then went on the usual path of racing Eurocup and Formula Renault and whilst his results wer fairly good he was not setting the world alight. He then jumped up to WSR 3.5 in 2012 with the Carlin team and hardly set the series alight with his first year. However a move to the Straka Racing team in 2013 saw a sudden dramatic change. Stevens suddenly blossomed and whilst he did not secure any race wins all season he mixed it up with the front 3 of Magnusen, Vandorne 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...

Thought I'd write an unexpected thread for an unexpected debutante. Giovinazzi's performance in his late call up seems to have impressed everyone and so he is a very worth add to the CTA Formula One Drivers section. Born in Martina Franca, Italy he is the grand old age of 23. To make some of us feel old Alain Prost had already won 4 titles and retired (twice) before he was born. Started the usual way with success in Karting and winning some trophies there (Italian and Euro), moved on to British F3 (runner up in 2013), European F3 (runner up in 2015) and GP2 (runner up in 2016). Along the way he's also had a couple of races in DTM and a go at Le Mans last year. He's certainly held his own in every series he has entered. Personally I...

Who is George Russell asked Titch - well he's is 21 year old from Norfolk who the latest Brit on the F1 grid. For once I can actually say I've watched this kid all the way up the ladder. I first saw Russell in BRDC F4 (thank you ITV4) and he stood out then because in a field full of kids putting everything on the line for a win he was the only one who had the brain to think about the championship race and realise getting a decent haul of points was sometimes more important than chucking it in do or die style for the win. Low and behold he won the title. I next see him in European F3 in a field containing Felix Rosenqvist, Antonio Giovanazzi and Charles LeClerc. He was mostly midfield that year but spent a lot of time wheel banging with...

As I did a thread for Vergne last week I thought I better give Charlie Pic his own one too so as not to leave him out as part of this new wave of Frenchmen that F1 has for 2012. Born Feb 15th 1990 Charles Pic will be the second youngest driver on the grid in 2012 being 3 weeks younger than Sergio Perez and 2 months older than Jean-Eric Vergne. Its been a fast rise for Pic but a patchy one in fact he's never won a championship in any of the formula's he's raced in however he's impressed enough to be promoted up to the next level - maybe a bit too quickly. He came 3rd in Formula Renault Campus in 2006, 3rd in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 in 2007 and 3rd in the Formula Renault 3.5 series in 2009. He gained victories in all these...

Giedo van der Garde. The man, the myth, the legend. Okay not really. He is a okay driver though, and after years of speculation and hype in his motherland he finally made his Formula 1 debut last season with Caterham. Not exactly the best team to make your debut with but van der Garde did what he's always done: drive the car without making a complete fool of himself. His path to a race seat in Formula 1 was a long and unspectacular one, spending a lot of time in lower series without winning a championship apart from the 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 championship, which he won with a 29 point lead over the next competitor. Unfortunately for him that was the end of his winning ways, moving up to GP2 in 2009 and managing only one more top 3...

How come this man doesn't have his own thread yet? DC is a true Gentleman and a credit to the sport we love. If it wasn't for him pushing for Safety in the 90's and 00's and even now when he's retired, we would have seen more deaths in F1 after the very sad weekend in San Marino back in 1994. DC was always the nearly man when it came to his F1 career piped to the title on more than one occassion by either Hakkinen and Schumacher. I wouldn't say DC was a number 2 either in his career. DC in his 247 Grand prix starts scored 13 wins, 62 podiums, 535 points, 12 poles and 18 fastest laps. DC at this current time is the all time points record holder for a Britain in F1. Can Hamilton or Button break his points tally of 535? DC has only...

As a young man growing up on the south coast Derek Warwick was a bit of a celeb, at least in the Portsmouth Evening News, as he grew up in Four Marks, near Alton and as his racing career progressed the local press showed a very keen interest. Derek was runner up to Brian Henton in the European F2 Championship in 1980 in a Toleman car, having won the British F3 Championship in 1978. Based on their success in F2 Toleman took the brave decision to move in to F1 and, with money from Italian white goods manufacturer Candy, asked F2 engine maker, Brian Hart, to make them a turbo engine and Pirelli to supply them with tyres. Henton and Warwick went in to F1 with the team and the Toleman TG181 arrived at the San Marino GP in 1981. Both...

So, exactly who is Sergiy Sirotkin? Well, he's been in Formula Abarth and the Formula Renault Euro Series as well as Formula 3 in Italy. He's scored one podium in the Renault Series and lies 8th in the Championships. For F1, he is Russian, and that seems to be enough. Although Sauber have plucked a driver from obscurity before...

2018 sees the much talked about Charles Leclerc make his debut in F1 in the Sauber. Its fair to say there is a good bit of excitement around that. He was born in October 1997 (no really) in Monaco and does race under the Monegasque flag. He was a childhood friend of the late Jules Bianchi. His father Herve Leclerc was also a racing driver, taking part in Formula 3 but unfortunately passed away last year at 54. I'm sure both these connections will make his F1 debut a bit bittersweet as they both should be there. I first saw Leclerc racing in European F3 and instantly made a joke about Napoleon's brother-in-law and General of the same name. As soon as I made the joke I realised not many people know who that is and therefore the joke is...

Just realised that this truly great world champion doesn't have his own thread, and thought he deserved one! Been the orignal flying Finn Mika Hakkinen was a two time F1 Drivers Champion. He was one of the main reasons i got into F1 and decided to follow DTM. Mika started his F1 career at at Team Lotus at the United States GP way back in 1991. That year at the San Marino GP he picked up his first points in F1. In 1992 Hakkinen continued on at Team Lotus and was partnered alongside British Driver Johnny Herbert. In 1993 Hakkinen joined Mclaren as a reserve/test driver, after Michael Andretti was sacked for poor results Hakkinen was promoted to full time driver, at Estroli where he out-qualified the late great Ayrton Senna. In...