Thanks for saying that PMC I realised an error - I meant to say Hakkinen and Hamilton not Raikkonen and Hamilton, Those finns were pretty similar... And speaking of fins, when it comes to names I don't think many have a better name than Heikki Kovalainen
I completely disagree. In fact I would turn such a statement on its head: "Schumacher was nowhere near as good as Hamilton is".
Silly question. There cannot be a best ever - too much is different in each era. You could TRY to find the best every 10 years or so thats about all.
I am considering my vote and will put a detailed explanataion why I believe one driver, in my view, is the greatest. If others do that too, rather than just say xxx is rubbsh, zzz is so much beter than xxx, but without giving a reason, it may turn into a good debate. At least for now this thread hasn't been hijacked like many did on a certain defunct forum.
Very true ASC. For once, I just decided to play devil's advocate in responding to certain claims! I hope I'll be afforded some tolerance in turning one of the claims on its head with a similar lack of explanation!
Shame Peter Collins isn't in this poll... He was to become world champion, but gave it to Fangio on the last few laps in 1956. He wasn't told to do it, he just gave it up. He would of been: First British World Champion, Youngest ever WDC aged 24 years and 300 days(ish) - (This record would of stood for nearly 50 years until Alonso would go of to beat it.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Collins_(racing_driver)
For me it has to be Fangio, despite me never seeing him drive he was nicknamed The Maestro, not by his fans or the media, but by his rivals! To have gained such respect amongst fellow drivers tells me he was not only a champion, but a great champion.
Roland Ratzenberger, because nobody speaks his name and it was his death that lead to the reformation of the GPDA and the eventual introduction of the Hanz device which would have most probably saved his life, and no doubt has saved the lives of other drivers. So yeah he gets my vote.