Max Verstappen is a four-time world champion. However the place will that rank him within the all-time listing?
As ever with these rankings, they’re completely subjective and inherently flawed. How do you evaluate drivers throughout generations and various kinds of equipment? How would have fared within the years when it was frequent for drivers to die whereas racing? How would Juan Manuel Fangio have fitted right into a modern-day automobile? How do you steadiness the charisma of Ayrton Senna with the remorselessness of ? You can’t. However it does make for an attention-grabbing dialogue…
For readability, we now have included drivers solely from the beginning of the F1 world championship in 1950, so no Tazio Nuvolari or Rudolf Caracciola.
10. Niki Lauda
One in every of in addition to considered one of its biggest characters. Lauda, who died in 2019, received the world title thrice earlier than happening to grow to be an entrepreneur who based and ran three airways. The Austrian was additionally instrumental in Hamilton’s shock transfer to Mercedes from McLaren in 2013, in his position as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-Benz motorsport. Lauda’s second and third world titles have been all of the extra outstanding for the truth that they got here after he survived a near-fatal accident on the 1976 German Grand Prix, which left him completely disfigured.
9. Sir Jackie Stewart
Stewart received the world title thrice in an period when a lot of his contemporaries met with demise or horrific damage due to insufficient security requirements. As we speak’s drivers owe a lot to the bravery he exhibited on and off the observe. Amongst different modifications, Stewart helped to introduce bigger run-off areas, higher boundaries, a devoted medical unit, full-face helmets and seatbelts. Nonetheless campaigns for dyslexia, with which he was recognized aged 41, and dementia consciousness, a situation with which his spouse, Woman Helen, suffers, whereas persevering with to work within the paddock on the age of 85.
8. Max Verstappen
Verstappen’s maiden title in 2021 was wildly controversial, however that was hardly his fault. Went toe-to-toe with Hamilton that 12 months and didn’t again down one inch. In distinction, 2022 and 2023 have been cakewalks, however he confirmed his consistency and elevated maturity. The 2024 season has proved the Dutchman’s brilliance past doubt. Capitalised on his early-season pace benefit earlier than producing mature, constant drives within the second a part of the 12 months with a tough automobile – completely outclassing team-mate Sergio Pérez within the course of. And as for . Class. For some, Verstappen will by the uncompromising method during which he races. However others, comparable to Senna and Schumacher, have been the identical they usually all the time make these lists. Shifting to a different workforce and constructing one other title-winning workforce round him would bump him up a couple of spots.
7. Sir Stirling Moss
Famously by no means received a world title, however in a method that solely provides to the Moss legend. Nobody disputes his brilliance behind the wheel. Or his sportsmanship. Moss’s gesture to intercede on rival Mike Hawthorn’s behalf in Portugal in 1958 was an act of largesse that finally ended up costing him that 12 months’s championship. Outlined an period. And what a personality, too. Undeterred by a three-storey fall down a raise shaft in 2010, he continued to talk his thoughts till his demise in 2020.
6. Alain Prost
The Frenchman was, if something, underrated. Essentially the most profitable driver from an period which included Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna. Prost’s pace was one factor, however his mind was one other. Nicknamed “The Professor”, a lot of his greatest work was performed earlier than the race weekend. And as soon as there, he was tremendous {smooth}. He now laments the truth that his rivalry with Senna is what he will probably be ceaselessly remembered for, but it surely was the best rivalry of all time.
5. Juan Manuel Fangio
Moss rated Fangio as the best of all time and the statistics actually again him up. The Argentine nonetheless holds data for the very best share of races received and pole positions achieved, and was 46 when he received the final of his 5 world titles in 1957.
4. Ayrton Senna
Maybe the on this listing – and that features Schumacher. The Senna identify has achieved virtually legendary standing in Formulation One because of his exploits on the observe, the depth with which he raced, the charisma he exhibited, and , tragically, at Imola in 1994. The Brazilian was able to the extraordinary, his qualifying lap at Monaco in 1988, his drive within the moist at Donington in 1993 for instance, in addition to the outright harmful.
3. Michael Schumacher
Though he grew to become a villain in lots of eyes for the unedifying antics with Damon Hill in 1994 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997, Schumacher was a unprecedented driver. And it was not solely in superior equipment both. The German’s capacity to drive round a automobile’s issues, his fierce work ethic, his capacity to construct a workforce round him, his consistency behind the wheel, his genius within the moist, have been all elements. Schumacher was the whole bundle, albeit flawed by his win-at-all-costs nature. Till Hamilton got here alongside, most individuals thought his file of seven world titles and 91 race wins would by no means be surpassed.
2. Jim Clark
Once more, counting on the testimony of others right here, however when those that raced with and towards the Scot all line as much as let you know he was the best, you need to pay attention. In an period of Stewart, Graham Hill, John Surtees and Sir Jack Brabham, the silky-smooth Clark was the undisputed champion. Received two world titles with Colin Chapman and Lotus earlier than shedding his life in a tragic Formulation 2 accident at Hockenheim in 1968. Additionally received the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 with Lotus, turning into the primary non-American winner of the race in 49 years.
1. Lewis Hamilton
It has grow to be trendy of late to criticise Hamilton and name him a has-been or a never-was; somebody who relied on superior equipment to win his seven world titles. How rapidly we neglect. Hamilton was a prodigy all over karting and junior formulae, and hit the bottom working in F1, too, pushing his double world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso all the way in which in his maiden season in 2007 earlier than successful the title one 12 months later. That season, Hamilton produced one of many nice wet-weather drives at Silverstone. He has proven a bent to lose focus when issues are usually not going his method. However the underlying expertise has all the time been there. Already statistically the best, if and wins the eighth world title which he was denied in 2021, in his forties, even his greatest detractors must doff their caps.
