Poll: Who do You Rate as the Greatest World Champion of All Time?

[Rodent]

Surtees is a good pick too, probably in my top 5. Specially for his wonderful ability to look back on his career and laugh himself silly at all the mistakes and wrecks that make me grimace just thinking about it. Guy's badass even at an old age.

Edit: I will also agree that drivers have always needed to be competent, but I feel the teams are a much bigger part of it today, we will never see another Jack Brabham winning in his own car/team.

 

[Jebus]

This was easy. Keke Rosberg.

 

[Lorenzo Bonder]

I'm biased, duh. Senna.


Name me a driver that gets a P2 in Monaco with a car like the Toleman (IN THE RAIN) that never had a significant result ever, the car was breaking down into pieces before and during races, just finishing behind some dude named Alain Prost in a shortened race because of rain and the fear of having their "local" driver losing to a newcomer like Ayrton.

The other top 5 are down in the order: Clark, Fangio, Prost and Schumi. With Stewart and Piquet as a close 6 and 7.

HONOURABLE MENTION: KIMI "MY IDOL" RAIKONNEN.

 

[LeSunTzu]

Hard call between Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost. Both were fast and clever, able to get the maximum out of their crew, uncompromising but not crossing the line (that line that Schumi or Senna deliberately ignored when it suited them...). Voted Piquet because on top of it he had the chicks ^^.

 

[Andy_J]

Senna for me. The most passionate.

 

[Gringo]

all you needed was the balls to do it, as not many did.

All you needed was to survive the F1 season

Thirteen (sorry its 11 drivers as Fangio droped out of 1958 half way thru the season) drivers didn't manage during Fangio's time. Keep in mind a season in those days was about 8 races. With death looming in every corner, to win 5 championships, a record that would stand for 40+ years, is remarkable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_fatalities

EDIT:

Looking closer at the stats the body count is 4-5 drivers less than I have stated as they crashed in testing or outside the F1 championship. The danger goes up big time in the 60's and 70's as I assume the speeds increase with technology.

Cheers

 

[Ricoow]

My vote: 2017 Max Verstappen

 

[Andy 'Mars Bar' Graham]

Schumacher and Fangio were both extremely talented, probably the two fastest men to compete in Formula 1. I struggle to decide who was greater. Right now, I'm saying Schumacher edges it for me personally, but Fangio is extremely close

 

[-Alf-]

Without thinking too hard, Ayrton Senna.
Moss, a great driver that never won a Championship...

 

[Angelo dos Santos]

I went for Michael Schumacher. That is my vote.
We are talking about World Titles...so is impossible for me not to vote on him.
Not only he won 7 times the friggin World Title, he fought until the very end for 3 more times when he lost...and one year he was leading and had an injury that cost him the season.
Damn it...for more than 10 bloody years the dude was in serious contention winning it most of the time. That is some truly longevity and consistency.
I dont think we will ever see this again.

Now, he wasnt the most impressive driver on the track, for me. On my time watching F1 the most brilliant was Ayrton Senna, for sure. The most impressive performances I´ve saw.

 

[fortyfivekev]

I started watching F1 in '76 so can't really judge anyone very well from before then. Since then I don't think anyone has equalled Senna's combination of speed, passion and charisma. Being at Donington in '93 also made a massive impression on me.

For non-champions my vote would be between Gilles Villeneuve and Stefan Bellof.

 

[Kakusso]

Shumacher by far.
I was not his fan at the time but he really is the best ever.
People complain F1 being boring probably they didn't saw Shumacher racing. After 12 laps he gathered an advantage of 20 seconds. Telemetry analysis showed a that he had a different level of acceleration on the corners than most other drivers.

 

[AnklaX]

I voted for Senna but this is a difficult poll. So I'll consider the meaning of the word "champion" and say the greatest world champion of F1 is Gilles Villenuve.

 

[Runic]

I picked Fangio, best driver of all time IMO because the cars back then were very dangerous and he was one of the ballsy men who drove the wheels off those things. I didn't vote for Schumi because A) He was a cheat B) He had the best car by miles and Barrichello was awful. I'll take the bites.

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

i didn't see my name, so my vote went to the real Schumi Schumacher

 

[Shad3R]

I will say ayrton senna not just because how he drived the car. i will say ayrton because winning a lot doesnt makes u a true champion, senna was a champion because he was as great personally as he was driving.

 

[led00m]

Really makes me laugh that Hamilton hasn't been mentioned onced after all that praise hes been getting. But Senna gets my vote, his sheer determination and talent gave him that vote and his persistance. Never gave into the bullying establishment and politics

 

[Deleted member 130869]

Senna, Clark, Fangio, Stewart, Fittipaldi, Lauda, Piquet, Schumacher, Prost, Ascari, Brabham, Surtees.

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Sorry this is a bit off topic but I really wanted to have a quick say here.

When I decided to run this poll earlier today I had to think long and hard about if it was a good idea or not. Why? Because much like happens across the whole of the 'tinterweb I was worried it might turn into a "my driver is better than your driver" type of argument, and just end in a silly mess in the comments section...

Well I was wrong, it hasn't ! So without trying to be patronising I just wanted to say how nice and refreshing it is to see comments with such maturity and thoughtfulness on a topic such as this Awesome! Nice one gents!

Now on a serious subject, this is probably the most true thing I think anyone has posted anywhere, about anything, ever -

I'll consider the meaning of the word "champion" and say the greatest world champion of F1 is Gilles Villenuve.

Couldn't agree more fella

 

[aka2k]

LMAO at who voted for Rosberg with all the great options in the list.