yet another best blank ever thread.

[Sonic]

I was watching some old VHS tapes of 1990's GP's and it got me thinking about the best defensive drivers. Credit always goes to the "best" (usually the fastest) driver, or the grestest overtaking move, but rarely does the skill of holding off a superior car/driver get much of a mention. (Aside from the obvious Gilles battle)

I'd like to nominate HH Frentzen as a top notch defensive driver. Driving for Sauber he was often filled to the brim on a 1 stopper with a queue of 2 or 3 stoppers behind him. Yet he always seemed to place the car beautifully and was rarely passed.

Thoughts?

[Hawkmoon]

Jarno Trulli. The Trulli Train still makes drivers lose sleep at night.

[blito]

Me, during my GPL sim racing days - i held up a 9 car queue for 11 laps of zandvoort before spinning at the last corner and causing a multiple pile up :)
oh happy days

[Sonic]

Ahhhh GPL. How I miss that.

[wedge]

Andrea De Cesaris, Pierluigi Martini et al were the worst drivers to lap during a GP.

[blito]

aye Sonic.. that was a classic race sim, sadly now just about dead....
personally i`ve moved onto the 1979 f1 mod for Rfactor now but i`m even worse at that than gpl! im actually faster round most tracks in an F3 car then a 79 F1!!!!!!!

as for the actual question asked here, perhaps a certain M Schumacher would qualify. No one would dare pass Schumacher in the certain knowledge that he would chop across them and .. and..... grrrrr.... calm down

[TheFamousEccles]

aye Sonic.. that was a classic race sim, sadly now just about dead....
personally i`ve moved onto the 1979 f1 mod for Rfactor now but i`m even worse at that than gpl! im actually faster round most tracks in an F3 car then a 79 F1!!!!!!!

as for the actual question asked here, perhaps a certain M Schumacher would qualify. No one would dare pass Schumacher in the certain knowledge that he would chop across them and .. and..... grrrrr.... calm down

:s pin: Happy to see that I am not Robinson Caruso with this point.

[V12]

Enrique Bernoldi (Monaco '01) and Thierry Boutsen (Hungary '90) spring to mind although they were just individual races.

[Jon 'Massa' Beagles]

I think you have to draw a distinction between defensive and dangerous...a good defensive driver is one that drivers aren't afraid to be on track with, but one that will keep another driver working to get past.

I agree 100% that Patrese and Frentzen were some of the ultimate exponents of this, along with Jarno Trulli of the current bunch. Sato and Schumacher don't deserve a meniton IMO...and that may be the only time I say that about MS in one of these threads! ;)

[ShiftingGears]

Andrea De Cesaris, Pierluigi Martini et al were the worst drivers to lap during a GP.

Rene Arnoux was pretty appalling, as far as lapped traffic goes.

[52Paddy]

Andrea De Cesaris, Pierluigi Martini et al were the worst drivers to lap during a GP.

They may have been bad, but they were no Jean Denis Deletraz!

[nigelred5]

:s pin: Happy to see that I am not Robinson Caruso with this point.


Naah, I suck at RF factor too! ;)

[Saint Devote]

There is one driver that is absolutely in the top three of my alltime favorites and he could make his car e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y w-i-d-e when neccessary. His name? Clay Regazzoni :-]

He holds the f1 lap record at the Nurburgring and it was superb when he won at that circuit and Monza in 1974 and 1975 respectively for Ferrari.

But the real uproar he caused was at Watkins Glen in 1975 while "protecting" leader Lauda [Ferrari] from second placed Fittipaldi [Mclaren].

Superb Regga :-]

The days of a screaming flat 12 Ferrari engine are sadly gone.

[woody2goody]

Trulli sometimes doesn't defend very well to be honest. I think he's made it too easy for too many people over the years.

Heidfeld's a decent defensive driver. Would it be right to call M Schumacher one of the best?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Fernando Alonso at Imola 2005 was a great show of defensive driving.

[Sonic]

God.

We MUST be bored to need to return to this old thread :D

Does anyone have a DeLorean with a flux capacitor so we can jump the next two weeks?

[555-04Q2]

Maybe not the best defensive driver, but a great defensive drive...Alonso defending a charging and super fast Schumacher at Imola comes to mind. Shuey tried everything to pass but Alonso managed to hold on for 15 odd laps. Imola is famous for being hard to pass on, but it was still great defensive driving from Alonso :up:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Maybe not the best defensive driver, but a great defensive drive...Alonso defending a charging and super fast Schumacher at Imola comes to mind. Shuey tried everything to pass but Alonso managed to hold on for 15 odd laps. Imola is famous for being hard to pass on, but it was still great defensive driving from Alonso :up:

It was a great drive from him, even if we couldn't see half of it because of the advert breaks.

I think the best attacking drivers are usually the best defenders too. They are just good at all round racecraft.

I wouldn't class Trulli as a good defensive driver. He is just a better qualifier than racer so he ends up with a train behind him because it is too difficult to pass in F1. I don't think Flavio thought much of Trulli's defensive driving after the last lap of France 2004.

[Sonic]

I wouldn't class Trulli as a good defensive driver. He is just a better qualifier than racer so he ends up with a train behind him because it is too difficult to pass in F1. I don't think Flavio thought much of Trulli's defensive driving after the last lap of France 2004.

True.

Door. Open. Please have my place.

[555-04Q2]

It was a great drive from him, even if we couldn't see half of it because of the advert breaks.

We dont get add breaks over here, we live in a First World country ;)

[jens]

M. Schumacher, Senna and Montoya are among the hardest position defenders I have seen in F1. They literally played it on the limit with other cars.

Trulli, who has been mentioned here, isn't really as harsh defender as those, which is why he has seemingly "made it at times easy to others" over the years as has been pointed out here. But he still has fine moments of blockings to show like Europe '99, Australia '02 (before spin), Bahrain '07, France '08 from the top of my head.