Top 20 best F1 Drivers of All Time

[Ardius]

Actually, the track itself has changed very little, its just the surroundings that have changed a lot, a lot more trees and less armco back then!

 

[C-ZETA]

Alonso 8th??? And yet he's rubbish nowadays. And Clark at the top? Nah. Schuey shouldn't be on the list at all!!! Just kidding. And Stirling Moss actually did get more wins that quite a lot of champions, more that Jack Brabham, Emerson Fittipaldi and Graham Hill. And Gilles Villeneuve should just be forgotten.

My top 10 would be:
1. Schuey
2. Prost
3. Senna
4. Mansell
5. Stewart
T-6. Clark
T-6. Lauda
8. Fangio
9. Piquet
10. DAMON Hill

 

[Greycap]

Hamilton, Raikkonen & Alonso don't deserve to be on the list yet. Greats like Fittipaldi, Andretti, Rosberg & Jones should take their place instead.

"Yet", when talking about Räikkönen and Alonso? You're aware that both of them have driven in F1 since 2001, when this season comes to an end they're equalling Rosberg in seasons driven? Not to mention that both of them surpass all your "greats" in the amount of F1 races won and pretty much make up the list of the few who could match Schumacher's pace with an (arguably) inferior car.

Alonso 8th??? And yet he's rubbish nowadays. And Clark at the top? Nah. Schuey shouldn't be on the list at all!!! Just kidding. And Stirling Moss actually did get more wins that quite a lot of champions, more that Jack Brabham, Emerson Fittipaldi and Graham Hill. And Gilles Villeneuve should just be forgotten.

My top 10 would be:

Alonso rubbish? You know, that's the guy that schooled the entire grid in two consecutive races last year with a horridly incompetitive Renault. And seriously, Mansell ahead of Clark or Fangio? Never. The only reason he got his only championship was the superb Williams that practically drove itself. About Villeneuve, if there's ever a driver that should not be forgotten it's him. How many drivers have you seen driving as well with a hopeless car as Villeneuve with that Ferrari? Not many, if any. He's one of the best drivers ever but didn't get the chance to drive a proper car.

My own opinion is that Clark was the best all round driver ever, Fangio was the fastest, Villeneuve was the bravest and Senna was the king of rain. Of the modern era drivers I'd say that Schumacher is the best tactician, Räikkönen the fastest, Alonso the best all rounder and that's about it.

 

[Tornado]

"Yet", when talking about Räikkönen and Alonso? You're aware that both of them have driven in F1 since 2001, when this season comes to an end they're equalling Rosberg in seasons driven?

I'd argue that a bit of hindsight should be applied before adding them to any greatest ever lists. Not necessarily that they aren't up to snuff, per se, but too fresh on people's minds to make a fair judgement. The careers of those three are hardly over, either.

 

[Scaff]

Personally I'd give Fangio the number one spot for 1957 German GP alone.

The 1957 German Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 4 August 1957 at Nürburgring. The 22 lap race was won by Juan Manuel Fangio, and is often cited as one of the greatest victories in racing history.

Fangio had taken notice of the tire and fuel-level selection of the Ferrari drivers, and realized they were probably going to run the entire race without a pit stop. Fangio decided he would use softer tires, and only a half tank of gas. This would allow the car to take corners faster, but also require a pit stop. Fangio took his pit stop on lap 13, in 1st place, and 30 seconds ahead of Hawthorn and Collins.

The pit stop was a disaster, the pit crew had trouble removing one of the wheels. Fangio left the pit lane in 3rd place, and 48 seconds behind Collins who was in 2nd place. Over the next 10 laps, Fangio broke and rebroke the lap record 9 times (7 of the records were in successive laps). Early in the 21st lap, Fangio was beside Collins on a straightaway, approaching a bridge that was barely wide enough for both cars to fit side by side. Collins backed off, and Fangio took 2nd place. Late in the 21st lap, during a left corner, Fangio cut past Hawthorn on the inside of the corner, with only his right tires on the track and his left tires on the grass. Fangio maintained his lead, and won the race.

After the race, Fangio commented, "I have never driven that quickly before in my life and I don't think I will ever be able to do it again".

Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_German_Grand_Prix


Anything else he did before or after is simply icing on the cake.


Regards

Scaff

 

[Ardius]

Alonso 8th??? And yet he's rubbish nowadays. And Clark at the top? Nah. Schuey shouldn't be on the list at all!!! Just kidding. And Stirling Moss actually did get more wins that quite a lot of champions, more that Jack Brabham, Emerson Fittipaldi and Graham Hill. And Gilles Villeneuve should just be forgotten.

My top 10 would be:
1. Schuey
2. Prost
3. Senna
4. Mansell
5. Stewart
T-6. Clark
T-6. Lauda
8. Fangio
9. Piquet
10. DAMON Hill

I really like Damon, he is my favourite F1 driver of all time, but he is by no means "a great". He was very good but I don't think I would ever rank him among the best of the best. He was a great sportsman and he had a couple of amazing drives but he was never head-and-shoulders above the rest though he was certainly better than a lot of the drivers in his period of driving.
If you were going to have Damon on the list, I would put Brundle in too, in fact..I think Brundle impresses me slightly more than Damon even though he doesn't have the race wins nor championship to shout about.

 

[Fastas]

I really like Damon, he is my favourite F1 driver of all time, but he is by no means "a great". He was very good but I don't think I would ever rank him among the best of the best. He was a great sportsman and he had a couple of amazing drives but he was never head-and-shoulders above the rest though he was certainly better than a lot of the drivers in his period of driving.
If you were going to have Damon on the list, I would put Brundle in too, in fact..I think Brundle impresses me slightly more than Damon even though he doesn't have the race wins nor championship to shout about.

You make an interesting point there about Damon Hill. The fact that he didn't stand out head and shoulders above anyone else should not be seen as a negative though. Let's not forget that these machines (the cars ) are not indestructible, a great driver does acknowledge that and drive accordingly. Raikkonen is an example of a driver that doesn't give his car the respect that most do; hence he high failure rate, imo.

 

[thirteendog]

Heikki Kovalainen should be #1, it takes great skill to go two races without finishing a single lap.

 

[Ardius]

You make an interesting point there about Damon Hill. The fact that he didn't stand out head and shoulders above anyone else should not be seen as a negative though. Let's not forget that these machines (the cars ) are not indestructible, a great driver does acknowledge that and drive accordingly. Raikkonen is an example of a driver that doesn't give his car the respect that most do; hence he high failure rate, imo.

Oh yes, but I wouldn't so easily forget Hill's 1995 and 1999 - not especially brilliant years even though he had brilliant cars.
The things that made Damon great:
-First of all his personality, I mean, who honestly hated (note: not dislike, hate) him? I don't think its possible.
-He was apparently the best test driver in the business and as part of the team of Adrian Newey and Patrick Head helped create perhaps the greatest and most dominant cars at least of the 90s.
-He had some unbelievable drives, the greatest one of all being Hungary 1997 - proving he had more than just a good car at his disposal, as the A18 was a pile of crap.
-Was Schumacher's greatest rival in my opinion, some of their battles were awesome and of course Adelaide 1994 won most people over to believe Hill deserved one WDC at least.
-After having a terrible 1995, he sorted himself out and had a brilliant 1996. As we have seen over the years, there have been champions who couldn't sort themselves out after a year like his.

However, I still don't think of him as one of the greatest, sure he is one of my favourites (and probably a lot of people's favourites) because he was so likable. But his driving was very up and down, he could have amazing drives and he could have truly horrible ones. He left on a really bad note in 1999 with Jordan and some his incidents with Schumacher were very amateurish.

I think all things considered, he deserves to be in the top 30, maybe top 20 but no higher than that.

Heikki Kovalainen should be #1, it takes great skill to go two races without finishing a single lap.

Actually, who are everyone's bottom 20 drivers of all time? Now thats a more interesting question.
Just a few names to get people thinking:
Taki Inoue
Yuji Ide
Scott Speed
Michael Andretti
Jean-Denis Délétraz

 

[thirteendog]

Scott Speed never got a fair shake. He was sick for the majority of his F1 campaign. His story is actually rather interesting.

 

[Ardius]

Whatever the reason for his poor form, he was still unimpressive. There are many reasons why Andretti was bad, but it doesn't make his performances any better.

 

[thirteendog]

I actually think Scott may get a round two with USF1

 

[mafia_boy]

Actually, who are everyone's bottom 20 drivers of all time? Now thats a more interesting question.
Just a few names to get people thinking:
Taki Inoue
Yuji Ide
Scott Speed
Michael Andretti
Jean-Denis Délétraz

I can think of a few like that too.

Mauricio Gugelmin
Jos Verstappen
Marc Gene
Mika Salo
Michele Alboreto

Any more we can think of??

 

[Bram Turismo]

Mauricio Gugelmin
Jos Verstappen
Marc Gene
Mika Salo
Michele Alboreto

Am I the only one raising an eyebrow at that name in that kind of list?

 

[Ardius]

I can think of a few like that too.

Mauricio Gugelmin
Jos Verstappen
Marc Gene
Mika Salo
Michele Alboreto

Any more we can think of??

Jos the Boss? What did he do wrong? Certainly not amazing, but he did show pretty good skill with the Arrows before they went bust.
Same goes for Mika Salo, he wasn't amazing when he was around but not exactly "worst" material.
Alboreto? He has won some races!
Gene wasn't special, but he was a consistent finisher and there's not much more you can ask when you're a Minardi driver.

Perhaps I should be more specific:
I'm asking for your worst drivers - as in truly terrible.

Are any of the drivers you mention as bad as Yuji Ide? I think not!

 

[Stevisiov]

Okay not worst, but recent years face palm award go to Piquet Jr. and Nakijima. Oh and the spyker team 👍

I can see where people are coming from with Kovelinen, but honestly he had a great backend to last season (a bit like his previous season with renault), he is quick, as quick as Hamilton often. Bad luck and some admitted silly mistakes has pegged him back a bit.

{edit} Max Mosely, and Honda's last two cars get a facepalm award too.

 

[senamic]

I know how much you people on this forum love him but...


SATO.


He had speed, but being fast isn't enough. I reckon that he is a bit less reliable than Hamilton, and as we saw, that nearly cost Hamilton a championship. Takuma proved time and again that he is a great fast driver, but he was inconsistent and used to be a mine on the track, he would end drivers races.

Just my opinion

 

[Stotty]

1. Senna
2. Schuey
3. Prost
4. Fangio
5. Stewart
6. Lauda
7. Ascari
8. Mansell
9. Piquet
10. Brabham

Got to have Ascari in there as he managed to win 1 of his championships whilst Fangio was racing.

 

[senamic]

... And we're back on topic!

 

[RUFin]

The sad thing in F1 is that you have no idea who is tallented and whos not.Car has so big part off what you are that I cant say if someone is better than the other?Thats why Raikkonen is the 'king',give him a rally car or a skiidoo,and he will beat the 'pros' in their own field.+he plays hockey.Not like Shummy,who is like a frightened moose on the football field.not much graceness in there?To be skillfull,you need to have that 'rhythm' in your moves.
-#2

 

[Greycap]

Am I the only one raising an eyebrow at that name in that kind of list?

Certainly not. Seeing that already in his second race with a proper car, Hockenheim 1999 driving the Ferrari, he was doing the same thing as Schumacher i.e. beating Irvine fair and square until team orders came to play.

 

[Ardius]

The sad thing in F1 is that you have no idea who is tallented and whos not.Car has so big part off what you are that I cant say if someone is better than the other?Thats why Raikkonen is the 'king',give him a rally car or a skiidoo,and he will beat the 'pros' in their own field.+he plays hockey.Not like Shummy,who is like a frightened moose on the football field.not much graceness in there?To be skillfull,you need to have that 'rhythm' in your moves.
-#2

I think you can fairly easily tell if a driver is good or not - the easiest test is to compare against his teammates and also compare his achievements taking into account how good or bad their car is. We can tell how good a car is, can we not? So with this we can determine how much is their skill and how much is the car's skill.
Also, a way to tell how great someone is, is by looking at their moments on the track rather than just records.

For example, records show Martin Brundle only ever had 1 2nd place in his career and he didn't score any points in his debut season with Tyrell in 1984 - but the reality is that he did score points and almost won the 1984 Detroit Grand Prix!

Raikkonen has never particularly impressed me beyond his lapping ability, he's an amazing hotlapper but stuggles miserably when having to do one straight off the bat in qualifying and stuggles racing other drivers in far lesser cars.

Okay not worst, but recent years face palm award go to Piquet Jr. and Nakijima. Oh and the spyker team 👍

I can see where people are coming from with Kovelinen, but honestly he had a great backend to last season (a bit like his previous season with renault), he is quick, as quick as Hamilton often. Bad luck and some admitted silly mistakes has pegged him back a bit.

{edit} Max Mosely, and Honda's last two cars get a facepalm award too.

Oh yes, Piqut Jr. certainly is a reject of the modern day. Nakajima is a little better though..funnily enough I'd rank Nakajima higher than Sutil and Piquet just because he does have some moments of speed and doesn't whine and complain like the other 2 as much.

Spyker did have one heroic race but yes, not a great team, though who would expect much more from the ex-Jordan, ex-MF1 team?

 

[mafia_boy]

Jos the Boss? What did he do wrong? Certainly not amazing, but he did show pretty good skill with the Arrows before they went bust.
Same goes for Mika Salo, he wasn't amazing when he was around but not exactly "worst" material.
Alboreto? He has won some races!
Gene wasn't special, but he was a consistent finisher and there's not much more you can ask when you're a Minardi driver.

Jos, what did he do wrong......nothing. What did he do right either......also nothing. Just personal opinion there.
Mika Salo proves that driving a Ferrari doesn't guarantee you good results.
Alboreto, although winning a race or two, DNF'd more than he got points!
Gene wasn't just a Minardi driver, his efforts at Williams weren't stellar either, that's why he's never really stepped up from being a test driver.

Perhaps I should be more specific:
I'm asking for your worst drivers - as in truly terrible.

Are any of the drivers you mention as bad as Yuji Ide? I think not!

Yes, Gugelmin is as bad as Ide in my opinion. Everytime you turned on the TV for F1 in the old days you would hear Murray Walker mention that Gugelmin has retired again, be it from a crash or some other failure.

 

[Clark]

I've just realised, there's no JPM on the best drivers list, he's ten times better than Hamilton!

 

[Ardius]

Hmmm, I don't know about that Montoya was very good but did he ever have a Silverstone 2008? I can't remember, he may well have done. I'm not so sure of him being better though and I was very disappointed to see him move to NASCAR.

 

[Small_Fryz]

JPM had balls and skill, you could almost call him the modern day giles?? Always going for win and trying to overtake when ever possible. JPM produced some good overtakes. He was a bit too inconsistent to win a championship and probably was too hard on the car but his won across many catagories of racing.

 

[Clark]

double post sorry

 

[Clark]

you could almost call him the modern day giles?? Always going for win and trying to overtake when ever possible. JPM produced some good overtakes.

In my books, that's what every driver should be in F1, what we're missing nowadays and why Villeneuve should be higher up the list.

 

[C-ZETA]

Bottom twenty? Sure!

I only have five people at the moment, they are Hans Hermann, Narain Karthikeyan and Patrick Friesacher. Oh, and Christijan Albers and Giorgio Pantano were shambles as well too.

 

[Metar]

A bottom-20 list is very difficult to compile, simply because you have two levels of bad: Professional bad, and the amateurs:

In the '90s especially, it was not uncommon for the backmarker teams, those that already lapped five seconds a lap slower, to hire someone with lots of money and little expertise. There were drivers that didn't dare to brake at more than 1g, at a time when tyres and carbon disks saw professional drivers reach up to 3gs under braking. There were dozens of those types - just read the history of teams such as Life, Andrea Moda, Coloni and the likes: "Moderately-skilled driver X was replaced mid-season in favour of rich-but-crap driver Y" is a phrase that repeats quite often. These were millionaires looking for fun and adventure - and, thankfully, they often drove well within their limits, slow as these may be, instead of risking lives. If I'm not mistaken, 2008 was the first season without a single true pay-driver.

And then there are the professional ranks: Drivers that earn their living driving. There, you have drivers like Ide and Deletraz - they were slow, unreliable, inconsistent and often downright dangerous, when they finally were fast enough to keep up with another car. These should be the stars of a "Worst 20 drivers" list.

On other levels, you have drivers that try too hard to keep up - sometimes with success, sometimes without - such as Piquet Jnr, or, at times, Sutil, Sato and Nakajima. They're not awful, and have their moments - such as Piquet at Hockenheim and Fuji, Sutil at Monaco, Sato at Canada 2007, Nakajima on his debut at Interlagos - but are prone to driving-errors. Often, they have a teammate who is leaps and bounds ahead - Piquet and Nakajima - or a car that's absolute rubbish - Sutil - and in an attempt to prove themselves, they overdrive the cars and commit silly mistakes. For some reason, these drivers always get mentioned in "Worst 20" lists - for no real reason. They had their redeeming moments - even if it's a single race ever - when dozens of other drivers came and went without ever coming close to points even in average cars.

Nevermind Michele Alboreto, who was a championship-contender in the '80s - how the hell does such a guy end up on anyone's worst-20 list?