F1's biggest champion without a trophy: Bernd Maylander - Safety Car Driver 

Bernd Maylander posing with the latest Safety Car
Bernd Maylander posing with the latest Safety Car

The German driver has been in front for more than 700 laps, which is more than some champions. However, he doesn't have a trophy with his name on it. Being a successful former touring-car racer, he was entrusted with the task of driving the safety car in 1999 by FIA.

After almost two decades and 19 seasons of Formula One, Bernd Maylander is still the FIA's official safety car driver, driving the powerful Mercedes-Benz AMG GT R.

Maylander is that champion driver who would be taking the lead for a lap or two everytime our favorite racer crashes out, or is involved in an accident. Sometimes, the safety car is out almost throughout the race. The 2006 Australian Grand Prix was of that kind, where Bernd Maylander had the lead with his safety car for more laps than all racers, except for the race winner Fernando Alonso.

Driving ahead of all racers is no joke, and a safety car driver is no less than a race driver indeed. The safety car is a unique vehicle with outstanding dynamics, weighing around 1620 kilograms, and can develop over 570 horsepower. The performance of the safety car has to be good enough, so that the cars racing behind don't slow down enough to cool down their engines or tires.

After Lewis Hamilton's accusations of the safety car being slow, it is ironic that the latest safety car is the coolest and the fastest street-legal rear-wheel drive car ever, which means 47-year-old Bernd Maylander in his car is plenty fast enough to be overtaken by Lewis or Sebastian.

Bernd Maylander has been FIA's official Safety car driver since 1999
Bernd Maylander has been FIA's official Safety car driver since 1999

Though the job has potential dangers, and demands high precision skills at the cost of no mistakes, Bernd has been in his prime form right from day 1 for 19 long seasons (and many more to come) without a trophy, unlike other racers.

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Edited by Sai Krishna