He began go-karting at aged 14, when he discovered the sport during a family holiday. His F1 career started at McLaren in 1980 with a disappointing campaign, but it kicked into life when he signed for Renault. He took his first few wins in 1981, and finished 4th in the drivers' championship in 1982. But his career took a huge step in 1983, when he pushed Brabham's Nelson Piquet all the way and finished within two points of the title win. 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.
Driving in the F1 championship is a highly demanding job. Only the best racing drivers are able to make it to the F1 races. 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. 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. He made Mansell an offer he couldn't refuse, and boy was he glad he didn't. The 1992 seasons saw Mansell make the most scintillating starts to a campaign, with five straight victories in a row.
He won three of the next five races, and dominated winning the championship by a huge margin over teammate Ricardo Patrese. He set his sights on America the following year, joining the IndyCar series, and won the championship. And that's exactly what he did in 1975, with his first world championship. With an incredible Ferrari 312, he took the title with an impressive five wins.
In '76, his rivalry with James Hunt came to the forefront. Lauda had another incredible start to the season with six wins and nine podiums in 10 races. But during the German Grand Prix, Lauda suffered life-threatening injuries that looked almost certain to end his life, let alone his racing career. After two years away from the F1 track, Fernando Alonso is back with Alpine.
The 39-year-old, once at the center of the series' Spygate and Crashgate scandals, has rebuilt himself into a tremendously popular driver, in part by broadening his auto-racing horizons. In recent years, he has competed in the Indianapolis 500, entered the Dakar Rally and won the endurance races 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona. The Spaniard won the drivers' championship in 2005 and 2006 with Renault—an earlier incarnation of his current team. 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. Leading the pack is Mercedes superstar Lewis Hamilton, who is on pace to earn $62 million on the track in 2021. That figure includes a $55 million base salary—more than double what his closest competitor is guaranteed—as well as a projected $7 million in bonuses for race wins.
With few Formula 1 driver salaries publicly available, Forbes relied on financial documents, legal filings and press leaks as well as conversations with industry insiders and consultants to compile this list. Drivers typically receive a base salary plus bonuses for points scored or for race or championship wins, with the amount depending on the size of the team and the experience of the driver. Sebastian Vettel won four straight championships with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013 before jumping to Ferrari, a stint that ended with a disappointing 2020 for both the driver and the team. Lucas di Grassi has a life-time's experience in motorsport.
He has raced in Formula 3, Formula One, WEC, and Formula E, winning the 2016–2017 Formula E driver's championship. He has been named the best endurance driver, the best Formula E driver, and one of the most important figures in motorsport. A genius in engineering, Lucas di Grassi worked many years as a test-driver, improving the mechanics of cars, from tyres to efficiency.
Senna was one of the greatest inspirations to race cars, and the only driver in this list not to hail from a European country. He was born in Sao Paolo to a wealthy factory owner and excelled when he began racing go-karts aged 13, usually beating competitors years older than him. To push for success in motorsport, Senna relocated to England to race in single-seaters. France is number 4 on the list with 79 Formula One Grand Prix wins. The most successful French Formula One driver is Alain Prost, who won a total of 51 races for the country.
This was the world record until the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix, which was won by Schumacher. Prost began his Formula One career in 1980 when he joined the McLaren team. Lewis Hamilton, who replaced Michael Schumacher at Mercedes in 2012, has become an icon on the same level as his predecessor. The 36-year-old signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes this summer, following up on a three-year, $140 million deal in 2015 and a two-year, $100 million extension in 2018.
He is also the founder of X44, a team in the new off-road electric-SUV racing series Extreme E. Nico Hülkenberg initially worked as a forwarding agent at his father's shipping company. He had started his racing career with go-karting at age 10 and grew up to race for Formula BMW, Formula Three, and GP2, among others. He scripted history by winning the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race in his first attempt.
With seven Formula One championship under his belt, Michael Schumacher is the most successful racer of Formula 1 and one of the greatest motor sports driver in the world. The retired German racer was the face of Ferrari for a decade and with his tremendous on track success also became one of best paid athletes in the sport's history. The years that followed were relatively anonymous for Hamilton, but his career stepped up a gear when the regulations changed in 2014.
Mercedes mastered the turbo-hybrid regs, and no other team has won a championship throughout this period in history. Hamilton seemingly always had the better of his teammate Nico Rosberg, until their rivalry erupted in 2016. Rosberg took the title at the final race, before retiring from the sport altogether. In just his first season with McLaren, he lost to eventual champion Kimi Raikkonen by a single point. He made amends in 2008 with his first World Championship, but only just. A tightly contested battle with Felipe Massa culminated at the final race in Interlagos for the Brazilian's home race.
When Massa crossed the line and ended his season, he was at the top of the championship standings. But Hamilton was gifted the championship by a point when Timo Glock's car slowed on the final tour of the circuit. Up there with Sergio Aguero's final-minute goal to seal Manchester City's Premiership in 2012, this is up there with the greatest last-gasp title wins ever. Before he went into karting, Hamilton raced remote controlled cars, beating adults to championships when he was just a kid. He carried that success into karting and – where some successful young drivers are hit with a dose of reality when they reach the highest levels of sport, Hamilton continued to dominate. His first drivers' championship came in a sensational 1963 season.
He won seven of the ten races that year, a win record that wouldn't be matched until Alain Prost took seven wins in 1984. His next championship came in an almost equally dominant 1965 season, in which he won six of the opening seven races. The only race he didn't win was the Monaco Grand Prix, because he decided to win the Indianapolis 500 instead. After taking a short ban following an incident at Silverstone during the 2015 MSA Formula 4 Championship, Dan returned to motorsport in 2016 racing in a couple of Formula 3 races and the Macau Grand Prix. In 2014, Dan raced with Zanardi Strakka Racing as their number one driver in KFJ. Racing under Dino Chiesa's guidance – having nurtured the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg – Dan finished the season as Vice Champion in WSK Masters and third in WSK Champions Cup.
He also broke the lap record at the Brands Indy circuit on his first test in a single seater with Lanan Racing in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship. Dan finished seventh overall and was the second-best Rookie in the 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup series racing with Arden International. He also competed in the final three rounds of the 2017 GP3 series at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Circuito de Jerez and the Yas Marina Circuit, achieving podium finishes.
In November 2017, Dan won for the first time at Macau, becoming the youngest ever winner at this prestigious event. A month later, he claimed the 2017 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award – the most important accolade for a junior British racing driver. He was quickly fast-tracked to the senior Red Bull Racing team, finishing runner-up to Brawn GP's Jenson Button in 2009. But Red Bull dominated come the turn of the decade, and Vettel pushed the team to four consecutive championships.
His drivers' titles didn't come without struggle, however. Seb had an infamously difficult relationship with teammate Mark Webber, but Vettel's results spoke for themselves. Prost moved to Ferrari the next year, but both drivers remained the main protagonists. It once again came down to the penultimate race in Japan where, yet again, the rivals collided.
That meant Prost couldn't mathematically win the championship, and Senna was crowned with his second title. He followed it up with a consecutive championship for McLaren, the third of his career. Number 5 on the list is Finland with 46 Formula One Grand Prix wins. The current drivers for Finland are Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas. Raikkonen drove for Ferrari for a few years, winning 4 races on their team.
Formula 1 Drivers 2021 Nationality Juri Vips Red Bull Racing RB16B. Formula One Testing, Tuesday 14th December 2021. Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, UAE.Indonesia was the most recent new country, China is the next, but which country is likely after that? Of the drivers in Formula 2 the standout would be Estonia's Juri Vips, who finished sixth overall, and is part of Red Bull's scheme, having tested both the RB16 and RB16B at the end of 2020 and 2021 respectively.
A big 2022 would ostensibly propel him into consideration for AlphaTauri for 2023. Estonia also has 17-year-old Paul Aron, third in FREC, climbing the ladder under the guidance of Mercedes. Israel's Roy Nissany has had test outings with Williams, and will remain in Formula 2 with DAMS this year, but would need an improbable upturn in results to ever be a realistic contender. Dennis Hauger is seeking to place Norway on the map following his Formula 3 title triumph, and Red Bull affiliation, with Formula 2 likely his next step, having already tested for champions Prema. Further down the ladder Mercedes is supporting the career of karter Alex Powell, who hails from Jamaica.
India's arrival came courtesy of Narain Karthikeyan with Jordan in 2005, finishing fourth at Indianapolis' tyre fiasco race, while six years later he reappeared with HRT, bringing his tally to 46 races. Karun Chandhok, now a pundit with Sky, entered 11 grands prix in the early 2010s with HRT and Lotus, though he and Karthikeyan never shared a grid. India briefly had a grand prix, and for a decade had its own team under the ownership of the gregarious Vijay Mallya, but no driver has been forthcoming since Karthikeyan departed amid HRT's collapse after 2012. Red Bull-affiliated Jehan Daruvala has been competitive in junior categories but has yet to convince that he has Formula 1 potential. After achieving success in the British Formula 3 championship in 2007, Perez switched to GP2 at a young stage. His first season was extremely difficult, but after a switch from Arden to Barwa Addax, the Mexican showed his worth.
Despite five wins, Checo finished second in the standings behind Pastor Maldonado, and it proved enough to put him on Sauber's radar. Hamilton, who has four wins through ten races, still has time to overtake Verstappen, with the gap in the standings a mere eight points and 12 races remaining on the schedule . His racing career started at the age of four when he took up go-karting and competed in numerous junior events before entering Formula 1. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has the most wins of any driver in F1 history, and his success on track has been matched by financial rewards off it as he accumulated an estimated net worth of $280 million. Romain Grosjean is a racing driver who spent nine Formula One seasons with several teams.
In 2011, he won the GP2 Series as well as the GP2 Asia Series, becoming the first two-time GP2 Asia champion. 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. These experiences shaped his early career and eventually led him to take a seat with Minardi in 2001. After a year bringing up the rear of the pack, Alonso went on to join Renault and in 2005, he made history. Breaking Michael Schumacher's streak of five world championships in a row, Alonso became the youngest driver to ever win the championship.
The next year, he became the youngest to score back-to-back championships. He enjoyed success with the Oxfordshire-based team, winning races regularly and dramatically losing the title at the final race in 1986. With another runner-up season in 1987, he'd turned heads at Maranello and joined Ferrari.
If there's one word to sum up Nigel Mansell's racing career, it's 'determination'. While he had success in karting, like many of those to make this list, his family disapproved of the step into open-wheel Formula racing. While he enjoyed huge success in the junior ranks, it almost all came to an end when he broke his neck in an incident at Brands Hatch. Doctors told him he was dangerously close to losing the use of his limbs, and would never drive again. In his final Formula 1 season, Stewart would bow out in style. A hard-fought first half of the season in which Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi shared the wins in the first six races, Stewart maintained the form and took the championship.
Niki Lauda may be at the latter end of this scale, but he without a doubt one of the most inspirational drivers to grace the grid. While he came from a wealthy background – as many who could afford to race cars are – his family didn't approve of his hobby. He took out a £30,000 loan to buy his way into a Formula 2 team, and it was a gamble that soon paid off.
The following year, he was promoted to F1 and raced for March. Hamilton began his driving career when he was eight years old. Three years later Hamilton was signed to the McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme, where he was given the support and backing he needed to train and develop his skills. From 1998 to 2000 he won European and world karting championships, and at age 15 he became the youngest-ever driver to be ranked number one in the sport. Despite having the most iconic and successful team in motorsport, the country has failed to produce world-quality drivers of decent stature since the 1950s. A lack of junior formula series could be a contributing factor as well as football being the sport that consumes the passions of youngsters in the country.
