Lewis Hamilton
Discussion
E34-3.2 said:
Sir Bagalot said:
Now on a serious note a common debate is Fangio, Senna, Schumacher.... Which was best? How long until Lewis nudges himself into that top 3?
Well, as mentioned previously, Senna and Schumacher dirty racing makes them stand well behind Hamilton. Fangio, great but not comparable. He won his titles in his 40s, it shows that F1 weren't that physical to drive in his period or how easy the competition was. look at Schumacher how he got destroyed when he came back to F1 in his early 40s, the speed and physical requirement to drive a modern F1 is far more difficult than 1940-50-60s and the competition is only made of pro drivers unlike in the old days.Hamilton is above all that lot and done it this year in an inferior car for most of the year and last year.
So much to pick apart.... but move along before being sucked into it.
yonex said:
Can’t stand him, he was always going to wrap this up and no doubt, a huge talent. But. I can’t stand him, everything he posts on social media and every whinge to the press.
Oh give it a rest. You have to question your mentality if you spend time reading the social media of someone you profess to hate even though you probably have no idea what that person is really like away from the spotlight of fame. Is it just so you can hate him more? LOL!Anyway you refer to him a gangster so everyone here knows what your beef is with him. It's pathetic, let him live his life and go and find one of your own!
On the subject of the GOAT comparisons are just too difficult across the eras. Something like football is easier as it is still fundamentally kicking a ball around a field where the modern F1 car and whole sport bears practically no resemblance to the sport of the 50s and 60s.
I was lucky enough to be party to a conversation involving Michael Schumacher where he was asked how he would have gone on in Fangio's day and his answer was complex, but he said that fundamentally he felt that with the mindset of a modern driver he could not put himself in a mindset that would have been needed to drive those cars i.e. he didn't know as with his perception of safety and the modern sport he wouldn't be prepared to drive them in the conditions they raced under back then, but maybe without that knowledge it might have been different. It was a very good answer and a good illustration as to why drivers of different eras can not be compared.
When we talk about eras I think of F1 as having three basic periods.
1950s - late 60s/early 70s - privateer teams, garagistas, danger, deaths, speed over safety, weird rules where swapping cars was allowed. Powerful engines and lightweight cars becoming the norm.
late 60s/early70s - early 90s - manufacturers more involved, basic safety introduced, commercialisation, drivers becoming household names, fitness levels of drivers see them becoming athletes, budgets climbing, technical innovation bleeding into road cars. Modern materials, wings and aero becoming the norm on the cars.
early 90s - now - increasing safety year on year, ultra professionalism in teams, huge budgets leading to nominal cost cutting, massive commercialisation, huge TV audiences, constant rule tweaking to keep cars from being too fast. Hugely tuned aero and computer aided systems becoming the norm in the cars.
That is just my personal categorisation so obviously not cast in stone, but it's pretty clear that the sport of today is a much different sport to that of the 1950s.
One of the biggest changes is that of driver safety and is one of the reasons why comparison across the eras is so hard. Jackie Stewart was a massive influence on getting basic safety measures introduced and probably more than any other driver did so much for the drivers of his time and the future. I know people think he is a bitter old man, but he dealt with more than most in his time as a driver including unbelievable resistance to change....if you drove you took your chances was the edict for much of the time before he helped alter the perception of those running the sport. Max Mosley is another who helped immeasurably with bringing the safety standards of the sport up to where they are now, again it's fashionable to slag him off, but he did so much good and is in no small way responsible for the fact that so few drivers get injured these days.
As a result to choose the greatest even from each of those eras is hugely difficult, but it is clear that you cannot compare a driver from one to the other very easily as the demands of the drivers are so different now to back then.
What is clear when you speak to engineers and other drivers (when they are honest - usually when they retire
) is that there are a small number of drivers that can take an F1 car and regularly make it do things others can't. I'm not going to rank them, but for me those people are Fangio, Clark, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton. There are many other massively talented drivers some who get so close to that elite group that they can almost touch them, but they are the ones I would hold up purely on their driving skill behind the wheel.
Finally a word about having the best car..... one thing that is always touted as being a negative is drivers winning in the best car... ask yourself a question... if you are a top driver you are going to be in demand and get a top drive.... it's no accident that the best drivers end up in the best cars. Occasionally a driver will go yo a team that is down the pack a bit and help pull them up (Schuamcher, to an extent Hamilton), but mostly if you have the best car the best driver will come knocking or vice versa and each serves the other's purpose. It's the same in any sport... including football... talent attracts talent!
So IMO Lewis is one of the best ever and I'm happy to leave it there!
I was lucky enough to be party to a conversation involving Michael Schumacher where he was asked how he would have gone on in Fangio's day and his answer was complex, but he said that fundamentally he felt that with the mindset of a modern driver he could not put himself in a mindset that would have been needed to drive those cars i.e. he didn't know as with his perception of safety and the modern sport he wouldn't be prepared to drive them in the conditions they raced under back then, but maybe without that knowledge it might have been different. It was a very good answer and a good illustration as to why drivers of different eras can not be compared.
When we talk about eras I think of F1 as having three basic periods.
1950s - late 60s/early 70s - privateer teams, garagistas, danger, deaths, speed over safety, weird rules where swapping cars was allowed. Powerful engines and lightweight cars becoming the norm.
late 60s/early70s - early 90s - manufacturers more involved, basic safety introduced, commercialisation, drivers becoming household names, fitness levels of drivers see them becoming athletes, budgets climbing, technical innovation bleeding into road cars. Modern materials, wings and aero becoming the norm on the cars.
early 90s - now - increasing safety year on year, ultra professionalism in teams, huge budgets leading to nominal cost cutting, massive commercialisation, huge TV audiences, constant rule tweaking to keep cars from being too fast. Hugely tuned aero and computer aided systems becoming the norm in the cars.
That is just my personal categorisation so obviously not cast in stone, but it's pretty clear that the sport of today is a much different sport to that of the 1950s.
One of the biggest changes is that of driver safety and is one of the reasons why comparison across the eras is so hard. Jackie Stewart was a massive influence on getting basic safety measures introduced and probably more than any other driver did so much for the drivers of his time and the future. I know people think he is a bitter old man, but he dealt with more than most in his time as a driver including unbelievable resistance to change....if you drove you took your chances was the edict for much of the time before he helped alter the perception of those running the sport. Max Mosley is another who helped immeasurably with bringing the safety standards of the sport up to where they are now, again it's fashionable to slag him off, but he did so much good and is in no small way responsible for the fact that so few drivers get injured these days.
As a result to choose the greatest even from each of those eras is hugely difficult, but it is clear that you cannot compare a driver from one to the other very easily as the demands of the drivers are so different now to back then.
What is clear when you speak to engineers and other drivers (when they are honest - usually when they retire
) is that there are a small number of drivers that can take an F1 car and regularly make it do things others can't. I'm not going to rank them, but for me those people are Fangio, Clark, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton. There are many other massively talented drivers some who get so close to that elite group that they can almost touch them, but they are the ones I would hold up purely on their driving skill behind the wheel.Finally a word about having the best car..... one thing that is always touted as being a negative is drivers winning in the best car... ask yourself a question... if you are a top driver you are going to be in demand and get a top drive.... it's no accident that the best drivers end up in the best cars. Occasionally a driver will go yo a team that is down the pack a bit and help pull them up (Schuamcher, to an extent Hamilton), but mostly if you have the best car the best driver will come knocking or vice versa and each serves the other's purpose. It's the same in any sport... including football... talent attracts talent!
So IMO Lewis is one of the best ever and I'm happy to leave it there!
cb1965 said:
On the subject of the GOAT comparisons are just too difficult across the eras. Something like football is easier as it is still fundamentally kicking a ball around a field where the modern F1 car and whole sport bears practically no resemblance to the sport of the 50s and 60s.
I was lucky enough to be party to a conversation involving Michael Schumacher where he was asked how he would have gone on in Fangio's day and his answer was complex, but he said that fundamentally he felt that with the mindset of a modern driver he could not put himself in a mindset that would have been needed to drive those cars i.e. he didn't know as with his perception of safety and the modern sport he wouldn't be prepared to drive them in the conditions they raced under back then, but maybe without that knowledge it might have been different. It was a very good answer and a good illustration as to why drivers of different eras can not be compared.
When we talk about eras I think of F1 as having three basic periods.
1950s - late 60s/early 70s - privateer teams, garagistas, danger, deaths, speed over safety, weird rules where swapping cars was allowed. Powerful engines and lightweight cars becoming the norm.
late 60s/early70s - early 90s - manufacturers more involved, basic safety introduced, commercialisation, drivers becoming household names, fitness levels of drivers see them becoming athletes, budgets climbing, technical innovation bleeding into road cars. Modern materials, wings and aero becoming the norm on the cars.
early 90s - now - increasing safety year on year, ultra professionalism in teams, huge budgets leading to nominal cost cutting, massive commercialisation, huge TV audiences, constant rule tweaking to keep cars from being too fast. Hugely tuned aero and computer aided systems becoming the norm in the cars.
That is just my personal categorisation so obviously not cast in stone, but it's pretty clear that the sport of today is a much different sport to that of the 1950s.
One of the biggest changes is that of driver safety and is one of the reasons why comparison across the eras is so hard. Jackie Stewart was a massive influence on getting basic safety measures introduced and probably more than any other driver did so much for the drivers of his time and the future. I know people think he is a bitter old man, but he dealt with more than most in his time as a driver including unbelievable resistance to change....if you drove you took your chances was the edict for much of the time before he helped alter the perception of those running the sport. Max Mosley is another who helped immeasurably with bringing the safety standards of the sport up to where they are now, again it's fashionable to slag him off, but he did so much good and is in no small way responsible for the fact that so few drivers get injured these days.
As a result to choose the greatest even from each of those eras is hugely difficult, but it is clear that you cannot compare a driver from one to the other very easily as the demands of the drivers are so different now to back then.
What is clear when you speak to engineers and other drivers (when they are honest - usually when they retire ) is that there are a small number of drivers that can take an F1 car and regularly make it do things others can't. I'm not going to rank them, but for me those people are Fangio, Clark, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton. There are many other massively talented drivers some who get so close to that elite group that they can almost touch them, but they are the ones I would hold up purely on their driving skill behind the wheel.
Finally a word about having the best car..... one thing that is always touted as being a negative is drivers winning in the best car... ask yourself a question... if you are a top driver you are going to be in demand and get a top drive.... it's no accident that the best drivers end up in the best cars. Occasionally a driver will go yo a team that is down the pack a bit and help pull them up (Schuamcher, to an extent Hamilton), but mostly if you have the best car the best driver will come knocking or vice versa and each serves the other's purpose. It's the same in any sport... including football... talent attracts talent!
So IMO Lewis is one of the best ever and I'm happy to leave it there!
Agree with most of this, would add Lauda into the mix.I was lucky enough to be party to a conversation involving Michael Schumacher where he was asked how he would have gone on in Fangio's day and his answer was complex, but he said that fundamentally he felt that with the mindset of a modern driver he could not put himself in a mindset that would have been needed to drive those cars i.e. he didn't know as with his perception of safety and the modern sport he wouldn't be prepared to drive them in the conditions they raced under back then, but maybe without that knowledge it might have been different. It was a very good answer and a good illustration as to why drivers of different eras can not be compared.
When we talk about eras I think of F1 as having three basic periods.
1950s - late 60s/early 70s - privateer teams, garagistas, danger, deaths, speed over safety, weird rules where swapping cars was allowed. Powerful engines and lightweight cars becoming the norm.
late 60s/early70s - early 90s - manufacturers more involved, basic safety introduced, commercialisation, drivers becoming household names, fitness levels of drivers see them becoming athletes, budgets climbing, technical innovation bleeding into road cars. Modern materials, wings and aero becoming the norm on the cars.
early 90s - now - increasing safety year on year, ultra professionalism in teams, huge budgets leading to nominal cost cutting, massive commercialisation, huge TV audiences, constant rule tweaking to keep cars from being too fast. Hugely tuned aero and computer aided systems becoming the norm in the cars.
That is just my personal categorisation so obviously not cast in stone, but it's pretty clear that the sport of today is a much different sport to that of the 1950s.
One of the biggest changes is that of driver safety and is one of the reasons why comparison across the eras is so hard. Jackie Stewart was a massive influence on getting basic safety measures introduced and probably more than any other driver did so much for the drivers of his time and the future. I know people think he is a bitter old man, but he dealt with more than most in his time as a driver including unbelievable resistance to change....if you drove you took your chances was the edict for much of the time before he helped alter the perception of those running the sport. Max Mosley is another who helped immeasurably with bringing the safety standards of the sport up to where they are now, again it's fashionable to slag him off, but he did so much good and is in no small way responsible for the fact that so few drivers get injured these days.
As a result to choose the greatest even from each of those eras is hugely difficult, but it is clear that you cannot compare a driver from one to the other very easily as the demands of the drivers are so different now to back then.
What is clear when you speak to engineers and other drivers (when they are honest - usually when they retire
) is that there are a small number of drivers that can take an F1 car and regularly make it do things others can't. I'm not going to rank them, but for me those people are Fangio, Clark, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton. There are many other massively talented drivers some who get so close to that elite group that they can almost touch them, but they are the ones I would hold up purely on their driving skill behind the wheel.Finally a word about having the best car..... one thing that is always touted as being a negative is drivers winning in the best car... ask yourself a question... if you are a top driver you are going to be in demand and get a top drive.... it's no accident that the best drivers end up in the best cars. Occasionally a driver will go yo a team that is down the pack a bit and help pull them up (Schuamcher, to an extent Hamilton), but mostly if you have the best car the best driver will come knocking or vice versa and each serves the other's purpose. It's the same in any sport... including football... talent attracts talent!
So IMO Lewis is one of the best ever and I'm happy to leave it there!
I think that grouping drivers makes far more sense than ranking them.
Let's say for example: Good. Very Good, Excellent and the Genius Elite
Good drivers are those that bagged a few poles and the odd race win here and there (the Bergers, Coulthards, etc.)
The very good are those with multiple poles, wins and a WDC (D.Hill, K. Roseberg, Mansell, etc)
The Excellent are those with multiple WDCs (Piquet, Häkkinen, etc)
The Genius Elite are those that carry additional chutzpa; a class above all else in which we would of course find Clark, Senna and Hamilton.
But even here, it's a bit subjective because you'd also put Moss in the Genius Elite bracket despite never winning the WDC and on quantity of WDC alone, Vettel should go in but I don't think many would place him anywhere other than 'Excellent'.
Let's say for example: Good. Very Good, Excellent and the Genius Elite
Good drivers are those that bagged a few poles and the odd race win here and there (the Bergers, Coulthards, etc.)
The very good are those with multiple poles, wins and a WDC (D.Hill, K. Roseberg, Mansell, etc)
The Excellent are those with multiple WDCs (Piquet, Häkkinen, etc)
The Genius Elite are those that carry additional chutzpa; a class above all else in which we would of course find Clark, Senna and Hamilton.
But even here, it's a bit subjective because you'd also put Moss in the Genius Elite bracket despite never winning the WDC and on quantity of WDC alone, Vettel should go in but I don't think many would place him anywhere other than 'Excellent'.
We’re living through a period in F1 that will be talked of in 20-30 years’ time. Fans will be so jealous of us to have seen one of the all-time greats in his prime.
We’ve seen him develop as a driver to the stage where he is the most complete driver on the grid. He’s made so few mistakes that it is remarkable.
Feel honoured.
Arguing about the greatest is rather nonsensical. Hamilton is a great. He’s seen off a 4x WDC. He is an exciting driver to watch. His pole lap at Suzuka was sublime. I saw what I think was Mansell’s greatest qually lap. It’s stayed with me for decades. For those lucky enough to have seen it live it will be the same.
We’ve seen him develop as a driver to the stage where he is the most complete driver on the grid. He’s made so few mistakes that it is remarkable.
Feel honoured.
Arguing about the greatest is rather nonsensical. Hamilton is a great. He’s seen off a 4x WDC. He is an exciting driver to watch. His pole lap at Suzuka was sublime. I saw what I think was Mansell’s greatest qually lap. It’s stayed with me for decades. For those lucky enough to have seen it live it will be the same.
Derek Smith said:
cb1965 said:
Lots of great comment.
It seems wrong to criticise just one point, but:I'd disagree about Mosley. He reacted because he had to. He was forced into increasing safety.
What gave rise to safety increases in F1 was the threat of litigation.
PS All constructive criticism accepted... it's only my opinion at the end of the day.
37chevy said:
Please tell me, what teams did Schumacher win titles with? Ah yes Benetton and ferrari...2 Top teams. Other than Braun, which small teams have won f1 titles in the last 30 odd years?
To be fair Williams was the dominant car, look how well Schumacher's team mate dragged the Benetton around.The Ferrari was a dog for the first few years which Michael developed into a WDC capable car.
Many long nights at Maranello working with the engineers and fetching pizzas for the team in his company car, a 456 GT IIRC. He lived at the Factory to help turn s
t into gold.Edited by sparta6 on Monday 29th October 09:46
Derek Smith said:
It seems wrong to criticise just one point, but:
I'd disagree about Mosley. He reacted because he had to. He was forced into increasing safety.
What gave rise to safety increases in F1 was the threat of litigation.
I disagree. I think the whole sport was shocked by Imola; Max reacted very quickly out of fear for the reputation of the sport and the safety of the drivers as much as litigation. I'd disagree about Mosley. He reacted because he had to. He was forced into increasing safety.
What gave rise to safety increases in F1 was the threat of litigation.
He was acutely aware that we lived in an era where people did not want to see their heroes die on Sunday afternoon on live TV.
It was a sudden realisation that they had become collectively complacent.
IforB said:
Crazy isn’t it? I have all the time in te world for Hamilton and yet haven’t ever looked at one Instagram post or tweet of his. If you get bent out of shape by that sort of stuff, why go deliberately looking to annoy yourself.
Very odd.
Same here he only comes on my Radar on an F1 weekend which is his job apparently. I haven't a clue what happens to him out of the Car and I don't care he is simply the best driver in a generation and he is British.Very odd.
Derek Smith said:
We’re living through a period in F1 that will be talked of in 20-30 years’ time. Fans will be so jealous of us to have seen one of the all-time greats in his prime.
We’ve seen him develop as a driver to the stage where he is the most complete driver on the grid. He’s made so few mistakes that it is remarkable.
100% agree. Assuming of course F1 is still around in 20-30 years...We’ve seen him develop as a driver to the stage where he is the most complete driver on the grid. He’s made so few mistakes that it is remarkable.
For me it's his relentlessness. He's clearly human and struggles (quite understandably) emotionally at times - he's not a Prost or a Lauda. His ability to put that to one side, regain focus, bite down and get on with it is remarkable.
A genuine world class sportsman of real character and grit.
Eric Mc said:
Fangio had a lot more to deal with than Hamilton did - chiefly overcoming the very real and present danger of death doing his job - and having to deal with death when it occured to others (as it very often did).
It's also wrong to state that driving in his era was less physical. The cars may not have delivered the high Gs that the modern down force monsters do - but the races were longer, the tracks/circuits far more arduous to drive and (as mentioned earlier) the psychological pressure of avoiding mistakes ever present.
The physical requirements were different - but they weren't absent.
I disagree slightly. its unfair to say Fangio had a lot more to deal with. It's also wrong to state that driving in his era was less physical. The cars may not have delivered the high Gs that the modern down force monsters do - but the races were longer, the tracks/circuits far more arduous to drive and (as mentioned earlier) the psychological pressure of avoiding mistakes ever present.
The physical requirements were different - but they weren't absent.
back in the day you could just turn up and drive (yeh not quite that simple) now the margins are so tight you have to worry about diet, fitness, social media, the press and everything that goes along with being a professional sportsperson.
there was a great interview with Coulthard a while back, he physically couldn't drive a car these days because he is out of shape.....couldn't even press the brake pedal hard enough on Rosbergs car.
the parameters have changed, but id say the modern sportsperson has a lot more to deal with than the fangios of the world, thankfully death isn't high up that list
Derek Smith said:
We’re living through a period in F1 that will be talked of in 20-30 years’ time. Fans will be so jealous of us to have seen one of the all-time greats in his prime.
We’ve seen him develop as a driver to the stage where he is the most complete driver on the grid. He’s made so few mistakes that it is remarkable.
Feel honoured.
Arguing about the greatest is rather nonsensical. Hamilton is a great. He’s seen off a 4x WDC. He is an exciting driver to watch. His pole lap at Suzuka was sublime. I saw what I think was Mansell’s greatest qually lap. It’s stayed with me for decades. For those lucky enough to have seen it live it will be the same.
Totally. Comparisons to past drivers, whilst mildly entertaining to consider for about five minutes, are ultimately meaningless. Right here, right now, Lewis is god of F1. In my opinion, anyone who disagrees is full of resentment or doesn’t even follow the sport.We’ve seen him develop as a driver to the stage where he is the most complete driver on the grid. He’s made so few mistakes that it is remarkable.
Feel honoured.
Arguing about the greatest is rather nonsensical. Hamilton is a great. He’s seen off a 4x WDC. He is an exciting driver to watch. His pole lap at Suzuka was sublime. I saw what I think was Mansell’s greatest qually lap. It’s stayed with me for decades. For those lucky enough to have seen it live it will be the same.
cb1965 said:
On the subject of the GOAT comparisons are just too difficult across the eras. Something like football is easier as it is still fundamentally kicking a ball around a field where the modern F1 car and whole sport bears practically no resemblance to the sport of the 50s and 60s.
I was lucky enough to be party to a conversation involving Michael Schumacher where he was asked how he would have gone on in Fangio's day and his answer was complex, but he said that fundamentally he felt that with the mindset of a modern driver he could not put himself in a mindset that would have been needed to drive those cars i.e. he didn't know as with his perception of safety and the modern sport he wouldn't be prepared to drive them in the conditions they raced under back then, but maybe without that knowledge it might have been different. It was a very good answer and a good illustration as to why drivers of different eras can not be compared.
When we talk about eras I think of F1 as having three basic periods.
1950s - late 60s/early 70s - privateer teams, garagistas, danger, deaths, speed over safety, weird rules where swapping cars was allowed. Powerful engines and lightweight cars becoming the norm.
late 60s/early70s - early 90s - manufacturers more involved, basic safety introduced, commercialisation, drivers becoming household names, fitness levels of drivers see them becoming athletes, budgets climbing, technical innovation bleeding into road cars. Modern materials, wings and aero becoming the norm on the cars.
early 90s - now - increasing safety year on year, ultra professionalism in teams, huge budgets leading to nominal cost cutting, massive commercialisation, huge TV audiences, constant rule tweaking to keep cars from being too fast. Hugely tuned aero and computer aided systems becoming the norm in the cars.
That is just my personal categorisation so obviously not cast in stone, but it's pretty clear that the sport of today is a much different sport to that of the 1950s.
One of the biggest changes is that of driver safety and is one of the reasons why comparison across the eras is so hard. Jackie Stewart was a massive influence on getting basic safety measures introduced and probably more than any other driver did so much for the drivers of his time and the future. I know people think he is a bitter old man, but he dealt with more than most in his time as a driver including unbelievable resistance to change....if you drove you took your chances was the edict for much of the time before he helped alter the perception of those running the sport. Max Mosley is another who helped immeasurably with bringing the safety standards of the sport up to where they are now, again it's fashionable to slag him off, but he did so much good and is in no small way responsible for the fact that so few drivers get injured these days.
As a result to choose the greatest even from each of those eras is hugely difficult, but it is clear that you cannot compare a driver from one to the other very easily as the demands of the drivers are so different now to back then.
What is clear when you speak to engineers and other drivers (when they are honest - usually when they retire ) is that there are a small number of drivers that can take an F1 car and regularly make it do things others can't. I'm not going to rank them, but for me those people are Fangio, Clark, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton. There are many other massively talented drivers some who get so close to that elite group that they can almost touch them, but they are the ones I would hold up purely on their driving skill behind the wheel.
Finally a word about having the best car..... one thing that is always touted as being a negative is drivers winning in the best car... ask yourself a question... if you are a top driver you are going to be in demand and get a top drive.... it's no accident that the best drivers end up in the best cars. Occasionally a driver will go yo a team that is down the pack a bit and help pull them up (Schuamcher, to an extent Hamilton), but mostly if you have the best car the best driver will come knocking or vice versa and each serves the other's purpose. It's the same in any sport... including football... talent attracts talent!
So IMO Lewis is one of the best ever and I'm happy to leave it there!
Great post but many will disagree with your last sentence on here. I was lucky enough to be party to a conversation involving Michael Schumacher where he was asked how he would have gone on in Fangio's day and his answer was complex, but he said that fundamentally he felt that with the mindset of a modern driver he could not put himself in a mindset that would have been needed to drive those cars i.e. he didn't know as with his perception of safety and the modern sport he wouldn't be prepared to drive them in the conditions they raced under back then, but maybe without that knowledge it might have been different. It was a very good answer and a good illustration as to why drivers of different eras can not be compared.
When we talk about eras I think of F1 as having three basic periods.
1950s - late 60s/early 70s - privateer teams, garagistas, danger, deaths, speed over safety, weird rules where swapping cars was allowed. Powerful engines and lightweight cars becoming the norm.
late 60s/early70s - early 90s - manufacturers more involved, basic safety introduced, commercialisation, drivers becoming household names, fitness levels of drivers see them becoming athletes, budgets climbing, technical innovation bleeding into road cars. Modern materials, wings and aero becoming the norm on the cars.
early 90s - now - increasing safety year on year, ultra professionalism in teams, huge budgets leading to nominal cost cutting, massive commercialisation, huge TV audiences, constant rule tweaking to keep cars from being too fast. Hugely tuned aero and computer aided systems becoming the norm in the cars.
That is just my personal categorisation so obviously not cast in stone, but it's pretty clear that the sport of today is a much different sport to that of the 1950s.
One of the biggest changes is that of driver safety and is one of the reasons why comparison across the eras is so hard. Jackie Stewart was a massive influence on getting basic safety measures introduced and probably more than any other driver did so much for the drivers of his time and the future. I know people think he is a bitter old man, but he dealt with more than most in his time as a driver including unbelievable resistance to change....if you drove you took your chances was the edict for much of the time before he helped alter the perception of those running the sport. Max Mosley is another who helped immeasurably with bringing the safety standards of the sport up to where they are now, again it's fashionable to slag him off, but he did so much good and is in no small way responsible for the fact that so few drivers get injured these days.
As a result to choose the greatest even from each of those eras is hugely difficult, but it is clear that you cannot compare a driver from one to the other very easily as the demands of the drivers are so different now to back then.
What is clear when you speak to engineers and other drivers (when they are honest - usually when they retire
) is that there are a small number of drivers that can take an F1 car and regularly make it do things others can't. I'm not going to rank them, but for me those people are Fangio, Clark, Moss, Stewart, Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton. There are many other massively talented drivers some who get so close to that elite group that they can almost touch them, but they are the ones I would hold up purely on their driving skill behind the wheel.Finally a word about having the best car..... one thing that is always touted as being a negative is drivers winning in the best car... ask yourself a question... if you are a top driver you are going to be in demand and get a top drive.... it's no accident that the best drivers end up in the best cars. Occasionally a driver will go yo a team that is down the pack a bit and help pull them up (Schuamcher, to an extent Hamilton), but mostly if you have the best car the best driver will come knocking or vice versa and each serves the other's purpose. It's the same in any sport... including football... talent attracts talent!
So IMO Lewis is one of the best ever and I'm happy to leave it there!
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