F1 Fanatic

I dug out AUTOCAR’s 100 Grand Prix Greats for another Alan Henry top ten, published in 1995.

1. Stirling Moss
2. Ayrton Senna
3. Alain Prost
4. Jim Clark
5. Juan Manuel Fangio
6. Alberto Ascari
7. Gilles Villeneuve
8. Jackie Stewart
9. Tony Brooks
10. Mario Andretti

Amusing to see the ‘shuffling of the pack’ compared to his 2008 list, it appears AH is getting a little more nostalgic in his old age…

I’m currently reading Analysing Formula 1 by Roger Smith, it was written at the end of the 2007 season.
He doesn’t produce a formal top 10, but using statistics nominates the following top 7:
1. Fangio
2. Clark
3. Schumacher

Stewart, Moss, Senna, Prost

Schumacher’s competition throughout his career is underrated. Thing is, Schumi was so good that he often made his rivals look bad.

For instance, had Michael Schumacher never existed, and Ferrari pulled out in 1996, most likely;

Mika Hakkinen would be a 3 – 4 time champion.
Damon Hill would be a triple time champion.
Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button would be double champions.

And we’d rate them much higher than we do today.

@bluestar77 Tony Brooks in ninth? Now there’s a controversial choice.

I do think he’s a much under-rated and under-heralded driver, but ninth seems rather too high.

Actually, I amended the list above to remove Sir Stirling Moss’ natterings, as Brooks figured in too high. But if you value Sir Stirling’s opinion, then I’ve left the post above :)

Pos /Driver /Average Rank
1 Senna 2.30
2 M Schumacher 2.88
3 Fangio 3.00
4 Clark 3.60
5 Prost 4.60
6 Moss 5.38
7 Stewart 5.90
8 Ascari 6.33
9 Brabham 7.00
9 Raikkonen 7.00
9 Rosemeyer 7.00
12 Alonso 8.33
13 Lauda 8.57
14 G Villeneuve 8.67
15 Brooks 9.00
15 Hakkinen 9.00
15 Nuvolari 9.00
15 Piquet 9.00
15 Vettel 9.00
20 Hamilton 10.00
20 Mansell 10.00
20 Mario Andretti 10.00

BTW: if anyone knows what calculation I can apply to take into account the amount of times ranked in the top 10s, I’m happy to apply that to the spreadsheet as it stands…

Taking out a driver’s opinion is probably best, as they will not have rated themselves, and thus their own average score would suffer. This would be fine if all the top drivers’ lists were available, but only one or two skews results in their rivals’ favours.

I’ve seen before on this site that Moss is very under-rated by many (this came up due to his high placing in the BBC’s top 20 feature throughout last year, where he placed above many multiple champions). It’s nice to see him consistently in other top 10′s here, as despite being almost a 1/4 of his age, I’m a big fan. On that note, there was a documentary about him on the BBC on the 27th, presented by Patrick Stewart- worth a watch if anybody can hunt it down, as it had some nice footage- I hadn’t realised that the 1955 British GP was actually filmed before.

With all due respect – these things never make sense. In the above example how can Kimi rank way above Piquet- a triple WDC and close to many more- Kimi- one WDC and the creator of a T-shirt business (LOL).

I concede that Kimi has been CLOSE to a 3x, but then Alonso CLOSE to a 4x, Webber & Massa CLOSE to a 1x- then Vettel just a 1x!! Mansell CLOSE to a 3x………… you get my point.

I am 36 and went to my 1st F1 race in Adelaide in 1986- I never got to see Sir Striling race of course, got to meet him as a 12-13 years old and he was a gent- but there is no way the guy can be ranked No.1 of all time without a WDC title in my opinion.

The equilevant of my ‘Old School’ was Gerhard Berger- was as quick and good as his peers at the time, but never quite got there and won a title- personally I cant see Sir Stirling Moss any different from Gerhard- but I cant see Berger on the list.

Again I dont llike these comparisons- Fangio would struggle around En Rouge and could kill himself at any time, Senna once thought about going flat out in 1991, now they all do it flat out with no issues- hard to compare I think!!

……………..but Aryton was still the best though :)

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