Alfie

I agree!

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450SEL6.9

I really didn't want to load the list with all the names of great F1 champions. I figured three or four would get nearly all the votes. The next batch of drivers could have been (in order of when they raced): Ascari, Lauda, Piquet, Mansell, Hakkinen. Hakkinen really only competed at the top for 3 years and burned out mentally. The greats all had better longevity, but Mika would have been a candidate for the list based on his battles with Schu.

Gilles Villeneuve is another great driver and an honourable man. He could have won the '79 championship, but obeyed the team orders. It's a shame that he was not given the same treatment by his own teammate, Didier Pironi, years later. Gilles race in '79 French Grand Prix is the best wheel-to-wheel racing I have ever seen.

NarutoRamen

For me personally, it would go to Michael Shumacher simply because not only does he hold all the records but at the same time I grew up watching him. I'm 22, so none of the other guys were in my time. Senna was yes, but he was gone before I really got interested in F1.

The Emperor

Agreed! I did the same; voted for Senna, but can't ignore what Fangio actually did, so...

Just because i've started to follow F1 while Senna was there, i voted for him.

martinbo

Schumacher, without question. The magnitude of his presence in Formula One and his contribution to motorsport is almost impossible to quantify. Michael Schumacher makes Formula One worth watching; whether you want to see him win or get whupped.

He is so much more than "just" statistically the greatest ever driver. He is an institution altogether in his own right.

Love him or despise him, no-one has ever achieved what he has done in Formula 1. Or ever will for that matter.

El Zorro

Same sentiments, my vote goes to Schumacher too.

Imhotep Evil

I'm sorry Martimbo but a respected person you're going to BS land.

The thing is we can't really compare these people. There were other times, other cars, other ways of driving. If Schumi would have lived back then, he wouldn't have been able to do such things. Fangio, came close and managed to survive, until he couldn't take it anymore.

Imhotep Evil

Well that's no reason to somebody.

martinbo

Thanks for your incredible insight. In what way am I BSing Imhotep Evil? I've been watching Formula One with interest since the late 80's. This is my opinion and I'm perfectly justified in saying this without having someone ram their own opinion down my throat. Who are you and where the hell did you get your manners from? BS land... I mean really, dude where do you get off?

Pure conjecture, without any factual basis.

Keep your criticism in check IE, it's starting to cheese people (especially me) off.

Imhotep Evil

Schumi is one of the greatest pilots.
But the greatest ?!

I'm sorry, but someone like Fangio, won when there was actuall competion (like Stirling Moss and Co.), and when death was in the air. Every turn, every shift could mean more than loosing a position, it could mean losing a life or two. The odds back that were unbelivable. Nurburing realy was the green hell. And Spa's Au Rouge, pilots could feel in every cell of they body until finaly, those lucky enough made it.

How can Schumacher comapre to this. He was in the right time, in the right place, and with no team mate bother him. It was more the Ferrari-Brigstone Era than the Schumacher era (and again I'm not saing he's without merits).

But, I'm sorry, again, the greatest ?!
Sorry.

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