Drivers

Courtesy of Planet F1 and Tranquility's post in the Belgian PQR thread here's a place to discuss the Williams' No.2 Pastor started his racing career in Italy in the Formula Renault and F3000. He would have been Formula Renault 3.5 Champion if he hadn't been disqualified from a win at Misano in 2006. Moving on to GP2 Pastor raced for 4 seasons, eventually taking the title in 2010. With not insubstantial financial backing from Venezuela's national petroleum company, PDVSA, he took Nico Hulkenberg's seat at Williams for 2011 winning his first point last weekend in Belgium. On a personal level, he is a self proclaimed Socialist and a personal friend of controversial Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, which probably explains the backing...

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...

Vitaly Petrov started racing when he was 17 unlike most top drivers he started racing late and not in go-karts, but Lada cars. In 2002 when racing in the Lada Cup he dominated the championship, winning all rounds and amassing the maximum points possible of 500. So the talent was there. In 2003, Petrov began racing in Formula Renault, racing in the Italian Championship for Euronova Racing, finishing 19th overall. He also competed in some rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0.He also finished fourth in the British Formula Renault Winter Series at the end of the year, taking one win.He also made his debut in Euro Formula 3000 at Cagliari. Not a great first sseason in single seaters. However in 2006 he had a more promising year. He...

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...

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...

Now here's a driver who polarises opinion. A really nice bloke or a bitter man who should have grown a pair at Ferrari instead of bitching about it after he left. The most experienced driver ever in F1 but now, perhaps, past his sell by date? A brilliant car sorter who helped Jenson Button realise his title ambitions at Brawn or someone who failed to take an opportunity when it came his way? Rubens Barrichello: 314 GP starts 11 wins (No. 25 in the list of GP winners - ahead of Ronnie Petersen but behind Alan Jones) 14 poles 17 fastest laps Everyone's favourite No.2? The best choice Williams could could have made to lead there team or would they be better off without him?

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...

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...

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...

Personally, I'd be very keen to know what people here think of Nigel Mansell - who had a very similar record in some ways to Button.... Autosport ran a very interesting article a few weeks about some of Nige's stats - did you know that Mansell only outqualified his team-mate 87-83 over his entire career? Yes Mansell did win 3 times as many races as Button has during his career, but you have to just compare their careers - Mansell won in his 6th season of F1, Button his 7th, but whilst Mansell then had the best car on the grid the following year, Button had just about the worst! Mind (And I know this is off topic) - Mansell regularly gets tarnished for his time at Ferrari as team-mate to Prost - but did you know that the qualifying...

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.

Nico Erik Rosberg, son of Keijo "Keke" Erik Rosberg, is about to have his 100th Grand Prix meeting this weekend in Hungary. I was about to write my "best wishes" to him in 'his' thread...but I couldn't find one...so, I figured I might as well start it off. What is very interesting is that his father, Keke, took part in 114 Grand Prix races in his entire Formula One career, winning 5 of them - all for Williams from 1982 to 1985 - as well as a World Championship. It's interesting in that Nico is approaching that number quickly and he's already about to finish off his 6th season in a few months...but without a win to his name...and no win in sight given the current pecking order of the cars. Some say Nico is a great talent...while...