Gerrard Xie: My Ultimate Driver

DAMS Lucas Oil’s Gerrard Xie takes on the challenge of building his perfect racing driver.

The Chinese driver talks about style, from smooth operators to aggressive at the wheel.

Here is what he came up with…

QUALIFYING PACE

“Charles Leclerc. His speed in qualifying is quite good. Even in ‘25 he got pole with Ferrari.”

INTELLIGENCE

“Michael Schumacher, he was quite intelligent in the car, especially racing wheel-to-wheel.”

DRIVING IN THE WET

“Max Verstappen. 2016 Brazil, 2024 Brazil, both classics.”

CORNERING STYLE

“Lewis Hamilton, his braking is very late and very aggressive. He can definitely attack the corner the deepest.”

TYRE MANAGEMENT

“Tyre management, for me I would go for Hamilton. Pirelli tyres – it depends what compounds you’re on because when it's lower categories, you have to really force the temp in. I think in F3 and F2 and even F1 you sort of do less because I feel like the compound is softer and there's naturally a lot more grip for one lap pace.”

SMOOTH DRIVING STYLE

“I'll say Max, quite smooth, it's like dancing on the edge.”

AGGRESSIVE STYLE

“And for aggressive I'll pick the one from the 90s – Ayrton Senna. I like the car to have quite a sharp front-end but at the same time I like to drive smoothly. It doesn't mean not to force the car but like force the car smoothly.”

OVERTAKING ABILITY

“Max. Actually, from what I remember from last year, the best overtake is from Charles, around the outside of George Russell at Zandvoort. That one was quite nice.”

ANYTHING ELSE?

“Good social skills.”

DREAM TEAM

“Team boss, I would say Zak Brown. Drivers, I’ll pick Max and Senna. And the car, I would say last year’s McLaren.”