Formula 1 Drivers 2021 Nationality

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.

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.

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. He was truly a vintage driver who got better with time. 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. 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.

On the track Hamilton talks with the greatest authority. At 36, he is the most accomplished Formula One driver of all time, with 98 grand prix wins, 100 pole positions and 171 podium finishes. The only meaningful record he hasn't broken is the number of drivers' championships won, where he is tied with Michael Schumacher at seven. Put bluntly, he's the best the world has ever seen and is still at the top of his game. 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. 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 took the lead from pole setter Verstappen right at the start. In the end though, Verstappen was able to take back the lead on the final lap and set his first world championship title in stone. The decisions of the race organizers, meanwhile, were often criticized. The Red Bull driver's victory not only broke Hamilton's winning streak, but also that of Mercedes.

The racing team headed by Toto Wolff had won the world championship seven times in a row - but Mercedes still managed to secure world championship title number eight in the constructors' championship. 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. 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. 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. 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. This year F1 held a record 22 races in a single season across 21 countries.

It is set to hold 23 races in the upcoming 2022 season, making F1 one of the most global sports in terms of fans, teams, race tracks as well as driver representation. Despite a grid of only 20 drivers (21 this season counting Robert Kubica's participation in two races for Alfa Romeo), the 2021 season saw a representation of drivers from 13 different countries. For the 2010 season, Lando entered the two main national championships in the cadet class racing against drivers up to three years older than him. Having graduated from being a member of the McLaren Young Driver squad to the British F1 team's Test & Reserve driver in 2018, Lando stepped up to a full season in F2. Lando got his Championship title aspirations off to a flying start by winning the opening race in Bahrain. He then racked up a further 8 podiums throughout the season placing him as Vice-champion.

Driving for the factory Renault team, he finished a career-best seventh in the standings and took to the podium on four occasions. Alongside Alain Prost, however, Cheever's achievements were made to look average, with the Frenchman missing out on the title by two points and winning more races than anyone. 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. 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.

Known as "The Iceman", Raikkonen was the last driver to win a championship with the legendary F1 team, Scuderia Ferrari, in 2007. The 42-year-old, who drove for Alfa Romeo, will undoubtedly be missed by the F1 community. The 2021 F1 season saw three drivers representing Great Britain. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and George Russell are the three British drivers from the 2021 season. With nine consecutive podiums at Silverstone, home soil has been rather kind to Hamilton, who got remarkably close to taking a record-breaking eighth world championship win. For almost seventy years Formula 1 has brought together drivers and teams from around the world to do battle on the racetrack.

The sport has never been officially based on national teams but national pride has swelled the hearts of F1 fans since the beginning. The nationality of the drivers, the domicile of the teams and engine manufactures, and the location of the circuits themselves have remained key elements of the spectacle as the F1 circus traverses the globe each year. Similar to many Formula One racers, Stroll got his introduction into the world of motorsports via karting which he picked up at 10. He took home gold in several championship races in his hometown and North America in 2008. In his first year of karting, he won the Federation de Sport Automobile du Quebec rookie of the year award along with driver of the year to add an extra flourish to the resume.

In 2006, he won the Italian Formula Renault Winter Series based in Italy. Riding the wave of his incumbent success, he went on to the British Formula Three Championship in 2008, where he won the last three races of the season, clinching the championship. That made him the youngest title winner in championship history at 18-years-old. 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. 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. Alonso, who currently drives for Alpine, is the only Spanish driver to ever win the drivers' world championship title, let alone two. The 40-year-old is an absolute inspiration to Sainz, who replaced him at McLaren in 2019.

In his first year with Alpine, Alonso seems to have found comfort with the team and had a decent season this year, the highlight being his podium at the Qatar Grand Prix in the second half of the season. Alpine Academy Director Mia Sharizman previously outlined that Zhou was China's sole prospect for the next years. There are no Chinese drivers in Formula 2 or Formula 3 so Sharizman's estimate, which on first glance appears excessively downbeat, may yet ring true. Consequently, it is likely to depend on whether Zhou's presence on the grid piques sufficient interest for youngsters to attempt to emulate his career path.

From a country of over a billion people and an expanding global presence there is obviously a greater chance of this happening compared to, say, Hungary, or the Czech Republic. It could also hinge on government policies and influence, with the Olympics and medal success having been a priority within a sporting environment. It hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and will soon hold the 2022 Winter games under strict conditions and ongoing political controversy. Football has been a target both domestically and internationally though that particular project has recently stagnated.

There have been no signals that motorsport prowess is a government ambition. It may take a dedicated and well-funded youngster – willing to make sizeable sacrifices and move to Europe as a child – to follow Zhou's trajectory. Michael Andretti's father, Mario Andretti, is the most successful American driver to dominate F1, winning the 1978 championship. It's right on the water in Jeddah, a city of nearly 5 million people about 50 miles west of Mecca. The Red Sea will get some showtime during aerial shots of the track, although this is a night race. F1 has released a safety car lap, showing just how windy and curvy this street circuit is.

It was the perfect springboard for '61, which saw Hill finish in the top-three in all but one race he competed in to claim the drivers' crown and Ferrari's first constructors' title. However, their success was marred by the death of Wolfgang von Trips, the American's team-mate, at Monza on the day that Hill won the championship. Phil Hill was America's first world champion, recording three race wins in an F1 career of eight seasons. He was disqualified from the entire 1997 season when he attempted to knock Jacques Villeneuve off the circuit at the final race of the season, leaving him the champion. Schumacher's car was damaged, and Villeneuve went on to finish in the points.

Sebastian Vettel began his karting career aged eight, and was impressed enough to be promoted to the Red Bull Junior Tea aged 11. He made his debut in 2007 as a stand-in for Robert Kubica after his massive Canadian Grand Prix crash midway through the season. After a fine eight-place finish, he was brought into the Toro Rosso team to replace Scott Speed, and narrowly missed out on a historic podium at the Chinese Grand Prix. A stint at McLaren saw him struggle to battle rookie Lewis Hamilton and on three occasions he came within a whisker of winning a third championship with Ferrari. When he raced for a McLaren team on the downturn in 2015 – 18, it looked as if his Formula 1 career was going to end unceremoniously. 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. Few people, however, know that Needell was once a reasonably successful racing driver having competed at Le Mans 14 times, and very briefly, in Formula 1. You can probably guess by the nature of this article how brief Needell's F1 career ended up being. Williams driver Nigel Mansell had contracted chickenpox and was forced to sit out a couple of races in the second half of the season. Martin Brundle had been drafted in for the first of those, but his sportscar racing commitments meant an alternative driver would be required for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. As of the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, 767 drivers have started at least one of the 1,034 official F1 World Championship races since the championship's inception in 1950.

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.

Even though some drivers join the junior talent program of some F1 teams, it can still be costly as drivers are expected to pay for a lot of the cost. Some drivers have had to drop out of F2 because they have run out of money to continue racing. Giuliano Alesi, son of former F1 champion Jean Alesi, was unable to continue his F2 career in 2021 due to a lack of funding. You do have to be rich to be a Formula 1 driver because the process of getting to F1 costs a lot of money. While drivers don't have to come from multi-millionaire or billionaire households, the stark reality is that you cannot be poor and get into F1. You need a decent amount of money to start a career in motor racing, and we'll explore why later on.

Russell will be joining Mercedes to partner Hamilton in the 2022 season so the German team will have a complete British teammate pairing for the upcoming season. He played a monumental role in taking a step towards bringing the team closer back to the top and is finally set to demonstrate his real potential in a championship-winning car next year. 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.