sport news The top 20 greatest F1 drivers of all time: Michael Schumacher ranks above Max ... trends now
Picking the best in any sport is difficult. Times change. Perceptions alter. Nostalgia plays tricks. The here and now is uniquely vivid.
In motor racing, the task is even harder. While a football is still essentially a football (if made of different materials), Formula One divides between the era of immediate peril and one of more distant peril. It is still dangerous and always will be but the change confuses accurate assessment between one era and another.
It is a personal list. Forgive me.
Who the greatest of all time is in any sport is a difficult task, but JONATHAN McEVOY has weighed in on the debate in Formula One amid Max Verstappen's dominance with Red Bull
Michael Schumacher (left) and Lewis Hamilton (right) hold the record for the most Drivers' Championships with seven each, but that does not necessarily make them greatest of all time
20. Nigel Mansell
Was there a more tenacious driver? Or were many more loved by the British public?
He seemed to spend his life travelling uphill, the nearly man who wore his heart on his sleeve. His tyre cruelly blew in the Adelaide decider in 1986 and then he was beaten to the title by Nelson Piquet in 1987, before finally triumphing in 1992 at the age of 39, albeit abetted by a brilliant Adrian Newey-designed Williams.
At Ferrari, he was christened Il Leone. The overwhelming image of his glory years was the crowds that spilled on to the tarmac at Silverstone to hail him: Mansell-mania in action.
Few drivers were love more by the British public than 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell
19. Mario Andretti
His achievements on either side of the Atlantic were extraordinary. By the time he came over to Europe, he was already the winner of the Indianapolis and Daytona 500s.
A man of charm and courtesy, but no little competitiveness, he was an emblem of the American dream. Born in Trieste early in World War Two, he spent seven years in a dispersed people's camp, making it to the USA in 1955. Superbly versatile, he won the 1978 world championship with Lotus.
Mario Andretti, world champion with Lotus in 1978, was an emblem of the American dream
18. Nelson Piquet
A master at getting a team to work around him, he excelled under Bernie Ecclestone’s leadership at Brabham, where he won two of his three world titles in close collaboration with legendary chief designer Gordon Murray.
He moved to Williams, where he used his intelligence to get the better of Mansell, the great battler. Piquet called the Briton a blockhead with an ugly wife. The squabbling fell just short of fisticuffs.
Nelson Piquet (right) alongside his former team principal Sir Frank Williams (left) in 1986
17. Sir Jack Brabham
A reticent, sometimes truculent, character yet a royal of Australian sport. The grandson of a cockney greengrocer who emigrated to Australia in 1885, Brabham remains the only man ever to win the world title for a team bearing his name.
He was 40 at the time, claiming the third of his championship successes. He raced on to 44. He died in 2014, the last champion from the 1950s to go.
Sir Jack Brabham remains the only man ever to win the world title for a team bearing his name
16. Nico Rosberg
He will always be the man who beat Lewis Hamilton to the title in the same machinery. Never as naturally gifted as his erstwhile friend, the cerebral German screwed himself relentlessly to his task in 2016, having been clobbered by his Mercedes team-mate for years. Who else would have shown the same powers of resilience?
He even stopped cycling in the summer break to lose one kilogram in leg muscle. He credited his pole at Japan, by a hundredth of a second, to this detail. He retired immediately after taking the championship, knowing a repeat was beyond him.
Nico Rosberg triumphed over his Mercedes team-mate Hamilton to win the world title in 2016
15. James Hunt
The great playboy once inspired a queue of BA stewardesses to form outside his bedroom door. Showing immense bravery he won the 1976 world championship driving on through blinding fantails of rain in Fuji in his title decider with Niki Lauda.
For a too-brief period, before his lifestyle distracted him, Hunt was the best on the grid. He died too young, 45 of a heart attack at home in Wimbledon, taking with him a cavalier spirit but leaving behind an indelible impression.
Formula One's premier superstar playboy James Hunt won the 1976 world championship
14. Sebastian Vettel
A brilliant front-runner. His glory days came at Red Bull, with his four titles in consecutive years from 2010. The blown diffuser era, the car sucked to the ground, best suited him. He made good use of it and Ferrari came calling with £50million a year.
Alas, his time in Italy did not deliver the prize he wants. He might have won the title in quick red cars in 2017 and, more so, in 2018, but it seemed Hamilton may have got inside his head. Mistakes crept in and the once impish kid looked increasingly careworn at the end of a dazzling career.
Sebastian Vettel retired in 2022 as a four-time world champion and 53-time Grand Prix winner
13. Graham Hill
Only man to win the Triple Crown – Monaco, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500. A charismatic figure with his neatly trimmed moustache, he was one of the most well-known figures of the Swinging Sixties.
Although in Jim Clark’s shadow for a long period, he won two titles and was known as Mr Monaco for his five wins in the principality.
Some considered him overbearing. Stewart, however, told me he was the fairest man he ever met.
Graham Hill (left) cutting a relaxed figure with Jackie Stewart (centre) and Jim Clark (right)
12. Niki Lauda
A hero of sport, recognisable by the scars he suffered in the fire at the Nurburgring in 1976. So disfigured was he that skin was taken off his thigh to rebuild his face. Yet six weeks later he returned in his Ferrari at Monza, his wounds weeping as he pulled on his balaclava.
A three-time world champion, he understood that success depended not only on his skills as a driver, but in making the team tick for him. Later, a decisive executive chairman of Mercedes during Hamilton’s glory years. He finally died aged 70 of lung failure, a fighter finally consumed by the fire.
Niki Lauda, a three-time world champion with Ferrari (twice) and McLaren (once), is a hero of the sport, recognisable by the facial scars he suffered in the fire at the Nurburgring in 1976
11. Alberto Ascari
He lit the bonfire of Italian motorsport after World War Two. Ferrari's first world champion, in 1952, and again in 1953, both times dominantly. Many reckoned him to be faster than even Juan Manuel Fangio. But Moss, on balance, demurred from that assessment.
Ascari crashed into the Monaco harbour in 1955 fighting for the lead and died a week later at Monza. Fangio said: 'I've lost my greatest opponent.'
Alberto Ascari, who died aged 36, pictured in his Ferrari 375 in the pits at Silverstone in 1951
