I think Cosi summed it all up about Clark. Personally i would have had him at number 2, behind Alain Prost, ahead of Fangio and Senna.
Thanks Cosi for the awesome write-up of Clark, very nice read. My granddad is 68 now and has been watching F1 since he was a kid, so he has seen most everyone to have driven in the sport. When I last talked to him about his favorite drivers he said he was personally a Stirling Moss fan, but that Clark was extremely quick and ultra-competitive but always the gentleman.
My pleasure, guys. For two reasons: Whilst I acknowledge the skills of all of top drivers (including Schumacher, EMSC ), Jim Clark is the man whose driving I admire more completely than any other. In my view, as a driver, he really was virtually flawless. Indeed, it is noteworthy that the only valid criticism was of his tendency to leave engineers scratching their heads over sketchy feedback. It was not especially enlightening â particularly when compared with the likes of Stirling Moss*, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham* and Jackie Stewart*. The reason? â When a car felt different, he simply adapted his driving to compensate! It was said that Clark was often sent out with radically different set-ups over any number of runs in an effort to 'force his hand', so as to establish a base line from which to work; but Jimmy would come back with the same optimum lap time, time and time again â sometimes expressing no particular preference! To him, it didn't really matter⦠I am genuinely interested in the good cross-section of views expressed in this forum, and like anyone, I greatly appreciate the feedback; so it was a pleasure to write here in any case! *Moss, Brabham and Stewart were of course, subsequently knighted, each fully justifying the title, 'Sir'.
Most of today's drivers would just radio back to the pits and complain. I am certain had he not been killed, he would have won more than just 2 titles.
Come on, it's the BBC, they're boringly obvious. I'm willing to stake my favourite Arsenal coffee mug that #1 is Ayrton Senna.
Unfortunately, there is a tendency within the media to play to the crowd. But perhaps more bizarrely, the media tend to believe their own hype – or at least, it would seem to be in their collective interest to give that impression. To my knowledge, there hasn't been a blockbuster movie about Clark. No; unless I'm very much mistaken, only one man was ever going to 'win' this particular piece of fodder for the masses…
It was blindingly obvious from day 1 unfortunately. He may not be the best driver on the list, but he;s the biggest cultural icon on the list, and that will always trump ability.
When I say 50/50 I mean only 2 left rather than who they'll most likely pick. Who knows... Maybe Eric van der Poele will make a last minute charge.
Im 100% sure its senna at #1. Its the BBC... they will go for the obvious mainstream choice which most fans at this current day will relate too.
I think the Senna film has played such a huge part in making Senna become as big a name as Schumacher to the wider public, the amount of people who I know who did not have the faintest interest in F1 but all got hooked on the Senna film and story behind him was quite large, he is like the F1 equivalent of The Smiths! Also got to remember that the BBC's target audience for F1 is not the F1 fanatic, it's the casual viewer who tunes in for the 'three amigos' and by in large are only watching because of Hamilton/Button. So naturally they are going to tend towards quite a popurlarist view.
The F1 equivalent of the Smiths? lol, I don't think I've ever read such a poor analogy. it's like saying Pele is the football equivalent of Pedro Chaves. As to the rights and wrongs of Senna being number 1, at the end of the day he didn't duck a challenge like some of the others in the top 5, he WANTED to race against Prost, the driver he considered the best, in the same machinery, as he saw him as his bench-mark. Yes, he vetoed Watson, but when the reason behind the veto is considered, he felt, quite rightly as history proved, that Lotus just didn't have the financial clout to fund 2 top drivers any more, it isn't the same as Prost or Schumacher refusing to have anyone who could challenge their 'supremacy'. 1990 Suzuka may stick in peoples throats, but it was no worse than suzuka '89 which most people tend to ignore. He was a hard driver for sure, but soem of the complaints against him were ridiculous, such as Prost complaining Senna tried to put him into the wall, when the actuality of it were not one of Prosts wheels even went over the white line marking the borders of the track. I never saw Clark or Fangio race, so I can't really comment on where they should be in relation to Senna on the list, but it's clear to me that Senna has been the best racing driver I've seen race and should clearly be above Schumacher and Prost.
