Driver ratings

[AAReagles]

I think there needs to be a better definition. Do you mean best drivers or best F1 drivers? That can easily be two different categories. F1 is difficult to really rate because so very much depends on having the car of the year.
I'm American so obviously I've had more chance to see drivers who were more "rounded" in their experience. My list of the best drivers would include Gurney…...

The mention of Dan Gurney in this thread is IMO significant, and I think he is a pretty good example to talk about here. In absolute results he is not a WDC, got only a handful of race wins, and at first glance is not the first driver you would remember from the past.

But if you go a bit deeper, you'll see that he was very highly rated (Clark mentioned him as the driver he feared the most) and team-mate battles also give a positive impression. He beat Brabham, while they were driving together in Jack's own team, but Brabham wasn't a title challenging car at that time yet. Gurney also achieved Porsche's one and only GP win. Later Dan drove for his own team/car (Eagle) and also won a race. So he never really had brilliant cars, but he always performed admirably in whatever he got.

Yeah I stayed away from mentioning much of him for not wanting to 'appear' biased.

All kidding aside with what I posted on another thread, about Patrese and Héctor Rebaque, I would have to agree with what other members have stated on here numerous times before; that for anyone to even make it to the level of F1, let alone maintain the course, is an attribute to their skills.


One stat I'm always intrigued by, is the GP races led during a driver's career.

http://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiqu...entete/gp.aspx

Patrese surprised me with 29 races led, because 1) I didn't think he had to proper equipment to get it done, and 2) when he was on capable teams later in his career, he was for the most part regulated to #2 driver. Anyways, that was a pleasant surprise, even though I have to remind myself that he was in 256(??) races.

G. Villeneuve was a surprise too, having led 18 GPs, of which some of that was the obvious fact that he was one of the best lights-turn-green starters. And of course the other consideration was that he did have a year-and-a half with the Ferrari 126(series) turbo that was notably better with the turbo-lag, than what the Renaults were still having issues with.

There were some oddities though for others:

Jean Alesi led 19 races, yet only won once. For a while I thought Chris Amon had terrible luck with the "win" category, but surprisingly to me at least, he 'only' led 7 races. Though it should be noted that there were fewer races ran in Amon's time, usually 10 or so. While Alesi was - I'm guessing - performing in 16-17 events per season.

Which is another reason I never cared for F1 to carry more than 15 races a year, as there's a sense of diluting the results of other drivers' achievements from the past, with regards to wins and points accumulated.