The greatest of all time

[paulzinho]

Just wondering who you think was the greatest driver of all time.

[Alan Jones]

Impossible to answer correctly. This subject comes up reguarly here and will continue to for the rest of time
The only way you can really judge this would be by the statistics and even these are only a guideline. As has been said before, to be fair,
you judge them against their peers from the period they raced in.
That puts Big Shu on top at present.Anyway, here we go again

[riusnow]

Agreed.

I thought I was just on this ride.
Oh well...

[Victor Broccoli]

Greatest of all time is something that can never be defined. The reason is simple: there's absolutely no way that it can be determined. In ball/puck sports, it's a bit easier to tell (sabermetricians have weird ways of coming up with ways to statistically figure this out, but even then it's sticky at best). Auto racing, on the other hand, is much more difficult due to the fact that each era has different cars and different challenges from those cars that the driver must navigate. Could Michael Schumacher or Ayrton Senna thrive driving 60's era cars? Pre-war cars? Cars twenty years down the road?

Racing has never been too much about the numbers. There's no way to diagram it to the nearest tenth. Hence, there's no real way to figure out who is the best, because there's always an excuse behind those numbers and there's no way to adjust them to get rid of those arguments. There's many that believe that Michael's 50+ wins are due to the lack of competition. Or that Fangio's five championships are due to that he's always had a top drive.

The best of all time is a purely subjective idea, and absolutely nothing concrete. It's only an opinion. My personal opinion? Alberto Ascari. His 1952 campaign was the most dominant season ever. But there's a dozen or so drivers that a legitimate case could be made for greatest driver ever.

[Wrex]

Originally posted by riusnow
I thought I was just on this ride.

Me Too - I'm getting off before it makes me sick

Welcome to the forum paulzinho

[Ralf's Girl]

Welcome to the boards, Paulzinho.

I haven't voted in this poll because it's hard to compare - I could choose a greatest driver from separate eras, but not overall.

[paulzinho]

Fair enough I know its hard to compare. I could easily have added another 5 drivers to the list but i just wondered who you had a preference for just out of curiosity

[Vitesse]

Nuvolari - 'nuff said!!

[Ray Bell]

One of our recent threads went back to the beginning of the 20th century with names, and then I asked for David Bruce-Brown to be added... it's impossible to stop when you want to put all the possible contenders...

But between Nuvolari, Fangio and a handful of others you have the crux of the problem... they can't be directly compared, the cars were so different, the racing so different...

Don't despair, however, your question will get a variety of answers.

[kuchi]

I agree with most of you guys, it is hard to pick the greatest player of all times, because all eras were different. I think the best actual driver is tgf, but only because ferrari is dominating the sport, last decade I think ayrton was the best. And so on, all decades had it`s top driver or drivers, so, I think it better to say all the drivers in this poll were good for their time.

[f1manoz]

Jim Clark. Simple as that.

Unassuming Scottish chap who possessed a vast natural talent for driving, who in only a few years totally dominated F1 only to be cruelly taken away from us, sad to say, much like Ayrton.

To put it into perspective, Chris Amon said this after Clark's death:

'If it could happen to him, what chance did the rest of us have? I think we all felt that. It seemed like we'd lost our leader.'

I'm not saying my opinion is correct, as I agree that it is too difficult to compare, but if I was to choose, Jim Clark is the man.

[Bononi]

The greatest ever is about to come...

Those with free spirit and race in the blood will recognize Him when He comes...

He will be above all the others, and we shall pray for seeing race.

Wait, and we all see the greatest ever...

[Alan Jones]

Bon,
are you referring to James Courtenay?

[Bononi]

I you feel so, that can be !

(Ooops... I was quoting the bible )

[hunttheshunt]

So, so difficult. But for me, taking into everything, i'd say;

FANGIO
SENNA
CLARK
SCHUMACHER
STEWART

[Lola]

Nigel!!!!!
They must have been the size of water melons.
Any one who saw him at New Hampshire in 1993 would agree

[Guy Goddard]

Originally posted by Lola
Nigel!!!!!
They must have been the size of water melons.
Any one who saw him at New Hampshire in 1993 would agree

Are you refering to the size of his nuts as water melons or was he simply standing next to a large fronted girl???

[Bononi]

[Fone]

Senna and then Clark

[Liz]

Nuvolari and his reincarnation, St. Gilles, for the sheer pleasure of sseeing them drive.

Prost for results.

[Jay]

I'd like to vote for Gilles Villeneuve. If there was one driver I wish I could have seen drive in person, it was him.

[PoweredByHonda]

Prost, Followed closely by Gilles Villeneuve, Ayrton Senna, and Jacques Villeneuve.

[AAReagles]

Originally posted by Vitesse
Nuvolari - 'nuff said!!

Now there's a name that should have been included. The 'Flying Mantuan' was quite impressive for his time. Particularly his upset victory over the mighty German teams at the Ring in 1935.

While his name was left off, that brings into mind a question I have myself:

Why the hell isn't Dan Gurney's name on there ?!! .... well ok, I know, we have the "Other"box to vote in. Actually, not sure if I would still vote for Dan, though I could provide arguements as to why I would as well. Same goes for Andretti.

Jim Clark was my choice. Though Senna would probably be 2nd.

Clark had several things going for him:

Versital driver.

He maintained a since of loyalty to his team and coach, Colin Chapman.

He didn't object to having another qualified driver in his ranks, G. Hill.

Like Senna, he had his sensational moments too... particulary Monza 67'.

Most importantly, for me anyhow. He never became involved in the nonsense like Jones, Senna, Prost & M. Schumacher have. Running drivers off the road.

True, Clark raced in an era much different from these days, nevertheless, like Gilles Villeneuve, Clark never felt the necessity to resort to such behavior out on the track... he was THAT good.

So I went with Clark as to me, he had the total package: talent, competitiveness, and good sportsmanship.


Note: whoever said they wished they could see GV racing if any driver at all, I agree with 110%. As a kid, I came close to ditching school and taking off several hundred miles to see him race at Long Beach in 1982... wish I'd done it now. Nevertheless, what I was able to watch on TV from 1979-1981 (only saw 82' Long Beach GP, as American TV sucked then... still does, except for SPEEDVISION) made up for it. Dijon 79' to Austria 81'... it was all the same, while he was in the race. Never a dull moment.