Our top five racing drivers

It’s an interesting challenge to compare and rank athletes from different eras but throw into the mix issues such as rapid enhancements in technology and then rule changes, team orders, reliability and safety matters as well and any outcome is entirely subjective.

Even with an event as pure as the 100m sprint one could argue that it is as much the advances in training knowledge and track and spike design that has contributed to the constant lowering of the world record.

To put this into context … was Jesse Owens, who held the 100m record for five years, a better athlete than Carl Lewis or Usain Bolt? Did they always run as fast as they could or did they just do enough to win?

Or, how do you compare the great ‘Total Football’ Ajax side of the 1970s with the fabulous Real Madrid team of the 1950s or Barcelona team of recent years?

That’s complex enough without also factoring in team orders and technology!

At least with F1 you have countless statistics dating back to 1950 that can be dissected in countless ways. However, as many accountants will tell you, they can be used in different ways!

Attempts have been made to rank races scientifically although none have received universal acceptance.

The fastest lap data provides an indication as to the strongest car in a race although qualifying rules have been changed over the decades, which skews direct comparison.

Of course, race wins is unequivocal unless you argue whether there is greater importance attached to total wins or the highest win percentage, bearing in mind those careers cut short by accidents.

There is also the not so insignificant factor that modern drivers race far more than in the past. And then there is the ‘holy trinity’ of pole position, fastest lap and overall win in any given race weekend.

The cars from the last century were often dangerous and unreliable which meant the drivers required great courage and skill to master, with the best developing an uncanny ‘feel’ for the machines at their disposal.

The fastest cars from the early era of F1 had manual gearboxes, no aerodynamic aids and even no seatbelts. The current crop of fastest men on the planet has to multi-task with the high-tech machines and be psychically fitter to endure the rigours of the season.

To conduct my own list of the top drivers of all time, I’ve gone for a balance based on a personal judgment as to how each driver compared against his teammate, ability in all weather conditions and, of course, overall success on the track. Who could win in the best car but also maximise the potential from one that was weaker?

Number 1:
Juan Manual Fangio has a record that, in percentage terms, will be almost impossible to beat, accumulating five world titles in seven full seasons and a ‘win-rate’ of 47 per cent. In other words he won almost every other race in which he competed. To add to the mystique he won these titles with Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Mercedes-Benz.

He even won one championship for Mercedes having started the season winning two races for Maserati! The Argentinian ‘El Maestro’ was famed for driving within himself, balancing the inherent risks of driving in that era with a desire to win.

His most famous drive came at the Nurburgring in 1957 at the German GP. This 14-mile circuit through the Eifel mountains is considered to be the toughest test of a racing driver. With 10 laps to go he was 50 seconds behind Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari and was still there three laps later. Yet, he suddenly started lapping 15 seconds faster than the lap record he set the previous year and got faster and faster. By the end he had taken the lead and victory.

Number 2:
Statistically the most successful driver in history, Michael Schumacher divides opinion perhaps like no other. Many of his detractors claim he was simply lucky to be driving a Ferrari that was peerless and how he had an unfair advantage with Bridgestone tyres made specifically for him.

Others will point to the perceived use of illegal driver aids on his Benetton (found not-guilty as there was no evidence that, even though there were these aids found on the car, they had been used) or the manner in which he ruthlessly ran Damon Hill off the road to secure the title (he tried again in 1997 with Jacques Villeneuve but was found guilty).

No-one has won a championship with a bad car yet many have lost it with a good car.
Seven world titles (five consecutive) with two different teams spanning 11 seasons and 91 race victories is testimony to an outstanding talent with metronomic consistency whose ability endured. 

His drive helped galvanise the Ferrari team into being an unstoppable force with a supreme work ethic. Schumacher, it must be remembered, was the first person to deliver the title to Ferrari for 21 years.

Number 3:
Ayrton Senna’s statistical achievements may well have been surpassed by a number of drivers in a career cut short by a tragic accident at Imola in 1994, yet he consistently beat possibly the greatest-ever generation of racers. 

If you were to extend the list of all-time greats to 10 or 15 then you would see other illustrious names such as Alain Prost, Mansell, Hill, Piquet, Rosberg, all of whom he raced against – and beat, not always in the best car.

Senna had some sensational victories, particularly in the wet, with incredible displays at Donington and Estoril amongst the most revered, although possibly none will be better than his performance in Brazil, holding on with only 6th gear available!

He made his mark in his debut season at Toleman at Monaco when he made his way up from 13th on the grid to catch the leader, Prost, but being denied a victory when the race was stopped half-way due to heavy rain. Monaco became a favourite track, recording six of his 41 wins in the Principality.

Bizarrely, it was while racing alongside Prost with the all-conquering McLaren team of 1988 (where Senna was the superior driver as the team claimed 15 wins from 16 races) that their relationship soured, spawning a bitter rivalry that will possibly be better remembered than his driving. At Monaco that year he took pole position from Prost by nearly 1.5 seconds.

His death at the age of 34 ensures that his achievements are romanticised yet, for me, it was his ability to push himself and his car to the limits, upsetting the odds, resulting in him beating such a strong field so regularly, that places him so high on the list.

Number 4:
Alain Prost won the first of his titles in 1985 although that could so easily have been his third or even fourth. Renault’s reliability difficulties arguably cost him the title in 1982 and, having these resolved to dominate the 1983 season, he was overtaken in the final races by Nelson Piquet benefitting from a controversial fuel.

Having moved to McLaren in 1984 Prost dominated his illustrious teammate, Niki Lauda, only to agonisingly lose the championship to the Austrian by half a point having suffered four engine failures while in a winning position, gifting Lauda four of his five season victories. The 1986 championship will live long in memory with Prost claiming the victory in the final race after the faster cars of Mansell and Piquet suffered famously with tyre problems.

Back to back wins were therefore long overdue and it was only the excellence and determination of Senna that prevented Le Professeur from claiming more titles.

Prost was famously sacked by Ferrari in 1991 for likening his car to ‘a truck’ meaning that he missed the entire 1992 season without having a ride available.

This worked to his advantage as he was able to move to the stunning Williams and dominated the season. This proved to be his last as Williams, in an effort to recreate the dream team signed Senna for 1994. Now aged 38, Prost was not prepared to tolerate the politics and promptly retired with four world titles and 51 race wins.

Number 5:
This final selection was the one that caused the greatest deliberation. I was desperate to find room for Jim Clark and reward him for his record (at the time) 25 race victories and 33 pole positions. While these totals have been passed, only Fangio beats him on a percentage basis.

Clark demonstrated real driving skills when competing in a 2-litre engine against the 3-litre Brabhams before winning titles with the same Lotus.

It could be argued that this was by now the superior car and perhaps it was. However, it was notoriously difficult to handle and poor reliability cost him more world titles. The 1967 German GP saw him claim pole by nine seconds. Having comfortably won the 1968 season-opener in South Africa he was tragically killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim.

However, while he repeatedly beat Jackie Stewart during these races, it is to the latter that I award my fifth position. 

Stewart went on to win three world titles yet it was the manner of his 27 victories that stood out. He never really had a car that was vastly superior so had to out-drive (Germany ’68 in the wet) or out-think (Monza ’69) his opponents.

Honourable mentions go to Niki Lauda who would surely have won more titles if it were not for the near-fatal accident at the Nurburgring in 1976, Nigel Mansell for ditching his ‘nearly-man’ status in emphatic fashion in 1992, claiming the title in August and Alberto Ascari, another whose career was cut short by an accident leaving some strikingly good performance statistics.