Drivers

Dedicated Formula One driver discussions.
I noticed young Daniel didn't have his own thread so thought I'd give him on as sure he'll be around for a good few years. Born in 1989 (that makes him 22 before you do the maths) this aussie started karting at the age of 9 and in 2005 entered the Western Australian Formula Ford Championship as a privateer driving a car that was 15 years old at the time and managed to finish 8th. He won a scholarship to compete in Formula BMW Asia the following year. As we all know he eventually became involved in the Red Bull young driver programme after winning the British Formula 3 championship in 2009. Became Red Bull's test driver and has now stepped up to drive for HRT. Has been really hyped as the next big thing by the Red Bull team and the...
Was drafted into F1 with not an ounce of testing and replaced Nelson Piquet Jr in the middle of 2009 when he was possibly on route to becoming the GP2 Champion that season, which went to Nico Hulkenburg. In his 7 races in F1 he failed to impress and the no in-season testing rule didn't help his course. Plus having Fernando Alonso as his teammate couldn't have helped either. In 2010 Grosjean went to do Auto GP, before returning back to GP2 on July 20th for a few guess appearances for DAM'S. But in 2011 Grosjean was given a full-time drive by DAM'S for the 2011 GP2 series and went on to become the 2011 GP2 Champion. My question is will Grosjean get a drive for 2012? Plus how far can this guy go if he gets into F1?
Sergio Perez Mendoza also known as 'Checo'. 21 years of age and 12 Grand Prix under his belt. Already has a contract for Sauber for next year, is part of the Ferrari driving acadamy, current favourite to replace Massa but what he didn't have was his own thread on Clip the Apex so I thought I'd sort him one out. Won British Formula 3 at 18. Finished 12 in GP2 at 19. Finished runner-up in GP2 at 20. Made his GP debut at 21 and finished in the points only to be DQ'd later due to both Saubers breaking car regs. Had a big accident at Monoco and even chose to pull out of the Candian GP after realising he wasn't back to 100%. Has had 2 points finishes so far this season with his highest being a 7th place at Silverstone. Has been quite highly...
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...
Just realised we don't have a thread on the young Scot and there's something I have to get off my chest but, first, here's some history. A real sporting family, his cousins are the Franchitti brothers and his step father was Scottish footballer Dougie McCracken (no, I'd never heard of him either but he played for Ayr, Dunbarton and East Fife). As ever, started in karting before moving to Formula Renault with Manor Motorsport. He was Formula 3 Euroseries champion in 2006 before moving on to DTM. With Mercedes backing he was lined up for a drive with Force India in 2009 but FI chose to continue with their '08 driver line up. As test driver in 2010 for FI di Resta finally secured a seat for the 2011 season alongside Adrian Sutil...
…….and finally Williams confirm that Valtteri Bottas will be in the race seat for the 2013 season. As I’m seen on here as his biggest fan I thought I better get an article written and a thread started for the lad. Born 28th August 1989 in Nastola Finland he currently resides in Oxford. His single seater career started in 2007 with a 3rd place in the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series, he followed that up in 2008 by winning the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC series and the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup series. In 2009 he stepped up to the Formula 3 Euroseries coming 3rd but winning the Maters of Formula 3 one off race a feat he was to repeat in 2010. 2011 was the year he suddenly jumped to everyones attention when he cruised to the GP3 championship...
Never have I known so many people rate a test driver as a future world champion so I thought I'd start a thread for people to pass there opinions on young Nico. Has an incredible record in other Formula's - won A1 Go in 06, won F3 euro masters in 08, won GP2 in 09 and then came into F1. There was a lot of hype around Mr Hulkenberg in arriving in F1 as he was seen as the next 'Lewis Hamilton' but in all honest in the car he was driving he was never going to be able to match what Lewis did as a rookie the question remains though did he do enough? He scored 25 points to his experienced team-mate Rubens Barrichello's 47 which doesn't look good - however is it unfair to judge a rookie against the most experienced F1 driver in history...
The son of former McLaren Formula One driver Jan Magnussen makes his Formula One debut in the 2014 season. He started his racing career in karting and quickly moved onto more powerful single seaters. After early success in Danish Formula Ford he was soon competing and winning in Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula 3 before competing in the Formula Renualt 3.5 series and winning the championship in his second year. As a product of the same driver development program that brought us Lewis Hamilton as well as a strong racing pedigree, Magnussen has become accustomed to winning at all levels of the junior motorsport ranks and will want to continue his success when he makes his debut in March.
Jules Bianchi was born in Nice, France in August 1989 and now at the age of 23, after a few false starts, he’s landed himself a race seat in F1 for the 2013 season. Bianchi comes from quite a successful racing dynasty as the grandson of three times GT world champion Mauro Bianchi and grandnephew of Lucien Bianchi who drove in F1 for various teams between 1959 and 1968 even scoring a 3rd place podium for Cooper in 68 at Monaco. He also won the Le Mans 24 Hour the same year so young Jules has a bit to live up too to keep the family name in good check. The good news is he comes highly rated and well thought of so has the potential to do so. He jumped out of Karting and into single seater racing in 2007 taking on the French Formula...
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?
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...
He only signed for Williams a few days ago but there has already been a large amount of discussion about Lance Stroll. It was suggested he needed his own thread so here it is. Lance Stroll first came on to my own radar when watching the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand during Jan 2015. Often used as a warm-up for young talent pre-season to get them used to proper car racing its always close racing. Lance was the tender age of 16 and part of the Ferrari young driver program. He was also massively impressive with 10 podiums (4 wins) from 16 races in a car he'd hardly driven and tracks he'd never raced on. He was the eventual champion and I mentally stored him as someone to watch out for. From the Toyota series he went straight into...
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