The age old question... Always hard due to the fact that we can't really compare era's.. can we? Current era, Hamilton.. 80s/90s, Mansell Late 60s/70s Stewart Before that, the likes of Clark, Hill, Moss, Surtees
Silly, how could I forget.. He's so good, he's got his own category, just a rung under the great Di Resta!
Do you mean F1 driver? which isn't anywhere near the same thing as best racing driver, a 16st 6ft 2" driver is never ever going to get to race in an F1 car no matter how brilliant behind the wheel he is. You could always go for Terry Fullerton, described as the best driver he ever raced against by Ayrton Senna, he never progressed out of Karts despite being a multiple britsh champion (8) and WDC, as his older brother died racing bikes and he didn't want to put his family through it. But the best uk F1 driver was probably Clark
Greatest has to be Clark, for the reasons GramP says. Turned his hand to various forms of racing and was quick in all of them. Mansell was special and the public formed a bond with him as the gritty British underdog, but he was not naturally fast and generally things would have to be in his favour for him to show his speed, though some of his overtaking does come straight from the big red book of huge gonads.
Clark for me too, would have loved to see him drive. Moss and Stewart would have to be up there too. Can't think of many others outside F1 who would be even with a shout. Colin McRae?
The Hungary(?) overtake , were he passed to cars at the same time also the Aussie GP 200MPH down the straight , tyre blows and he manages to not hit a wall...LEGEND https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAlULf9EDBw 1989 - Hungaroring - Nigel Mansell overtakes Ayrton Senna for the lead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwgLg8vRMQU F1 1991 Spain Nigel Mansell overtakes Ayrton Senna
The best... most likely Clark. My favorite, Nigel Mansell. Can't ignore Dario Franchitti either. 4x Indy Champion, 3x Indy 500 winner. That's nothing to sniff at. Colin McRae has to be up there as mentioned by DHC and so does Andy Rouse.
Jim Clark. Head and shoulders. Ripped from Wiki:- "Jim Clark won the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in extremely wet, foggy and rainy conditions. After starting eighth on the grid Clark passed all of the cars in front of him, including early leader Graham Hill. About 17 laps into the race, with the rain coming down harder than ever, Clark had not only lapped the entire field except for Bruce McLaren, but he was almost five minutes ahead of McLaren and his Cooper. This would be the first of seven victories for Clark and Team Lotus that year.In the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza after starting from pole, Clark was leading in his Lotus 49 (chassis R2), when a tyre punctured. He lost an entire lap while having the wheel changed in the pits. Rejoining sixteenth, Clark ripped back through the field, progressively lowering the lap record and eventually equalling his pole time of 1m 28.5s, to regain the lost lap and the lead. He was narrowly ahead of Brabham and Surtees starting the last lap, but his car had not been filled with enough fuel for such a performance: it faltered, and finally coasted across the finish line in third place. In his Indianapolis 500 win, Clark led for 190 of the 200 laps, with an unprecedented average speed of over 150 miles per hour (240 km/h), to become the first non-American in almost half a century to win the famous race." We should remember that Grand Prix racing really caught the public's imagination during the 60s and that virtually everyone; drivers, pundits, team principals, managers, mechanics, those 'in the know', commentators and general public, considered Clark 'the best' – and usually without any hesitation. Such peerless acclaim has never been the case before or since, regardless of nationality. Next are two drivers I find difficult to choose between: Sir Stirling Moss (he won 25% of the races he entered) and Sir Jackie Stewart – who was effectively tutored by Clark, although invariably beaten by Graham Hill at the 'untamed' Monaco circuit, when it was not only very dangerous but probably the greatest technical challenge of the day. Oddly enough, like his father, the heavily under-rated Damon Hill was very highly regarded for his ability at technical circuits, as exemplified by several outstanding achievements at the most technical circuit of the modern era: Hungaroring. Mansell was very good at the zenith of his career and surely worth more than a single World Championship, but despite his ability to outperform some of F1's best-known legends on his day (including Senna), I don't consider him quite with Moss or Stewart; certainly not Clark. Good shout from Miggins about driver size and weight but I do not think Fullerton was equal to Clark – who, as GramP points out, dominated with pretty much whatever four-wheeled thing he could get his hands on: touring cars, sports cars, hill-climbs, rallies, rally-cross, single-seaters, you name it – often mixing them in the same season! Actually, there is only one driver I'd put right up at Clark's level, although I believe his achievements were confined to Grand Prix driving: Juan Manuel Fangio. There are other British drivers who tend to slip below radar; but my last 'old-timer' – and I'll underline his name because he should not be considered an afterthought – is Mike Hawthorn who seemed every bit as good as Fangio… Back to the present, it has to be Lewis Hamilton. Indeed, many might consider him the best on the grid. Not since Clark has a driver been so highly regarded by his peers, and Alonso fears him more than any other – even claiming Hamilton to be "the best"! I believe he has the potential to become one of the all-time greats. P.S. to jonnybaws: Clark's era was the 60s which is why he never had a chance to show his mettle against Fangio, and before his untimely death he almost always beat JS.
add 160mph around the outside of Berger in Mexico [video=youtube;V2g1yrGputA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2g1yrGputA[/video]
