For me it has to be Fangio. I've been disappointed with F1 of late, as the lines are blurred between the Driver's and Constructor's titles. Schumacher, e.g. may not have won so many championships if were not for Barrichello and his other mates. I feel a driver should earn their points without the help of others on the track manipulating the rest of the field. The Ferrari team are masters at that. The end result is poor racing. I say the world should recognise the fact that F1 is now clearly a team sport more than anything, and the Driver's title represents little more than a major ego trip. But I digress! Fangio won more titles in different makes than any other driver. He had no help of a team mate nor a radio to be informed of what was going on. No telemetry to control the car. He won simply because of his skill. And it hardly mattered whether he drove a Ferrari, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, or Maserati. He won 5 titles for four different makes. I'd like to see Alonso or Schumacher switch to BMW, then Mercedes, then Renault and keep winning. It simply wouldn't happen because no driver dominates that much nowadays. Fangio was untouchable.
Alain Prost! 4 times champions againt guys like Senna, Mansel, Piquet, Berger, Lauda,etc. Excluding Schumacher, the pilot with more F1 wins. My childhood F1 hero!
Clark, His modesty, was he not the one who said after a brillaint drive something to the effect of" the car was so good you could have put a monkey in the seat and won" a real gentlemen. as for a good driver MS but my most respected driver is JC.
Graham Hill. There was something special watching him race. Oddly enough, I didn't care much for his son Damon.
Lauda here. Although a little too robot like he and Ferrari were what got me interested in road racing. Senior year high school with my one other buddy who even knew that F1 existed. What he did after "the crash" was Superhuman. Not much cosmetic surgury afterwards; " How will it make me faster ? ". I like the fact that he HAD to win. If he didnt his borrowed racing money debt would have crushed him.
I somewhat agree except that I don't like the way Alonso talks about his fellow competition. He likes to put everyone down and feels that he is always right no matter the situation. A champion should be more positive and respectful.
Schumi, just look at the record books. Plus he brought Ferrari back to greatness after over two decades of nothing. Greatest driver, to date, that has ever raced in F1, or ever will for a LOOOOOOOONG time. I'm glad I was able to watch him race.
Interesting, so far MS is 1st, Senna 2nd, and surprise, Fangio 3rd. Surprise because I didn't think most of you were old enough to remember him. And Niki, Jackie and Mika tied for 4th.
Agreed. I chalk it up to young age. He is mature as a racer, but not necessarily as a person. Regarding age: I'm hoping Vittel will break Alonso's age record for youngest race winner. Maybe even champion?
Schumacher, because he is, as coachi said, the very best of all times. Also, i've not old enough to remember any other champion. I think FA is the most undeserving champion, ever...
I thought this thread could use some pictures, so I went into my archive and started digging for champions. Amazing how many I found. Some racing, some later on at Goodwood. Enjoy! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
My vote goes to James Hunt, he lived the dream he smoked what he wanted,drunk what he wanted,had any woman he wanted, he was a true champion.
Michael Schumacher #1. Michael Schumacher will go down as the best of all time and is the reason why I began to be interested in F1 to begin with. He will be the benchmark by which all other drivers will be measured past and present.
You can't use those first few years to judge MS, the team sucked when he got there. He and the others built it up from ground zero over a few years. After that, with the exception of two years, they have dominated. And do not forget that MS won championships while at Benetton.
Hello, I vote Senna the best for varios reasons. 1.He faced much tougher competion than most of the rivals for this title. He raced Pique,Prost Mansell,Jones,Lauda,Hill.and Shuey. 2. On street circuits that demand skill and precsion not to mention bravery, he was the master. Witness his record wins at Monaca, and Detroit along with the circuit victories at Austrailia. 3. He was the rainmaster. The great other equalizer is F1 is the wet. His rookie race at Monaco stands as one of F1s all time great drives. Being in a middle of the pack team in one of the worst downpours in modern race history, Senna in a race where most racers retired from deep in the field was blazing through the field and had the race not been called because of the weather. Senna would Taken the race from Prost. 4. Ater his rookie season Mercedes Benz had a champions race to introduce its new 190 model. In this race because Fittapaldi was now on the CART racing schedule Senna took his place and WON. Sorry for the long post. I just thought that this may add a little interest to a great thread. MDred85
Nice to see so many different drivers picked as favorites. Diversity in thought is great!!! Without exception, these guys were something special talent wise and they were quite different from one another from a character standpoint.
