FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[Ayrton-Lewis]

Who is the Greatest F1 Driver ever?Senna or Schumacher?Or Someone else?
Imo Senna is the greatest ever.He was the fastest and more talented driver ever with Jim Clark close second as the most talented(imo).But of caurse other people have different opinions.

The candidates.

Ayrton Senna
Michael Schumacher
Juan Manuel Fangio
Alain Prost
Jim Clark
Jackie Stewart
Niki Lauda
Stirling Moss
Nigel Mansell
other

[seenathkumar]

Michael Schumacher is currently driving for Mercedes GP. He is 7 times Formula 1 world champion so he my favorite.

[madbrad]

Prost should be ahead of MS if people who know what they are talking about do the voting.

[The Oz]

Schumacher 7 WC has it for me. And the way he drove was amazing. Schumi has Senna....only just though

[madbrad]

Schumacher had no competitor in his team. He had his own personal test driver.

[myownalias]

Ayrton Senna by far; Schumacher may have the most wins and most world championships but Senna is still the best in my opinion; at least in my lifetime. Many say that Fangio is the greatest driver but I have not seen enough of his driving to make that determination as that was before my time.

[madbrad]

The more books you read about Senna the more quotes you get from people like drivers, team staff, etc telling you about that whole other level he worked on. How he's practially in a trance when he's doing the perfect lap. How he always had that ability to go out and beat your time. He was superhuman. No one before or since has even come close. Even Prost admits that. Prost is probably the best racer among the rest. here are drivers I regard higher than MS, such as Alesi. Others would have had titles if they had the right car for long enough, such as Warwick and Brundle and Herbert. With team support and a non competing teammate they too could have had 7 titles. To me 7 titles do not tell the whole story, and when you consider the things MS did to get them, their value is reduced.

[Ayrton-Lewis]

Ayrton Senna by far; Schumacher may have the most wins and most world championships but Senna is still the best in my opinion; at least in my lifetime. Many say that Fangio is the greatest driver but I have not seen enough of his driving to make that determination as that was before my time.

I'm a big fan of Senna but I find wrong someone say "By Far"...I hate Schumacher but I accept he was great at his peak(not as good as Senna in my eyes but good).And what about Jim Clark(some experts believe he was bigger talent than Ayrton)?Fangio?...
Imo Senna is the greatest but "by far"?No imo.This sport have/had a lot of a great Drivers.....I respect the history and the present....

[EwanM]

Not this again...

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

It's not realistic to compare the abilities of drivers from different eras because the rules have changed substantially and the skill sets their cars demanded is so different.

The modern incarnation of the F1 car is so "fiddly," you can no more than speculate whether a Fangio or a Phil Hill could adapt to it. Not to mention the sheer physicality of cornering at 6 Gs.

Or put M. Schumacher in Fangio's Maserati -- which didn't have so much as safety belts -- and ask him to lap the Nürburgring -- the old 17 mile long Gesamtstrecke -- in the same time as Fangio did in '57. I expect he'd slither around about half the circuit before retiring, either because he found the pace and the car completely unsafe or because he needed to change his underwear.

Drivers now can afford to take more risks because the chance of injury is so much lower. Look at Kubica's 2007 crash at Montreal and Webber's flip this year at Valencia. Neither missed their next start. Before the advent of the carbonfibre survival cell, it's highly unlikely either would have fared so well. Before the six-point harnesses was mandated (1972), both crashes would have been considerably more consequential.



All that aside, it's hard to overlook a driver who competed for seven seasons, won five WDCs and finished first in 45% of the races he entered. All the more remarkable because he entered F1 when he already was as old as Rubens Barrichello is today.

[darwin dali]

It's not realistic to compare the abilities of drivers from different eras because the rules have changed substantially and the skill sets their cars demanded is so different.

The modern incarnation of the F1 car is so "fiddly," you can no more than speculate whether a Fangio or a Phil Hill could adapt to it. Not to mention the sheer physicality of cornering at 6 Gs.

Or put M. Schumacher in Fangio's Maserati -- which didn't have so much as safety belts -- and ask him to lap the Nürburgring -- the old 17 mile long Gesamtstrecke -- in the same time as Fangio did in '57. I expect he'd slither around about half the circuit before retiring, either because he found the pace and the car completely unsafe or because he needed to change his underwear.

Drivers now can afford to take more risks because the chance of injury is so much lower. Look at Kubica's 2007 crash at Montreal and Webber's flip this year at Valencia. Neither missed their next start. Before the advent of the carbonfibre survival cell, it's highly unlikely either would have fared so well. Before the six-point harnesses was mandated (1972), both crashes would have been considerably more consequential.



All that aside, it's hard to overlook a driver who competed for seven seasons, won five WDCs and finished first in 45% of the races he entered. All the more remarkable because he entered F1 when he already was as old as Rubens Barrichello is today.

RK did miss a race after his accident, which gave SV the opportunity to race for BMW-Sauber.

[australia99]

I voted Prost. 4 titles against some of the best talent F1 has ever seen.

also came close to winning another 4 titles.

[misterworldwide]

Senna , But NOW MASSA!

[Robert12010]

Michael schumacher, ayrton senna, alain prost and sir jackie stewart get my votes from this poll!

[tony1979]

I have voted for Fangio and here's why -

5 WDC (record stood for 46 years until Schummy)
won the WDC for FOUR different teams (no-one has done that since!!)
In Monza 1952 he crashed and broke his neck but came back to win WDC 18 MONTHS later! (and won it a further 3 times after)
He won 24 of his 51 grand prix starts - giving a winning percentage of 47% (who else can boast that?)

All of this was done in cars that were simply 4 wheels with an engine - No areostability, No Double Diffusers, No KERS, No anti-stall, No F Duct, Just one man and his talent!

As a driver that is hard to beat, All the other contenders in the vote are relying on much more technology and far bigger corporate teams to help them through the season!

Just My Humble Opinion!