Drivers

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...

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...

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...

I thought I'd give poor old Jerome his own thread to sit in the current drivers section for a little bit as I think, unfourtunatly, he'll be moved to the past drivers section very soon. Got to feel a bit sorry for this nice Belgium bloke as you can't really credit him with having done much wrong on his debut F1 season but as the Virgin car was designed on a ZX Spectrum 48k its proven once again to be permantly glued to the back of the grid. He's not done too badly compared to his more illustrious team-mate. Out of the 8 times they've both finished the GP who's finished in front of him 3 times and sits in front of him in the championship due to having 2 14th place finishes - one on his debut in Australia and one in Canada. Glocks...

Arguably the best ever driver in mixed conditions, all his wins at Mclaren have come in those conditions. His last race win in the dry came at the 2009 Turkish GP. Button is known for his smooth driving style and is normally seen in must races doing one less stop than his rivals for tyres. Buttons also know to be a bit of a practical joker and will take part in anything fun. Since his debut in 2000 Button has won the majority of hearts in this country. But what is your favourite JB win? Mine has to be Hungaroring 2006, in argubly a midfield team and he won the race in those mixed conditions to take his first win. I can remember James Allen been in tears almost and that was the first race Anthony Davidson ever commentated on.

An homage to my favourite driver. Fast, honest and one of the unluckiest Grand Prix drivers ever. Jarier was born in 1946 and after competing in Formula France moved on to F3, finishing 3rd in the French Championship in 1970. 1971 saw him in F2 and debut in F1 in a rented March at Monza. For 1973 Jarier raced in F1 for March and also in the F2 Championship. His exploits in F1 were pretty unremarkable that season and he was replaced at various points by pay drivers as the March team were struggling for cash. However, he took the F2 title with seven wins beating the likes of Jochen Mass,John Watson and Patrick Depailler. For 1974 Jumper, a name he acquired at March as Robin Herd's son pronounced Jean-Pierre as "jumper", moved on...

Well I've been talking him up a lot on other threads so I thought I'd finally give next years youngest driver(unless HRT shock us) his own thread. Jean-Eric Vergne or JEV for short. All jokes concerning journeying to the centre of the earth are indeed welcome. The third new Frenchmen on the grid and certainly the one I see as having the most potential. Just to make us all feel old JEV didn't get into single seater racing until 2007 where at the age of 17 he raced in the French Formula Renault Campus. Not only did he race in it but he won it by a country mile finishing on the podium 10 times in 13 races. It certainly made him stand out and his was signed to the Red Bull Junior Team on the back of it. He also became a member of the...

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

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...

The man who feels like a god when he puts his crash helmet on does not have his own thread and due to the fact we've found out his Godly status I shall write his thread in the approproite style. So please be upstanding for the 10 commandments of Alguersuari. Thou shall not judge a driver by his age! He broke the record for the youngest person ever to compete in a Grand Prix when he took part in the 2009 Hungarian GP at the age of 19 years and 125 days. He also won the British F3 Championship at 18. Jaime is not even 22 yet and he already has 40 grand prixs under his belt. As long as he can keep a seat he must be looking at breaking Barrichello's record. Thou shall judge thy too early! Like the Phoenix Jaime has shown the potential...

Before reading further, just consider this. If someone told you that there was a driver who finished second on his Indy 500 debut and within 4 years had not only won the Indy 500 but the Indy Championship title and the Formula One world championship. You would think to yourself that sounds like one hell of a driver...... As soon as people mention the name Jacques Villeneuve however, the above paragraph gets completely forgotten and the view that forms in most peoples minds is one of a driver only motivated by money and who paddled around in an uncompetative car and struggled to beat the likes of Ricardo Zonta. He finally left F1 with his tail between his legs after being dumped mid season by Sauber. The question is, does he deserve...

This will be the first in a series of profiles of F1 drivers from days gone by. My ambition is to learn more about drivers who were great personalities in F1 but never won a Championship or, perhaps, even a race and I hope you will enjoy finding out what I discover. To that end I will kick you off with "Monsieur Mans", Jacky Ickx. As his nickname suggest, Jacques Bernard Ickx is probably mostly remembered by motor racing fans for his exploits at Le Mans and, until Tom Kristensen came along, Jacky was indeed the master of Le Sarthe with 6 class wins starting in 1969 and ending in 1982. Like many, Ickx came to motor sport via motorcycles and was Belgian Trail Champion in 1963. He moved on to racing saloon cars and was Belgian...