Drivers

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...

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...

The latest Brazilian to enter Formula One is Felipe Nasr, who is from the capital Brasilia. Admittedly, he is not from the usual motorsport heartlands of Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, but he is not as far out as Antonio Pizzonia. He has had some impressive championship results over the last couple of years - 4th and 3rd in the last two GP2 seasons. He was also runner up in the 2011 Macau Grand Prix, as a faster team-mate to Kevin Magnussen. His last three seasons in GP2 paint a picture of an outstandingly consistent driver - from 19 GP2 finishes last season, 18 were points scorers, 16 were top 6 finishes. However, that is where the questions arise with Nasr. His first GP2 win only came in the sprint at Barcelona last year, and of his...

Well I was looking in the drivers section and was surprised not to see a thread on this fellow. So it's about blooming time this dude had his own thread! Having driven for 3 teams in his 6 year stay in here are the teams: 2002: Jordan 2003-05: BAR Honda 06-08: Super Aguri At Jordan he didn't have the best of times and a crash with an out of control Heidfeld at Austria was his low point. However, he did end up scoring 2 points 5 behind experienced team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella at the time. He also out qualified Fisi 4 times this season. In 2003, Sato moved to Japanese Honda powered team BAR as a reserve/test driver. However, at his home race in Suzuka, Sato replaced Jacque Villneuve in the car and partner Jenson Button to...

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...

One of F1's unluckiest drivers or a man who let his heart rule his head? Jean was spectacularly fast on his day, as his early performances at Tyrrell showed, but his desire to drive for Ferrari rather than Williams cost him the chance to prove he could be a World Champion. A single win, in Canada in 1995, was poor reward for such a talented driver but he always seemed to be in the wrong car at the wrong time. After F1 Jean raced in DTM, Speedcar and Le Man Series. It has also just been announced that Jean will compete in the Indy 500 next year at the ripe old age of 47. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/us-motor-racing-alesi-indy-idUSTRE78M45B20110923

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...

Pierre Gasly - or as I like to think of him - the last Jedi. For the last decade or more there has been an endless line of talented young drivers all coming off the Red Bull assembly line. Sometimes there were so many that even with 4 seats in F1 some talent had to be filtered out and never made the top level. Those heady days have unfortunately come to and end and Pierre Gasly really does represent the last of the dynasty. Red Bull have invested in younger talent and will come round again but for now its all on hold. Why have they let this happen you ask? Well to be honest they have so much young talent already in fruition that they don't need any new ones coming along. Verstappen and Ricciardo are very much here for the long term and...

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...

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...

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...

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...