17 Jun 2019 19:26:21
Top 10 Formula 1 Drivers


It was really difficult to pick just ten, especially as some I am just relying on stories and old footage to judge them by. But these are my 10 anyway:



10. Sebastian Vettel

Despite losing his way when under pressure and not being anything like as good as he was in the last few years, winning that many world titles means you have to squeeze him in to any top 10. I am not sure he fully deserves it, but you simply cannot ignore the titles.



9. Nelson Piquet

Yes he was a good driver, but he made the list because I have a soft spot for him as, when I was a very young child we were settling down to watch a race on TV and my mother asked me who I thought would win. I said Lauda. My mother, being very mature, repeated the question at a higher volume, so I again replied Lauda. This continued for a long time, with her bellowing the question at me until I finally admitted defeat and said Piquet, as it was the only other driver I could think of. He won that race and I used to support him after that. He gets in the list because he shut my mother up and that is a miracle of epic proportions, worthy of inclusion in any list.



8. Stirling Moss

When I was a child, someone gave me a book of adventure stories for boys or something similar one Christmas and it included the story of his Mille Miglia triumph or something. While not F1, it piqued my interest in him and I have since read of him winning one race purely by fooling everyone into thinking he would stop for tyres and not doing so and having to drive on the grass at the side of the road, when the tyres were shredded in the final laps, to cool the wheels down enough to finish the race and win.



7. Jim Clark

So many racing drivers call him the best ever that he has to be included. Having never seen him drive myself, I have to put him fairly low down, even if he might well deserve to be higher up.



6. Alain Prost

His philosophy of going as slow as possible while still winning is not exactly appealing, but anyone who can give Senna a race every single weekend deserves inclusion.



5. Niki Lauda

The only man who could develop a car like Schumacher, he was not just fast but also knew what to do to make the car better. His feedback and hard work was key to his success. Added to that the bravery to return to racing, in the days when drivers died regularly, just weeks after having had the last rites read to him following a crash and fire, deserves the utmost respect.



4. Lewis Hamilton

Blisteringly fast, arguably the fastest driver of all time, it is almost certain that he will move up the list before his career ends. For someone to come from nothing, unlike most drivers he did not come from wealth, his dad had to do 2 and sometimes 3 jobs to pay for his early career, and achieve what he has in a sport that revolves around money is incredible.



3. Michael Schumacher

He was just a machine, he could be driving through a difficult twisty bit of road and still have the spare capacity to make tyre calls or suggest changes needed to make the car faster. The race when he finished second despite the car being stuck in 5th gear, even managing to make a pit stop, was possibly the greatest drive I have ever seen. He was fast from the moment he stepped into an F1 car, his teammate for that one race with Jordan in Belgium says it was a bad weekend for him because he was just totally blown away by this new kid in his first ever race at the track. Schumacher had told Eddie Jordan he had driven Spa before, but it was a lie to get the drive while Gachot was in court, but no one would ever have known from the way he drove that car in qualifying.



2. Ayrton Senna

These top 4 could easily be in any order, but Senna just misses the top spot despite his incredible driving. It is little wonder Hamilton grew up idolising Senna, the man was a genius who drove the wheels off whatever car he was given. A proper racer, who just wanted to go as fast as possible.



1. Juan Manuel Fangio

From the era of Moss, when the cars had to be driven beyond their limits at all times and he was head and shoulders above anyone else of his time, even a driver as good as Moss. There were no aero packages to aid him. Gear changes took a skill all of their own and he was the best of his generation. It is difficult to see how anyone can compare from later eras when the cars have evolved to become easier to drive and more about the speed of the car than the skill of the driver.

1.) 25 Jun 2019
25 Jun 2019 17:26:29
So I've watched a lot of Races that Senna was in, and to be honest with you I thought he was a very dangerous driver.
His heroics in Brazil aside, I don't think he was as good as people say, he was very dangerous at times especially concerning Alain Prost.

{Ed001's Note - you seem to have forgotten Prost rammed him first to win the title mate. It was not all one-sided.}

2.) 26 Jun 2019
26 Jun 2019 21:23:09
You know what Ed, there have been some fantastic rivalries in F1, have you done any articles on them?

{Ed001's Note - not yet mate, but I am starting a series of articles on rivalries, currently midway through the first article in the series, so I can easily add some to the list if you think of any.}