Profiles Index
Ayrton Senna: Three-Time World Drivers' Champion
Ayrton Senna won three world championships in the 1980s and 1990s. But his personality, driving style and other results on the track made him be considered one of the very greatest of Formula 1 drivers in history. Senna died tragically in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola on 1 May 1994 driving a Williams.
Brawn GP: Celebrated Technical Director Leads Management Buyout of Honda
Brawn GP was born suddenly in March of 2009, three weeks before the start of the new season as a result of the equally as sudden pullout by Honda Motor Co. from F1 three months before. After six seasons powering the BAR cars as an engine provider, the Honda Motor Co. bought the team and raced under its own name from 2006, only to withdraw entirely from the sport after it said the economic crisis that reduced car sales forced it to cut back and quit Formula 1. Ross Brawn bought the team.
Alain Prost: Four-Time World Drivers' Champion
Alain Prost, a Frenchman, was the first Formula 1 driver after Juan Manuel Fangio of the 1950s to win four world championship titles. Fangio had won five titles, ending in 1958, and no other driver did better than three until Prost won his fourth title in 1993 at the Williams team. Prost was particularly famous as one of a dueling tandem, the other of whom was Ayrton Senna, who won three titles.
Sébastien Buemi: Young Swiss F1 Driver
Sébastien Buemi joins the Toro Rosso team as Formula 1's youngest driver in 2009. At 20 years old, Buemi, a Swiss, comes to the sport after winning multiple go-karting titles as a child, but never having won a championship in car racing after five seasons racing. The Red Bull supported driver did, however, finish second on several occasions.
Scuderia Toro Rosso: Former Minardi F1 Team Reinvents Itself as Red Bull B-Team
Toro Rosso was built on the base of the Minardi Formula 1 team after the Red Bull energy drink company bought it in 2005 as the second team in its F1 empire. In fact, Toro Rosso means Red Bull in Italian. But not long after the Austrian company bought the team, it sold half of the shares to Gerhard Berger, the former Formula 1 driver, who took over the job of directing the team. By 2008 it won its first race, and Red Bull bought back Berger's shares to own the team 100 percent.
Michael Schumacher: Seven-Time World Drivers' Champion
Michael Schumacher is the only seven-time world drivers' champion in Formula 1 history. He began racing in the series in 1991 and retired in 2006. The German driver broke just about every record in the sport, but above all that number of five world titles previously held by Juan Manuel Fangio since the 1950s that no one thought would ever be broken. After doing one race at the Jordan team, Schumacher drove the rest of his career at only two teams: Benetton and Ferrari.
Formula One Teams Association, The Teams' United Front
In 2008 the 10 Formula 1 teams created an organization called the Formula One Teams Association. The goal of the group was to have a structure for the teams to work together in as a negotiating tool between the teams and the International Automobile Federation and the F1 promoter, Bernie Ecclestone.
David Coulthard: Last of the Gentleman Drivers
David Coulthard has been racing in Formula 1 since 1994, when he joined the Williams team after the death of Ayrton Senna. The Scottish driver has won many races and always proved he was a good and sure value for any team. But he never won the drivers' title.
Force India: A Country Increases its Formula 1 Involvement
The Force India F1 team grew out of the Spyker team, which grew from the former Jordan team, by way of a year as the Midland F1 team. Bought in 2007 by the Indian financial tycoon, Vijay Mallya, the team is seen as a first step toward a greater involvement by India in Formula 1 racing. This should culminate in an Indian Grand Prix by 2010.
Renault: Formula 1 World Champions Against the Odds
Although the Renault car manufacturer was long one of the most successful engine builders in Formula 1, it was not until 2005 that Renault managed to win a world constructors' title as both engine and chassis builder. It also won the drivers' title that year with Fernando Alonso, and then won both titles again in 2006. The team lost Alonso for 2007, dropped in the standings, but rehired the Spaniard for 2008 and won two races.
Heikki Kovalainen: A Personable, Articulate Finnish Wild Card
Following in the footsteps of two great Finnish drivers - Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen - the latest young Finn has a couple of hard acts to follow. But everything from his results in the lower levels of racing indicates that Heikki Kovalainen has what it takes for Formula 1 success. Personally, he is more demonstrative than his predecessors and could become a great crowd pleaser of the coming years. After a deceptive first year at Renault, Heikki moved to McLaren in 2008.
Honda: Fourth Most Victorious F1 Engine Maker Returns as a Full Team
After six seasons powering the BAR cars as an engine provider, the Honda Motor Co. bought the team and raced under its own name from 2006. It was the second period of the Japanese company as a full fledged team in Formula 1, after it raced in F1 from 1964 to 1968 building both the chassis and the engine. It also turned out to be good luck for the fourth most victorious engine building company, as Honda won its first race since the Italian Grand Prix of 1967 at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2006.
Giancarlo Fisichella: A Driver's Driver in a Make or Break Year
Giancarlo Fisichella has long been one of the most highly respected drivers in Formula 1, but the Italian from Rome had a difficult time finding the right team at the right time. When he joined Renault in 2005, he was finally there. Then unfortunately, his teammate, Fernando Alonso, won most of the races and the drivers' titles in 2005 and 2006. The 2008 season will be make or break it for Fisichella.
Sebastian Vettel: Formula 1's Youngest Driver
When Sebastian Vettel was called in to replace Robert Kubica at the U.S. Grand Prix in 2007 and finished eighth he became the youngest driver to score a point in Formula 1. Vettel was the test driver at the BMW Sauber team, but he was also part of the Red Bull Energy drink's driver development program. So when Scott Speed was kicked out of the Toro Rosso team before the Hungarian Grand Prix that same year, Vettel was hired to replace him.
Nico Rosberg: Formula 1 World Champion's Son Joins Dad's Old Team
Son of the Formula 1 world champion Keke Rosberg, Nico Rosberg proved in his first season that he is capable of racing with the best F1 drivers. In fact, as the youngest driver in the series, he is using his years as a driver at the Williams team intelligently to develop his technical knowledge and racecraft as he tries to follow in his father's footsteps. Nico scored two points in his first race in F1 and set the fastest lap. But the rest of his first season was less exemplary.
Mark Webber: Australian Eternal Hopeful Takes the (Red) Bull by the Horns
Australian driver Mark Webber enters a crucial year in his career as he joins the Red Bull team in 2007. After five years in F1, Webber, 30, will partner David Coulthard, one of the most victorious drivers still racing. Webber has outraced all of his teammates, but always seemed to be at the wrong team at the wrong time, or, as in the case of Williams, the right team at the wrong time.
Adrian Sutil: Precocious Pianist Quits Concert Hall for Formula 1 Race Track
Adrian Sutil joined the Spyker F1 team after a distinguished career in the lower formulas and go-karting. Yet even before he discovered racing he had a career as a child concert pianist. It was not until he was 14 that he discovered go-karting, and decided to change careers. He joined Formula 1 at one of the lowest level teams, however, and will not be expected to do as well as his former F3 teammate, Lewis Hamilton, another F1 rookie.
McLaren Mercedes: F1's Second Most Successful Team
McLaren Mercedes is the second most successful Formula 1 team, behind Ferrari. It has won races in five different decades of racing in the FIA Formula 1 world championship. From its earliest years, in the 1960s, it has been one of the top teams. It made a successful transition to new management in the early 1980s, when Ron Dennis took over running the team, and the period when Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna raced as team mates was one of the strongest in F1 history.
Nelson Piquet Jr.: Son of Triple World Champion Gets His Break
Nelson Piquet Jr. is the latest in a string of sons of former world champion Formula 1 drivers to follow in his father's footsteps, his father having won the title three times in the 1980s. And Nelsinho, as he is also known, while having help from his father since the beginning, also proved that he merited a chance in his rookie season in 2008 at the Renault team.
Rubens Barrichello: The Sympathetic Brazilian With a Talent of Fire
Rubens Barrichello joined Formula 1 in 1993 at the age of 20 at the Jordan team, where he immediately impressed the paddock with his speed and daring. A protégé of his countryman Ayrton Senna, Barrichello's great beginnings were suddenly shattered when Senna was killed in an accident the following year. Barrichello spent years rebuilding his confidence, before joining Ferrari, where he became Michael Schumacher's faithful teammate and won his first races. He joined Honda in 2006.
Fernando Alonso: The Youngest Double World Champion in History
In 2006 Fernando Alonso became the youngest double world champion in Formula 1 history, and the youngest to win consecutive drivers' titles. In fact, at 25, but with five seasons of F1 racing behind him, the Spaniard had a series of "youngest" records to his name. He then joined McLaren-Mercedes for 2007, just missed on the title, and rejoined Renault for 2008.
Kimi Raikkonen: The Iceman From Finland, a Cool Ferrari Driver
After twice finishing second in the Formula 1 drivers' title series at McLaren, Kimi Raikkonen joined Ferrari in 2007. At the dominant team of the last decade, in 2007 the Finnish driver finally broke the jinx and took his first championship crown.
Lewis Hamilton: World's Youngest World Champion Driver at McLaren-Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton's rise to the pinnacle of world motor racing is a story unique in the history of Formula 1. After years of proving to be one of the fastest, most successful drivers in the lower series the young British driver joined the illustrious McLaren Mercedes team in 2007 to become the first black driver in F1 history. He won the drivers' title in 2008, to become the youngest ever winner of the title.
Danica Patrick: First Woman To Win a Major International Open-Wheel Race
In 2008 Danica Patrick became the first woman to win a major international open-wheel race when she won an Indy Racing League event in Japan. Before that, however, she had a long career working here way up the levels in open-wheel racing in Europe with a view to making it to Formula 1. She first attracted international attention when she became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500.
Felipe Massa: Young Ferrari Driver Changes Perception to Become F1 Favorite
Felipe Massa climbed his way steadily and quietly up the Formula 1 ladder at Sauber until last year he had his big chance as a regular driver for the Ferrari team. As Michael Schumacher's teammate the Brazilian did not disappoint, winning the first two races of his career, at the Turkish Grand Prix and the Brazilian Grand Prix. As teammate to Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, Massa became a favorite to win the drivers' title.