Drivers

This forum is for all dedicated past and present Formula One driver discussions. New threads cannot be started in this forum, so if you wish to start a discussion about a particular driver, post it in the main F1 discussion forum and click on Report, asking to have it moved here. The title of the thread should just be the driver's name. Only one thread per driver is permitted. Please remember the site rules when posting here, as driver threads in particular have a tendency to attract strong opinions.

Just noticed that this German doesn't have his own thread and thought it was about time he did. Sutil began his F1 career back in 2007, entering F1 in the same year that Lewis Hamilton did. Sutil has remained with the same team (only under different names) throughout his time in F1 so far. Since his F1 debut Adrian has competed in 84 races collecting 77 points in. Sutil unbelievable has a fastest racing lap to his name aswell! Sutil to me has always been one of those constant midfield runners who will score a point or two when he's on top of his game. But i'm really struggling to see him step up to another level of racing team as there's a lot of driver out their better than him. Other than Force India where could he actually go to?

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...

Alexander Albon makes his debut in F1 in 2019 with Toro Rosso having started our as a Red Bull junior and then being dropped before being welcomed back at the end of last season. Marko has not been very complimentary about Albon in the past so his recall is very much a U-turn on the management front. Albon races under a Thai licence and is a practicing Buddhist but is actually half British as he was born in London and grew up in Ipswich. His junior career is pretty good without being outstanding. Why? Well mainly because he has followed Charles LeClerc up the ladder. To his credit Albon has always pushes LeClerc to perform better and personally I think he is well deserving of his spot in F1. He might have pushed LeClerc a bit more in...

I couldn't find a thread on him so apologies of there is one already. Alexander Rossi (21) is a racing driver from Auburn, California USA currently competing in GP2 and reserve driver for Caterham F1. Regular readers of Clip The Apex discussions may have noticed that I rarely get involved in discussions about new or relatively new drivers until they do something stupid. One of the reasons for this is that few of the newcomers have really grabbed my attention in their pre-F1 careers. However, having had a little look at Rossi's statistics, I have a feeling that at the very least he is one of the best young American talents that we have seen for a while. Not only that, he has clocked up a couple of championship wins, third place...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Carlos Sainz Jr (is he dropping the Jr now?) may be the first rookie to come into F1 already demoralised and thinking his team do not believe in him. Sainz was number 1 in the Red Bull Driver programme and completely aced his season in WSR 3.5 and pretty much cruised his way to the title. Despite all of this it must have been a crushing blow to him when it was announced that Max Verstappen, who had been in the Red Bull Driver Programme for 2 weeks, was announced at Toro Rosso F1. Sainz was not happy and his form did drop off probably out of pure frustration. However Vettel's sudden departure to Ferrari opened up another space in the Toro Rosso team but even then Red Bull waited a good 3 months before announcing Sainz in the seat. In...

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...

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...

I was just watching the Qualifying buildup for Singapore 2009 and found this piece with Damon Hill pretty interesting. This was soon after the Renault crash-gate revelations where some were questioning the legitimacy of the sport.