Drivers

My 1st article on clip the apex Do you think we will ever see Kovalainen at the sharp end of the grid again? He had much potential pre-McLaren. He spent 9 years in karting and did relatively well winning the 2000 Nordic championship. He was Formula Renault 2001 rookie of the year. He was also British Formula 3 2002 rookie of the year finishing 3rd with 5 wins. He moved to world series by nissan in 2003 and won the championship in 2004 with 6 wins. In 2005 he moved to GP2 and battled Nico Rosberg for the championship finishing runner up with 5 wins. He built a bit of a reputation for himself by winning the race of champions in 2004 defeating David Coulthard, Michael Schumacher and Sebastien Loeb. He was also test driver for Renault...

On this very day thirty years ago came to an end the life of one of Formula One's most perduring legends. A man who embodied the concept of motor racing in its purest, most romantic form. It's hard to think of anything that hasn't been said already about Gilles Villeneuve. A man devoid of fear, who never gave anything other than his very best whatever the circumstances often capable of achieving breathtaking feats often in the face of impossible odds. We hear often the words "taking the car into positions it has no right to be in" about drivers who out-perform their machinery when they display impressive form. That expression could have been invented for Gilles, for whom the heroic was a matter of routine. Heroic feats he was made to...

Giedo van der Garde. The man, the myth, the legend. Okay not really. He is a okay driver though, and after years of speculation and hype in his motherland he finally made his Formula 1 debut last season with Caterham. Not exactly the best team to make your debut with but van der Garde did what he's always done: drive the car without making a complete fool of himself. His path to a race seat in Formula 1 was a long and unspectacular one, spending a lot of time in lower series without winning a championship apart from the 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 championship, which he won with a 29 point lead over the next competitor. Unfortunately for him that was the end of his winning ways, moving up to GP2 in 2009 and managing only one more top 3...

With 210 Grand Prixs, 10 wins, 48 podiums, 12 pole positions and 21 fastest laps the big tall Austrian has always been one of my favourite drivers. He had 2 spells at Benneton, 2 spells at Ferrari and a stint at Mclaren at was at the top of the sport for 12 years. In that time he never became a world champion but was it because he lacked the talent or lacked the luck? Berger kicked off his career with a couple of races for ATS before driving a season for Arrows. In typical Berger fashion he didn't bring home the bacon for Arrows until right at the end of the season finishing the 85 season with a 5th and a 6th place. Not only his first points scoring positions but enough to land him a drive at a fledgling Benneton team for 1986. 86 was...

Who is George Russell asked Titch - well he's is 21 year old from Norfolk who the latest Brit on the F1 grid. For once I can actually say I've watched this kid all the way up the ladder. I first saw Russell in BRDC F4 (thank you ITV4) and he stood out then because in a field full of kids putting everything on the line for a win he was the only one who had the brain to think about the championship race and realise getting a decent haul of points was sometimes more important than chucking it in do or die style for the win. Low and behold he won the title. I next see him in European F3 in a field containing Felix Rosenqvist, Antonio Giovanazzi and Charles LeClerc. He was mostly midfield that year but spent a lot of time wheel banging with...

Suprised there's no thread (although I had one for his blogs), so i'll start off: A double world championship vs Raikkonen and then Schumacher in 2005 and 2006 respectively elevated Alonso's status but, apparently, no one told his rookie teammate at his brand new team of a theoretical 'pecking order' the following season ... and the Spaniard was 'seen off' by the young Englishman, Hamilton, into two years of Wilderness while both Hamilton and an even younger Vettel began to make their mark through '08 and '09. Arguably, Alonso was in the Top 3 of all the Formula One 'Aces' in the 2000s following Hakkinen's retirement - up there with either Schumacher/Raikkonen and, then, Raikkonen/Hamilton - and remains so in the early 2010s along...

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...

Brilliant driver on his day but is he championship material? In 2008 he proved he was but thats only one occassion, plus that season the Ferrari TBH was a bit quicker and won more races that season. In 2009 he nearly suffered a career ending head-injury and since coming to back to the grid he hasn't really shown that promise he did in 2008. Don't get me wrong he's a driver i very much like, but i do wonder if he'll be a title challenger again for Ferrari season in season out or if he'll stay at Ferrari much longer? Whats your thoughts on Massa?

At the start of the 2016 season the two drivers I considered deserved to be on the grid most that weren't there were Stoffel Vandorne and Esteban Ocon. I'm very happy to say that both have now got their shot. At just twenty years of age Ocon certainly has the pedigree and the time to become one of the best in the sport and hopefully now has a shot in the Manor to show that potential. Ocon was the European F3 champion in 2014 and the GP3 champion in 2015 beating fairly strong opposition along the way to do so, most noticeably Max Verstappen. In both of his championship years he was face with opposition that was in better form than him and who had their machinery hooked up better than him, How did he do it? Well consistency was the name...

He’s the first rookie to be confirmed on the 2013 grid and the announcement has raised more than a little debate so its about time he had his own thread. Due to the fact he’s replacing a very popular driver who has had a fair rate of success, and the Mexican sponsorship the Sauber team has, his appointment hasn’t exactly been met with a wave of excitement and the words ‘pay driver’ can be heard being mumbled in dark corners of internet forums. I will have to say being a massive Kobi fan I was one of those mumblers but then I took a closer look at the stats. Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (so good they named him twice) was born 5th August in Mpnterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico. At 16 Esteban graduated from Karting to single seater racing...

Elio de Angelis' rise to F1 was quite phenomenal. In only his 3rd season of racing, with backing from his rich Roman parents, Elio entered F1 with the Shadow F1 team at Monaco in 1979. Prior to his F1 debut Elio had won the Italian F3 championship in 1977 and the Monaco GP F3 support race in 1978. However, Shadow was not a team on the up and de Angelis and team mate Jan Lammers both struggled at the back of the grid. The highlight of the '79 season came in the last race where Elio took fourth place at a wet Watkins Glen and this, combined with a a cash injection, secured Elio a seat alongside Mario Andretti at Team Lotus for 1980. 1980 was a season of rebuilding at Lotus after the disaster that was the type 80. The type 81 was a...

As a young man growing up on the south coast Derek Warwick was a bit of a celeb, at least in the Portsmouth Evening News, as he grew up in Four Marks, near Alton and as his racing career progressed the local press showed a very keen interest. Derek was runner up to Brian Henton in the European F2 Championship in 1980 in a Toleman car, having won the British F3 Championship in 1978. Based on their success in F2 Toleman took the brave decision to move in to F1 and, with money from Italian white goods manufacturer Candy, asked F2 engine maker, Brian Hart, to make them a turbo engine and Pirelli to supply them with tyres. Henton and Warwick went in to F1 with the team and the Toleman TG181 arrived at the San Marino GP in 1981. Both...