The Century’s Best Formula 1 Drivers? Here Are My Picks

While Coronavirus is halting sports across the world, I thought it would be good to look back and remember past sporting glories. Here are my Top 10 Formula 1 drivers.

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I have only included late 20th Century and early 21st century drivers on my list. I know many others deserve mention under ‘the best’ category, including Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Nikki Lauda, Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, and Gilles Villeneuve, to name a few, but I’ve focused this list to drivers I’ve seen drive with my own eyes.

I’ve based my list not just on championships and number of races won, but also on natural driving skills and what drivers brought to the sport as a whole.

#10: Felipe Massa. Massa was one of the shortest drivers in F1 history and widely considered one of the nicest drivers on the grid. But don’t let his small stature and always happy persona trick you into thinking he was not also an excellent racer. He achieved 11 victories in his long career, all during his time at Ferrari.

He even thought he was the champion for about 20 seconds until Lewis Hamilton overtook Timo Clock on the last corner to earn the 5th place he needed, more about that later. In truth, Massa never really recovered his best form after the horrific injury he suffered at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a suspension spring from the car in front struck him on the head, and the resulting injuries meant he missed the remainder of the season. A great driver on his day but maybe too nice to be higher on this list, probably evidenced by the now-infamous “Fernando is faster than you” message at the 2010 German Grand Prix.

#9: Nico Rosberg. The son of 1982 World Champion Keke, Nico is one of a very select few sons of World Champions also to win the Formula One World Championship. Nico Rosberg’s F1 career started fairly steadily at the Williams team but is only really when he moved to the newly formed Mercedes F1 team in 2010 that is career took off. He would then go on to achieve 23 victories, 57 podiums, and 30 pole positions as the Mercedes team dominated the turbo-hybrid era of the sport. Rosberg retired after winning the 2016 World Championship, and for all his victories and by beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to the title, there were always questions against Nico if he had the required ability to come out on top in wheel-to-wheel battles with Lewis when together at Mercedes. Pretty much all of Rosberg’s victories came when he had led from the start, and for one reason or another, Lewis was unable to challenge for the victory.

#8: Danny Ricciardo. Not only does Ricciardo have the biggest smile out of all current F1 drivers, but he is also the king of the late-breaking overtaking maneuver. Arguably most seasons, he will perform ‘the overtake’ of the season. This skill and precision in his driving have led him to 7 career victories to date. Not as high as the others in the top 10, but victories alone don’t determine how good of a driver you are. It is probably fair to say if Ricciardo had been in the best car on the grid, he would easily have secured more victories. However, all of his victories came during his time at Red Bull Racing when they were not quite up to the super high standards set by Mercedes. What Ricciardo did achieve at Red Bull was beating his four-time World Champion teammate Sebastian Vettel in his first season with the team, this showed his huge ability from the start and showed that he is capable of beating the best around when in equal equipment. For the 2019 season, Ricciardo left Red Bull for the Renault team. Renault is nowhere near race-winning or even podium pace at the minute, and one hopes they do improve soon, or else Ricciardo’s career may end up one of unfulfilled promise.

#7: Jenson Button. The 2009 World Champion Button had a long and very successful F1 career. Following his debut as a youngster at Williams in 2000, Button’s early career was fairly unremarkable in midfield teams Williams, Benneton, and BAR-Honda. But then came 2009 and, with it, the F1 equivalent of Premier League Leicester City. Following Honda pulling out of the sport at the end of the 2008 season with no drives available, Button faced 2009 with no F1 place until Honda team principal Ross Brawn set up his team on a minimum budget and the rest, as they say, is history. Button made a storming start to the new 2009 season winning 6 of the opening seven races as Brawn GP stunned the rest of the Formula 1 grid with their double diffuser concept. Following his World Title win, Jenson joined McLaren for the 2010 season and continued to be a regular race winner until his retirement in 2017. He had many memorable race wins, including the crazy and chaotic 2011 Canadian Grand Prix. Button won this rain disrupted race despite five pit stops, a drive-through penalty, and being in last place at one stage. On that day, Jenson showed he could beat the very best around as he did in his teammates at McLaren Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. Still, ultimately, he didn’t quite have the consistency to challenge his more illustrious teammates regularly.

#6: Max Verstappen. Verstappen holds the records as youngest ever driver in F1 and the youngest race winner, on his debut for the Red Bull team at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix no less. Max has certainly caused a stir since he arrived in F1, and his rivals have not well appreciated his fearless approach to racing. However, what Max has shown many times in his short period in the sport is incredible race craft, skill, and total belief and confidence in his ability. 6th place may seem high for someone still new to the sport and without a World Title to his name yet, however, based on pure racing ability, I believe Max deserves this place now and in a few years would no doubt be even higher in the order.

#5: Kimi Raikkonen. When Kimi is fully switched on to racing, he is close to unbeatable, he proved this time and time again, especially during his time at Mclaren when he came so close to winning the World Championship in 2005. One of the best drives of the 21st century came from Kimi at the 2005 Japan Grand Prix, where he won the race from 17th on the grid and seemingly was in a class of his own. Kimi moved to Ferrari in 2007 and won the Drivers World Title in his first year at the team. That, however, remains his only Word Title, and this is perhaps more down to motivation than anything else. Since that World Title win Kimi has never really seemed fully engaged in racing yet, this has not prevented some very memorable victories, most notably the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where on his way to victory he famously told his engineer “Leave me alone I know what I’m doing!” Kimi certainly did know what he was doing, the rest of the world, however, has no idea most of the time.

#4: Sebastian Vettel. Vettel won his four titles back-to-back for the Red Bull Racing team between 2010 and 2013. At that time, Vettel was very much the dominant force in F1 and was determined that nothing would stop him from his dream to emulate his hero Michael Schumacher. Having joined Red Bull in 2009 from Torro Rosso, Vettel would go on to be runner up in the 2009 season before his domination started. An incredible career to date both at Red Bull and now continuing with Ferrari has so far seen Seb record 53 F1 victories to go with his four titles. However, the reason he is only 4th despite this record is Vettel has proved when the car is the best in the field, and he can dictate the race from the front, he is close to unbeatable. It is when he has to fight for the victories the cracks appear, most notably during the 2019 season when his new Ferrari teammate Charles Le Clerc started beating him, Vettel made numerous driving errors in multiple races that both cost him and the team.

#3: Fernando Alonso. Following back-to-back World Title wins in 2005 and 2006 for the Renault F1 team, Alonso seemed to be on course to break all records in the sport. However, he has since failed to win another World Title despite coming close on numerous occasions. The good side to Alonso is he can win in any car and beat any driver on any given day. He scored 32 career wins and 97 podiums in his time in F1. All of his teammates widely recognise him as the toughest competitor they have raced with, and when these teammates include Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, this shows the respect he has. What has let Alonso down all too often is his passion and eagerness to win has gone too far and proved detrimental on too many occasions. In 2007 Mclaren seemed certain to win the Drivers World title with either Alonso or Lewis Hamilton until a massive row between Alonso and team principal Ron Dennis led to the infamous spy-gate saga and the team never fully recovered in that season. He even became too hot for Ferrari to handle, and on his return to the Mclaren team in 2015, he certainly won no friends at Honda with many public criticisms of the engine, like calling it a “GP2 engine”. There is no doubt Alonso’s time in F1 will be thought of as unfulfilled in terms of titles and wins.

#2: Michael Schumacher. Schumacher won seven World Titles and 91 races in his long career. He re-established Ferrari at the top of the sport, winning five titles back-to-back from 2000 to 2004. His achievements will never be forgotten and nor will many of his drives, his first-ever win in the 1992 Belgium Grand Prix was just evidence of what was to come as he beat far more illustrious drivers on a circuit that is known as the drivers’ circuit. His victory in the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari earned him the nickname of the rain master as he seemed to be driving in different weather conditions to everyone else. Of course, Schumacher was great and, in many eyes, the greatest ever. Not my greatest, though, and this is because of two things. All of his Ferrari Word Titles were won where his teammate was only there to support him as his number 2. He didn’t have to beat his closest rival in the same equipment as they were ordered by the team to help Michael win. As a racing fan, that doesn’t sit too well. Also, his determination to win did go too far past the lines of acceptable on occasions, like 1997, where he drove Jacques Villeneuve off the track to try and become World Champion. Also, in the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, he deliberately stopped his car and caused a red flag to prevent others from having the chance to beat his pole position time. A will to win is to be admired. But in my eyes, Schumacher went too far. What I will add is his skiing accident after his career is a tragedy, and like the rest of the world, I say, please keep fighting, Michael.

#1: Lewis Hamilton. The six-times World Champion Lewis Hamilton no less. With 84 race victories, 151 podiums, and a record 88 pole positions to his name to date, and I’m sure once racing resumes, those numbers will increase further. Maybe he will even surpass Schumacher for the number of World Titles and race wins. Why do I rate Lewis at the top, simply his record since his very first race in 2007 tells you everything? He came within 1 point of being World Champion in his rookie season; he quickly made up for that heartbreak by winning the 2008 World Championship in the most dramatic of ways by passing Timo Clock on the last corner of the last race of the season. He is the only driver to win a race in every season they have raced, 13 so far. There have been many memorable wins, including the 2008 British Grand Prix in the monsoon at Silverstone where he finished over a minute ahead of his nearest rival and the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix where he and teammate Nico Rosberg battled wheel-to-wheel until the end of the race in what has been called ‘the dual in the desert.’ There are many more. Finally, why I put him ahead of Schumacher is he has always had equal status within each team he has raced with his teammate. Whether that be World Champions like Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button or an already established member of the team like Rosberg and he has always come out on top.

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These are just my opinions, and something I enjoyed putting together. Hopefully, we will have racing back soon. Until then, it’s good to look back and remember some of the greats of F1!