Cryptic question - who knows their F1?

[mattikake]

Damn, just noticed that as a result of this year, my favourite driver can no longer have the claim to have exclusively driven for the 4 best F1 teams.

Who is it?

First correct answer wins my respect, such as it's worth.

(If you use wiki you are an evil pleb)

[realjv]

Mansell?

[themarsh]

Another one for Mansell. I can't think of anyone else who has driven for Ferrari, Williams, McLaren & Lotus.

[Exige77]

And this year the best 4 teams have changed ?

Red Bull is now one of the best 4 teams ?

And Mansell didn’t drive for Red Bull ?

[DanielSan]

Is this 4 best teams on opinion or on statistics? Either way are Mclaren still in the list?

[ralphrj]

Depends on the criteria for defining the 4 best F1 teams. Assuming that the OP's definition was based on the number of wins then the answer was Mansell until this year. During 2018, Mercedes surpassed Lotus to claim 4th overall with 87 wins.

[Eric Mc]

Define "best"?

Fangio only ever drove for the "best" of his era -

Maserati
Ferrari
Lancia
Mercedes

In the old days, drivers didn't have long enough careers to have the opportunity to jump between too many teams. They either died racing or got out of the sport before they died.

[thegreenhell]

ralphrj said:

Depends on the criteria for defining the 4 best F1 teams. Assuming that the OP's definition was based on the number of wins then the answer was Mansell until this year. During 2018, Mercedes surpassed Lotus to claim 4th overall with 87 wins.

The old status quo remains intact in terms of WCC titles won, where Mercedes still need at least two more years to even equal Lotus.

You could perhaps argue that Mercedes would have won the teams title in 1954/55 had such a thing existed then, but it didn't.

[Eric Mc]

And what about drivers who competed before there was a World Driver's Championship?

[Bullitt Five-Oh]

Bottas obviously.

[FourWheelDrift]

I guess Mercedes have bumped someone down the list this year.

[sgtBerbatov]

Alonso?

[Evangelion]

Button drove for Williams, Benetton, McLaren and Brawn.

What about Prost? Or Piquet (Snr)?

[slipstream 1985]

this will be because of kimi driving for "alfa romeo" now, so someone who drove for them, andretti?

[Eric Mc]

slipstream 1985 said:

this will be because of kimi driving for "alfa romeo" now, so someone who drove for them, andretti?

Fangio.

[dr_gn]

Jackie Ickx ?

[dr_gn]

FourWheelDrift said:

I guess Mercedes have bumped someone down the list this year.

Lotus.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

Define "best"?

Fangio only ever drove for the "best" of his era -

Maserati
Ferrari
Lancia
Mercedes
.

Why does he need to define ‘best’?

Lancia and Maserati don’t appear anywhere near the top four F1 teams in terms of wins or championships, in fact zero between them probably.

Nobody mentioned ‘era’ in this apart from you.

[Evangelion]

dr_gn said:

... Lancia and Maserati don’t appear anywhere near the top four F1 teams in terms of wins or championships, in fact zero between them probably ...

The Lancia D50 could have been a good car had it been developed more,but Lancia lost interest in it and packed up when Ascari died. However they did pass on a lot of their equipment to Ferrari - the Lancia Ferrari that Fangio used to win the '57 championship owed quite a lot to it.

Then the following year, he won the championship in a Maserati.

Remember that the vast majority of racing cars never win even a single championship. Nor, indeed, a race.

[dr_gn]

Evangelion said:

dr_gn said:

... Lancia and Maserati don’t appear anywhere near the top four F1 teams in terms of wins or championships, in fact zero between them probably ...

The Lancia D50 could have been a good car had it been developed more,but Lancia lost interest in it and packed up when Ascari died. However they did pass on a lot of their equipment to Ferrari - the Lancia Ferrari that Fangio used to win the '57 championship owed quite a lot to it.

Then the following year, he won the championship in a Maserati.

Remember that the vast majority of racing cars never win even a single championship. Nor, indeed, a race.

...but none of that makes either of them a ‘top’ team in F1 terms, or makes Fangio remotely a contender for the o/p’s driver.