Drivers

Dedicated Formula One driver discussions.
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...
You know the little fat feller on Sky? He used to be an F1 driver you know. In fact, he was a pretty bloody good driver who overcame career threatening injuries to win 3 Grands Prix. In 1987 John Paul Herbert won the British Formula Three championship driving for Eddie Jordan. The next step was F3000, again with Jordan racing. Johnny won the season opener at Jerez and was third at Monaco. A couple of races later the circus moved to Brands Hatch. Johnny was on a high, he had signed a contract to drive for Benetton in Formula One who were managed by his long time mentor, Peter Collins. Johnny was on pole but lost a couple of places at the start. As the cars came back from the trip into the country side (they were using the full...
I thought as its the close season I'd start a thread for one of Britian's forgotten F1 Heroes, Johnny Herbert. Whilst most people reflect on the mid 90's British F1 as being the Hill/Coulthard period there was another driver up there driving for the top teams and winning races and that was Johnny and even though he isn't remembered as such he only missed greatness by a narrow mark. Johnny had a pretty awesome record in the lower formula and after winning the Formula Ford festival in 1985 was widely regarded as a future world champion and was even getting comparrisons to the great Jim Clark. He teamed up with Eddie Jordan in 1987 and romped to the British Formula 3 title. He then graduated to the Formula 3000 championship where he won...
2014 GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer joins the grid for 2016 for a deserved shot at F1. The son of Dr Jonathan Palmer but probably quicker than he ever was. He has a younger brother named Will Palmer who is BRDC F4 champ and probably quicker than him but that's for a future debate. Palmer's pedigree is questioned by some due to that fact he spent 4 years in GP2 before winning the title but when you see that he joined the series as a 20 year old, and had only done 2 years of single setters prior, it's easy to see he did his development within the series. Anyone who saw his impressive 2014 championship will have no doubts this boy is a racing driver. He showed he was the master of consistency and very good at being in the right place at the...
Well having had a look to see if he had his own thread i thought that Montoya is long over due one. Juan Pablo Montoya divided alot of F1 fans opinions of him. Some thought he was a bit of a dill and others thought he was quite cool. Myself i thought he was a man with a big ego with bags of talent but never let it out. Montoya entered F1 in 2001 replacing Jenson Button at BMW Williams and partnered Ralf Schumacher for 4 years before moving to Mclaren in 2005 to join Kimi Raikkonen at the team. Montoya announced himself to the F1 world with a sensational move on the Legendary Michael Schumacher at turn one in Brazil 2001. But his F1 career didn't get off to the best of starts, he retired from his first two races. However at the...
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...
Of all the drivers in the Formula One fraternity, Kamui Kobayashi (小林 可夢偉) seems to be one of the most difficult to work out. Formula One fans love watching him, and he's famed for overtaking, but he does less overtaking than many drivers out on the field. He's rarely been defensively punchy other than his début in Brazil in 2009. His GP2 record is less than exceptional. He would never have got into Formula One if he was a different nationality. I think Kobayashi must be praised, but not for the usual reasons. What is outstanding is that given the opportunity, he picks up points. He did so at Abu Dhabi in 2009, for much of the latter half of 2010 and his run of points scores in 2011 (not counting his dsq in Australia) was longer than...
tooncheese asked for this video in another thread, and I was dismayed to realize that I hadn't started a dedicated Keke thread by now, but what better way to start it than with this classic example of Rosberg car control. It's a shame his race had to end this way though.
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 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.
Probably one of the coolest drivers ever to grace F1 alongside James Hunt. His part life-style may not have been to some teams liking in F1 but you can't deny that Kimi was probably one of the best drivers on the grid from 2003-09. He should have won more championships than he did! Kimi won his one and only F1 Championship in 2007. Kimi won 18 races, 16 pole positions, scored 62 podiums and claimed 35 fastest laps in his time in F1. Kimi is probably the must unluckiest driver to ever grace F1 and the amount of retirements he had no fault of his own were lots. Kimi won his first GP in 2003 winning the Malaysian GP and he claimed his last victory in F1 at the 2009 Belguim GP. Kimi started his F1 career in 2001 driving for Sauber, he...
Back
Top Bottom