page_title: Formula One drivers from Russia
section_title: Former drivers
hierarchical_section_title: Formula One drivers from Russia / Former drivers
caption_attribution_description: English: Sergey Sirotkin testing the Williams FW41 during pre-season testing in Barcelona.
context_page_description: There have been three Formula One drivers from Russia, two of whom have scored podium positions in Grands Prix.
context_section_description: When Vitaly Petrov made his Grand Prix debut for Renault at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix he became the first driver from Russia or the former Soviet Union to compete in Formula One. His debut season yielded 13th place in the championship and a best result of 5th in Hungary – however he gained notoriety for blocking Fernando Alonso in Abu Dhabi and costing Alonso a chance at the title win. His 2011 season with the newly re-branded Lotus-Renault team began strongly with 3rd place at the season-opener in Australia but the car failed to maintain consistent competitiveness and he ended the season 10th in the standings. For 2012 he was dropped by Lotus and picked up by Caterham. With an inferior car he failed to score a point all season, but did finish a strong 11th in his final race in Brazil. He was not retained for the 2013 season.
  Sergey Sirotkin made his debut for Williams at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix. He would score a solitary point at the 2018 Italian Grand Prix in the uncompetitive Williams FW41. He was replaced with Robert Kubica for 2019.
caption: Sirotkin testing for Williams at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D7200", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PhotoScape", "Image DateTime": "2018:02:26 14:41:22", "Image Artist": "@ArtesMax", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "@ArtesMax", "Image ExifOffset": "330", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "18086", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:02:26 14:41:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:02:26 14:41:22", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "280", "EXIF SubSecTime": "94", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "94", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "94", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "6000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "18056", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "420", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}