The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 3 plus 5 letter word AHEAD OF THE CURVE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
H
E
A
D
O
F
T
H
E
C
U
R
V
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Where F1 driver breaks/before his competition" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case where f1 driver breaks/before his competition = ahead of the curve.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.