F1: Beyond The Grid

It’s been a dramatic year for Red Bull Racing, from the titanic battle Max Verstappen fought with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for the 2021 title, to setting up their own power unit arm, before taking a commanding lead in both championships this season – with a flirtation with Porsche thrown in for good measure...

He was part of one of F1’s most dramatic finales, but there’s so much more to Timo Glock’s story than that rain-soaked lap in Brazil. A relative late-comer to racing, he quickly showed speed, made smart sponsorship deals and caught the attention of F1 teams...

He’s a Zandvoort ‘beach boy’, who became a local hero in F1. Racing in the Dutch Grand Prix was a dream come true for Jan Lammers, but he struggled to show his speed in Formula 1 and dropped out of the sport after 4 difficult seasons. He was always determined to return to motorsport’s pinnacle and waited a record 10 years for his chance...

He fought one of F1’s all-time greatest duels, was often untouchable in qualifying, and his victories were celebrated by entire nations. René Arnoux spent a decade racing the likes of Gilles Villeneuve, Alain Prost and Niki Lauda. He raced and won for both Renault and Ferrari, leading the Scuderia to a world title in 1983...

He’s an F1 star, and he’s still getting brighter. Lando Norris is on a mission with McLaren, determined to deliver trophies and titles. He’s twice come agonisingly close to his first F1 victory. That is just fuel for his fire. Lando opens up to Tom Clarkson about the races he feels he should have already won, his moments of self-doubt, his ambitions, his attitude to life and work, and how he’s seen by the public and his fans...

Since South Africa 1993, Beat Zehnder has not missed a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Hungary 2022 was his 538th race weekend, and he’s spent them all with the same team. Once it was known as Sauber, today it’s Alfa Romeo. Before joining Sauber, Beat was a ship engine mechanic. He was kicked out of his first job interview with the Swiss racing team because he had no interest in motorsport...

He’s the newest member of ‘The Piranha Club’ – the nickname for the ruthlessly competitive group of F1 Team Principals. Aston Martin’s Mike Krack is not a newcomer to F1, however. A former European go-kart racer, Mike earned his engineering stripes with Sauber in the early 2000s, where he moulded and mentored a young Felipe Massa. He witnessed the supreme strength and skill of Robert Kubica, and steered Sebastian Vettel through his Grand Prix debut at BMW in 2007...

When Marc Surer reached Formula 1 in 1979, he was a rising star: the reigning Formula 2 champion from the mountains of Switzerland, surely destined for the summit of F1 success. But two leg-breaking crashes made Marc’s climb steeper and harder. He relives those crashes with Tom Clarkson and remembers his remarkable recovery and return to racing. Amazingly, he scored points for Arrows, and almost made the switch to Ferrari after the death of Gilles Villeneuve...

Before he started, as he puts it, ‘playing with racing cars’, Jody Egginton trained as a schoolteacher. His love of motorsport led him to Formula 1, and he worked his way up from Tyrell during the early years of computer-aided design (CAD) to Technical Director at AlphaTauri today...

Jenson Button. Jacques Villeneuve. Colin McRae. Sebastian Loeb. The list of elite racing drivers David Richards has led is long and legendary. As an F1 Team Principal in the 2000s, he, Button and the BAR team challenged Ferrari for race wins. David tasted podium champagne, but the bottle never had ‘1st’ printed on it. Not so in the World Rally Championship and at Le Mans, where his teams and drivers have won a multitude of titles...