Formula 1 Race Drivers Birthdays
Roseanne Gennett
Certainly, in recent years, some drivers have moved through the ranks quicker than ever, with current champion Max Verstappen the youngest to take part in a race weekend at the age of 17 years and three days.
But what about the rest of the grid? From the relative veterans in Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to the young pretenders such as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, what is the age range of the current drivers competing in F1?
It turns out that only two people have ever won a world championship Grand Prix on their birthday. The first was James Hunt, who won the 1976 Dutch GP at Zandvoort on August 29, his 29th birthday. This was the fourth of Hunt's six victories in his Championship-winning season for McLaren. The second birthday boy is pretty remarkable - it's the popular Frenchman Jean Alesi, who won his only Grand Prix in a Ferrari in Canada in 1995, on his 31st birthday (June 11). Near misses include second places by Carlos Pace (1974 United States GP) and Carlos Reutemann (Argentine 1981), and thirds for Elio de Angelis (Brazilian 1984) and Rubens Barrichello (Monaco 2004).
It's certainly a record in recent years, when the number of cars on the grid has been limited to 24 or (this year) 22. In the early days of F1, though, more competitors were allowed to take part: in the 1954 British GP at Silverstone Roberto Mieres of Argentina started 31st and last on the grid but finished up sixth, a rise of 25 places (although one car in front of him on the grid did not actually start the race). At the Indianapolis 500, which counted towards the world championship from 1950-60, there are traditionally 33 cars on the grid: in 1957 Jim Rathmann started 32nd there and finished second. The worst grid position for someone who went on to win a Grand Prix was 22nd, by John Watson at the United States GP West at Long Beach in 1983 (his McLaren team-mate Niki Lauda, who started 23rd, ended up second).
The list of the slowest GPs is dominated by the tight, twisty Monte Carlo circuit - at one stage 17 of the slowest 18 GPs had been held in Monaco. The slowest of all was the first one, in 1950, which was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in an Alfa-Romeo, at an average speed of 61.33mph (98.7kph). This race featured a big pile-up shortly after the tunnel on the first lap - high winds had blown sea water over the harbour wall, making the track slippery - which eliminated 10 of the 19 starters. Fangio picked his way through the debris, and eventually lapped the remainder of the field. The slowest race not at Monaco was the Argentine GP of 1954, a rain-affected contest eventually won by Fangio - the local hero - at an average speed of 70.13mph.
The only man to have won his first Grand Prix was the Italian Giancarlo Baghetti, who won the 1961 French GP in a Ferrari. That remained Baghetti's only world championship victory. Technically you could also include Nino Farina, who won the first official world championship race, the British GP of 1950, and Johnny Parsons, who won the Indianapolis 500 that same year. Excluding those three - and Luigi Fagioli, who finished second in that inaugural race at Silverstone in May 1950 - only four men have come second in their maiden Grand Prix. That includes two more from 1950 - Alberto Ascari, at Monte Carlo a week after missing the Silverstone race, and Dorino Serafini, who was second in the Italian GP at Monza later in the year. Serafini shared that drive with Ascari, but remains the only man to finish on the podium in what was his only Grand Prix. In 1954 Karl Kling finished second in the French GP for Mercedes, and then there's a long gap to 1996, when Jacques Villeneuve was runner-up in his first Grand Prix, in Australia in a Williams. In addition three Americans - Bill Holland (1950), Mike Nazaruk (1951) and George Amick (1958) - finished second in the Indy 500 during the years it counted towards the F1 world championship.
Lewis Hamilton became the 12th driver to achieve a half-century of podium finishes at Sepang - not that he, or the two drivers who shared the dais with him, looked terribly happy about it! As you suspect, Michael Schumacher leads the way, with no fewer than 155 podium finishes (he finished in the top three in just over half his total of 306 races). Alain Prost is the only other man to have stood up there more than 100 times - 105 in all. Next comes Fernando Alonso with 87, ahead of Ayrton Senna (80). Of other current drivers, Kimi Raikkonen has had 70 top-three finishes, Jenson Button 49 and Sebastian Vettel 48.
This was Dan Gurney, the versatile American driver who was actually the first to win a world championship Grand Prix in a Porsche (1962 French), a Brabham (1964 French) and an Eagle (1967 Belgian). Gurney, who is credited with being the first to spray champagne around the podium - which he did after winning at Le Mans in 1967 - also won the 1964 Mexican GP in a Brabham.
Mick Schumacher (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-smallfont-size:85%.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-smallfont-size:100%German pronunciation: [ˈmɪk ˈʃuːmaxɐ]; born 22 March 1999)[1][2] is a Swiss-born German racing driver who is the reserve driver for the Mercedes AMG Formula One Team[3] and McLaren, set to compete in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship with Alpine in the Hypercar category.
Schumacher, raised in Gland, Switzerland, began his career in karting in 2008, progressing to the German ADAC Formula 4 by 2015. He initially used the pseudonym 'Mick Betsch' to avoid the spotlight due to the fame of his father, Michael Schumacher. After winning the 2018 FIA F3 European Championship, he progressed to Formula 2 in 2019, and won the 2020 Formula 2 Championship, with Prema Racing.
His progression into Formula One saw him join the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2019, testing for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo before making his practice debut in the 2020 season. Schumacher competed in Formula One for Haas F1 Team in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. In 2023, he took on a new role as a reserve driver for both Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team and McLaren F1 Team. Mick Schumacher joined Alpine's World Endurance Hypercar team for the 2024 season.
Schumacher was born in Vufflens-le-Chteau, and grew up in Gland.[4][5] He is the son of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher and Western riding European Champion Corinna Schumacher. His uncle Ralf Schumacher is also a retired racing driver and former Formula One driver. His cousin David Schumacher is a racing driver as well. Schumacher is named after five-time 500cc motorcycle World Champion Mick Doohan.[6]
Schumacher was skiing with his father when Michael suffered life-threatening brain injuries on 29 December 2013.[7] In March 2017, Mick first talked publicly about his father, describing him as "my idol" and "my role model".[8]
Before the start of the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix, he drove his father's championship-winning Benetton B194. He drove another of his father's championship winning cars, the Ferrari F2004, in a demonstration before the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello, to mark Scuderia Ferrari's 1000th Formula One race, wearing his father's helmet for the occasion.[9]
In 2011 and 2012, Schumacher drove in the KF3 class in the ADAC Kart Masters, ending in 9th and 7th respectively. In 2011 he finished 3rd in the Euro Wintercup in the KF3 class, repeating his success the following year.
In 2013 he continued his starts in the junior class, which got reneamed to the KF-Junior. He finished 3rd in the German Championship and the CIK-FIA International Super Cup. In 2014, Schumacher used the name 'Mick Junior' and continued his starts in the KF-Junior class. He finished 2nd in the German Championship[13] as well as in the European and World Championships.[14][15] Although he did not race under his real surname, his successes in karting were picked up by the international press.[16][17]
At the end of 2014, he completed test drives for Jenzer Motorsport in a Formula 4 racing car.[18] In 2015, Schumacher started racing in formula classes for the first time, racing for Van Amersfoort Racing in the ADAC Formula 4, using the Schumacher name.[19][20][21]In 2016, Schumacher remained in ADAC Formula 4 but switched to Prema Powerteam,[22] a team known for its close links to the Ferrari Driver Academy. He also entered the Italian F4 Championship and finished runner-up in both championships to Joey Mawson and Marcos Siebert respectively.
In November 2016, Schumacher made his first appearance in Formula 3 machinery by taking part in the MRF Challenge, a championship based in India. He competed in the upper Formula 2000 class and finished the series in 3rd place, collecting four wins, nine podiums, and two pole positions. Schumacher finished behind Harrison Newey and Joey Mawson, but ahead of his future Formula 3 and Formula 2 competitors Jri Vips and Felipe Drugovich.
In April 2017, Schumacher made his debut in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Prema Powerteam.[23] He finished the season in 12th place, his best finish being a 3rd place at Monza.[24] Schumacher was the lowest finisher of the four Prema drivers, however, he was the third-best-placed rookie in the championship.
Schumacher continued driving for Prema in the 2018 championship. He suffered a slow start to the season, eventually taking his first win at the 15th race of the year at Spa-Francorchamps, almost halfway through the season. Before this race, he sat in 10th place in the championship, 67 points behind championship leader Dan Ticktum. However, Schumacher dominated the latter half of the season, taking seven more wins, including five consecutively. He ended the season as champion, 57 points clear of 2nd-placed Ticktum, taking eight wins, fourteen total podium finishes, seven pole positions, and four fastest laps.
Schumacher moved up to the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2019 with Prema Racing, alongside Sean Gelael.[25] At the first round of the season in Bahrain, Schumacher started 10th and finished 8th after passing Nobuharu Matsushita on the final lap, giving him reverse-grid pole position for the sprint race, in which he finished sixth. Schumacher started from 7th in the feature race at Baku but was forced into retirement after a spin. He recovered from 19th to finish 5th in the sprint race. He failed to score points at Barcelona, suffering a collision in the first race and a time penalty for an illegal overtake on Jack Aitken in the second. At Monaco, Schumacher collided with multiple cars in the feature race, bringing out the red flag. He would fail to score points in either race. A double retirement came at the Circuit Paul Ricard, after he was involved in a collision with teammate Gelael in the first race and suffered a puncture in the second.
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