Have Your Say: Tell Us Who You Rate as the All Time Best British F1 Driver

[GTSpeedster]

Maybe you should. I'll ignore the monkey reference (hopefully a bad choice of word but he has had similar names called him on social media) and ask you this: Do you remember 2007 when Hamilton pretty much trounced Alonso? Was that not the mark of a future champion? Same car, no experience.

WTF are you babling about? What's wrong with the word MONKEY? Political correctness is a mental disorder of the highest degree...

 

[Damage Inc]

Ferrari arguably has a better car than Mercedes this year and who's leading the championship? Whatever though, in 20 years Hamilton will get his due credit.

arguably, it's very close this year...MB better some tracks, Ferrari better at others. Ferrari's hampered by the useless lump in the drivers seat! (kidding, sorry Vettel fans!).

But again I'll stress I know champs need to be good in those "good" cars to win, but like I say the measure of a driver is how they do in a struggling car and IMO Hamilton AND Vettel score poorly in this regard. Lot's of drivers I regard as better than them with less wins, poles and championships.

 

[bluey]

john surtees.....hard to beat world champ bikes and cars..will never be done again

 

[Damage Inc]

Seriously?
You could give any number of guys on the grid that opportunity and they'd and finish down the order.
A good car means nothing without a good driver.
Take it one step further... "What was his experience level in an F1 car at that time, other than a few test?"
He was going up against drivers with years of experience in machinery he hadn't really driven in anger..
Trying to say it was all about the "good" car is a bit disingenuous.
It took a great driver to put it within one point of a WDC in an entry year.
So you guys can dispense with this bull....now.
Stop lying to yourself. It doesn't look good.

Very true, but give a few others that car/opportunity and I think they could do better. He's a great, but not at the top.

also calm down or you'll miss your subscription to the Hamilton special of Sports Illustrated.

 

[Damage Inc]

Maybe you should. I'll ignore the monkey reference (hopefully a bad choice of word but he has had similar names called him on social media) and ask you this: Do you remember 2007 when Hamilton pretty much trounced Alonso? Was that not the mark of a future champion? Same car, no experience.

Gotta say I disagree with the term "trounced" here Andy, that implies "heavily defeated", same number of wins and same number of points.

 

[Damage Inc]

I vote for Murray Walker!!

 

[Andy_J]

Gotta say I disagree with the term "trounced" here Andy, that implies "heavily defeated", same number of wins and same number of points.

Lewis was brand new, Alonso was a champion with mucho experience. Lewis showed that he had natural talent, almost like a new Senna. So maybe not trounced, but he showed what was to come.

 

[Damage Inc]

Lewis was brand new, Alonso was a champion with mucho experience. Lewis showed that he had natural talent, almost like a new Senna. So maybe not trounced, but he showed what was to come.

Yup gotta agree, shame he's a bling bling modern chump! Almost as bad as a premier league footballer!

He's just fortunate he's come into F1 in it's safest era, at a very early age, with the most races and enjoyed a couple of spells in superior machinery. Stats mean nowt to me....in all seriousness I probably vote for Surtees because I'm a biker at heart.

 

[Blkout]

arguably, it's very close this year...MB better some tracks, Ferrari better at others. Ferrari's hampered by the useless lump in the drivers seat! (kidding, sorry Vettel fans!).

But again I'll stress I know champs need to be good in those "good" cars to win, but like I say the measure of a driver is how they do in a struggling car and IMO Hamilton AND Vettel score poorly in this regard. Lot's of drivers I regard as better than them with less wins, poles and championships.

Yea, I don't deny that the Merc is a better car than the Sauber but that being said, Ferrari and Red Bull still have competitive cars with outstanding drivers. If Hamilton was just lucky to be in a good car he wouldn't get the kind of results he gets. The competition is closer this year than ever for Hamilton and he's still out in front. I still whole heartedly believe if he hadn't had that late season engine failure last year, he would have 4 world championships instead of 3 right now and this year would probably make 5 at the rate he's going. You don't get that from not having extreme talent and just fortunate to have a good car. I get that some people don't value stats alone but they do have their place too. Lets not to pretend that he's dominating in a field of weak drivers.

 

[KODIAK]

Lewis Hamilton!

 

[bsmooth]

I was going to say very hard comparing different era's, but If we take literally the word best driver I would say on raw natural talent it has to be Clark. What had to be done in those simple cars came down to talent and he had quite a bit. the cars then were real seat of the pants, with no downforce to help, and a clutch was used to shift gears, and the cars broke quite a lot If they weren't driven correctly.
Nigel Mansell would be a very close second right next to John Surtees. Lewis Hamilton is up there as well, but I just can't quite get into it as much as back in the 80's and 60's.
They each will have there place, but Clark always the gentlemen racer will be remembered long after Hamilton fades away from memory.
I only wish Clark could have met Mark Martin, they seem to have been cut from the same piece of cloth.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

Not one mention of James Hunt?

Some of us can remember watching him race, that's why much like Nigel, on a good day unbeatable, far too many less-than-good days. I was *just* old enough to remember him being champ, and then I can still remember the endless screwups of the next couple of seasons.

 

[wombat999]

Being one of the '70 somethings' I did see most of the drivers mentioned and even had the good fortune to meet a few.
Most of the '60s era drivers spent the European Winter months racing in the Tasman Cup series, usually in quite evenly matched cars, and often in some epic races.
While we can't rate really Sir Jack (Brabham} as one of the great drivers his achievements will NEVER be equaled.
As a young Uni student I was lucky enough to see Jimmy Clark drive at the beginning of his F1 career, sadly, as a baby Duntroon graduate I was at the Australian GP when he won his last major race, shortly before his death.

Jimmy was simply the best.

And a word re why I don't rate Mansell, he started in F1 with a decent team, but it took him over 10 years to 'win' his championship, in the best car and with a team mate who followed 'orders'.
That aside, he was a very unpleasant human being.

 

[Muckle]

Another vote for Jim, the quiet farmer from the Borders.
Such a talented driver across every field of motorsport he tried his hand at.
(My grandpa new his family, we lived near Chirnside where he's buried.)
I still havent been to his museum in Duns, it's had a big refurb a few years ago I believe.

 

[Damage Inc]

Yea, I don't deny that the Merc is a better car than the Sauber but that being said, Ferrari and Red Bull still have competitive cars with outstanding drivers. If Hamilton was just lucky to be in a good car he wouldn't get the kind of results he gets. The competition is closer this year than ever for Hamilton and he's still out in front. I still whole heartedly believe if he hadn't had that late season engine failure last year, he would have 4 world championships instead of 3 right now and this year would probably make 5 at the rate he's going. You don't get that from not having extreme talent and just fortunate to have a good car. I get that some people don't value stats alone but they do have their place too. Lets not to pretend that he's dominating in a field of weak drivers.

Indeed, however I don't recall calling Hamilton lucky. I fully admit he's a very talented driver, but like I said in another post the measure of the "driver" is what they do in a bad car and Hamilton did not overly impress me as much as say Alonso dragging that dog of a Ferrari to podiums and wins. Don't forget Button doing just as good/bad as Hamilton in the McLaren, I really like Button, but he's not a "great". When the stars briefly aligned for him he shone and it was awesome (as I support the underdog being a Brit). Many Brits who love Hamilton hate Schumacher for the same reasons they love Hamilton....I find that hypocritical (not aimed at you).

 

[Turk]

I think it's Hamilton, I don't know a whole lot about the earlier years but I don't think there was the same level of competence and professionalism that is in every driver around today, they do extensive and scientific based training that simply didn't happen in the past. I don't think the drivers Jim Clark went up against were on the same level as him, I think that held true up until Schumacher came along, so they weren't under as much pressure as Hamilton is. Since Michael I think there's been a better training program for up and coming drivers to the point that you could take almost anybody and train them to be high level drivers.

The F1 championship that Hamilton fights has a higher standard across the board, there are more rules, the car is harder to drive, the tracks are probably more technical and he probably has a better understanding of many or the engineering standards. He just lives in a time with better technology and understanding.

I also think he could easily drive one of the older cars and win (if he had the balls) and the same couldn't be said for Jim. Hamilton has been pretty much flawless this year, he always extracts the maximum out of the car. Whether you like him or not I don't think he's ability can be doubted.

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

Tiff!

 

[Damage Inc]

the car is harder to drive

no , just..... no.

 

[Maurits Vernel]

Tie between Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark and Lewis Hamilton, with Nigel Mansell as honourary mention.

 

[Turk]

no , just..... no.

The older cars are pretty straight forward they have less to worry about and a simple learning curve. Even the F1 cars from the early years of the aero era are pretty straight forward. Modern cars with a multitude of settings for a multitude of systems makes it very difficult to extract the most out of the car. They go so fast and change so much with that speed that it's just another level compared to cars that just have a steering wheel, pedals and a gearstick.