F1 Fanatic

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.

Eh, the only way to know how good a driver is, by watching him. ;)

1. Alain Prost
3 world titles runner up 3 times easy winner

2. Nelson Piquet
Was a top contender from 1980 till he left Williams in 87 scoring plenty of poles wins and world titles

3. Keke Rosberg
Love watching videos of him from the early 80′s. Some of his drives against the turbo cars in 1982 were incredible. Nothing beats a Keke Charge

4. Nigel Mansell
A No hoper in a lotus but moved to williams at the right time and was another top driver from the end of 85 through to the 90′s

5. Ayrton Senna
Close with Mansell they had very similar achievements all be it Senna won the title when he had the best car

6.Michele Alboreto
Arrived with Ken Tyrells final victory came close in 1985 agains the all conquing Prost McLaren. Always near abouts

7. G Villeneuve
I Believe if he had lived his carear would have been similar to Rosberg when technology took over and his amazing raw driving skill wouldnt have shone through

8. G Berger
Some great drives in the early Bennetons then winning at Monza 88 would have got him on the list alone

9. N Lauda
Typical comeback, was never close to his true skills when he returned after a long break, still took a world championship against Prost

10. A Jones
Despite the title in 1980 another case of what if had he not sulked with Carlos and stuck around

Special mention
Sandro Nanini – Recall him having a few brilliant charges through the field in the Bennetion
Pieluigi Martin – MR MINARDI. Was it Phoenix, 89 he was challanging for the lead?

@Napoleon : If you think it better you will find out your version is the one filled with biases. I didn’t watch f1 in the 80′s, just a few races and youtube films, but, since you watched f1 since 1965, you should know by now that the best driver isn’t the one that goes fastest. Kimi was much more faster than Alonso in 2005 yet it was obvious who was the better driver. The better one is the one who gets results. Senna was prone to mistakes, more than other great drivers.
Senna was faster and younger than Prost, he was getting preferential treatment just as Prost got when he was teammate with Lauda. It is logical he left, perhaps you and me would have done the same! At that point he wasn’t getting younger anyway.
In the Lotus case : the ’87 Lotus was a much better car than the ’88 Lotus, just as the ’86 Lotus was better than the ’87. If you don’t believe it, look at Nakajima’s results. He was much better in his debut season than in ’88, when he had several DNQ’s and scored just a point. You say Piquet did nothing in the same updated car in ’88, but you don’t care about the progress others did, which was better than Lotus’s.
A driver can have luck one time, but not 3 times!

@matt90 @cristian – There you go. That about sums up everything. Hell, I’m still waiting for the 2006 version of that thing.

Funnily enough, I still consider @napoleon1815 ‘s post to be much more biased and ridiculous. Are you forgetting that Prost had more points than Senna in ’88 but lost out because of the points system? Also have to point out that Prost had a worse car in ’90 yet it took a murderous move from Senna to take him out of the title fight.

And since when does qualifying matter more than the race? Take 2007 as an example. Massa had the most poles, tied with Hamilton. Raikkonen had only half of Lewis’. Guess who won that. Deservedly.

As for my list:
1. Alain Prost
2. Nigel Mansell
3. Nelson Piquet
4. Niki Lauda
5. Ayrton Senna
6. Keke Rosberg
7. Michele Alboreto
8. Jacques Lafitte
9. Elio de Angelis
10. John Watson

7-10 were tough. GV misses out both because I feel he was overrated and because we didn’t get to see much of him in that decade.