10 Christmas Characters and Their Formula 1 Equivalents

Formula One, like the Christmas period, is awash with a wide array of characters.

Some are as generous and jolly as Santa Claus himself, while there are plenty of grumpy figures who could claim to be F1's answer to Scrooge.

And others—we're looking at you, Pastor Maldonado—are just plain comical.

With December 25 upon us, here are 10 Christmas characters and their F1 equivalents.

Christmas is a time for giving, and there is no better giver than Santa Claus, who spends the early hours of December 25 delivering presents to children around the world.

And judging by his performances in the second half of the 2014 season, Nico Rosberg is a firm believer in giving too.

The German gave team-mate Lewis Hamilton a puncture in the Belgian Grand Prix, which only served to give the British driver the momentum in the title battle.

Rosberg followed up his Spa mistake by gifting Hamilton the lead in the following round in Italy before giving him plenty of room to make a decisive pass at Suzuka.

That was followed up by a massive lock-up at the start of the Russian GP, which presented Hamilton with an easy win.

The Mercedes driver also pressed the wrong button on his steering wheel as he defended the lead at the United States GP, allowing Hamilton to complete a relatively easy overtake and claim victory.

After a good first half of 2014, Rosberg seemed keen to throw it all away from Spa onward.

Christmas time must be incredibly taxing for poor old Rudolph, who's forced to drag that heavy sleigh across the globe.

Fernando Alonso must empathise with everyone's favourite reindeer, having hauled the unsightly and under-powered Ferrari F14 T around the world's race tracks in 2014.

A two-time world champion, the Spaniard was forced to settle for just two measly podium finishes this year, as the Italian team suffered its first winless season since 1993. His return to McLaren was confirmed earlier in December.

Reports that McLaren sealed the deal by offering Alonso a carrot, however, are unfounded.

Mercedes' world championship triumph in 2014 was also a success for the team's revolutionary management structure.

Ross Brawn's exit at the end of 2013 saw the team principal's role become available at the Brackley-based outfit, but it was never filled.

Instead, Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe shared responsibilities when it came to leading the team, with the former focusing on the business side of things as the latter adopted a technical standpoint.

The pair established an excellent working relationship and almost effortlessly diffused the dramas of Monaco and Spa between Hamilton and Rosberg, which might have seen a lesser team implode. 

The Silver Arrows' dominance, of course, would not have been possible without the work of Andy Cowell, the managing director of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, who was central to the production of the all-conquering V6 turbo engine.

Together, Mercedes' three wise men ensured the rise of the three-pointed star.

Lotus' troublesome E22 car meant we didn't see much of Pastor Maldonado in 2014, but what we did see was hard to forget.

The Venezuelan's first major contribution to the campaign came in Bahrain, where he punted Esteban Gutierrez's Sauber into the night sky.

During the following round in China, Maldonado ran off the track and spun as he fiddled with an adjustment on his steering wheel in FP1. Just hours later, he crashed on his way into the pit lane.

Three weeks after that, he crashed out of qualifying in Spain, having refused to ease the throttle around the long Turn 3.

Gutierrez almost returned the favour by hitting the Lotus at Silverstone, while Maldonado was up to his usual tricks in Belgium, crashing after wandering off the track while looking in his rear-view mirror.

His misery was compounded with yet another practice crash in Singapore, which tore the front-right wheel off his car.

With such a long list of mistakes and misdemeanours, only Maldonado could be F1's resident donkey.

Kimi Raikkonen may have been brutally exposed by Fernando Alonso at Ferrari in 2014, but he remained as cool as ever off the track.

The 2007 world champion reacted with zero emotion when Nigel Hope, the Red Bull mechanic, saved him from being run over by Sebastian Vettel in Monaco and was at his moody best in post-race interviews.

He offered a typical one-word answer in the press conference ahead of the Malaysian GP and brought the room back to reality in hilarious fashion at the pre-Monaco presser.

The Iceman—Raikkonen's nickname is tattooed on his forearm and adorns his helmet—can only be likened to Frosty the Snowman.

At the tender age of 17, Max Verstappen will become the youngest driver to start an F1 race when he lines up on the grid for the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.

Toro Rosso took the sport by surprise when it announced the then-16-year-old son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen would compete in next year's championship, but the signs suggest that the team has a future star.

The Dutchman took 10 wins in his debut season of car racing in Formula Three in 2014 and impressed in a handful of practice appearances for Toro Rosso.

Time will tell whether the wonder kid can go on to become Red Bull's Messiah.

Since joining the team in mid-2013, Pat Symonds has transformed the fortunes of Williams.

A man of title-winning pedigree, he acted as a calming influence and almost instantly steadied the ship upon his arrival at the team, with Williams recording 320 points in 2014 having scored just five the previous year.

Symonds has restructured Williams' engineering department, with the likes of Rob Smedley and Rod Nelson, a former colleague of Symonds at Renault, arriving at Grove.

Progress has been slow and steady and opportunities to return to winning ways have already passed by, but with Symonds the Shepherd on board, Williams will remain on the right track.

Kimi Raikkonen's downfall in 2014 has seen Valtteri Bottas emerge as Formula One's "Flying Finn."

In just his second season, the Williams driver looked at ease at the sharp end of the field, securing six podium finishes en route to fourth in the drivers' standings. 

Only rarely did Bottas, who quickly established himself as team leader ahead of the highly experienced Felipe Massa, make mistakes, with his quiet confidence increasingly notable.

His cool demeanour was best highlighted in his defence of a charging Lewis Hamilton in the latter stages of the German GP, making Bottas the best fit for the role of Jack Frost.

Were Bernie Ecclestone and Scrooge separated at birth?

Mr E spent much of 2014 trying to cast a shadow over the sport he is supposed to promote, frequently bemoaning the sound of the new power units instead of raving about their technological brilliance.

Ecclestone pulled off another masterstroke by taking F1 to the soulless Sochi Autodrom, which hosted the most boring race of the year, yet his true Scrooge moment came when Marussia and Caterham were left on the sidelines with financial problems.

Despite admitting to BBC Sport's Andrew Benson that it was "probably my fault" that the backmarkers were struggling to survive, Ecclestone, per The Independent's Tom Sheen, refused to aid midfield teams Force India, Sauber and Lotus as he pushed for leading outfits to run three cars.

Like elves, Santa's little helpers at Christmas, the role of mechanics can be sometimes overlooked in Formula One.

In a sport synonymous with glamour, the stars and their cars, mechanics are faceless creatures residing under the shelter of the garage, venturing out on occasion to perform a pit stop or applaud their drivers across the finish line.

When, for instance, Sebastian Vettel takes a grand prix win, the post-race eulogies surround the driver's ability and the brilliance of Adrian Newey, the renowned designer—not those who brought his drawings to life and preserve the car.

Their work is as important as anyone's, but both elves and mechanics are underappreciated.