PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: automobile racing
German race-car driver
Michael Schumacher is a German race car driver who set records for the most Formula One (F1) Grand Prix (GP) race victories (91, later broken by Lewis Hamilton) and F1 Driversâ Championships (7, later...
American actor and race-car driver
Patrick Dempsey is an American actor and professional race-car driver best known for his role on the medical drama Greyâs Anatomy (2005â ), created by American producer Shonda Rhimes. In the show, Dempsey...
F1 driver
Max Verstappen is a race-car driver competing in Formula One (F1) under the Dutch flag. He is the sportâs youngest race winner, and he is also the youngest person to start an F1 race. Driving for Red Bull...
F1 driver
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula One (F1) Grand Prix racing drivers of all time. He owns the F1 record for career race victories (106) and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most...
Italian automobile manufacturer
Enzo Ferrari was an Italian automobile manufacturer, designer, and racing-car driver whose Ferrari cars often dominated world racing competition in the second half of the 20th century. Enzo Ferrari was...
French race-car driver
Alain Prost former French race car driver and motorsport executive. Prost competed in Formula One (F1) racing from 1980 to 1993, winning four championships. He won 51 races, a record at the time of his...
German race-car driver
Sebastian Vettel is a German race-car driver who in 2010, at age 23, became the youngest person to win the Formula One (F1) world driversâ championship. (In 2026 Kimi Antonelli, at age 20, displaced Vettel...
Italian race-car driver
Kimi Antonelli is an Italian automobile racing driver who made his Formula One (F1) debut with the Mercedes racing team in 2025. In 2026, at age 20, he became the youngest person to win the F1 world driversâ...
British automobile racing driver
Lando Norris is an English automobile racing driver who made his Formula One (F1) debut with the McLaren Renault (now McLaren) racing team in 2019. He helped McLaren win its first F1 Constructorsâ Championship...
American race-car driver
Jimmie Johnson is an American race-car driver who won a record-tying seven NASCAR championships (2006â10, 2103, 2106) and was the first driver to win the title in five consecutive years. Johnson also was...
Australian race-car driver
Oscar Piastri is an Australian race-car driver in the single-seat, open-wheel Formula One (F1) with the McLaren Mercedes (now McLaren) automobile racing team. He made his F1 debut with McLaren Mercedes...
Austrian race-car driver
Niki Lauda was an Austrian race-car driver who won three Formula One (F1) Grand Prix world championships (1975, 1977, and 1984), the last two of which came after his remarkable comeback from a horrific...
Australian race-car driver
Daniel Ricciardo is a race-car driver who debuted in Formula One (F1) in 2011 and became Australiaâs most successful competitor in the sport in the mid-2010s. He had reached the podium (placing first,...
French race-car driver
SĂ©bastien Loeb is a French race-car driver who was widely considered to be the greatest rally racer of all time, having won a record nine World Rally Championship (WRC) titles (2004â12). After winning...
American race car driver
Danica Patrick is an American race car driver and the first woman to win an IndyCar championship event. Patrickâs racing career began with go-karts in her hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin, at age 10. At age...
American race-car driver
Jeff Gordon is an American race-car driver who dominated the sport in the 1990s and early 2000s. His aggressive driving style and knack for publicity helped popularize stock-car racing in the United States....
American sports executive
Bill France, Sr. was an American stock-car racer and executive who founded (1948) the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). He is one of the most important figures in American racing...
Brazilian race-car driver
HĂ©lio Castroneves is a Brazilian race-car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 a record-tying four times (2001, 2002, 2009, and 2021). He was also the youngest driver to win the event in consecutive years...
American stock-car racer
Bobby Allison was one of the winningest drivers in National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) history and a member of one of the most notable, and most tragic, families in racing. A NASCAR...
Brazilian race-car driver
Ayrton Senna was a Brazilian race-car driver who gained fame for being a fierce competitor renowned for his ruthless and risky maneuvers on the Grand Prix circuit. He rose quickly through the ranks of...
American stock-car driver
Lee Petty was an American stock-car driver who won three National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) championships (1954, 1958, and 1959). One of the most famous names in NASCAR is Petty, and,...
Canadian race-car driver
Jacques Villeneuve is a Canadian race-car driver who in 1995 became the first Canadian to win the Indianapolis 500 and the youngest winner of the IndyCar championship. Villeneuve was the son of Gilles...
British motorsport racer
John Surtees was a British motorsport racer who was the only competitor to have won world championships while racing motorcycles and automobiles, with seven motorcycle-racing world championships in two...
American stock-car driver
Junior Johnson was an American stock-car driver who ranks among the most influential figures in National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) history. One of NASCARâs most colourful characters,...
American stock-car racer
David Pearson was an American stock-car racer who was one of the most successful drivers in National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) history. Pearson could well have been the greatest NASCAR...
American stock-car racer
Richard Petty is an American stock-car racer who is the most successful driver in the history of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). Petty won 200 NASCAR Cup Series races in his...
American stock-car driver
Ned Jarrett is an American stock-car driver who won two National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) championships (1961 and 1965). According to legend, Jarrett first began driving cars at age...
American race-car driver
Dale Earnhardt was an American stock-car racer who was the dominant driver in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) during the 1980s and â90s. Ralph Earnhardt, Daleâs father, raced...
American race-car driver
Janet Guthrie is an American race-car driver who in 1977 became the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Guthrie earned a pilotâs license at the age of 17. After graduating from the University...
Italian industrialist [1921â2003]
Giovanni Agnelli was the chairman of the automobile manufacturing company Fiat SpA, Italyâs largest private business enterprise, from 1966 to 2003. Grandson of Fiatâs founder (also named Giovanni Agnelli),...
Australian race-car driver, engineer, and team owner
Jack Brabham was an Australian race-car driver, engineer, and team owner who won the Formula One (F1) Grand Prix world driversâ championship three times (1959, 1960, and 1966) and the automobile constructorsâ...
Italian-born American race-car driver
Mario Andretti is an Italian-born American automobile-racing driver who drove stock cars, U.S. championship cars, and Formula One cars. Mario and his twin brother, Aldo, studied automobile mechanics, frequented...
British race-car driver
James Hunt was a British race-car driver who won the 1976 Formula One (F1) Grand Prix world championship by one point over his Austrian archrival, Niki Lauda. Hunt began racing his own car in Formula Ford...
British race-car driver
Sir Henry Segrave was an American-born English automobile and motorboat racer who set three world land speed records. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Segrave served with the Royal Air Force in World War...
American race-car driver
Barney Oldfield was an American automobile-racing driver whose name was synonymous with speed in the first two decades of the 20th century. A bicycle racer from 1894, Oldfield in 1902 became the driver...
French skier and race-car driver
Henri Oreiller was a French skier and auto racer who won a double championship in the downhill and combined events of Alpine skiing during the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His downhill...
American automobile racer
Cale Yarborough was the first stock-car racing driver to win the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Cup Series championship three consecutive years, in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Yarborough...
American automobile racing driver
A.J. Foyt is a versatile and successful American automobile racing driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, 1964, 1967, and 1977, the first four-time winner. A racer from the age of 17 andâunlike many...
American race-car driver
Bobby Unser was an American automobile-racing driver from a family of drivers, who won the Indianapolis 500 three times (1968, 1975, 1981). Unser first raced in 1949 and first competed in the Indianapolis...
American pilot
Edward Vernon Rickenbacker was a pilot, industrialist, and the most celebrated U.S. air ace of World War I. Rickenbacker developed an early interest in internal-combustion engines and automobiles, and,...
Swiss-born automobile designer and race-car driver
Louis Chevrolet was an automobile designer and racer whose name is borne by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors, an enterprise from which he derived little profit and of which he was a minor employee...
British race-car driver
Malcolm Campbell was a British automobile-racing driver who set world speed records on land and on water. A pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, Campbell became interested in automobile...
American race-car driver
Phil Hill was the first American-born race-car driver to win (1961) the Formula 1 (F1) Grand Prix world championship of drivers. Hill began in racing as a mechanic for midget-car racing in the Santa Monica,...
American race-car driver
Art Arfons was an American automotive racer, three-time holder of the worldâs land-speed record for wheeled vehicles. Arfons worked in his fatherâs feed-mill business in Akron, Ohio, before and after service...
German race-car driver
Bernd Rosemeyer was a German automobile racing driver who established himself as one of the worldâs great drivers in three seasons of racing (1935â37). Rosemeyer began racing as a member of the Auto Union...
British motor race-car driver
John Rhodes Cobb was an automobile and motorboat racer, first to reach a speed of 400 mph on land. On Sept. 16, 1947, at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, U.S., he set world speed records (not broken until...
British race-car driver
Donald Malcolm Campbell was a British motorboat and automobile driver who emulated his father, Sir Malcolm Campbell, in setting worldâs speed records on land and on water. The first to complete an officially...
American race-car driver
Al Unser was an American automobile-racing driver from a prestigious family of drivers, who won the Indianapolis 500 four times (1970â71, 1978, and 1987). In 1964 Unser won the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, an...
Italian race-car driver
Tazio Nuvolari was an Italian automobile racing driver. He began racing motorcycles in 1920 and won the Italian championship in 1924 and 1926 before turning to automobile competition. His first major victory...
German race-car driver
Rudolf Caracciola was a German automobile-racing driver who was one of the most successful and versatile of modern times. He participated in hill climbs and speed trials as well as races. Caracciola began...
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