Quote from planetf1.com; Senna voted the world's best driver Friday 11th December 2009 Ayrton Senna has received the ultimate accolade in being voted the greatest Formula One driver of all time in a remarkable poll. The survey, conducted by Autosport magazine, canvassed the views of 217 world championship drivers with 9194 starts and 270 victories between them. Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, one of those polled, had to settle for second place behind three-time winner Senna, with five-time champion Juan Manuel Fangio in third. Each driver, which also included the earliest surviving grand prix winner in Jose Froilan Gonzalez and the oldest living F1 driver in 98-year-old Paul Pietsch, was asked for their top 10 greatest. Overall, there are three Britons in the top 10, with Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss in fifth, sixth and eighth places respectively. Nigel Mansell comes in at number 11, with Britain's last two world champions in Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button 17th and 30th respectively. The top 10 F1 drivers of all time: 1 Ayrton Senna 2 Michael Schumacher 3 Juan Manuel Fangio 4 Alain Prost 5 Jim Clark 6 Jackie Stewart 7 Niki Lauda 8 Stirling Moss 9 Fernando Alonso 10 Gilles Villeneuve Selected others:11 Nigel Mansell 17 Lewis Hamilton 21 Graham Hill 23 John Surtees 24 James Hunt 30 Jenson Button. End quote Click here to visit the Greatest Drivers mini-site. http://f1greatestdrivers.autosport.com/
Ickx on 40... much lower than I expected him to be, but then again, this only involves his F1 career, of course. Fun to see Vettel at 26 already. I'm mainly really bummed there's no Laffite in the top 40. Almost hard to believe.
I may be setting myself up for a flaming but: Does anyone else think that Ayrton Senna is overrated. Yes, he was fast and exciting to watch and his career results were quite impressive, but was he the "best?" Most of the cars he drove in his career were dominant in the field, his teammates were usually not too far behind (or in the case of Prost - regularly ahead), and he had a hot temperament which affected his judgment on several occasions (not a hallmark of greatness). On the list of best drivers, he would be pretty high on the list, no doubt...however, because he died prematurely while still at the top, he gets put on a pedestal above other worthy drivers, I find it somewhat hard to justify.
"Most of the cars he drove in his career were dominant in the field" That could be said of many (most?) people on that list.
Alain Prost won 4 championships and finished 4 times second. He had many world champions as his team mate (Mansell, Hill, Lauda, Senna, Rosberg) and with the exceptions of Senna and Lauda he dominated all of them (Lauda beat Prost by half a point). Senna was sometimes nearly 2 seconds quicker than Prost in qualifying (yes, 2 seconds in one lap) and actually won more races than Prost when they were teammates at McLaren. So you see, it's actually pretty easy to justify.
Michael Schumacher put slow cars in positions where they didn't belong and made the mid to late 90s one of the most exciting times for F1. We should thank him for not bouncing around from one competitive team to the next.
It's F1 drivers only, hence Ickx wasn't rated (high) at all either <A BORDER="0" HREF="http://www.supercars.net/PitLane?displayFAQ=y"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="pitlane/emoticons/sad.gif"></A>
I totally agree with you. I think Senna is one of the most overrated drivers of all time. His veneration is mostly attributable, as you asserted, to his tragic death. I think its wrong that he's made into such a hero just because of the accident, because he was a truly great driver and he should be remembered for what he accomplished, not how he died. Schumi should be the clear #1. He excelled in good cars and bad cars alike, and his consistency is unmatched in F1 history. His rain driving proved that he was head and shoulders above his competitors in terms of pure car control.