[Kingshark]

Who do you think are the top 10 drivers from 1980-1989? I My inspiration for this topic obviously came from “Top 10 Drivers of the 21st Century”. So what’s your list?

1. Alain Prost
2. Nelson Piquet (Senior!)
3. Nigel Mansell
4. Ayrton Senna
5. Niki Lauda

Now it starts to get tricky…

6. Keke Rosberg
7. Gerhard Berger
8. Carlos Reutemann
9. Alain Jones
10. Didier Pironi or Elio di Angelis

What’s your list?

[Cristian]

1.Alain Prost
2.Nelson Piquet
3.Ayrton Senna
4.Nigel Mansell
5.Keke Rosberg
6.Niki Lauda
7.Elio de Angelis
8.Jacques Laffite
9.Rene Arnoux
10.Michele Alboreto

[Anonymous]

1. Alain Prost
2. Nelson Piquet
3. Gilles Villeneuve
4. Niki Lauda
5. Ayrton Senna
6. Nigel Mansell
7. Keke Rosberg
8. Gerhard Berger
9. Elio De Angelis
10. Michele Alboreto

[George]

Ooh tough one.
1. Alain Prost
2. Nelson Piquet
3. Ayrton Senna
4. Niki Lauda
5. Nigel Mansell
6. Gilles Villeneuve
7. Jacques Laffite
8. Michele Alboreto
9. Stefan Bellof
10. Patrick Tambay

[Kingshark]

@George, not trying to disrespect with others opinion, but how can you put Laffite, Bellof and Tambay ahead of Rosberg? Keke was the first driver to take Eau Rouge flat out, his epic qualifying lap record at Silverstone, and he won the 1982 title in the 5th best car. He was my uncle’s childhood hero, you know!

[Powderfinger]

1. Alain Prost
2. Nelson Piquet
3. Nigel Mansell
4. Ayrton Senna
5. Elio de Angelis
6. Gilles Villeneuve
7. Niki Lauda
8. Keke Rosberg
9. Alan Jones
10. Gerhard Berger

[Journeyer]

Ooooh, liking this! :D

1. Alain Prost
2. Nelson Piquet Sr.
3. Ayrton Senna (as much as it pains me to say it, Senna did win just 1 title this decade)
4. Niki Lauda
5. Keke Rosberg
6. Alan Jones
7. Nigel Mansell (outside of 86-87, his best years were in the 90s)
8. Gilles Villeneuve
9. John Watson (he almost won the title in 82!)
10. Michele Alboreto

Close but not quite: Elio de Angelis, Gerhard Berger, Rene Arnoux, Jacques Laffite, Riccardo Patrese

[Kingshark]

Score after 6 rounds (based on 2010-present point system):

1. Alain Prost – 150
2. Nelson Piquet – 108
3. Ayrton Senna – 79
4. Nigel Mansell – 66
5. Niki Lauda – 60
6. Keke Rosberg – 38
7. Gilles Villeneuve – 35

Too lazy to calculate the rest. :P

[George]

@kingshark I put him in as number 8 originally, he gradually got filtered out though. Bear in mind I was only born in ’89 so all I know is reputation and the odd grand prix I’ve seen. From those grand prix I’ve never been very impressed by Rosberg, which is why he doesn’t make the list.

[Journeyer]

To complete KingShark’s scores:

1. Prost – 150
2. Piquet – 108
3. Senna – 79
4. Mansell – 66
5. Lauda – 60
6. Rosberg – 38
7. Villeneuve – 35
8. de Angelis – 18
9. Jones – 12
10. Berger – 11
11. Laffite – 10
12. Alboreto – 7
13. Reutemann – 4
14. Arnoux – 2
15. Bellof – 2
16. Watson – 2
17. Pironi – 1
18. Tambay – 1

[magon4]

just a question: are we talking about who were the best drivers in the 80s or who achieved more? i thinks it’s the first, since the second we can just gather data. this is why i would put senna first, since he destroyed both piquet and prost in different seasons and with different cars, showing that he was superior to them even in the 80s.

1. senna
2. prost
3. lauda
4. piquet
5. rosberg
6. mansell
7. villeneuve
8. berger
9. laffite
10. jones

[Cristian]

@ marcio goncalves : when did Senna destroy Piquet? They were never in the same team !!!
And he NEVER destroy Prost, it was a draw between them, one title each.

[magon4]

@Cristian, Senna was doing better than Piquet in an inferior car. And Piquet was simply not as good as Senna, he would be the first to admit it. You do remember how he got one of those titles… . Mansell was better than Piquet in a few seasons, too.

[Cristian]

@marcio goncalves, Senna never beat Piquet in an inferior car. He beat him in 85, when he was at Lotus and Nelson was at a dying Brabham team. After that, Senna beat Piquet in 88, when again he clearly had the better car. So Senna never beat Piquet except when he had a better car, and Piquet only beat Senna when he had a better car. Their careers crossed for only a few years( I mean when they were both on top).

[magon4]

@Cristian 1986 is a good example. i don’t mean beating with more points, i mean showing superiority dispite inferior equipment, which doesn’t always mean having more points. i would make a strong case that 86 piquet had a championship car and senna didn’t, but piquet still ended up behind senna in quite a few races and both were involved in the title race for quite a long time. comparable to, say, schumacher x patrese in 92, when schumi finished third but was clearly the better driver compared to the italian with the much better car.
and in 87, senna challenged piquet repeatidly, with an inferior car. even with nelson champion that year, most observers would agree that senna was, in fact, the better driver.

[Author]

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