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Who was the worst driver ever to win a World Championship? (106 posts)

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CarnivorousPope said 3 months ago:

@brazil2007 Prost was a four time champion

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Nicholas Sunderland said 3 months ago:

@carnivorouspope Whoops, silly typo there. Thanks for pointing it out.

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Cristian said 3 months ago:

I was saying he was consistent all season. He won the season anyway, I didn’t take anything away from him, I was defending him against what I thought was a harsh criticism. That’s all.

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Nicholas Sunderland said 3 months ago:

@Cristian I know, and I wasn’t implying that at all. I was saying that you can’t say that he lost points due to the points system at the time.

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Polishboy808 said 3 months ago:

For me, the worst driver to win a championship is undoubtedly James Hunt. He is one of my favorite drivers, but the only reason he won the championship was because of Lauda’s crash at the Nurburgring. Sure, you could argue that it was Lauda’s fault that he crashed and therefore Hunt still beat him by merit, but it was only by 1 point. 1 point after Lauda missed two rounds!

Runner ups include Villeneuve, Damon Hill and Button. Perhaps Hill could have won another championship had he not gone to Arrows, but then again I believe he only won that championship due to how dominant the Williams was at the time.

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Dizzy-A said 3 months ago:

@polishboy808 – In fairness to Damon Hill, while the Williams was rather dominant in 1996 (and he had three other cars capable of winning the title but he didn’t), he did put in some good shifts for Arrows and Jordan, winning the first race for the latter and coming a few corners from a win for the former.

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Funkyf1 said 3 months ago:

Alan Jones seems to be escaping this list somehow….

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raymondu999 said 3 months ago:

I do not understand how JV is not leading this by a country mile

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JB said 3 months ago:

@tmekt

Well I didn´t know it was a requisite to justify one´s opinion… But if you must know… Besides me not liking him (never have), he simply would not have been champion if not were for Ross Brawn and even then… He was almost beat… So in all honesty, he for me, is one of the least deserving. That´s my personal opinion and you don´t have to like it or share it but, you should respect it…
Take away the double diffusor and he still would be an average joe…. And I still hate his reaction when he won in Australia 2012 … “welcome back 2009″, really??? for Christ´s sake… he thought he had the season in the bag for just that win? And besides, he is just a big hypocrite that knows how to use the media in his favor… it´s never his fault…. reminds me a lot like Prost… His whining is never ending…

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Kingshark said 3 months ago:

@catracho504

Don’t be like (some) of the British media and compare Button to Prost, man. Prost, although a whiner, was undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best driver of his era. Button, although a good driver, simply cannot be contrasted to Prost in any way.

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Roald said 3 months ago:

@FunkyF1 I’m not sure how though… he must surely be one of the worst drivers to win the championship…

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tmekt said 3 months ago:

@catracho504 So, in a sense, cause he had the best car for a big part of the season he’s unworthy champion?

Well, you know, WDC is very rarely won without the best car (it is sometimes lost with the best car though). The way I see it, he took everything out of his situation but eventually had to fight for it when Brawn, the small team they were, was dropping in the development race. That doesn’t make him any less worthy.

I can’t comment on his personality because I don’t know the guy. Besides, it has nothing to do with this discussion. Also, him being whiny: really? On what basis? Because he complains about balance in team radio?

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BenH said 3 months ago:

Has to be Villeneuve hands down. Plucked from stateside back when there was not a huge amount of competitive talent around him and when car setup was minimal (all running spec chassis). He came into the sport unable to set up an F1 car, and never even really bothered learning how to do that well in all his time in the sport. He won his title in a far superior car to what anyone else had at the time (it was more dominant too than the car they ran in 96), had a definitive number two driver (Frentzen was quick, but Villeneuve had a LOT of impetus in the team, slightly echoing how Piquet tried to do against Mansell years back (although without propaganda press). He got the whole garage working with him, right from early 96, which is more than likely why Williams saw fit to give Hill the boot (Villeneuve was effectively beaten that year by Hill, riding identical cars, identically set up). After JV went to BAR, everyone was looking at him to lead the team and he couldnt do it as he did not have a team mate who he could rely on to do the work for him (Zonta). After that, his career rightly fizzled out and only really got any more offers in the sport due to his famous name and his World Championship.

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Lucas Wilson said 3 months ago:

Good argument BenH

So, I think quite a few people have aired their opinion.

So, I think its down to 2 people, Phil Hill or Jacques Villeneuve?

We’ll do it as a vote, vote either Phil or Jacques as to who you think is worst, then by lunchtime tommorrow we”l reveal who is F1F’s worst WC.

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BenH said 3 months ago:

Think you can guess from my post that my vote is for JV

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