Running in the family, generations of F1 drivers

LONDON, England (CNN) -- As Markus Winkelhock took to the sodden track of last week's European Grand Prix in Nuerburgring he went where one Winkelhock had been before, his father Manfred Winkelhock.

Winkelhock junior's first grand prix -- and possibly last for some time, now that Christijan Albers' vacated Spyker seat has gone to Sakon Yamamoto -- will be talked about for years to come. His decision to run on extreme wet tires on lap three saw him leading the race by 33 seconds before the race was suspended for the second time. And, although his race ended with hydraulic failure, and future drives in Formula 1 are by no means certain, he joins the rare club of drivers who have led a grand prix on their first race.

It was at Nuerburgring that his father Manfred Winkelhock raced his last Formula 1 grand prix. Never a contender -- he scored only two points from 47 starts -- he was nevertheless a popular driver with the home crowd. Sadly, eleven days after the 1985 German Grand Prix at Nuerburgring, Winkelhock was killed driving a Porsche 956 at a World Sportscar event in Mosport Park, Canada.

Manfred's brothers Joachim and Thomas Winkelhock were also racing drivers; Joachim entered seven grands prix in the 1989 season but did not pre-qualify, so didn't race.

"My father did his last F1 race at the Nuerburgring and now I'm doing my first," said Markus last Sunday, "that is something special."

Underneath his Spyker overalls, Markus wore a chain around his neck, as he always does when racing. On it was the wedding ring belonging to the father who died when Markus when only five years old -- a good luck talisman given to him by his mother.

Formula 1's history has many such tales of sons following fathers into racing careers -- and in some cases the second generation drivers lost their fathers at an early age. Fatalities have been so rare in F1 in the last two decades that it's easy to forget quite how dangerous an activity it once was.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve had celebrated his eleventh birthday a month before his father Gilles, the legendary Ferrari driver, died in practice before the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. Such was his status in Canada, that his remains were returned to his homeland aboard a jet of the Canadian Air Force, on the request of the government.

Knowing the dangers inherent in the sport, Villeneuve junior entered F1 in 1996. He started his first race from pole position and just missed out on the top step of the podium to his Williams team-mate, Damon Hill. In his next season Villeneuve junior achieved what his father rightly should have done, he won the World Championship.

Hill too was the son of a racing legend. Graham Hill was champion in 1962 and 1968. With the dashing demeanor, and pencil moustache, of a World War 2 flying ace, he projected an image of the true sporting Brit. But, behind the scenes, he was a tempestuous man who could be both vain and reckless.

Graham Hill died in 1975, when Damon was 15. It is often assumed that the sons of famous drivers who follow their fathers into the sport are drifted into their seats on a wave of nepotism and inheritance. Not true of Damon, who had to work as a motorcycle courier in London to pay for his start in motor racing.

Graham Hill didn't die racing. He died trying to land a Piper Aztek airplane in fog. The plane was not properly registered or insured and Hill died along with his five passengers (including Tony Brise, who was racing for Hill's F1 team at the time). The families of the bereaved had no choice but to sue the estate of Graham Hill for compensation.

Another F1 champion to sire a racing son was American Mario Andretti. He won the 1978 world championship for Lotus and also having a successful career in the US oval circuits in both Champcar and NASCAR. His son Michael entered F1 in 1993, paired with Ayrton Senna at McLaren. But, despite his success in Champcar, Andretti junior failed to make an impression in Formula 1 and was replaced, after just 13 races, by Mika Hakkinen. He would be the last American to compete in F1 until the appearance of Scott Speed in 2006.

The current F1 grid contains one F1-sibling and one F1-offspring. Ralf Schumacher, of course, is brother to seven-times world Champion Michael (and living proof that driving talent isn't necessarily inherited). And Williams driver Nico Rosberg is the son of Keke Rosberg, the Finnish driver who won the world championship for Williams in 1982.

Three-time world champion Jack Brabham's son, David raced for Brabham and Simtek in 1990 and 1994 without ever scoring points. And two-time champion Emerson Fittipaldi's son Christian raced for three seasons in the early 1990s, scoring a total of 12 championship points.

Are there other sons-of-champions waiting in the wings? Tomas Scheckter, son of Jody Scheckter the 1979 world champion, tested for Jaguar in 2001 but was fired. He now races in the A1GP series and looks an unlikely F1 contender.

1992 world champion Nigel Mansell has supported the racing careers of sons Leo and Greg, who have both raced in single-seat racing formulae but, again, without looking obvious F1 contenders (though Greg is only 19). And four-time world champion Alain Prost's son Nicolas has had some success in the feeder formulae but, at 25, is considered old compared with young blood such as Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel.

Nelson Angelo Piquet, son of three-time championship winner, Nelson Piquet is a test driver for Renault. E-mail to a friend