In any sport, picking the greatest of all time, the GOAT, is never an easy task, but in motorsport, it’s practically impossible because times change, technologies evolve, and memories sometimes play tricks on us, associating certain names with the nostalgia of bygone eras.
The Daily Mail has attempted to compile a ranking of the twenty best drivers of all time who have taken the wheel of a Formula 1 car. To some surprise, the gold medal didn’t go to any driver from the modern era.
The top 20 Formula 1 drivers:
20. Nigel Mansell
Are there any other drivers so beloved by the British public? His Formula 1 career wasn’t easy at all. In 1986, his tire cruelly blew out in the decisive race in Adelaide, then he was beaten for the title by Nelson Piquet in 1987, before finally triumphing in 1992 at the age of 39, albeit aided by a brilliant Williams designed by Adrian Newey.
At Ferrari, he was dubbed The Lion. The most striking image of his glory years is the crowd pouring onto the tarmac at Silverstone to acclaim him: Mansell-mania in action.
19. Mario Andretti
Andretti in his career won a lot on both sides of the Atlantic. When he arrived in Europe, he had already won the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona. He was fascinating and courteous, yet fiercely competitive. He represented the emblem of the American dream. Born in Trieste, he landed in the USA in 1955, and during his career, he won the 1978 world championship with Lotus.
18. Nelson Piquet
A true master in getting the whole team around him to work, he excelled under Bernie Ecclestone’s guidance at Brabham and, thanks also to the legendary chief designer Gordon Murray, won two of his three world titles with the British team. After moving to Williams, he then got the better of Mansell, with whom he had many disputes, even coming close to a brawl.
17. Sir Jack Brabham
A reticent, sometimes gruff character, yet a true king of Australian sport. Brabham remains the only man to have won the world title for a team bearing his name. At the age of 40, he won his third championship. He raced until the age of 44, then died in 2014. He was the last champion of the Fifties to pass away.
16. Nico Rosberg
The German is the first driver of the MODERN ERA to enter this ranking. Rosberg will be remembered for being the one who managed to beat Lewis Hamilton with the same car, as well as for becoming his former friend after what happened on and off the track. In 2016, he tried everything to outdo the Briton, even stopping cycling in the summer to lose over a kilo of muscle in his legs, a strategy that seemed to pay off with pole position in Japan obtained by one hundredth of a second. Nico then retired once he had clinched his world title with Mercedes because he knew he couldn’t repeat the feat.
15. James Hunt
His sporting battle with Niki Lauda inspired several films. A moment of his career that everyone will remember forever is when, showing immense courage, he won the 1976 world championship driving through blinding rain showers at the Fuji circuit, right in the clash with the Austrian.
However, his lifestyle didn’t allow him to fully focus on his sporting career, although in that brief period he succeeded, he was the best on the grid at the time. He died too young, at the age of 45, from a heart attack in his Wimbledon home, carrying with him a chivalrous spirit but leaving an indelible mark.
14. Sebastian Vettel
A brilliant leading driver who made his fortune at Red Bull when he won his four consecutive world championships from 2010. When Ferrari knocked on his door, they managed to lure him away from the Milton Keynes team by paying him a salary of £50 million a year. Unfortunately, his years in red were not as he imagined, and he never managed to win a world championship with the Prancing Horse. Opportunities were not lacking, especially in 2017 and 2018, but the fight with Lewis Hamilton led him to make many mistakes, thus wasting his chances.
After leaving Maranello and Italy, he completed two seasons in England with Aston Martin colors before retiring definitively from racing. However, in recent times, his name has been linked to several teams that will arrive in the category in the future. Is his career not over yet?
13. Graham Hill
The only driver in history to have won the triple crown: Monaco, Le Mans, and the Indianapolis 500, he was one of the most famous figures of the sixties. Although he was long overshadowed by Jim Clark, he won two titles and was known as Mr. Monaco for his five victories in the principality.
12. Niki Lauda
A hero of the sport, recognizable for the scars he suffered in the Nurburgring fire in 1976. He had to undergo surgery that removed skin from his thigh to allow him to reconstruct his face. Just six weeks after this serious accident, he returned to Monza with his Ferrari, still with fresh wounds and crying in pain as he put on his balaclava.
A three-time world champion, he understood that success depended not only on his driving skills but also on getting the team to work for him. Later, he was a decisive executive chairman of Mercedes during Hamilton’s glory years. He died at the age of 70 from pulmonary failure.
11. Alberto Ascari
He ignited the passion for motorsport in post-war Italy and was Ferrari’s first world champion in 1952 before repeating the feat in 1953, dominating on both occasions. In 1955, Ascari crashed in the Monaco harbor while fighting for the lead and died a week later at Monza. Fangio said, “I have lost my greatest opponent.”
10. Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is a consistent driver who is still active. He continues to work with the Aston Martin team at the age of forty-two, changing the perception of what is possible in the modern era. In his career, he has two world titles, the last of which was almost twenty years ago. A special memory of his career, not related to Formula 1, was his debut at the Indianapolis 500. All the American drivers watched him in amazement, and he would have won if the Honda engine hadn’t exploded.
9. Jim Clark
His death at Hockenheim during an F2 race in 1968 shook the foundations of this sport because, like Ayrton Senna a generation later, he seemed invulnerable and so fast as to intimidate his colleagues.
His victory at the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix, in pouring rain, is unmatched by any other race in the annals. On an eight-mile course, between farmhouses, walls, pylons, and trees, he lapped the entire grid.
8. Sir Jackie Stewart
An extraordinary figure in the history of motorsport. In an era where death was around every corner, he always managed to detach himself and focus before a race, calling this technique “mind management.” He was one of those who fought stubbornly to improve safety. If he had given up the issue, he would have been a more popular champion, but perhaps dead.
Currently, he is an elderly statesman who also boasts participation in the eightieth birthday of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
7. Alain Prost
Watching “the professor” behind the wheel meant witnessing calm driving where only a slight turn of the steering wheel was needed to take corners. Stewart claimed that Prost was better than Senna, especially for being less brutal behind the wheel and not always driving at the limit.
Ecclestone considered him the best driver he had ever seen until Max Verstappen arrived. The fourth title was denied to him when Senna rear-ended him at Suzuka in 1991, but it was not taken away from him when he drove for Williams in 1993, at the age of 38.
6. Sir Stirling Moss
For the global TV audience, he was the most famous sportsman in the world before Muhammad Ali started fighting. He was never a world champion, but he would have been if his deep sense of sportsmanship hadn’t prevented him, when he campaigned for Mike Hawthorn’s reinstatement in Portugal. The appeal was successful, and Hawthorn became the first Briton to win the title, in 1958 beating Moss by just one point.
After Fangio’s retirement in 1958 and the accident that ended his career in 1962, Moss was the best exponent of F1 in the world, as well as the best all-around driver ever. Until his death, he remained synonymous with a certain English style.
5. Max Verstappen
Undoubtedly the greatest driver on the current grid. Of course, Red Bull has been flying in recent seasons, but other cars in the history of this sport have been dominant, yet no one has managed to achieve ten consecutive victories like he did last season.
He was born with the right genes: his mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a karting star; his father, Jos, has an F1 pedigree. He was therefore trained by learning the tricks and rules of karting. He is the perfect fusion of nature and nurture. Brutally tough on the track when he needs to be, he is capable of evoking blinding speed with a press of the pedal. When his career is over, his name could be at the top of all the others.
4. Michael Schumacher
During his Formula 1 career, he almost killed this sport. Coming from Benetton, after already winning two world titles, he moved to Maranello where he won another five championships, becoming the idol of the Tifosi. He was loved by his team, from the first to the last of the mechanics, despite his reputation for Teutonic coldness, which he demonstrated by fighting with his brother Ralf to win the San Marino Grand Prix in 2003, just hours after their mother’s death.
As fast as lightning, in fantastic shape, he didn’t give respite. He could push himself beyond the limit, as he did in the case of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve in the title-deciding races, or when he parked his car in Monaco in 2006 to ruin Alonso’s final qualifying lap.
3. Ayrton Senna
A legend of Formula 1 who this month celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his untimely death at Imola. Many acclaim him as the greatest of all time because there was his aura in addition to his skill. This combination, along with the rivalry with Prost that marked both their careers, caused his hometown, São Paulo, to pour out into the streets in the millions for the Brazilian’s final earthly journey.
Fiercely competitive, he performed feats that defied logic. His opening lap at a wet Donington in 1993, going from fifth to first position, was hypnotic. Perhaps only one lap can be considered better: the qualifying lap in Monaco in 1988, when he said he drove as if he were not conscious.
2. Lewis Hamilton
Seven-time world champion, still active, and who at the end of the year will leave Mercedes to fulfill a lifelong dream: to race for Ferrari. The first seconds of his career in Melbourne were harbingers of the wonders to come when he overtook the world champion Alonso, his teammate at McLaren at the time.
His most important victory came in the rain at Silverstone in 2008 when he finished with a one-minute lead, like an amphibian. A title with the Prancing Horse would make him the greatest of all time, also surpassing Michael Schumacher in terms of number of world titles. However, the challenge won’t be easy given the presence of Max Verstappen and Red Bull on the starting grid.
1. Juan Manuel Fangio
The Argentine has received more accolades for the brilliance of his driving than anyone else in Formula One history. Even Hamilton calls him the “OG,” the Original Gangster. Stewart is sure he was the best. And as for his contemporary Moss, he considers him beyond comparison.
Five-time world champion with four different teams, this is surely another testimony to his greatness that will never be eclipsed. He won 24 times, a number almost modest by modern standards, but he did so in only 51 grand prix. It’s a success rate of 47%.
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