Heikki Johannes Kovalainen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈheikki ˈkoʋɑlɑinen], born 19 October 1981 in Suomussalmi, Finland) is a Finnish Formula One racing driver who races for Caterham F1. He drove for McLaren in 2008 and 2009 and Team Lotus in 2010 and 2011, before its rebranding to Caterham.

He was supported by the Renault Driver Development programme early in his racing career, during which he won the World Series by Nissan championship and finished runner-up in the GP2 series. Renault signed him on as a full-time Formula One test driver for 2006, and then promoted him to a race seat for 2007. He gained his first podium by finishing second in the Japanese Grand Prix.

He moved to McLaren for the 2008 season, where he partnered Lewis Hamilton. His second season saw him achieve his first pole position at Silverstone and his first victory at Hungaroring, becoming the 100th driver to win a Formula One Grand Prix. He remained with the team for the 2009 season. In 2010, he moved to Team Lotus where he remained for 2011.

Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkimi ˈmɑtiɑs ˈræikːønen]; born 17 October 1979 in Espoo) is a Finnish racing driver. He drives in Formula One for Lotus in 2012. After nine seasons racing in Formula One, in which he took the 2007 Formula One World Drivers' Championship, he competed in the World Rally Championship from 2010–2011.

Räikkönen entered Formula One as a regular driver for Sauber-Petronas in 2001. Having previously only raced in very junior open-wheel categories, he was given his Super Licence from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after a performance delivery promise by his team boss, Peter Sauber. He joined McLaren Mercedes in 2002, and became a title contender by finishing runner-up in the 2003 and 2005 championships to Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, respectively. Räikkönen's 2003 and 2005 seasons were plagued by severe unreliability from his McLaren cars.

Räikkönen switched to Ferrari in 2007, becoming the highest paid driver in motor sport with an estimated wage of $51 million per year. In turn his move to Ferrari saw him secure his first Formula One World Drivers' Championship, beating McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso by one point, as well as becoming one of the very few drivers to win in their first season at Ferrari. In 2008, he equalled the record for fastest laps in a season for the second time. After one more year in the sport, he left the Ferrari F1 team to drive a Citroën C4 WRC for the Citroën Junior Team in the World Rally Championship for 2010. Along with rallying, Räikkönen has turned his attention towards NASCAR, and made his debut for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

Mark Alan Webber (born 27 August 1976) is an Australian Formula One driver.

After some racing success in Australia, Webber moved to the United Kingdom in 1995 to further his motorsport career. Webber began a partnership with fellow Australian Paul Stoddart, at that time owner of the European Racing Formula 3000 team, which eventually took them both into Formula One when Stoddart bought the Minardi team.

Webber made his Formula One debut in 2002, scoring Minardi's first points in three years at his and Stoddart's home race. After his first season, Jaguar Racing took him on as lead driver. During two years with the generally uncompetitive team, Webber qualified on the front two rows of the grid several times and outperformed his team mates. His first F1 win was with Red Bull Racing at the 2009 German Grand Prix, which followed second places at the 2009 Chinese, Turkish, and British Grands Prix. By the end of 2009, Webber had scored eight podiums, including another victory in Brazil. His eight podiums in 2009 compares to only two podiums in the first seven years of his career. He has since added ten more podiums in 2010, including victories in Spain, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Webber finished the 2010 season in third place having led for a long period, losing out to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final race of the season. Webber added another race victory in the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, as he once again finished third behind champion Vettel and runner-up Jenson Button. Webber again partners Vettel again in the 2012 season, his sixth with Red Bull.

Giedo van der Garde (born April 25, 1985 in Rhenen, Netherlands) is a Dutch racing driver.

Van der Garde has a successful karting career, winning the Dutch championship in 1998. In Super A he was best rookie in 2001 and world champion in 2002.

The following year he joined the Formula Renault 2000 Championship and finished sixth, driving for Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing. On the strength of his performance he became part of the Renault F1 Driver Development programme.

He joined the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2004 with Signature-Plus but after finishing the year ninth he was dropped by Renault Driver Development. A move to Team Rosberg for 2005 yielded another ninth in the series.

For 2006 he joined the ASM team, which had dominated the season in 2005 with Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil. The team claimed the top two places in the championship once more in 2006 – but it was van der Garde's team mates Paul di Resta and Sebastian Vettel who topped the leader board. The Dutchman ended the year sixth with a single victory. During the year he was easily in the top four fastest drivers, but bad luck and mechanical problems, like not even starting the Bugatti Circuit race from pole because he broke down on the warm-up lap for the race, prevented him from making the mark in figures rather than 'what if's'.

Michael Schumacher (German pronunciation: [ˈmɪçaʔeːl ˈʃuːmaxɐ] ( listen); born 3 January 1969) is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes team. Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He holds many of the formula's driver records, including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored and most races won in a single season – 13 in 2004. In 2002 he became the only driver in Formula One history to finish in the top three in every race of a season and then also broke the record for most consecutive podium finishes. According to the official Formula One website he is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen".

After beginning with karting, Schumacher won German drivers' championships in Formula König and Formula Three before joining Mercedes in the World Sportscar Championship. After one Mercedes-funded race for the Jordan Formula One team Schumacher signed as a driver for the Benetton Formula One team in 1991. After winning consecutive championships with Benetton in 1994/5, Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996 and won another five consecutive drivers' titles with them from 2000 to 2004. Schumacher retired from Formula One driving in 2006 staying with Ferrari as an advisor. Schumacher agreed to return for Ferrari part-way through 2009, as cover for the badly injured Felipe Massa, but was prevented by a neck injury. He later signed a three-year contract to drive for the new Mercedes GP team starting in 2010.