F1: Beyond The Grid

Though he's been in F1 a long time, you may not have been overly familiar with Otmar Szafnauer before this year. As COO of Force India, the American played a key role in turning them into one of the best pound for pound teams on the grid. But when driver Sergio Perez pulled the trigger and sent the Silverstone squad into administration in mid-2018, Szafnauer found himself on a course that ultimately led to him becoming Team Principal of a new entity: Racing Point...

He streaked into F1 in 2001; a spectacular no-holds-barred racer unafraid to go wheel-to-wheel with the biggest names in the sport. But though he made a big splash, winning seven races, including the Monaco Grand Prix, Juan Pablo Montoya’s Formula 1 career lasted just five-and-a-half seasons before he suddenly said goodbye to Grand Prix racing for good...

This week, for the first time on Beyond The Grid, presented by Bose, we’re not speaking to a driver or a team boss, but to an engineer – and someone who’s been directly involved of some of the biggest moments in F1 in the past 20 years...

He's the granddaddy of Brazilian motorsport; a true trailblazer who, having become F1's youngest ever world champion in 1972, inspired a generation of exceptional talent in his homeland, including Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna. Emerson Fittipaldi saw it all in his Grand Prix career, from the highs of winning two world titles, 14 races, and two Indy 500s, to the lows of seeing multiple colleagues killed and his family-run team fold...

F1 has seen its fair share of second generation racers, but Carlos Sainz doesn't quite fit the mould. The natural script would have been for him to follow his famous father and namesake into rallying, but while Carlos Sainz Sr became a double world champion on the dirt, his son set his sights on F1 after being inspired by countryman Fernando Alonso...

To say Claire Williams has racing in her blood would be an understatement. But despite being born into and raised around one of F1’s most successful teams, it’s fair to say she never expected to one day find herself taking the reins of her family squad...

He’s regarded as one of the very best drivers of all-time; a man who, when he walked away from F1, had amassed three world championship titles and a then-record 27 Grand Prix victories. But that he was able to walk away at all was something of a success in itself, for so many of his friend and rivals were not so fortunate in an era when death lurked around every corner...

He’s the only man in the last nine years other than Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel to win a world title. But what makes Nico Rosberg’s story so compelling is what happened immediately after his crowning glory when, seemingly at the peak of his powers, he walked away from F1...

It takes a special kind of driver to get the call to race for Ferrari with less than a season of Grand Prix racing under your belt - especially when the man you’re set to replace is a world champion. Charles Leclerc is that driver. 

The young man from Monaco has shown flashes of brilliance this year while racing for Sauber, but it’s not just his skills behind the wheel that set him apart - it’s his mental fortitude too...

He’s one of racing’s toughest nuts – a man who refused to let potentially life-changing injuries stand in the way of his dream of racing in Formula 1. 

This week on Beyond The Grid, presented by Bose, we’re joined by Johnny Herbert, a man for whom the phrase ‘triumph over adversity’ seems tailor made. Once the bright young hope of British Motorsport, Herbert’s career came to an abrupt halt when he suffered horrific damage to his feet in an F3000 crash...