Top 20 Best F1 Drivers of all time: Part IV

Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna
Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna

Before starting to write this list I could feel this might be controversial, this list is very much opinionated and every F1 fan has their own order of who was the best.

These 20 drivers that I am going to highlight over four articles demonstrate what it takes to make it at the pinnacle of motorsport.

They are what makes F1 great, winning world championships, being respected among fellow racing drivers and teams within the sport and of course is a favourite among the many fans that travel around the world to follow the sport.

This is my list in terms of the 20 best drivers in F1 history.

This is the fourth and final article highlighting the drivers from fifth to first:


#5 Alain Prost

He had rivalries with some of the greatest in the sport and gave F1 great battles and controversy, his feud with Ayrton Senna, being one of the biggest
He had rivalries with some of the greatest in the sport and gave F1 great battles and controversy, his feud with Ayrton Senna, being one of the biggest

At fifth place on the list is Alain Prost, a driver who made winning look so effortless with the Frenchman winning 51 races in his time in the sport.

He had rivalries with some of the greatest in the sport and gave F1 great battles and controversy, his feud with Ayrton Senna, being one of the biggest.

He signed for McLaren in 1980 and finished in the point scoring positions four times in his first season.

He did suffer a few injuries and accidents which were down to mechanical failure and with that and a few disagreements with how the team was run he decided to leave McLaren and join Renault.

He won his first F1 race at the French GP in Dijon in 1981, which saw a French driver win in a French car at the French GP.

Once again, however, he felt unloved by his team after a few seasons battling his teammate Rene Arnoux and decided to re-join McLaren in 1984.

In the next six years at McLaren, he won 30 races and three of his four world driver titles. In 1985 he became the first French world champion and in 1986 he became the first back-to-back world champion since Jack Brabham in 1960.

In 1988 Prost began his rivalry with teammate Ayrton Senna which saw both drivers push each other to the very limit. Prost left the team after the 1989 season after winning his third title at Suzuka, where he deliberately shut the door on Senna at the chicane, he moved to Ferrari for the 1980 season.

Senna got his own back the year after at Suzuka taking the Ferrari man straight out at the first turn in Japan meaning the Brazilian won his second world title.

After a poor 1991 season, he was fired after publically slating the team and decided to take a year off from racing. He returned in 1993 for Williams-Renault and won seven races that year and went on to win his fourth drivers title.

He won four drivers titles in his F1 career and definitely stands as one of the greats of the sport.

Stats

World Championships – 4 (1985, 1986, 1989, 1993)

GP Entries - 202

GP Wins – 51

Podiums – 106

Last Win – 1993 German GP

Also, Check out

Top 20 Best F1 Drivers of all time: Part III

Top 20 Best F1 Drivers of all time: Part II

Top 20 Best F1 Drivers of all time: Part I

#4 Juan Manuel Fangio

Fangio was a great team player and leader who inspired his team and helped in any way possible, even helping his mechanics with the car
Fangio was a great team player and leader who inspired his team and helped in any way possible, even helping his mechanics with the car

At four is Juan Manuel Fangio, in seven seasons of F1, the Argentinian won five world titles. He had great skill within the car and drove with style and flair that not many other drivers could follow or even attempt, he is one of the greatest drivers the world has seen.

Fangio was a great team player and leader who inspired his team and helped in any way possible, even helping his mechanics with the car.

This epic drive that secured his fifth driving title was his last victory at the age of 46. After seeing so many friends and colleagues lose their lives in the sport he decided to retire.

His championship record stayed for 46 years and sadly in 1995 at the age of 84, he passed away at home in Argentina.

Fangio won championships with Alfa Romeo, Mercedes (two times), Ferrari and Maserati, I will leave you a quote from Stirling Moss about why Fangio always had the best car.

"Because he was the best bloody driver! The cheapest method of becoming a successful Grand Prix team was to sign up Fangio."

Stats

World Championships – 5 (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957)

GP Entries - 53

GP Wins – 24

Podiums – 35

Last Win – 1957 German GP

#3 Lewis Hamilton

He is ahead of Fangio simply because he still has a chance for more titles and with the way he performed this season that looks like a strong possibility
He is ahead of Fangio simply because he still has a chance for more titles and with the way he performed this season that looks like a strong possibility

Into the top three now and at third on the list is a current driver in the sport and a man that has just equaled Juan Manuel Fangio’s record, Lewis Hamilton.

He is ahead of Fangio simply because he still has a chance for more titles and with the way he performed this season that looks like a strong possibility.

In his first rookie season in 2007 he burst onto the scene and made everyone stand up and look at this young British driver trying to make a name for himself, he went on to just miss out on the championship by a single point but you knew he was destined for great things.

The year after became another one for the history books, who doesn’t remember Brazil 2008?

Hamilton won the championship by a single point snatching it from Felipe Massa at his home GP with his family already celebrating to only stop and realise what had just happened and at the age of 23, he became the youngest world champion in F1 history.

He had a few more years at McLaren but none gave him the second championship he was craving and in 2012 he announced he would leave McLaren and join Mercedes who did not look very competitive at the time and many wondered whether it was the right decision.

He finished fourth in the title race in 2013 but it looked like things were improving for Mercedes and alongside teammate Nico Rosberg the German manufacturer looked to be on the up.

2014 was an even better season for the team and Hamilton who won 11 races that season and beat Rosberg to clinch his second drivers’ title.

This momentum carried on in 2015 seeing him win 10 races and becoming a three-time world drivers champion, he became the first British driver to achieve back-to-back world titles.

This was halted in 2016 as Nico Rosberg claimed his first and only title in the sport, Hamilton won 10 races to Nico’s 9 but reliability issues including the famous one at Malaysia saw him lose out to the title by five points.

Rosberg retired after winning his championship in 2016 and with him gone so was the bad blood in the team with the friction between Hamilton and Rosberg growing ever stronger race after race.

Valtteri Bottas became Hamilton’s team mate in 2017 and this change saw the team work better together and it allowed Hamilton to win his fourth world title and finish ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton enjoyed the chance to race against more competitive cars and once again saw himself up against Vettel in 2018.

Ferrari had upped their game but once again lost out to Mercedes and Hamilton who became a five-time world champion, not only that but he has surpassed the likes of Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher to become F1’s best ever qualifier.

He has become the most successful British driver in F1 history and he still has a chance to improve on this in the future.

Stats

World Championships – 5 (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018)

GP Entries - 229

GP Wins – 73

Podiums – 134

Last Win – 2018 Abu Dhabi GP

#2 Ayrton Senna

Senna was a magician in the car he did things other drivers could only dream of
Senna was a magician in the car he did things other drivers could only dream of

At No.2 is Ayrton Senna and arguably he should have been at the top, but I went for someone else who you probably already know by now.

Senna was a magician in the car he did things other drivers could only dream of. He was determined to win and didn’t mind winning at any cost as we have already discussed with Alain Prost. He was an amazingly talented driver and I wished I could have watched him live.

He made his debut with Toleman in 1984, at Monaco GP, a race he would go on to win six times, his sensational second to Alain Prost's McLaren in what was torrential rain was confirmation of the unbelievable talent that would take the sport another level.

He raced for Lotus for a few seasons until he joined McLaren in 1988 where he raced for six seasons and won three world titles and 35 races.

Senna was a driving genius but not only that, he was one of the sport's most compelling personalities.

He was passionate and when he spoke everyone listened just to highlight how important he was during that time. He became a hit with the fans and everyone loved how he put his heart and soul into every performance.

It did not matter whether it was a flying lap in qualifying or a mission to make his way through the field during a race he would give the same amount of commitment and determination every time.

On May 1, 1994, in the San Marino Grand Prix, his race-leading Williams inexplicably speared off the Imola track and hit the concrete wall at Tamburello corner.

Millions saw it happen around the world on television, the world was shocked and mourned his passing. His state funeral in Sao Paulo was attended by many members of the Formula One community, among the several drivers escorting the coffin was Alain Prost.

Before the incident that year in 1994 he spoke about his own future.

"I want to live fully, very intensely. I would never want to live partially, suffering from illness or injury. If I ever happen to have an accident that eventually costs my life, I hope it happens in one instant."

Stats

World Championships – 3 (1988, 1990, 1991)

GP Entries - 162

GP Wins – 41

Podiums – 80

Last Win – 1993 Australian GP

#1 Michael Schumacher

He made his Formula One debut in 1991, qualifying seventh in a Jordan for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa which was an incredible achievement
He made his Formula One debut in 1991, qualifying seventh in a Jordan for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa which was an incredible achievement

At No.1 if you haven’t guessed already is Michael Schumacher. The German driver, in my opinion, is the best F1 driver of all time.

As said before Senna is a close second but the driver who has won seven drivers titles in his career has to be at the top.

He eclipsed Fangio’s record of five world titles and stands as the most successful driver of all time.

He made his Formula One debut in 1991, qualifying seventh in a Jordan for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa which was an incredible achievement, he was immediately snapped up by Benetton and with them, he won his first F1 race in 1992 again at Spa.

Over the next four seasons with Benetton, he won another 18 races and won his first two world championships.

His first came in 1994 wherein their championship showdown race in Adelaide, Schumacher collided with the car of his closest challenger, the Williams of Damon Hill, some believed it was deliberate but we will never know.

Germany's first world champion was in no doubt worthy of his 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, which was a team in trouble with them not having a drivers title since Jody Scheckter in 1979.

The next couple of seasons saw a few wins but nothing more, he had to wait until 2000 to claim his third world title.

He became the first champion for Ferrari in 21 years, this from then on gave them a boost and they went on to win the next four years in a row.

In 2002 he won 11 races and finished on the podium in all 17 races that season. In 2003 he broke Juan Manual Fangio's record by winning his sixth driving title eclipsing Fangio’s five.

In 2004 he won 13 out of the 18 races to make him a seven-time world champion, he won by a huge margin also with Schumacher finishing on 148 points to closest challenger teammate Rubens Barrichello on 114 points.

Schumacher had everything to be a top class driver in the sport, he had confidence, dedication, determination, intelligence, the list goes on. He became a huge part of the Ferrari family and would be at the base in Maranello pushing the team for further greatness.

He retired from the sport in 2006 but came back for Mercedes in 2010 after they bought Brawn GP. He only made it onto the podium once but he helped guide Mercedes at the beginning of their F1 adventure and you could say helped them into what they are today.

After years of battling out on track, his worst accident came a year into his retirement, a skiing accident saw him suffer a serious head injury and although he is out of the hospital and remains at home we still do not know his full condition.

The amount of support for his rehabilitation is still strong five years on and many fans and racing drivers still support him and will him to keep fighting.

He may have done some questionable things on track during his time in the sport and his comeback to the sport to Mercedes in 2010 was a strange decision by many.

But overall looking back at when he was in his prime he was unstoppable, he won five drivers titles in a row which is incredible and no doubt for me he is the best F1 driver of all time.

Stats

World Championships – 7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004)

GP Entries - 308

GP Wins – 91

Podiums – 155

Last Win – 2006 Chinese GP

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Edited by Alan John