Daniel Melrose
Daniel Melrose (Born June 26, 1985 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian racing driver who is most famous for his stint in Formula One. In his 7 year career, he became the youngest ever Formula One world champion at 20 years and 101 days, the youngest ever double and youngest ever triple world champion. He has also the inaugural (and so far only) F1 Rejects World Champion, and is a two-time race winner in the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series. Melrose is currently racing in the F1 Rejects Indy Championship Series.
Contents
Early Racing Career
Daniel spent most of his early childhood in Sydney, Australia where he did many kart races both in Sydney and around the state. He was inspired by Former World Champion Chris Dagnall after meeting him when he was just 6 years old.
In 1999, after spending several years as part of the Precision Motorsport young driver program alongside fellow Australian and close friend Dave Simpson, he was invited by Ferrari to become part of their young driver program, an offer which he accepted. From there, he rapidly raised through the ranks becoming 2001 Australia Formula 3 champion, 2002 British Formula 3 champion and 2003 International F3000 champion, before being placed in the Minardi team for the 2004 Formula One season. In the process of winning the British Formula 3 Championship, he won the Macau F3 Grand Prix in one of his many top drawer aggressive drives that would typify his driving style for the rest of his career.
F1RWRS Career
2010-2011 - JLD Motorsport
Looking for a new challenge and disenchanted by the high-stakes political bickering in Formula 1, Daniel Melrose followed former Brawn driver Frank Zimmer to the Formula 1 Rejects World Race Series and signed on as lead driver for the JLD Motorsport team, which was a joint effort between German manufacturer Mercedes and Porsche, alongside former BMW Sauber and Precision teammate Dave Simpson. Both Simpson and Melrose tried to balance a full time Formula One campaign alongside the F1RWRS, with Simpson focusing more on the F1RWRS and Melrose more on trying to win a fifth world title. Whilst this strategy worked in getting him that title, it came at the expense of Melrose's F1RWRS campaign as ended up a lowly 17th in the championship, having missed the final 3 races of the year and been replaced by Chris Dagnall for the final two. There was some promise in Melrose's season however as in the final race he did in Bahrain, he put in a soild drive for a season best result of 6th place along with the fastest lap of the race.
In 2011, Melrose decided to retire from Formula One on a full time basis to focus on other categories elsewhere, including the F1RWRS. For the second year in a row however his season started slowly with just a sole 5th place finish to his name after round 3. However a brilliant mid-season streak from Luxembourg to the Tasman Grand Prix in Adelaide, including two wins in Belgium and England, and a second place put him solidly in the lead of the championship after 10 rounds. However the curse of the final third of the season struck Melrose yet again which culminated to an embarrassing double DNPQ for the JLD team at the Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst. This coupled with a late season push by Briton Nathanael Spencer meant that Melrose ended up losing the championship to the Brit by 7 points after both failed to score points at the final round in Laguna Seca.
2012 - Melrose Racing Team
Behind the scenes at JLD over the second half of the 2011 season, a consortium comprising of Melrose's own racing team, Melrose's former employers BMW and title sponsor QANTAS made a bid to take over the JLD team after both Mercedes and the Volkswagen group pulled out their support of the team. By the end of the year, a deal was struck between the various parties which meant that MRT and BMW would take over the JLD team in a 70/30 split with Melrose and incumbent teammate Jeroen Krautmeir as the two drivers for season 2012. However Melrose's season got off to the worst possible start with a double DNPQ but came back strongly with a third place in round 3.
Both MRTs continued to have inconsistent seasons through the year and Melrose was absolutely thrashed by his younger teammate on occasion as the Australian simply couldn't get either the M3 or the M3B to work with his driving style. Despite that, Melrose scored 4 podium finishes over the course of the season for an eventual 7th place finish in the Driver's championship, including finishing second in the same race that Krautmeir scored MRT's only win that year. During the oval testing session that MRT conducted at the Talladega Superspeedway Melrose wrote off both his race car and spare car in the space of 2 days after having several enormous accidents over the course of the test, the last of which gave him a moderate concussion. Another huge accident the next week at Laguna Seca where he car became airbourne and barrel-rolled down the front straight gave him another conucssion meant that he had to sit out the season ending race at Indianapolis, which was a double points race that year. At that point, disheartened by continual lack of success in the series and after a failed bid to become the new Commissioner of the F1RWRS, Melrose announced his retirement from driving duties in the F1RWRS effective immediately.
2013 - ArrowTech
For a few weeks, Melrose seemed content with retirement at just 27 years of age but eventually decided to make a sensational return to driving duties for the ArrowTech ART team, although nobody quite knew why. Not that it mattered much because it immediately became clear that Melrose and the ArrowTech car gelled together in pre season testing. This form continued into the early flyaway races with Melrose leading the team's charge with 3 points finishes in the first 3 races, including a sensational 2-3 finish for the team at the 2013 F1RWRS Mexican Grand Prix with Melrose leading home teammate Daniel Martins.
However after that point the team lost its way in the early development race. with Melrose only scoring 1 point in the following 6 races, the race where he scored that point being one of his best to date similar to several burn from the stern performances in the past. ArrowTech and Melrose returned to form at the Belgian Grand Prix. On race day, he damaged the front wing of his car early on before setting about simply driving the wheels off the ArrowTech car for 3rd place, his second podium finish of the season. However, Melrose was adamant that had he not thrown it into the wall early on he stood a good chance of winning that race. After qualifying for the Mediterranean Grand Prix Melrose was arrested, charged and released on bail for trashing his hotel room after MRT's absolutely horrific showing in qualifying which resulted in a double DNQ, a shocking result even by MRT's poor standards that year.
2013-2014 - Jones Racing
In the wake of the incident in Cyprus, Melrose had a public spat with Arrowtech's latest shareholder Prince Falik, which led to the Australian tearing his two year contract with the team over a year early before accepting an offer from Jones Racing to drive for them in the final two races of the season, after Jones' incumbent driver Kay Lon got the sack after being arrested by Chinese authorities over alleged sexual assault charges. Despite being disappointing in the two races for the Jones team, he got a full time contract for 2014 with an option to extend his contract for 2015. At the now non-championship Budweiser 500, driving for Horizon Motorsport, he finished 10th from 19th on the grid, beating home new boss Jones by over a lap in the process.
Pre-Season testing for the Jones team, and Melrose in particular, was promising with many predicting that the team would be points contenders throughout the year. The Australian didn't fail to deliver on those predictions as he scored podium placed finishes in both of the first two races. His performance in the season opener in Adelaide was particularly special as not only did he remain on the lead lap against the much faster cars of Dagnall and the MRTs, he was consistently the best of the rest in the race all afternoon. A second podium at Bathurst, effectively his home race, plus more points at the Long Beach round confirmed his status as a dark horse amongst the upper-midfield runners. A couple of more third placed finishes in France and Belgium plus a number of other points finishes meant that Melrose spent the majority of the year right in the thick of the battle for best of the rest honours. This string of good performances led to team boss Sammy Jones taking up his offer for the Australian for 2015, although a performance clause was inserted in the contract which baffled many pundits.
Before the Chinese Grand Prix, Melrose announced that MRT would open up a consultancy firm for 2015 which quickly lead to a technical partnership deal with Autodynamics Grand Prix, one of the two new teams for 2015. The proposal didn't sit well with Sammy Jones however and it eventually lead to Melrose terminating his Jones Racing contract for 2015, albeit on amicable terms. Melrose's association with Jones Racing ended on a high note with a pair of second places at the two non-championship races at the Bud Light 800 and the endurance race at the Luxembourg Grand Prix.
2015 - Simpson Motorsport
With Melrose the biggest free-agent on the market heading into the off-season, many teams up and down the grid were fighting for his services in 2015. Despite many predicting he'd go to Sunshine for 2015, Melrose signed a deal with the new Simpson Motorsports team, allegedly as return for the favour Melrose paid team boss and good friend Dave Simpson to get him the BMW reserve driver slot back in 2007. Regardless of what the reason was for the decision, the alarm bells were already ringing in pre-season testing as it became apparent very quickly that many of the midfield and backmarker teams from 2014 had made a huge leap forward in terms of performance, throwing the mostly conservative plans of the Simpson Motorsport team into turmoil. Despite persistent rumours that he was about to jump ship to Sunshine, Melrose kept his head down and tried to extract the maximum out of the ill-handling Simpson-BMW package in their bid to qualify for a race, with little success. Melrose's patience finally ran out at the Monaco Grand Prix when, after failing to pre-qualify for the third time in succession, an opening appeared at the Holden Racing Team with the sacking of Englishwoman Poppy Whitechapel. The Australian was quick to pounce at the opportunity, and immediately signed on for a 12 race deal, starting at the next race in Mexico City.
2015 - Holden Racing Team
Melrose arrived at Mexico City with a new lease of life in his now floundering career as he set about getting used to the HRT. While new teammate Frank Zimmer had the upper hand on the Australian all weekend, Melrose did finish a respectable 9th after a solid, if unspectacular drive amongst relatively heavy attrition. In a car that was slowing but surely losing its pace to the midfield, Melrose failed to qualify for the first F1RWRS race at Montreal, a track where he had a 100% win record in Formula One, before being taken out in a first lap collision at the next race in Great Britain. As a result, HRT dropped down into pre-qualifying as their results had only left them a dismal 12th in the constructors championship, where only the top 11 were guaranteed berths in qualifying proper. Melrose was then sacked by the team in the fallout that resulted from it and replaced by test driver John Zimmer.
After spending several races on the sidelines in Tropico, Melrose made a sensational return to the team for the final race of the F1RWRS season in Brazil, replacing incumbent Frank Zimmer who still had an outstanding warrant against him from the Brazilian Police. Despite his best efforts, Melrose was unable to haul the team out of pre-qualifying, bringing his F1RWRS career to a close for the time being.
Personal Life
Melrose has run the same basic helmet design for virtually his entire career. He initially started off with a green and gold helmet with the Southern Cross during his early karting days before he changed it to the Boxing Kangaroo, the unofficial mascot of Australia, upon joining the Precision Motorsport Young Driver Program. He has been one of the few drivers who are vehemently against running sponsorship logos on their helmet and bending over to the pressures of commercialisation for the sake of keeping the same helmet for the duration of their careers.
Melrose currently lives alone in Munich, Germany where his team is based after spending many years living in Liechtenstein. In his early career especially, his driving almost seemed to be a way for him to deal with the "demons" in his head that seemingly plagued him for much of his teenage years, which ended up being the motivating force of his career. Melrose has one younger sibling named Joel who is currently driving for JLD Motorsport in the F3RWRS.
Melrose is known for being incredibly talkative over the radio and, as a result, his strategic ability throughout his career is second to none and while his ability to set up a car is good, he has never considered himself a great technically minded driver as he usually ends up driving around any minor problems with the car. He also has a strange habit of listening to rock music over the radio fed to him by the team to help him get into 'the zone' on any given weekend.
For all his prowess on the track, Melrose has had many issues over the years with his various personal managers, with almost all his associations with them ending on very hostile terms. One particularly bad break up with a manager, who was also in a relationship with him at the time, led to Melrose withdrawing his entry from the 2014 F1RMGP 24 Hour V8 Bathurst Enduro and swearing that he'll never have another personal manager for the rest of his career.
Whilst on a training camp in Tropico during the 2015 season, Melrose was one of the most high-profile people caught up in the Tropican-Venezuelan conflict at the time. Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves learned of the former world champion's presence in the island Nation and appointed him the new President of Tropico on the evening of June 5th. Despite initial concerns that the strong Nationalist faction on the island would be uproar over the appointment, the vast majority of the Tropican people approved of his placement, as the Australian had done much to help the explosive growth of the Tropican tourist industry over the past several years.
Complete Formula One Grand Prix results
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Minardi Cosworth | Minardi PS04B | Cosworth CR-3 L | AUS 8 |
MAL 14 |
BHR 12 |
SME 15 |
ESP Ret |
MON 8 |
EUR Ret |
CAN 1 |
USA 12 |
FRA 17 |
GBR 9 |
GER 14 |
HUN 13 |
BEL Ret |
ITA Ret |
CHN 11 |
JPN 7 |
BRA 8 |
13th | 15 | |
| 2005 | Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro | Ferrari F2004M | Ferrari 053 | AUS 3 |
MAL 16 |
1st | 90 | |||||||||||||||||
| Ferrari F2005 | Ferrari 055 | BHR 13 |
SME 1 |
ESP 10 |
MON 1 |
EUR 1 |
CAN 1 |
USA 1 |
FRA 6 |
GBR WD |
GER INJ |
HUN INJ |
TUR EX |
ITA 8 |
BEL 1 |
BRA 2 |
JPN 2 |
CHN 5 | ||||||
| 2006 | BMW Sauber F1 Team | BMW Sauber F1.06 | BMW P86 | BHR Ret |
MAL Ret |
AUS 9 |
SME Ret |
EUR 15† |
ESP 3 |
MON 7 |
GBR 1 |
CAN 1 |
'USA 1 |
FRA 3 |
GER 3 |
HUN 2 |
TUR 1 |
ITA 2 |
CHN Ret |
JPN 2 |
BRA Ret |
4th | 75 | |
| 2007 | BMW Sauber F1 Team | BMW Sauber F1.07 | BMW P86/7 | AUS 1 |
MAL Ret |
BHR 5 |
ESP Ret |
MON 1 |
CAN 1 |
USA Ret |
FRA 5 |
GBR 1 |
EUR 6 |
HUN 2 |
TUR 4 |
ITA 4 |
BEL 2 |
JPN 4 |
CHN 7 |
BRA 1 |
1st | 95 | ||
| 2008 | BMW Sauber F1 Team | BMW Sauber F1.08 | BMW P86/8 | AUS 3 |
MAL 4 |
BHR 10 |
ESP 7 |
TUR 4 |
MON 1 |
CAN 1 |
FRA 6 |
GBR 4 |
GER 6 |
HUN 6 |
EUR 17† |
BEL 3 |
ITA 5 |
SIN 4 |
JPN 9 |
CHN 6 |
BRA Ret |
6th | 71 | |
| 2009 | BMW Sauber F1 Team | BMW Sauber F1.09 | BMW P86/9 | AUS Ret |
MAL 1 |
CHN 2 |
BHR 1 |
ESP 6 |
MON 2 |
TUR 1 |
GBR 3 |
GER Ret |
HUN 1 |
EUR 13 |
BEL 1 |
ITA Ret |
SIN 1 |
JPN Ret |
BRA 1 |
ABU 6 |
1st | 98 |
- * Season in Progress.
- ‡ Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed.
- † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.
Complete F1RWRS Results
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | JLD Motorsport | JLD 01 | Porsche 366 | GER 11 |
LUX 13 |
SAX 12 |
CHN 9 |
TAS 16 |
BHR 6 |
BEL INJ |
GBR | AUS | 17th | 7 | |||||||
| 2011 | Qantas JLD Motorsport | JLD M2 | BMW P84/5 | BAV 5 |
GER 14 |
SAX 16 |
LUX 6† |
BEL 1 |
GBR 2 |
ENG 1 |
KEN DSQ |
NED 4 |
TAS 8 |
2nd | 66 | ||||||
| JLD M2B | AUS DNPQ |
NSW 10 |
SUR 7† |
CHN 3 |
USA 10 |
||||||||||||||||
| 2012 | Qantas Melrose Racing Team | MRT M3 | BMW P86/12 | BAV DNPQ |
SAX DNPQ |
GER 3 |
LUX Ret |
BEL 14† |
NED 3 |
GBR 4 |
KEN 2 |
ENG 7 |
TAS 9 |
7th | 43 | ||||||
| MRT M3B | SUR Ret |
NSW 3 |
AUS Ret |
CHN 15 |
USA Ret |
500 INJ | |||||||||||||||
| 2013 | ArrowTech ART | ArrowTech AT-03 | Ford HB IV | TAS 5 |
AUS 4 |
MEX 2 |
USA Ret |
MON Ret |
FRA 6 |
GBR 8 |
GER 10 |
NED Ret |
BEL 3 |
POR 9 |
MED Ret |
MAC 5 |
CHN 11 |
=8th | 18 | ||
| Castrol Jones Racing | Jones CJR-102B | Ford HBD VI | JPN 8 |
BRA Ret | |||||||||||||||||
| 2014 | Castrol Jones Racing | Jones CJR-103 | Ford HBD VI | TAS 3 |
AUS 3 |
BRA 9 |
MEX Ret |
USA 4 |
MON Ret |
FRA 3 |
GBR Ret |
GER 11 |
BEL 3 |
ITA 5 |
MED 5 |
NED 10 |
MAC Ret |
CHN 7 |
JPN 5 |
6th | 25 |
| 2015 | Gulf Simpson Motorsports | GSM-010 | BMW P89/NA | TAS DNQ |
AUS DNPQ |
MED DNPQ |
MON DNPQ |
=26th | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Valvoline Holden Racing Team | HRT-005 | Holden LSF1 | MEX 9 |
USA 11 |
CAN DNQ |
GBR Ret |
GER | BEL | AUT | ITA | NED | CHN | JPN | BRA DNPQ |
- * Season in Progress
- † Driver did not finish race, but was classified as they had completed 75% race distance (2010-12) or 90% race distance (2013).
Career Summary
| Year | Series | Team | Position |
| 1994 | NSW Midget Karting | Independent | 1st |
| 1995 | Australian Midget Karting | Independent | 2nd |
| 1996 | Australian Rookie Karting | Independent | 4th |
| 1997 | Formula C Championship | Precision Motorsports | 2nd |
| 1998 | Formula C Championship | Precision Motorsports | 1st |
| 1999 | Australian Formula Ford Championship | Fastlane Racing | 4th |
| 2000 | Australian Formula Ford Championship | Fastlane Racing | 1st |
| 2001 | Australian Formula Three Championship | Piccola Scuderia | 1st |
| Macau Grand Prix | 4th | ||
| 2002 | British Formula Three Championship | Fortec Motorsport | 1st |
| Macau Grand Prix | 1st | ||
| 2003 | International F3000 Championship | Super Nova Racing | 1st |
| 2004 | Formula One | Minardi Cosworth | 13th |
| 2005 | Formula One | Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro | 1st |
| 2006 | Formula One | BMW Sauber | 4th |
| 2007 | Formula One | BMW Sauber | 1st |
| 2008 | Formula One | BMW Sauber | 6th |
| 2009 | Formula One | BMW Sauber | 1st |
| 2010 | Formula One | Mercedes GP | 1st |
| F1RWRS | JLD Motorsport | 17th | |
| F1 Rejects World Championship | Qantas Melrose Racing Team | 1st | |
| 2011 | F1RWRS | Qantas JLD Motorsport | 2nd |
| 2012 | F1RWRS | Qantas Melrose Racing Team | 7th |
| 2013 | F1RWRS | ArrowTech ART | =8th |
| Castrol Jones Racing | |||
| 2014 | F1RWRS | Castrol Jones Racing | 6th |
| 2015 | F1RWRS | Simpson Motorsports | =26th |
| Holden F1RWRS Racing Team | |||
| RoLFS | Red Bull World Race Team | 20th | |
| F1RICS | McDoggle Racing Team | 39th |
F1 Records Held
- Youngest Driver to score a point: 18 years, 255 days (2004 Australian Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to lead a lap: 18 years, 338 days (2004 European Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to score a fastest lap: 18 years, 352 days (2004 Canadian Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to win a Grand Prix: 18 years, 352 days (2004 Canadian Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to win a Grand Prix from pole position: 19 years, 302 days (2005 San Marino Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to score a Hat Trick: 19 years, 330 days (2005 Monaco Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to score a Grand Chelem: 19 years 330 days (2005 Monaco Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to lead the World Championship: 19 years, 337 days (2005 European Grand Prix)
- Youngest Driver to win the World Championship: 20 years, 101 days (2005 Japanese Grand Prix)
