F1 is mainly the drivers' and cars' sport however it's incomplete without people like engineers, commentators, Analysts, pundits and many more. In this post, we are going to get to know a few important personalities of F1 who are not drivers. So let's get Started!
Karun Chandhok
Occupation: Ex F1 Driver, F1 Pundit & Commentator.
Nature: Calm and Composed.
Karun Chandhok is the India's second F1 driver. Even though Karun's career as an F1 driver would not be called a long or even a successful one, He's an extremely respected F1 pundit. His in-race analysis over commentary is surprisingly accurate. I still remember watching the race while Karun Chandhok accurately predicted who was likely to pit and who was not. His knowledge and passion for F1 can be felt while listening to and watching him on TV. Karun raced for HRT in 2010 and Lotus in 2011. Being an Indian, I find it a big positive that Indian people got to watch Indian F1 drivers racing in F1 in India at the Buddha Internation circuit. Karun also drove for the Mahindra Formula E team from 2014 to 2015. In 2007 While racing in the GP2 series (before F1) Karun got a call from F1's RedBull racing team to test for them in Spain Barcelona, This was one of the highlighting moments of his career. Personally, Karun is my favourite F1 pundit.
Here's a video of Karun driving the beast Mercedes W10:- https://youtu.be/CpZtVKrO-og?si=mFS9yVZrFjmQXfXc
Martin Brundle
Occupation: Ex F1 Driver, F1 Pundit & Commentator.
Nature: Eloquent and Savage.
Martin Brundle is one of the best F1 drivers to never have won an F1 Race. However, he is mostly famous for his Grid Walk and commentary. If you didn't know, Before the start of the race when cars are brought onto the track the track becomes crowded with all sorts of people including engineers drivers celebrities and whatnot. During that Martin Brundle takes the quick interviews of the people he finds on the grid. He is also critical in his judgement which adds value to his commentary and analysis. His words "That didn't work... that didn't work... you hit the wrong part of him my friend.", During 1997 European GP said to Michael Schumacher on Live commentary when he deliberately tried to crash into title contender Jacques Villeneuve showed how eloquent Martin Brundle is.
Here's a video of Christian Horner and Martin Brundle playfully roasting each other:- https://youtu.be/j-ux2ITfcEk?si=NNZzI6CoVt4xfId_
Here's a video of Martin Brundle's Commentary during the 1997 European GP:- https://youtube.com/shorts/sa2FH-GeVbQ?si=iH8dfFWC_oNbdUAW
Christian Horner
Occupation: Team Principle RedBull Racing F1 Team
Nature: Smart and Mischievous.
Christian Horner is easily one of the greatest F1 team principles ever. RedBull Racing and Horner Story started together in F1 in 2005. Christian Horner became the youngest team principal ever in F1 history aged 31 at that time. To date, Christian Horner still serves as the team principal of RedBull Racing. During his leadership, RedBull Racing dominated the championships back in the early 2010s and still continues to do the same. Christian Horner as a Team Principal is very thoughtful which can be felt in his statements during the interviews. As a person, he has a playful nature and never misses out on teasing rival teams. Horner has such a big legacy that an entire post can be made on him. Nonetheless, He is an amazing personality off the field, a serious personality on the field and a really great leader. He is my favourite Team Principal ever.
To know more about him here's an absolutely amazing video by Driver 61 (a salute to both):- https://youtu.be/eqDcX4tB8io?si=Q2MQpSJl2lPi-mlE
Toto Wolff
Occupation: Team Principle Mercedes F1 Team
Nature: Smart and Composed.
Toto became the Team principal of the Mercedes F1 team in 2013 after its resurrection in 2010. Since then Mercedes have won 7 World driver championships and 8 Constructor championships from 2014 to 2021. Under his leadership, Mercedes Dominated the decade on a whole other level. A quick googling will get you the stats. Mercedes adapted Best to the 2014 regulations making them an absolutely powerful force, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes broke numerous records during this time. Toto and Mercedes are one the main reasons behind the success of Lewis Hamilton in F1. Toto as a person is very calm and composed. As a team principal, he's very much intellectual and mostly serious. Toto also has a little racing experience but nothing considerable. Not only he's a great leader but a great businessman too. He owns 33% of the Mercedes Team. He also had a few shares in the Wiliams F1 team I reckon.
Here's an Amazing video on Toto by one of my favourite Creators:- https://youtu.be/WWNf1wfUzMc?si=rEIIlilC43nTyeN2
Guenther Steiner
Occupation: Team Principal Haas F1 Team
Nature: Entertaining, a little short-tempered and Natural.
Guenther can be considered the face of the famous F1 Netflix show Driver to Survive (DTS). Geunther is a team principal of the Haas F1 team. Initial seasons of DTS focused on the teams in the bottom order He mainly got fame from the show. His open and natural tendency to react to situations and his fun and playful nature make him a very entertaining character and that's the reason why everybody loves him. Fun part aside Guenther has a very strong resume being the technical operations director at RedBull Racing and managing director at Janguar Racing in the past. His team may not seem to be making things harder for the teams on the front lines but what he has been able to achieve at Haas from what little budget and personnel they have is truly remarkable. I feel happy to see Haas doing good and punching above their weight all that being led by Guenther. looking forward to seeing more Guenther content in this year's DTS.
Helmut Marko
Occupation: Head RedBull driver development program, Director of RedBull Racing.
Nature: Impatient and Strict.
Helmut Marko is the Head of the RedBull driver development program which sponsors young talents in motorsports, provides a platform for them to improve their racing skills and is also associated with the RedBull junior driver academy. Jehan Daruvala who was an Indian F2 driver was the RedBull Jr. academy driver. Many talented drivers have graduated to F1 through this program such as Danny Ric, Carlos Sainz Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda. Helmut has significant power in choosing RedBull Jr. academy drivers and Alphatauri drivers which is the RedBull's sister team in F1. As good as the academy and development program sounds, Helmut has high hopes when you are in it. Helmut never shies away from making harsh, critical and sometimes even controversial statements and decisions regarding drivers. A recent example regarding this would be Nyck de Vries who is a World Karting champion, F2 champion and Formula E champion was dropped from the team Alphatauri after just 9 races due to lack of performance in 2023. Many drivers from the past have lost their seats or swapped their seats between RedBull and Alphatauri. If you are associated with RedBull in any way mentioned above, you already have high expectations from this man and gotta perform to survive. He can be very ruthless.
Adrian Newey
Occupation: Technical Director
Nature: Calm, Softspoken, Thoughtful
Adrian Newey is the Greatest F1 Car designer of all time. Man has 4 decades of experience in designing F1 cars. Adrian Newey is currently the chief technical officer at RedBull Racing. Adrian Newey has made one of the greatest F1 cars on the planet. Current RedBull car domination is the result of his genius. before RedBull Newey designed legendary cars for McLaren and Williams which won the championships under the hands of Mika Hakkinen, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell. Adrian even got a hefty offer from Ferrari to be their CTO but he refused and stuck with RedBull and now in 2023, We have the most dominant car in the history of F1.
You can learn more about him and his career from Sam:- https://youtu.be/ZeYeIvS_yz8?si=HDvjmD7LNvJvOAUm
Ross Brawn
Occupation: F1 Managing Director, Ex Team principal, Ex Technical Director.
Nature: Calm and Composed.
Ross Brawn is the current managing director of FIA which is the governing body of motorsports. Previously Brawn worked for Ferrari as a technical director and had significant effort in the success of Michael Schumacher at Ferrari from 2000 to 2005. Ross Brawn's and Michael Schumacher's success story was not new since they had already won two championships together at Benetton. In 2009 Brawn bought the Honda racing team for merely a single pound and named the new team Brawn GP which went on to win the 2009 drivers and constructors championship under the hands of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. just after the 2009 season in 2010, Brawn sold the team and is now known as the Mercedes F1 team. which made Brawn GP the only team to have a 100% constructor wins record. Brawn also brought Michael Schumacher into Mercedes from his retirement. Ross Brown is truly one of the most important personalities in F1. History books wouldn't be the same if he wasn't there.
Here's an amazing video of Jenson Button driving a 2009 Brawn GP car while recalling beautiful moments with Ross Brawn:- https://youtu.be/qhZj536_y_Q?si=EV8VgbdtQV-cx386
Lawrence Stroll
Occupation: Chairman Aston Martin.
Nature: Serious, Ambitious and A little impatient.
Lawrence Stroll is famously known for being the Father of Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll and a motorsport enthusiast. Lawrence bought the Financially Struggling Force India team (which was an Indian team founded by Vijay Mallya) and named it Racing Point before finally making it Aston Martin. This team is special because it always has delivered more than expected. This team has always outperformed the resources it had and punched above its weight. Even today the team seems to be doing good, now that it doesn't have to care much about finance due to Lawrence. However, one of the two racing seats in the team is fixed to his son Lance who I personally believe is a good and talented driver but is not performing at the top level if being completely honest. Nonetheless Kudos to Lawrence for saving the Indian team and bringing the Aston Martin name back to F1.
This is it for this post! Hope you like it. Let me know what you know more about these folks in the comment section below. Also, let me know if you want part 2 of this. We'll catch up in the next post. See ya!
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