Drivers

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

It's going to be a long, slow day at work so here's a profile of Rene Arnoux, one of the most difficult drivers to pigeon hole. On occasions blinding quick, on other occasions a mobile road block who made Jarno Trulli look like a rank amateur. He was also very well balanced with a chip on both shoulders. I first saw Rene racing in 1980 when at the all French Renault team partnered with Jean Pierre Jabouille. There's an interesting comment in his Grandprix.com entry: I think this explains the enigma that is Rene Arnoux, not very technically gifted but a real balls out racing driver as this video of the closing laps of the 1979 French GP demonstrates perfectly. Jean Pierre Jabouille won Renault's first ever Grand Prix at that...

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...

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...