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Bengt Ronnie Peterson was a Swedish racing driver nicknamed 'Super Swede' for his aggressive driving style. He raced in F1 between 1970 and 1978 and is regarded one of the greatest drivers never to have won a World Championship. Peterson died on September 11, 1978 after suffering a crash at the start of the Italian GP.
Graham Hill was born in Hampstead, London. He is a double F1 World Champion (1962, 1968) and is the only man to have won the Triple Crown of Motorsport. Therefore he won the Indianapolis 500 (1966), the 24 hours of Le Mans (1927) and the Monaco GP in Formula One 5 times (1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969).
Graham is also the father of Damon Hill, the F1 World Champion of 1996.
In November 1975, Graham was killed when his Piper Aztec aeroplane (which he was piloting at the time) crashed in foggy conditions over Arkley Golf Course in North London. Five members of the Embassy Hill team, including up-and-coming driver Tony Brise, also died in the accident.
Enzo Ferrari is the founder of the renowed Ferrari team. The famous Italian was born in Modena. Ferrari raced test cars for a small automobile company in Milan after World War I. In 1920 he became a racing-car driver for the Alfa Romeo Company, and in 1929 he formed his racing stable
In 1940 Enzo Ferrari left his employer Alfa Romeo and started a new company Auto-Avio Costruzioni Ferrari. In 1946 work began on the first ever Ferrari motorcar, the 125 Sport. This car started a grand tradition of winning for Ferrari. Since it's first race in 1947, Ferrari's have had over 5,000 successes on race tracks around the globe.
In 1969 Enzo Ferrari sold 50% of Ferrari's share capital to the Fiat group. That figure grew to 90% in 1988. Enzo Ferrari died at the age of 90 in Modena on August 14, 1988.
Enzo Anselmo "Il Commendatore" Ferrari was born in Turin, Italy. He was an Italian race car driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari car manufacturer.
Enzo Ferrari died August 14, 1989 at Maranello, the manufacturer's home base. He was 90 years old.
Andreas Nikolaus 'Niki' Lauda is a former Austrian Formula One driver and is triple World Champion. After buying himself in at March in 1971 he moved up to BRM and eventually to Ferrari where he won his first championship in 1975. He then narrowly missed out on his second consecutive title due to a heavy crash from which he only nearly escaped from burning to death. Niki later won 2 more titles in 1977 and 1984 and is known for his incredible determination and fighting spirit following his crash in 1976.
Pedro Martinez de la Rosa was born on February 24, 1971 in Barcelona, Spain. He joined F1 in 1998 as the test driver for the Jordan team. Pedro was the race driver of Arrows the next year and joined Jaguar in 2001 for 2 years.
After the 2003 season, de la Rosa was dropped by Jaguar and joined the McLaren Mercedes team as test driver. In 2006, he took over from Montoya in the half of the season.
Frenchman Alain Prost is a four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion. He raced in F1 from 1980 to 1993 and gathered 51 GP victories. Prost was nicknamed 'Le Professeur' for his intellectual approach to racing and his skills to setup the car perfectly for race conditions.
Shadow made its GP debut in 1973. The team would participate in 104 GPs between 1973 and 1980, with a best result a win in Austria (1977) by Alan Jones.
Dutchman Jos Verstappen was born in 1972 in Montfort, The Netherlands. Verstappen drove several full seasons for Footwork, Minardi, Stewart and Benetton
F1's world champion of 1963 and 1965 was born in Kilmany, Scotland, Great-Britain. Clark was a versatile driver who also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965.
Clark was killed in a Formula Two accident at Hockenheim on 7 April 1968. At the time of his death, he had won more Grand Prix races (25) and achieved more Grand Prix pole positions (33) than any other driver.
Thomas Maldwyn Pryce was a British Formula One racing driver from Wales. Tom drove 42 GP's and is the only Welshman to lead a Formula One Grand Prix: two laps of the 1975 British Grand Prix. Pryce's fatal accident involved him hitting a track marshall at around 270km/h. The 19-year old marshall who was crossing the track to help Renzo Zorzi who came to a halt across the pitlane. The marshall was immediately killed after being thrown meters high in the air. Together with him, Tom Pryce was decapitated by the fire extinguisher the marshall was carrying. Tom Pryce was 27 years old.
Considered as one of the greatest talents ever seen in Formula One, this Brazilian was born 21-03-1960 at Sao Paulo, Brasil. He won the championship in 1988, '90 and '91 with McLaren after driving for Toleman and Lotus. Ayrton died after crashing into a concrete wall at Imola, 1 may 1994. The crash was caused by a bump in the track that made the sensitive Williams lose all grip. As of that day, vast efforts have been made to make F1 safer by changing regulations and removing the Tamburello corner from the Imola circuit.
Leslie George Johnson was a British racing driver who competed in rallies, sports car races and Grand Prix races. He specialized in European endurance races such as Le Mans and the Mille Miglia. He also broke several world speed records for production sports cars.
He died 8 June 1959, aged 46, at Foxcote House, the family’s home in the village of Foxcote, Gloucestershire, England.
Gary Paffett was born on March 24, 1981 in Brombley, England. Paffett moved to F1 as test driver for McLaren Mercedes in 2006.
Didier Pironi was born in Villescresnes, Val-de-Marne, France. He competed in 72 Formula One Grand Prix, mostly for Ferrari and Tyrrell. He became runner up in the 1982 championship behind Keke Rosberg. Didier also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1978 driving a Renault Alpine A442B.
Pironi was killed on 23 August 1987 at Southampton, UK while racing power boats. Months later, his girlfriend gave birth to twins, naming them Didier and Gilles after Pironi and Villeneuve. Pironi was 35 years old.