I'm starting a thread which will prolly be locked pretty soon..

Who do you think are the best F1 drivers ever? And who are the best in the last few years?

My all time top:
1. Senna
2. Schumacher
3. Fangio

Last few years:
1. Schumacher
2. Hakkinen
3. Raikkonen
4. Montoya

I was shocked to hear that Menno thinks that Hakkinen - the 2 times WC, is in his opinion one of the worst drivers.

I said he was only world champion because his car was unbeatable (of course his team mate was an even worse driver ). Same thing for Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill.

Schumacher is the best driver ever. After that Senna probably (or Jos Verstappen ( )).

Menno

1. Ayrton Senna
[EDIT] 2. Alain Prost (Good point nyarlathotep! He slipped my mind.) [/EDIT]
2. Nigel Mansell
3. Michael Schumacher
4. Sterling Moss

I always liked Alesi as well. He seemed to be one of the most difficult people to overtake.

Last few years:
1. Michael Schumacher (undeniably very good but that doesn't mean we like him all that much here )
2. Damon Hill
3. Juan Pablo Montoya

Take the numbers with a pinch of salt, I was aiming for more of a conglomeration of good drivers however Senna was fantastic.

And Schumi's car hasn't been unbeatable in the recent few years? I think never have we seen as fast and as reliable car as Ferrari during the last few years. Ferrari has been phenomenal. Fortunately other teams are now catching up.

They were only allowed in a car because of their fathers.

Look at that Villeneuve now, can't even beat the Minardis.

Menno

I wouldn't say that Villeneuve was allowed to come to F1 because of his father. Villeneuve is IndyCar champion, Indy 500 winner, F1 champion...
He was undeniably a good driver, but lost his motivation when he couldn't race for the championship anymore.

The best Finnish driver is..... TOMMI MAKINEN!

That makes him a bad/unprofessional driver.

Menno

He's a WRC driver, not F1..
But yeah, finnish drivers have been doing very well in WRC during the years.

1. Senna
2. Alain Prost
3. Fangio

Don't forget Alain Prost. He was a much better driver than a team manager, one could say.
In France, people used to make fun of Jean Alesi's driving style. Maybe that's a main reason why he doesn't drive any more.
I used to be a Villeneuve (the son) fan but I just can't understand why he chose such a bad team.

Senna is #1 for me as well,
as for wrc, question: is there a way to see that event on some higher level than that short and kinda uninteresting clips that i see on eurosport from time to time (with some chick talking way to much so i couldnt hear the engines)? (are there some dvd's to buy or something?)

http://smokeamiga.virtualave.net/xnview/or...nhunter_026.jpg
(btw, any1 playing cmr2? and how is cmr3? on pc i mean) B)

Juan Pablo Montoya!!!!!

Viva Colombia!

The past (in no particular order):
M. Schumacher
J. Villenueve
J. Alesi (wish he'd come to the U.S.A to do C.A.R.T.)
G. Berger
M. Hakkinen
H.H. Frentzen

The present (in no particular order):
M. Schumacher
R. Schumacher
K. Raikkonen
J.P. Montoya
M. Webber
F. Alonzo

---

WRC is slowly but surely becoming my favorite form of motorsports.

I like European racing so much that it is literally torture to see all the Nascar stuff on American television.

How about Jim Clark, Gilles Villeneuve, Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson, Jackie Stewart etc etc ?
And John Surtees won World Championships on four wheels and two.

Most of the drivers listed so far have been recent drivers - mostly nonentities...

1. Ayrton Senna.
2. No one.

And I'm pretty serious here!

Was Alain Prost that bad or has everyone forgotten him?

1) Senna
2) Hakkinen (for his overtake on MS at Spa 2000)
3) M. Schumacher
4) Gilles Villeneuve
5) Nuvolari

Back in the day, Nigel Mansell was my favorite.

And I always liked Hakkinen, for his great and funny commercials (Deutsche Telekom).

1. Senna (Blazing fast)
2. Hakkinen (The Man to kick Schumachers arse
3. Raikkonen (He will be winning many WC:s)
4. M. Schumacher (Broken almost every record in F1...a bit too lucky sometimes though
5. Barrichello (A very charismatic driver, a real team-player and he doesn't make mistakes!)

That's my list.

1. Senna
2. Prost
3. Schumacher
4. Mansell
5. Piquet (he was the #1 in setting up cars)

Schumacher broke almost every single record in F1, but I think it will never be considered the #1 driver because it never had a rival that was near his level of driving [edit] racing at the same time as him [/edit].
Senna, on the other hand, won 3 championships when Prost, Mansell, Piquet, etc. (the other best ones for many people) were also racing in F1, and how many more would he have won if he hadn't died?

(I'm Brazilian, so my opinion is somewhat biased.)

Senna. What a fantastic showman behind the wheel. Ever see the qualifying run with a video camera strapped on to his Honda powered McLaren in the early 90's? (Year escapes me now, but I think it was '92) Stunning.

How 'bout when he made that same car a mile wide to hold off Mansell, with a much faster Williams, at Monte Carlo. Mansell was pissed.

Got to watch Jodi Schekter, another world champ, at a Formula 5000 race in Michigan when I was a kid. David Hobbs was in that race as well. Might have been '72. His kid will be headed in the same direction some day.

Schumacher is a talented driver. No question. He will undoubtably be the man to beat when it's all said and done. Don't forget he used to drive a Ford and kicked butt then as well. He is clean when he drives, and doesn't make more than one or two mistakes a year.

Alesi was an idiot to go with Ferrari when he did. They were at their lowest point in years and he just wanted to drive the beloved prancing horse. Dumb. His career suffered after that.

Prost was a genuine pro when he raced. A great wet driver as well. Probably the only guy to ruffle Senna's feathers, too. They were good races when those two were in the line-up.

I couldn't agree more.

My current favs:

-Schumi
-Juan Pablo
-Jenson

Ayrton and Gilles were awesome in their days, but unfortunately I didn't get to see them
in action...

P.S. Fuck FIA! Stop the murderers of motorsport!

Kind of like WWF with cars. IT SUCKS!!

Long time ago when racin' was racin' I used to watch. Couldn't pay me to do it now.

Well, at least Americans are still havin' fun, and they don't treat fans as arrogantly as
the snobbish people in F1. I admit that racing in ovals is the most ridiculous form of motorsport
but I don't see the thousands of people who gather to watch Pontiacs vs Chevrolets vs Fords
complaining. I'd say that FIA has a lot to learn from the US.