Who’s The Best Formula One Driver Of All Time?

[AmoCS]

Assuming all drivers had the same car, who would you say is the all time best?

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/formula-one-r...

[p1stonhead]

Lewis IMO.

He just doesn’t ever make mistakes anymore it seems.

[anonymous-user]

Please, not again...........

[deadslow]

p1stonhead said:

Lewis IMO.

He just doesn’t ever make mistakes anymore it seems.

Albon would beg to differ

[p1stonhead]

REALIST123 said:

Please, not again...........

You posted in a thread you could have ignored, just to say you don’t want to post on a thread you could have ignored?

[deadslow]

AmoCS said:

Assuming all drivers had the same car, who would you say is the all time best?

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/formula-one-r...

largely depends on the car - manual gearbox deathtrap - Jim Clark/Jackie Stewart - modern day automated Sunday drive - Hamilton/Alonso

[p1stonhead]

I REALLY hope Alonso isn’t in an absolute lemon next year.

[AmoCS]

p1stonhead said:

I REALLY hope Alonso isn’t in an absolute lemon next year.

[p1stonhead]

AmoCS said:

p1stonhead said:

I REALLY hope Alonso isn’t in an absolute lemon next year.

In case that sounded sarcastic I was deadly serious! Would love him to be fighting at least behind Mercedes somewhere which is probably the best anyone can hope for.

[LeoSayer]

Fastest driver analysis from F1.com here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.hamilto...

Top 3 are Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton.

[AmoCS]

p1stonhead said:

In case that sounded sarcastic I was deadly serious! Would love him to be fighting at least behind Mercedes somewhere which is probably the best anyone can hope for.

I know you were, but somehow I feel he has passed his best.

[p1stonhead]

AmoCS said:

p1stonhead said:

In case that sounded sarcastic I was deadly serious! Would love him to be fighting at least behind Mercedes somewhere which is probably the best anyone can hope for.

I know you were, but somehow I feel he has passed his best.

Replace him with Bottas. That would be a hell of a thing to see

[AmoCS]

Yes indeed, shame they didn't go for the 3 car teams.

[Muzzer79]

AmoCS said:

Assuming all drivers had the same car, who would you say is the all time best?

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/formula-one-r...

That system places Damon Hill above Jim Clark.

With the utmost of respect to Damon, that says everything about how flawed it is.

The question is unanswerable. Different eras, different cars, different regulations, different tracks, different attitudes.

I think, at best, you can only define the best driver of their era.

[AmoCS]

Yes.

Also usually the best driver has the best car.
If for example over the last 3 years Max and Lewis had each others car, would Max have 3 WC's?

[hiccy18]

LeoSayer said:

Fastest driver analysis from F1.com here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.hamilto...

Top 3 are Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton.

I think you just need to look at the positions of Heikki Kovaleinen and Jarno Trulli to realise that algorithm is garbage. Any top 20 that doesn't feature Fangio, Clark and Stewart is probably wrong.

Only driver to have left me awestruck was Senna but I'd say Stewart was probably better.

[TwentyFive]

Fastest and best can be two different things.

Senna was probably the fastest but had many flaws in other aspects of his racing which take away from him ever being considered the best.

To work out the best you would need to combine a myriad of factors such as speed, consistency, bravery, team-mates, ability in both wet and dry, the era in which they raced and of course these factors all contribute toward the 'complete' driver.

So for me fastest would be Senna but the most complete and therefore 'best' is a toss up between Stewart, Clark or Hamilton.

[Kraken]

It's totally impossible to compare drivers in the same race let alone over decades. All you ever really know is who is best suited to the rules at the time and managed to negotiate the best seat. Not to mention that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of drivers over the 70 years of F1 who could well have outperformed those who got there but didn't get the breaks to be there themselves.

[Mr_Thyroid]

hiccy18 said:

LeoSayer said:

Fastest driver analysis from F1.com here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.hamilto...

Top 3 are Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton.

I think you just need to look at the positions of Heikki Kovaleinen and Jarno Trulli to realise that algorithm is garbage. Any top 20 that doesn't feature Fangio, Clark and Stewart is probably wrong.

Only driver to have left me awestruck was Senna but I'd say Stewart was probably better.

That list is based on quali data since 1983 - Kovalainen and Trulli were fairly good qualifiers so that explains their inclusion but there's definitely something fishy going on with the way they've analysed the data because it includes 10 current drivers (if you include Hulkenberg and Alonso as current) but only Prost and Senna from drivers who competed in the 80s.

[KevinCamaroSS]

AmoCS said:

If for example over the last 3 years Max and Lewis had each others car, would Max have 3 WC's?

No, until this year Max has demonstrated a red mist ability to throw points away.