F1

Who was the worst driver ever to win a World Championship?

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 106 total)
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  • #132719
    Lucas Wilson
    Participant

    People who know me well know that I like a good discussion. So, who was the worst driver ever to win a World Championship?

    #225386
    Alexander
    Participant

    jenson button because he only won 2009 because of the car in first half of season and barichello had bad luck and got screwed over in the second half especialy in brazil where hamilton gave him a puncture (not on purpose).

    #225387
    Matthijs
    Participant

    Tough question, because becoming a world champion requires not only speed but also consistency. Summarised: you must be good to become champion. So, the best way to answer your question is perhaps: which F1 champion has made the tiniest mark in F1 history? Then I would go for Phil Hill

    #225388
    Lucas Wilson
    Participant

    hmm, good point.

    From now on that’s the question XD

    #225389
    Ben Needham
    Participant

    I think that’s a difficult question given that you can only win with the tools you have at your disposal. For example, would Sebastian Vettel have won 3 WDC’s already were he driving for, say, Force India? Probably not. The Red Bull is the best car, but the driver still had to go out and win. Does that make him a bad World Champion because he has the best car? Of course not.

    In terms of your question, I’d say we have to rephrase it to discuss which World Champion was a “one-hit wonder”, for want of a better phrase!

    In which case you’d have to single out drivers like Denny Hulme, Phil Hill and Keke Rosberg. All had one very good season, but failed to impress in their others.

    #225390
    Cristian
    Participant

    I totally agree with Matthijs.

    #225391
    Matthijs
    Participant

    @ben-n Those three drivers were also on my short list. But I feel that Denny Hulme and Keke Rosberg has had more than one successful season. Furthermore, Hulme became champion in ‘the golden year’, so for that fact only I would rule him out for this discussion! ;)

    #225392
    Journeyer
    Participant

    Hmmm. There’s a bunch of folks that could contend for this award.

    Phil Hill – Clinched the title after teammate and title contender von Trips died, but did get 6 podiums in 7 races. Left Ferrari for ATS soon after and never even got close to title contention again.
    Denny Hulme – Of all the champions, he is probably the least known. Was a steady hand at McLaren after snatching the title from under Jack’s nose at Brabham, but never really contended for the title after that.
    Keke Rosberg – Took the title with only one Grand Prix win and six podiums (out of 16 races). Amazingly, Keke never won back to back in his entire F1 career and only got 3 consecutive podiums twice in his F1 career.

    As Matthijs said, only good drivers win championships. But some drivers have to be better than others. So with that, I’d say that the least good driver to win the title would be Keke Rosberg (just) over Phil Hill.

    #225393
    matt90
    Participant

    I would nominate Mike Hawthorn as a possibility. Only 3 career wins, only 1 of which was in his championship year, where Moss was generally the better driver with worse reliaility.

    #225394
    Roald
    Participant

    Jacques Villeneuve.

    #225395
    Cristian
    Participant

    Hawthorn had some very good seasons prior to his title year. And I don’t agree at all with you matt that moss was generally the better driver; it was a close championship and Hawthorn’s consistency was extreme that year. Hawthorn was second in 5 races and had to give points and still won the title, whereas Moss didn’t give away any.
    I consider Moss the better driver of the two, but I’m just saying he wasn’t generally better that year.

    #225396
    tmekt
    Participant

    Lewis Hamilton

    nah just kidding

    Honestly, I don’t know. I could say Jacques Villeneuve but I was three years old in 1997, so I don’t really have any first hand experience of his career expect of the BAR-Renault-Sauber phase (which wasn’t very impressive). I should also say (as a disclaimer) that I’m definitely not a fan of his character.

    #225397
    Cristian
    Participant

    If Villeneuve would have retired in 1997 he would have been considered one of the greatest talents ever. Now he is just forgettable.

    #225398
    Lucas Wilson
    Participant

    Here is all the people nominated so far. Who (at the moment) is F1Fanatic’s least favourite WC?

    1. Phil Hill, lead’s the rankings at the moment.
    2. Keke Rosberg, won only 1 race in his championship year.
    3. Denny Hulme, only ever had 1 pole position and 8 wins in his career, 2 of which were in his title winning season in 1967.
    4. Tied on 4 with 1 nomination each are; Jacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button (really?) and Mike Hawthorn.

    #225399
    the_sigman
    Participant

    Hill, Rosberg, Hulme and Villeneuve. For explanations look at the comments above.

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