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On this day: Lucien Bianchi, Eddie Irvine and Brendon Hartley born

Three F1 drivers born on 10 November: Monaco podium finisher Lucien Bianchi, 1999 runner-up Eddie Irvine and Le Mans winner Brendon Hartley.

A red Ferrari Formula 1 car driven by Eddie Irvine turning through a corner, with another car behind
Eddie Irvine's Ferrari in practice for the 1996 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. Photo: Restu20.jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Three drivers who made their names away from the top step of F1 were born on 10 November.

1934: Lucien Bianchi is born in Milan

Lucien Bianchi was born in Milan, and his family moved to Belgium in 1946. He raced as a Belgian.

He made 17 F1 starts between 1959 and 1968. His best result was third place at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix.

That same year he won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Pedro Rodríguez in a Ford GT40. Bianchi died on 30 March 1969, aged 34, when his Alfa Romeo crashed in testing at Le Mans.

His grandnephew, Jules Bianchi, later became an F1 driver too.

1965: Eddie Irvine is born in Northern Ireland

Eddie Irvine was born in Newtownards, County Down. He made his F1 debut for Jordan at the 1993 Japanese Grand Prix and scored a point in sixth.

During that race he unlapped himself on the leader, Ayrton Senna. Senna confronted him afterwards and was given a suspended two-race ban.

Irvine moved to Ferrari in 1996. In 1999 he won four races, from Australia to Malaysia, and finished runner-up to McLaren's Mika Häkkinen by two points.

He then drove for Jaguar from 2000 to 2002 and gave the team its first podium at Monaco in 2001. He retired after 145 starts, four wins and 26 podiums.

1989: Brendon Hartley is born in New Zealand

Brendon Hartley was born in Palmerston North. He was a Red Bull reserve driver in 2009 and 2010 before the team dropped him.

He returned to make his F1 debut for Toro Rosso at the 2017 United States Grand Prix, finishing 13th. He made 25 starts in 2017 and 2018 and scored four points.

Hartley found greater success in sports cars. He has won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times: with Porsche in 2017 and with Toyota in 2020 and 2022.

Race it on Late Brake

Two of these stories ran through Monaco, one of the six real circuits in Late Brake, the free browser game. Bianchi finished third there in 1968 and Irvine took Jaguar's first podium there in 2001. Try the cockpit camera through the tunnel and chase a medal time.

Sources: Wikipedia: Lucien Bianchi, Wikipedia: Eddie Irvine, Wikipedia: Brendon Hartley

Researched and written with the help of AI, using the sources above. How we write posts