George Roke

as of 2023 European GP

George Roke is a British OC driver who is driving for Maxell Red Bull Racing in the 2023 championship. Roke is one of only 3 currently active drivers to have competed in the Championships first ever race in Bahrain during 2006.

A workman-like and modest performer, Roke is fondly remembered as one of GP4's founding members and a major contributor to the championships success, despite somewhat yo-yoing between classes in latter years of his career, he is a veteran of over 200 Grand Prix's and has been an ever present since the championships inception. His career has been widely viewed as one of the most peculiar in GP4 history, with no less than 3 return F1 campaigns, a record amongst drivers.

He is perhaps best known for his combination with Pole, Jay McKenzie. The two have been teammates at three different constructors, combining for 111 Grand Prix, a record amongst teammates at any level of GP4 racing.

### Red Bull (2006)

Roke debuted in 2006 for the fledgling Red Bull team, the car was not especially fast but the talented Brit was able to drag it to a number of mid table finishes in the opening rounds before scoring his first points in the seasons fifth round, the European Grand Prix. It would be a while before Roke scored more points, in fact they would not come until the final round of the season. Nonetheless, his solid performances had not gone unnoticed and with Malaysian legend, Azrul Zafri moving to Red Bull for 2007, Roke saw an opportunity at BMW who had proved an equally solid performer in 2006. It was an opportunity he could not pass up, and he was announced at the German manufacturer to partner Polish driver and eventual longtime collaborator, Jay McKenzie for 2007.

### BMW Sauber (2007-09)

The Roke-Mckenzie era at BMW started strongly, with Roke taking second place on his debut for the team, this was to be his first podium in the sport. Another would follow in Monaco with a strong drive to third, and as the year unfolded, Roke found himself an ever present behind the class of the field McLarens and Ferraris. He was much more consistent than his teammate and going into the last round of the year, despite McKenzie winning 2 races already for the team that season compared to Roke's zero, he held an 11 point advantage meaning he would beat his teammate in the standings regardless of the result in Brazil. The race would end up being a fine one, the 2007 championship battle was being decided out in front and in the opening stages, Roke was comfortably mid pack. Third placed Will Neller dropped out early, promoting Roke up a spot behind the McLarens who were 1 and 2, then disaster struck as race leader Joseph Willows crashed out a few laps from home, second place Jyri Määtta collided with the debris and was forced to pit meaning Roke inherited the race lead, a position he would hold for the rest of the race. He took his first Grand Prix win amongst a sea of jubilation as the points were enough to overhaul the spare Ferrari of Felix Sonntag and leaped him up into fourth overall in the standings, just behind the championship leaders of Määtta, Willows and Neller.

He continued this fine form into 2008, scoring third in an all British podium for the opener in Australia, another podium in Bahrain beckoned. Roke would go on to win his home race at Silverstone for his second Grand Prix victory, the third consecutive Brit to win at Silverstone following Willows' and Neller's success in 2006 and 2007. He then won the following round in Germany, winning back to back for the first time in his career. This was the last podium of the season for him however as the rest of the season was much tougher for both drivers. In a reverse of the season prior, McKenzie this time had the pace on his British compatriot, but nonetheless both drivers were immensely impressive as BMW put up a strong challenge to the established McLaren-Ferrari order. Roke was fifth overall come seasons end, a meagre 4 points behind McKenzie. This strong showing lead to belief that BMW and the Roke-McKenzie partnership could be contenders for 2009 with the new regulation changes,

Both drivers proceeded to endure a tough 2009 campaign. The new car was an unenviable concoction of both slow and unreliable , with neither driver impressing as they had done in the two seasons prior. Roke's best result being fourth at his home race. McKenzie was marginally stronger over the course of the year scoring a handful of podium finishes, which aided his crusade to finish higher in the standings than his teammate. Roke ended the year twelfth overall on 18 points, 13 behind his teammate who ended up breaking into the top 10 in Eighth. This poor season effectively ended BMW's involvement in the sport, they pulled out for 2010 and both drivers were forced to find new teams for 2010.

### Force India (2010)

A move to Force India offered Roke a fresh start for 2010 partnering Hungarian Roland Mótyán. Whilst this season would prove equally as frustrating as the previous year, Roke showed promise with two strong 6th places over the course of the season, these were however his only points that year as he had no answer to the pace of his teammate again and finished below his teammate in the standings. His 16th overall placing was his lowest placing since his debut season in 2006, and was viewed as a marked failure compared to his successes prior, it was felt that a better car could be had elsewhere, as a result Roke announced his intention to leave and join Renault for 2011.

### Renault Renaissance (2011-12)

Roke was reunited with his career-long teammate and friend, Jay McKenzie in 2011 at the newly reformed and rebranded Lotus-Renault Team. Here, he started a renaissance with some brilliant and consistent displays, scoring points in almost half of that seasons races without really threatening the podium, despite this he was 11th overall only marginally outside the top 10 placing. Roke also outperformed McKenzie over the course of the season and for the first time in 5 seasons finished ahead of his teammate in the standings

Retained by the team into 2012 after a solid opening campaign, Roke really started to find form. The new Lotus-Renault was instantly competitive with Roke scoring his first podium for his new team in China, his first podium since 2008. Further podiums would come in Monaco and Canada before he finally struck gold. The 2012 German GP saw Roke take his 4th and to date, last, Grand Prix Victory. This broke a run of 74 races between wins - a record that stands to this day. This aided in his objective to break back into the upper quartile of F1, a feat both he and McKenzie achieved as they finished 6th and 7th respectively in the standings guiding the Enstone team to fourth in the constructors.

Following 2 seasons back at the top of his game, both Roke and McKenzie were headhunted by Mercedes and offered the opportunity to join the German marque for 2013.

### Mercedes and Test Driver (2013-14)

Both Roke and McKenzie started well with their new team. Roke scored a podium in his second race with the outfit in Malaysia and went on to record 6 further podiums over the course of the season, however, he failed to win unlike his teammate who triumphed twice over the 2013 season. He was Seventh come seasons end in a very tightly fought upper midfield, with only 4 points separating Fourth Placed McKenzie and Roke. Despite some really strong showings over the course of the season, Roke was controversially replaced come seasons end by Wais Kuba and found himself without a drive going into 2014.

This decision was widely panned as it was felt that Roke was a consistent challenger to McKenzie and that Kuba would struggle to recreate the same opposition to him. This prediction was correct as Kuba was humiliated in his only season with the team, prompting an early retirement in 2015.

He faced a sabbatical that season whilst remaining at Mercedes as a Test and Reserve Driver and moving to DTM in the 2014 season for Team RBM, where he endured a difficult year, ending up 9th overall in his first season of sportscar racing.

Seeking a drive at Mercedes for 2015 after Wais Kuba announced his retirement. The team signed Will Neller instead, so Roke was forced to leave in search of a real drive for 2015. Renewed interest from his old team Lotus meant he was re-signed and returned to the sport that season.

### Lotus and Return to DTM (2015-16)

Having been regarded as hard done by following his Mercedes demotion, Roke was out to prove a point in 2015. This would not rise to fruition however, the car was tough to handle in his hands and whilst he guided it to several points finishes over the year, they were all low scoring finishes with a best result of Sixth at the season closing Brazilian Grand Prix. His teammate, David Greenwood, by contrast had a season to remember as he finished 9th overall compared to Roke's 16th placed finish, Greenwood also scored 2 podiums en-route to 100 points in the standings.

This difficult return led to another season in DTM in 2016 as he struggled for a drive. His second year in DTM was a stronger one as he won twice on his way to fifth in the championship. This performance earned him a third return to F1 with Haas F1 in 2017.

### Haas (2017-Present)

Roke returned to F1 with little fanfare. He just got on with the job at hand, never really craving media attention. As a result, his modest performances in the Haas went largely unnoticed throughout 2017, despite many of them being fine performances. A large helping of sixth places brought with it plenty of championship points and guided him to a solid placing come seasons end, albeit to the bottom of the midfield runners. Despite finishing marginally behind his rookie teammate, Swiss driver Joel Hutter, Haas would retain him for 2018 whilst Hutter miraculously moved to Red Bull as a result of the 2018 Seat Controversy.

Finding himself in F1 for the first time in successive seasons since 2013, he was now partnered by popular Italian Franco Gamba. The two were an instant hit with the new Haas with both drivers scoring several high points scoring finishes in the opening rounds of the 2018 season.

## Race wins

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