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Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, OBE (born 2 April 1926) is an Australian racing driver who was Formula One champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966.
In a self developed Cooper Climax, Brabham won the Formula One championship in 1959 and 1960. The years after that though, engines were limited to 1500cc and Jack was unable to win a single race during that period. When in 1966 the regulations allowed 3000cc engines he was able to win again in a Brabham-Repco in 1966. Jack was the first and only one to win the F1 championship in his own car, having founded his Brabham team in 1962.
www.jackbrabham.com/
Birth of Jacques Villeneuve at St Jean sur Richelieu, Canada. Jacques is the child of F1 legend Gilles Villeneuve. Jacques is the winner of the CART championship and the Indy500 in 1995. He entered Formula One in 1996 with Williams and immediately took pole position in his first race. He was runner up in the championship that year and was crowned champion in 1997. Unsuccessful seasons followed at BAR and Sauber after which he opted to join NASCAR in 2007.
Former Argentinian F1 driver, born in Santa Fé, Argentinia
Flavio Briatore, the Renault F1 Team Boss, was born on 12 April 1950 in Verzuolo, Italy.
Christijan Albers was born on April 16, 1979 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He made his F1 debut in 2004 as a test driver for the Minardi F1 Team and continued in 2005 as a race driver for the same team. For 2006, the Dutchman signed a contract with the new Midland F1 Team.
www.christijan.com/en/
Anthony Davidson was born on April 18, 1979 in Hemel Hempstead, England. 'Ant' made his F1 debut in 2001 as he became test driver for BAR. Anthony Davidson is still third driver for the Honda Racing F1 Team.
Karl Jochen Rindt was an Austrian racing driver, born in Mainz, Germany. He is the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship (in 1970), after being killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix. Rindt also won the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1965.
Felipe Massa was born on the 25th of April 1981 in São Paulo Brazil. Massa made his F1 debut for the Sauber Petronas Team in 2002 and stayed there before signing a contract to race for Ferrari in 2006.
Jean-Pierre Beltoise was born in Paris, France. He is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver who raced for the Matra and BRM teams. He raced between 1967 until 1974, totalling one win, 8 podiums and 4 fastest laps in his 88 F1 races.
The Brazilian ace Ayrton Senna finds death after going off the road with his Williams. Ayrton went straight in the Tamburello corner in San Marino, a circuit that saw the death of Roland Ratzenberger just one day before. The circuit was consequently modified by introducing slower corners while the FIA initiated ambitious regulation changes to prevent anything similar from happening again.
Gilles Villeneuves crashed during the qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at the Circuit of Zolder and died. F1 lost one of its greatest talents and one of the most popular drivers in history.
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (9 May 1928 - 16 December 1982) was born in London and studied mechanical engineering.
He founded the famous sports car company Lotus in 1952. His initials are shown in the trademark of Lotus.
This brilliant designer who introduced downforce wings, ground effect and struts died of a heart attack. He is still recognised as one of the most inventive designers ever in Formula One.
Nick Heidfeld was born on May 10, 1977 in Mönchengladbach, Germany. In 2000, 'Quick Nick' made his F1 debut with the Prost GP F1 Team alongside Jean Alesi. Heidfeld made the switch to Sauber in 2001 where he partnered with Kimi Raikkonen.
For the 2004 season, Heidfeld moved to Jordan. In 2005, Nick ended up with the Williams F1 Team, after a shootout with Antonio Pizzonia for the 2nd race seat. As at the end of 2005 Williams and BMW decided to part ways, Heidfeld signed a contract for 2006 with the BMW Sauber F1 Team.
Elio de Angelis was killed in an accident while testing the Brabham BT55 at the Paul Ricard circuit, near the commune of Le Castellet, France, in 1986. De Angelis was a competitive and highly popular presence in Formula One during the 1980s, and is sometimes referred to as Formula One's "last gentleman player".