Top 5 German F1 drivers of all time

Several drivers have graced Formula 1 from Germany and have gone on to epitomize quintessential German character - determination, resilience, and fieriness.

To a sport, no stranger to thrills and uncertainties, among the few certainties that F1 has offered fans and critics, doubters and theorists is the greatness several German drivers have come to behold.

In its first-ever season, F1 unfurled a German driving alongside legends like Fangio, Farina, Ascari among the others in F1 (1950).

Paul Pietsch was widely known for starting one of racing's famous journals: Das Auto. Thus far, 53 German drivers have represented F1, the peak of motor-racing as they say. And many, over the course of the past decades, have gone on to uplift the stature of the sport by sheer skill and dazzle.

But that said, who are the Top 5 German F1 drivers of all time? Let's find out.

Ralf Schumacher

R Schumacher prepares to leave garage in a Grand Prix, 2002

Arguably, one of the top 5 German F1 drivers of all time, Ralf Schumacher has been a special talent, having driven for noted sides such as Toyota, Williams among others.

Speed, grit and, a great feel for an F1 car; there was pretty much everything that the German driver had on his side including a famous surname.

But with all due respect, it ought to be said, Ralf Schumacher is a tremendous underachiever in the sport - is he not?

By the time he was three, Ralf Schumacher was already karting in Germany. He would achieve early success before transitioning to automobile racing in the German Formula 3 Championship and Formula Nippon Series.

One of the finest talents to have hit the F1 cosmos from Germany, Ralf Schumacher, a noted Williams and Toyota driver, boasts of a record that includes 6 race wins, 6 pole positions, 27 podiums, and 8 fastest laps.

Within a month of making his Grand Prix debut at Australia, circa 1997, Ralf achieved his first podium at the Argentine Grand Prix.

Driving for a decade in the top-echelons of Grand Prix racing, some of Ralf Schumacher's greatest moments in the sport came in the form of his years at BMW-Williams.

This was to be the team with which he'd register some of this finest drives. For instance, in the 2001 F1 season, Ralf would gather 3 wins, including one at his home Grand Prix at Germany.

From thereon, the 2002 and 2003 seasons would yield 9 podiums for the Hurth-born driver.

Nico Rosberg

One of the sport's most successful drivers from Germany is also among the most critiqued

One of the most talented and fastest drivers ever from Germany, Nico Rosberg, who won 9 of the 21 races held in 2016, would emerge as that year's world champion.

In so doing, the Wiesbaden-born driver would finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton, once a close friend and during those tectonic years at Mercedes, an arch-rival.

Every sport loves a great character. And perhaps it may not be entirely untrue to state that Rosberg along with Lewis Hamilton was responsible for giving modern Grand Prix racing its first real rivalry post the dramatic Senna-Prost saga of the eighties and early nineties.

But while to many Rosberg just got 'lucky' in finding great support from his team, seemingly more of a fan-theory instead of a rational thought regarding the 2016 Formula 1 season - a year where the world championship was decided in the season ending Abu Dhabi GP- it must not be denied that Nico delivered some excellent drives that very year at Australia, Bahrain, China, and Russia, winning all 4 back-to-back races.

Yet, one cannot help but wonder whether Rosberg, who finished his journey with 23 wins, 3 more than legends like Hakkinen, and 18 more than his father, Keke, an icon, would've found more reverence had he decided to stick around for 2017 and fought Lewis?

Wolfgang Von Tripps

Zu früh gegangen ( Gone too soon)

Apart from being a sport that grows on you, Formula 1 happens to be a contest that can turn one into an unabashed postulator.

To this day, one can't help but wonder whether Wolfgang Von Tripps, 1928 to 1961, would've become an icon had the fatal events at Monza in 1961 not had happened? Wondering why?

It's rather hair-raising to think that Von Tripps, who was leading the 1961 world championships at that time (driving a Ferrari) collided with the Lotus of Jim Clark only to go airborne colliding into the side of a barrier.

The impact and the ferocity of the accident would kill the German instantly. Von Tripps would score 33 of his 56 points in his final-ever year in Formula 1. And despite leading a bitterly small life, Wolfgang Von Tripps managed to clinch 6 overall podiums, of which 4 were sealed in his final-ever season in a sport that took him away from doting fans.

Interestingly, the Cologne-born driver would never score a third in any of his podium finishes in 1961, winning the Dutch and British Grands Prix while scoring a second at Belgium and the German Grand Prix, held at the great Nurburgring.

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel is the most successful racing driver from Germany after Michael Schumacher

What can one possibly say about a driver who has to his credit, an excellent tally of 52 race wins, 38 alone with Red Bull, 112 podiums, 55 poles, and 36 fastest laps?

If that's not greatness, then what is? While many would narrow that staggering record into being worthy of only statistical greatness, how many drivers, it must be asked, have neared that big a tally from Germany, with the exception of M.Schumacher?

Well, yes, while a lot about Sebastian Vettel has seemed underwhelming, particularly if you are a Ferrari fan, one cannot possibly deny the Heppenheim-born driver's ability to fight on the track and give it his everything.

The fiery drives at Bahrain, the rip-roaring contests won at Spa, Monza, even India; Vettel happens to be one of the most explosive talents to have ever graced the sport. Right?

But in here's a catch. Not Formula 1's most admired driver at the moment, say someone of the class and stature as a Fangio, from the onset of his famous 2008 victory at the Italian GP (in a Toro Rosso) to the moment he sealed four back-to-back world titles, Sebastian Vettel was the darling of the media.

But it'll be interesting to see whether Vettel can make do for a lot many lost opportunities of beating his arch-rival, correction, make that arch-nemesis, Lewis Hamilton in what lies ahead of us.

Michael Schumacher

Schumacher is to F1 what Ali is to Boxing, Arnold Palmer to Golfing, and what Tendulkar is to Cricket

Perhaps no other driver has commanded as much admiration and awe as Michael Schumacher of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

There are drivers that win races. There are those who win championships. And then, there are those who exult at the highest stage doing both with astounding success.

You already know where to place the 'Red Baron' of Formula 1 racing. To his competitiors, Michael Schumacher may have seemed like a devil, for he was, quite simply, indefatigable.

But to his admirers who measure in hundreds of thousands in numbers, Michael Schumacher is a sensation like no other the sport has seen.

Unarguably the greatest star from Deutschland to have graced the pinnacle of motor-racing, Michael Schumacher - a warlord of sorts on the grid- epitomises a lot more than his statistical gathering, that includes 7 world titles, 91 race wins, and 77 fastest laps.

He represents a hunger and drive to win- does he not? And while, he may have critics for whom he's probably not up there with someone like Senna and well, who are we to pass judgement anyway, Schumacher has inspired millions around the world to watch a sport that truly lifts the spirit.