Formula 1 Drivers Nationality Lewis Hamilton, in full Lewis Carl Hamilton, , British race-car driver who was one of the most successful Formula One Grand Prix racing drivers of all time. He owns the F1 record for career race victories and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most drivers' championships . In 2008 he became the first Black driver to win the F1 world drivers' championship. Anthony Francis O'Connell Maggs (9 February 1937 in Pretoria, South Africa – 2 June 2009) was a racing driver from South Africa. He participated in 27 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 15 July 1961.
He achieved three podiums, and scored a total of 26 championship points. He was the first South African to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix. The son of a wealthy farmer and businessman, Tony Maggs was part of Ken Tyrrell's Formula Junior, Cooper-BMC team in 1961 and shared the European Championship with Jo Siffert. However, in a national race at Pietermaritzburg he crashed his Brabham and a young spectator standing in a restricted area was hit and killed. Maggs immediately retired from motor sport to concentrate on his business interests.Maggs died on 2 June 2009, from cancer. The racing drivers who participate in the Formula one races, also known as F1 races are called F1 drivers.
F1, officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is a single seat auto racing governed by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile . The 'formula' refers to a set of rules that must be followed by all the participants. F1 drivers participate in a series of races called the Grands Prix that are held all over the world on public roads or race circuits built specifically for this purpose.
The F1 races constitute the highest class of auto racing and the F1 cars race at speeds of up to 350 km/h. These cars are the fastest multi-turn circuit-racing cars in the world. Drivers with several years of experience in other competitive racing events and the highest level of driving skills are the ones who ultimately get selected for F1 championships.
F1 drivers also need to be risk-takers as the risk of automobile malfunction or accidents is ever present. This section provides you information about the life and works of various famous F1 drivers from all over the world. Seven-time champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton hold the record for the most championships. Hamilton also holds the record for the most wins with 103, the most pole positions with 103, the most points with 4165.5, and the most podiums with 182. Kimi Räikkönen has entered more Grands Prix than anyone else and also holds the record for the most Grand Prix starts . The United Kingdom is the most represented country, having produced 163 drivers.
Indonesia became the latest country to be represented by a driver when Rio Haryanto made his Formula One debut at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix driving for Manor Racing. The most recent drivers to make their Formula One debut are Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher and Yuki Tsunoda, who debuted at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix. Lando Norris, McLarenIn 2014, Norris contested in the Ginetta Junior Championship, making his first foray into motorcar racing. With Carlin Motorsport, Norris participated in the MSA Formula Series winning the series with 8 wins, 14 podium places and 10 pole positions. In his infrequent appearances in ADAC Formula 4 Championship, Norris earned six podium positions from eight starts. In the Brabham-led team's first full championship season of 1958 the debut win for a Cooper came courtesy of Stirling Moss, who drove Rob Walker's private entry to victory in Argentina.
Over the next four seasons with Benetton he won a further 18 races and two world championships. But Germany's first world champion was unquestionably worthy of the 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, then a team in disarray and without a champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979. As punishment for his misdemeanour Schumacher's points and his second place in the championship were stricken from the record books he would thereafter begin to rewrite. On a wet to drying track wheel-to-wheel battles raged throughout the field, beginning with Hamilton pushing aside his polesitting Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg on the opening lap. While the family's financial struggle was over it put extra pressure on McLaren's teenage protege to meet ever higher expectations.
As well as having to respond to envious critics who claimed he should be winning all the time, given his funding, it was imperative that Lewis continually prove himself worthy of his benefactor's investment. The need to achieve undoubtedly accelerated his progress through motorsport's ranks. After winning eight championships in six years of kart racing, he went on to win three major single seater titles, the most prestigious of which was the GP2 championship, where in 2006 he took five victories from 21 starts.
But it was the young British charger's several spirited comeback performances, from the back of the pack to the podium, that particularly prompted McLaren to promote him to the Formula One team. Formula One, abbreviated to F1, is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. It consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held usually on purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. Drivers are awarded points based on their finishing position in each race, and the driver who accumulates the most points over each championship is crowned that year's World Drivers' Champion. As of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, there have been 770 Formula One drivers from 40 different nationalities who have raced at least one of the 1,057 FIA World Championship races since the first such event, the 1950 British Grand Prix.
The German won seven world championships to establish himself as the driver-to-beat during his 19 season career in F1. He drove in 306 grands prix and won a then-record 91 times and claimed pole position 68 times. He attended the last race of his career in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix and finished in 14th place. He won 91 races in total in his successful career which includes most of the major championships with the fastest laps and highest pole positions along with 72 Grand Prix victories. George competed in the GP3 Series – a support series to Formula One.
The Mercedes-Benz Junior met his expectations in GP3 - as he went on to take four victories, seven podiums and four pole positions on his way to winning the Driver's championship with two races left to spare. After finishing second overall in 1998, Schumacher's 1999 season was interrupted by a broken leg incurred in a crash at the British Grand Prix. From then on there was no stopping 'Schumi' - who in 2000 became Ferrari's first champion in 21 years, then went on to win the driving title for the next four years in succession. In 2002 he won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races. In 2003 he broke Fangio's record by winning his sixth driving title.
In 2004 he won 13 of the 18 races to win his seventh championship by a by a massive margin. Lewis Hamilton called the 2021 season the hardest ever in his 15 years at the pinnacle of motorsport. The drivers were at the top of the game, their respective Mercedes and Red Bull Racing teams were the class of the field.
The intense rivalry between the 36-year-old seven-time world champion Englishman and his hard-charging 24-year-old Dutch rival was marred by frequent clashes. Responding to Verstappen's aggressive driving, Hamilton fought back in kind - setting them on a collision course seemingly destined to end in controversy – which it did. Millions of enthralled viewers witnessed one the most ferociously fought championships in F1 history.
In 2014, when major regulation changes featured new hybrid power units in chassis with reduced downforce, Mercedes dominated the season, winning 16 of the 19 races and easily securing the Constructors' Championship. Mercedes' policy of letting its drivers race each other enabled team mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to engage in an enthralling season-long duel for the driving title. Adding extra human interest to the drama was the fact that Hamilton and Rosberg had been friends and rivals since their karting days as teenagers.
Now, as 29-year-old protagonists competing for honours at the pinnacle of motorsport, the intensity of their rivalry strained their friendship and tested their strength of character. In the following seasons, though he continued to be one of the most aggressive drivers and a race winner, Hamilton failed to regain his championship form. His McLaren was not always a world-beater but in 2011 Hamilton blamed distractions in his private life for a loss of focus that he vowed to regain.
In 2012, with his private life running smoothly, he drove hard and well and finished fourth in the standings with four wins. Before that campaign was over he announced he was leaving McLaren, the team that had been so much a part of his racing life for so long, and would in 2013 replace the retiring Michael Schumacher at Mercedes. In his new environment he was a regular frontrunner, securing several poles and podiums and finished a respectable fourth in the 2013 championship.
He made a 46 years unbeaten record by winning the most World Championship of Drivers starting from 1951 and then 4 consecutive times from 1954 to 1957. With 24 wins, 29 highest pole positions, 35 podiums, 245 career points, and 23 fastest laps, he decorated his career with the greatest possible success. In subsequent seasons with McLaren, Hamilton continued to be one of the top drivers on the F1 circuit, winning two races in 2009, three in 2010, three in 2011, and four in 2012. In September 2012 Hamilton decided to leave McLaren to join the Mercedes-Benz F1 team. Hamilton progressed to car racing, and in 2003 he captured the British Formula Renault race series championship by winning 10 of the 15 races he entered.
The following year he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries championship. He won the championship in 2005, and in 2006 he joined a team competing in GP2 —a race series designed to help drivers prepare for F1—and won the GP2 title in his one season in the series. After impressing in Formula Three and finishing Rookie of the Year International Formula 3000 with a victory in Belgium in 2004, Robert Doornbos was hired as Friday test driver for Jordan Grand Prix for the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix.
Doornbos impressed as test driver for the final few races of the season, and was reappointed for the 2005 season, although he raced with a Monegasque racing license that year. At the 2005 German Grand Prix, he joined fellow Dutch driver Christijan Albers at Minardi, who debuted earlier that year as the team's regular driver. In 2006, Doornbos was appointed Friday test and reserve driver at Red Bull Racing, and would replace Christian Klien for the last 3 races of the season. After just 11 races over 4 years time, his Formula One career ended as he went to drive the Champ Car World Series in 2007. For 1966, when the new 3-litre formula came into effect, Brabham persuaded an Australian company Repco to produce a Formula One engine from a venerable Oldsmobile V8 design. Equally ancient was Brabham himself, or so it seemed to the media and his much younger rivals who used to kid him about his age.
Prior to the 1966 Dutch Grand Prix, his first race after his 40th birthday, 'Geriatric Jack' Brabham hobbled onto the starting grid at Zandvoort, wearing a long false beard and leaning on a cane. Sportingly, several of his laughing opponents helped him into the cockpit of his Brabham-Repco, which happened to be on pole position. Thus in 1966 Brabham became the first driver, to win the championship in a car of his own make.
Ferrari took the upper hand after the summer break, claiming six pole positions in a row, but their drivers were already too far behind in the championship. Hamilton came from behind to win in Russia and Mexico, meaning that with three races to go his sixth title was virtually assured. Although Bottas denied him victory at the Circuit of the Americas, second place for Hamilton sealed title number six. Firstly, he absolutely destroyed the field in the Formula 3 Euro Series, collecting 15 wins, 13 pole positions and 17 podium finishes in just 20 races to clinch the title in emphatic fashion with ASM Formule 3.
Former race-car driver David Coulthard, also known as DC, gained fame for his 15-season stint with Formula One. Following his retirement from F1, he worked a BBC commentator and later joined the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series. Widely considered one of the greatest drivers in Formula One history, Sebastian Vettel holds a number of records, including most podium finishes and most consecutive race wins.
Sebastian has a unique habit of naming his cars as he feels it is important to share a close relationship with the cars that he drives. In 2010, after a three-year hiatus as a consultant to Ferrari, 41-year-old Michael Schumacher succumbed to the lure of driving for the new Mercedes team headed by Ross Brawn. Critics questioned the multiple champion's decision to risk his reputation in the sport that was once his personal playground. He gave his best but made it to the podium only once during his three-year comeback. In his final season of 2012 his opponents included five other world champions - all of them at least a decade younger.
"I enjoyed most of it," Michael Schumacher said of the second part of his career. "It wasn't as successful as before but I still learned a lot for life. I found that losing can be both more difficult and more instructive than winning. Now is a good time to go." He was born on 3 January, 1969, near Cologne, Germany, six years before his brother Ralf, who would also become a Formula One driver of note. Their father, a bricklayer, ran the local kart track, at Kerpen, where Mrs Schumacher operated the canteen. As a four-year old Michael enjoyed playing on a pedal kart, though when his father fitted it with a small motorcycle engine the future superstar promptly crashed into a lamppost.
But Michael quickly mastered his machine and won his first kart championship at six, following which his far from affluent parents arranged sponsorship from wealthy enthusiasts that enabled Michael to make rapid progress. By 1987 he was German and European kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice car mechanic, a job that was soon replaced by full-time employment as a race driver. In 1990 he won the German F3 championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sportscars. Rosberg, who started from pole but finished out of the points with a car problem, was gracious in defeat, acknowledging that his team mate's tally of 11 wins to Rosberg's five meant Hamilton deserved to be the 2014 champion. On assuming the role of team leader in the boy wonder became even more of a marked man.
En route to carving out five victories and scything his way to the podium on six other occasions, he incurred the wrath of several overtaken rivals who accused him of arrogance and dangerous driving. Hamilton insisted his hard-earned self-belief was wrongly interpreted and that his driving was firm but fair. But it wasn't without flaw and a combination of miscues and mishaps meant the championship was far from a foregone conclusion prior to the final Grand Prix, in Brazil. There, if Hamilton failed to finish at least fifth, Ferrari's Felipe Massa could take the title by winning his home race. Certainly he was well prepared, though no one was prepared for the astonishing ease with which the precocious youngster stormed through the 2007 season.
Clark set 33 pole positions and won 25 of the 72 GP starts he made, and can claim numerous records to this day – in 1963, for example, he led 71 per cent of all laps raced that season. As well as his versatility, Clark was revered for his incredible silkiness behind the wheel, and his extraordinary mechanical sympathy. "Jim Clark was everything I aspired to be, as a racing driver and as a man," his great friend Sir Jackie Stewart said. Not all of the world's great sporting stars are as extrovert as they might appear – or as we might want them to be. Jim Clark was one of the most unassuming men ever to sit in an F1 cockpit, but also arguably the most singularly gifted driver of all time.
Whilst enjoying his three-year comeback with MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, Michael was to reach the magic total of 300 Formula 1 races in, of all places, what he refers to as his 'living room' at the Grand Prix of Belgium 2012. Michael proved that he had not lost any of his speed during his break from Formula 1 with a fastest time in qualifying at Monaco in 2012, to mention but one of his achievements. His best race result in the Silver Arrow, though, was a third place at the European Grand Prix in Valencia in 2012. Michael finally ended his Formula 1 career at the Brazil season finale in 2012 after 308 Grands Prix, 91 wins and seven world championship titles.
This was the most successful period of his career, winning the majority of his races and championships in the early 2000s. He stayed at Ferrari until he retired at the end of the 2006 season. Like his new team-mate's number, '3' has been no stranger to race, or championship, winning cars in recent time. Desiré Randall Wilson is a former racing driver from South Africa and one of only five women to have competed in Formula One.
Born in Brakpan, she entered one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix in 1980 with a non-works RAM Racing-prepared Williams FW07, but failed to qualify. She also raced in the 1981 non-world championship South African Grand Prix in a one off deal with Tyrrell Racing. This race was not part of the 1981 world championship due, in part, to the FISA–FOCA war. As a result of this achievement, she has a grandstand at Brands Hatch named after her. Following her attempts in Formula One, Wilson participated in other disciplines including CART and sports car racing.
