BBC Sport remembers F1's greatest drivers of all time
#1
09-05-2012, 10:28 PM
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BBC Sport remembers F1's greatest drivers of all time
This was and continues to be a good read. At the start of every GP, BBC releases a new article on one of F1's greatest drivers. They've covered the #9-20 thus far, and #8 is just round the corner. I think Ayrton Senna will be at the top
Here's a brief on those 12 drivers (you can click on each name for the full read on the driver):
Number 9 - Niki Lauda
Just 42 days after suffering horrendous burns in a crash at the Nurburgring, Lauda, swathed in bandages, was grinding out a determined fourth-place finish in Monza. It was a moment that defined the Austrian's revered career.
Number 10 - Fernando Alonso
Alonso's standing has been affirmed by his majestic form in 2012 as he moved on to 30 grand prix victories and started his pursuit of a third world title. An F1 career that began in 2001 could yet become even more sensational.
Number 11 – Alberto Ascari
In 1952, the first of the two consecutive world titles he secured with Ferrari, Ascari won every championship F1 race bar the first. Heading into the final race of the 1953 season, he had won 11 of the previous 13 grands prix.
Number 12 - Gilles Villeneuve
Gilles Villeneuve won only six grands prix in a career that spanned a little over four years, yet 30 years after his death his name still shines out like a beacon as a symbol of the heroic qualities that to many make up the very essence of a grand prix driver...
Number 13 - Nigel Mansell
Nigel Mansell was the personification of drama in a Formula 1 car.
Whether it be daring overtaking manoeuvres, his muscular handling of some of the sport's defining cars, or the histrionics and apparent persecution complex that accompanied much of his career, there was never a dull moment when the moustachioed Midlander was around...
Number 14 - Mika Hakkinen
Michael Schumacher says his toughest rival in his first career was Mika Hakkinen, which is quite a compliment from a man who also raced against Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and lost his final world championship battle to Fernando Alonso...
Number 15 - Lewis Hamilton
When Lewis Hamilton burst onto the Formula 1 scene in 2007, taking on and often beating the reigning world champion Fernando Alonso in equal cars, in Italy they gave him the nickname 'Il Phenomeno' - the Phenomenon...
Number 16 - Nelson Piquet
Few drivers have had perceptions of them shift as dramatically throughout their careers as Nelson Piquet. For a while in the mid-1980s, Piquet was regarded as the best driver in the world but, as his career went on, his stock fell and at the end he slipped out of F1 almost unnoticed - and largely unlamented...
Number 17 - Emerson Fittipaldi
Emerson Fittipaldi was a trailblazer in more ways than one.
He was the man who paved the way for future generations of Brazilian drivers to make their country synonymous with Formula 1...
Number 18 - Jack Brabham
Sir Jack Brabham is one of a select band of just eight drivers who have won the world title three times or more, but his achievements go far beyond that. He is also the only man to have won a title in a car bearing his own name...
Number 19 - Graham Hill
Damon Hill makes a thought-provoking observation about his father Graham.
Despite winning two Formula 1 titles, as well as being the only man to win the 'triple crown' of F1 world championship, Le Mans and Indy 500, Graham Hill always had the image of a 'trier' - a man who made it to the top through hard graft, rather than the easy talent of his contemporary Jim Clark...
Number 20 - Jochen Rindt
Throughout Formula 1 history, there have been drivers who, through ability and charisma, have left an impression that transcends their limited results. Jochen Rindt, number 20 on BBC F1's list of the greatest drivers of all time, is one such man...
Just 42 days after suffering horrendous burns in a crash at the Nurburgring, Lauda, swathed in bandages, was grinding out a determined fourth-place finish in Monza. It was a moment that defined the Austrian's revered career.
Number 10 - Fernando Alonso
Alonso's standing has been affirmed by his majestic form in 2012 as he moved on to 30 grand prix victories and started his pursuit of a third world title. An F1 career that began in 2001 could yet become even more sensational.
Number 11 – Alberto Ascari
In 1952, the first of the two consecutive world titles he secured with Ferrari, Ascari won every championship F1 race bar the first. Heading into the final race of the 1953 season, he had won 11 of the previous 13 grands prix.
Number 12 - Gilles Villeneuve
Gilles Villeneuve won only six grands prix in a career that spanned a little over four years, yet 30 years after his death his name still shines out like a beacon as a symbol of the heroic qualities that to many make up the very essence of a grand prix driver...
Number 13 - Nigel Mansell
Nigel Mansell was the personification of drama in a Formula 1 car.
Whether it be daring overtaking manoeuvres, his muscular handling of some of the sport's defining cars, or the histrionics and apparent persecution complex that accompanied much of his career, there was never a dull moment when the moustachioed Midlander was around...
Number 14 - Mika Hakkinen
Michael Schumacher says his toughest rival in his first career was Mika Hakkinen, which is quite a compliment from a man who also raced against Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost and lost his final world championship battle to Fernando Alonso...
Number 15 - Lewis Hamilton
When Lewis Hamilton burst onto the Formula 1 scene in 2007, taking on and often beating the reigning world champion Fernando Alonso in equal cars, in Italy they gave him the nickname 'Il Phenomeno' - the Phenomenon...
Number 16 - Nelson Piquet
Few drivers have had perceptions of them shift as dramatically throughout their careers as Nelson Piquet. For a while in the mid-1980s, Piquet was regarded as the best driver in the world but, as his career went on, his stock fell and at the end he slipped out of F1 almost unnoticed - and largely unlamented...
Number 17 - Emerson Fittipaldi
Emerson Fittipaldi was a trailblazer in more ways than one.
He was the man who paved the way for future generations of Brazilian drivers to make their country synonymous with Formula 1...
Number 18 - Jack Brabham
Sir Jack Brabham is one of a select band of just eight drivers who have won the world title three times or more, but his achievements go far beyond that. He is also the only man to have won a title in a car bearing his own name...
Number 19 - Graham Hill
Damon Hill makes a thought-provoking observation about his father Graham.
Despite winning two Formula 1 titles, as well as being the only man to win the 'triple crown' of F1 world championship, Le Mans and Indy 500, Graham Hill always had the image of a 'trier' - a man who made it to the top through hard graft, rather than the easy talent of his contemporary Jim Clark...
Number 20 - Jochen Rindt
Throughout Formula 1 history, there have been drivers who, through ability and charisma, have left an impression that transcends their limited results. Jochen Rindt, number 20 on BBC F1's list of the greatest drivers of all time, is one such man...
BBC Sport - BBC Sport remembers F1's greatest drivers of all time
#2
09-05-2012, 11:01 PM
+1 for Ayrton. He was, well......Magic.....
Like Hamilton said in his topgear special on Ayrton, when he got to drive MP4-4, i remember exactly where i was and what i was doing when i heard about his death. As a young teen, i guess it was my JFK/man on the moon/Lennon moment. And the movie, a must see, even for people who dont wake up @ 7 or 8 sundays to watch races.
That white car with bright red details and YELLOW helmet.......still the best F1 moments to me.
On another note, Raikkonen pulled one crazy pass on Schu this w-e @ EauRouge....WOW.....never seen such a move at that "corner" before....
Like Hamilton said in his topgear special on Ayrton, when he got to drive MP4-4, i remember exactly where i was and what i was doing when i heard about his death. As a young teen, i guess it was my JFK/man on the moon/Lennon moment. And the movie, a must see, even for people who dont wake up @ 7 or 8 sundays to watch races.
That white car with bright red details and YELLOW helmet.......still the best F1 moments to me.
On another note, Raikkonen pulled one crazy pass on Schu this w-e @ EauRouge....WOW.....never seen such a move at that "corner" before....
#3
09-05-2012, 11:31 PM
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: San Francisco | Jakarta | Taipei
Posts: 1,179
+1 for Ayrton. He was, well......Magic.....
Like Hamilton said in his topgear special on Ayrton, when he got to drive MP4-4, i remember exactly where i was and what i was doing when i heard about his death. As a young teen, i guess it was my JFK/man on the moon/Lennon moment. And the movie, a must see, even for people who dont wake up @ 7 or 8 sundays to watch races.
That white car with bright red details and YELLOW helmet.......still the best F1 moments to me.
On another note, Raikkonen pulled one crazy pass on Schu this w-e @ EauRouge....WOW.....never seen such a move at that "corner" before....
Like Hamilton said in his topgear special on Ayrton, when he got to drive MP4-4, i remember exactly where i was and what i was doing when i heard about his death. As a young teen, i guess it was my JFK/man on the moon/Lennon moment. And the movie, a must see, even for people who dont wake up @ 7 or 8 sundays to watch races.
That white car with bright red details and YELLOW helmet.......still the best F1 moments to me.
On another note, Raikkonen pulled one crazy pass on Schu this w-e @ EauRouge....WOW.....never seen such a move at that "corner" before....
#4
10-04-2012, 08:42 PM
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Posts: 1,179
#8 Sebastian Vettel
Any list that attempts to rank the greatest Formula 1 drivers over a period of 60 years, comparing those of the post-war era with those whose careers are still active, is bound to be controversial. In the case of this one, which has no pretences to be definitive, few things will provoke debate more than Sebastian Vettel's ranking in eighth place...
Any list that attempts to rank the greatest Formula 1 drivers over a period of 60 years, comparing those of the post-war era with those whose careers are still active, is bound to be controversial. In the case of this one, which has no pretences to be definitive, few things will provoke debate more than Sebastian Vettel's ranking in eighth place...
#5
10-07-2012, 06:47 PM
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Number 7 - Jackie Stewart
Sir Jackie Stewart's enduring legacy stretches much further than 27 grand prix wins in 99 races, three world championships and being one of the greatest drivers ever to set foot in a Formula 1 car. It is that he had a bigger effect on his sport than arguably any man in history...
Sir Jackie Stewart's enduring legacy stretches much further than 27 grand prix wins in 99 races, three world championships and being one of the greatest drivers ever to set foot in a Formula 1 car. It is that he had a bigger effect on his sport than arguably any man in history...
Last edited by alwin; 10-07-2012 at 06:50 PM.
#6
10-26-2012, 02:44 PM
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Number 6 - Sir Stirling Moss
Sir Stirling Moss is the ultimate proof that statistics count only for so much when assessing the worth of a grand prix driver...
Sir Stirling Moss is the ultimate proof that statistics count only for so much when assessing the worth of a grand prix driver...
#7
10-26-2012, 02:45 PM
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Number 5 - Alain Prost
Alain Prost drove like poetry and was an integral part of one of the greatest rivalries sport has ever known...
Alain Prost drove like poetry and was an integral part of one of the greatest rivalries sport has ever known...
#8
10-26-2012, 02:48 PM
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Number 4 - Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher's monumental achievements came about through a perfect storm of an exceptionally talented and hard-working driver, ground-breaking technical achievement, a bottomless pit of money and a ruthless management that exploited every last avenue to its benefit...
Michael Schumacher's monumental achievements came about through a perfect storm of an exceptionally talented and hard-working driver, ground-breaking technical achievement, a bottomless pit of money and a ruthless management that exploited every last avenue to its benefit...
#9
10-26-2012, 03:02 PM
You calling schumacher the dirtiest yet get a hard on for senna? I don't understand. If there were ever two driver cut from from the same give me space or we are both wrecking cloth it was these two.
IMO they would both be tied for 1st btw. Didn't want that to come across as me not liking Senna.
IMO they would both be tied for 1st btw. Didn't want that to come across as me not liking Senna.
#10
12-02-2012, 04:18 PM
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Number 1 - Ayrton Senna
The greatness of the man and the brilliance of his driving is remembered easily, the occasional darkness of his psyche perhaps less so.
The greatness of the man and the brilliance of his driving is remembered easily, the occasional darkness of his psyche perhaps less so.
