F1: Top 100 drivers

[V12]

Hamilton above Mansell?!?!

Oh well...it's all a bit of fun I guess

94. Jacques Laffite

86. John Watson

85. Jarno Trulli

81 René Arnoux

80. Thierry Boutsen

Trulli, with one win and a couple of podiums in front of Laffite & Watson? Not on this planet. Boutsen, with three wins, ahead of Arnoux?

That says the list is bollocks, and it's only got to number 80!

I pretty much stopped reading Alan Henry's opinions in the late 80's, when Autosprint magazine (yes, the Italian mag, not a typo) used to do a journalists rating of the drivers after each race.

Henry gave Jonathan Palmer 8 out of 10 and his team-mate, Phillippe Streiff, 6 out of 10, despite the fact that Streiff out-qualified Palmer and finished 4th in the race to Palmers 5th.

That just stunk of the very worst of British motor-racing journalism. It made me realise that Henry was nothing more than a jingoistic, nationalistic xenophobe....the sort of bloke who no doubt thought it was hilarious for Alan Jones to drive the victory lap at Paul Ricard with a Union Jack.

[F1boat]

The list is comic. Utter rubbish.

[harvick#1]

Hamilton 30th. what, there are past champions that are behind him .

makes no sense at all

[RaikkonenRules]

Hakkinen beat Schumacher WTF

[Hawkmoon]

The fact that Stirling Moss never won a championship precludes him from being No. 1. I don't care why he never won, the fact is he didn't and there is no way he is better than Schumacher, Senna, Prost, Clark, and Fangio who won 21 world titles between them.

I'm sorry Mr Henry but that list is rubbish.

[Rollo]

For my money, the best drivers were:

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Alain Prost
3. Ayrton Senna
All three I thought were underhanded villans, whose character is questionable. So I have to mention these three:
1. Juan Manuel Fangio
2. Jackie Stewart
3. Stirling Moss

Stirling Moss is an interesting choice on the list but not number 1. He lost the 1958 WDC after standing up for Mike Hawthorn in Portgual and thus lost the '58 title after winning four races to Hawthorn's one. In this respect is character is better than Schumacher's who punted off two rivals to two world titles and given the opportunity even denied his teammate.

It must be noted that Moss never beat Fangio except for the '55 British GP, of which it has often been said that Fangio allowed Moss to win but Fangio never admitted to it.

Jackie Stewart left F1 at the top of his game and was an advocate for drivers' safety. In terms of what he's contributed back to the sport, Stewart wins hands-down.

[Osella]

Jacques Villeneuve 49th!?!!! But he never even started a race!
Oooh, perhaps he meant the 'other one'

And he puts people like Eddie Irvine in, and leaves out Mika Salo and Pierluigi Martini!! Hmm, one mans opinion is indeed, in this case, wrong!

[ioan]

Stirling Moss the best ever?
Hamilton in the first 30 after only one season? (I suppose he'll rank at least 10th after at the end of 2008 no matter his achievements!

Typically British, the guy thinks like he never left the Island, has never seen a TV set and only reads British journals!

As others already pointed out this top is a piece of crap!

[D-Type]

A few factual errors there.

With the wisdom of hindsight you can see that Moss actually lost the 1958 championship on the first lap of the Belgian GP when he was trying to out accelerate Tony Brooks and missed a gearchange and the revs went sky high leading to a burst engine. The Portugal incident is higher profile and indicative of the more sportsman-like attitude of the times.

"Moss never beat Fangio except for the 1955 British GP"
Ahem: Monaco 1956, Monza 1956, Aintree 1957, Pescara 1957, Monza 1957, Argentina 1958, Reims 1958.

However, I have to agree that judged solely on World Championship Formula 1 races Moss should not head the list. Include sports car races, rallies etc and there is a case, but ...

Lists are interesting because they reveal people's attitudes. To them does best mean statistically most successful, fastest, hardest racer, capable of winning in inferior cars, being the first choice of the top manufacturer, being the most exciting to watch, being the best at setting up a car, being regarded as 'the man to beat' by his fellow drivers, or what?