Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 4; Juan Manuel Fangio

• Season Points Av. 30.6
• Best Championship Finishes. 1st (x5), 2nd (x2)
• Average Constructor Placing over Career. 1.4
• 24 wins from 29 poles

For the second half of the Twentieth Century Fangio was the unparalleled most successful driver in Formula One with his five driver's title win. In the first year of the championship he lost out to Farina, but with both on the Alfa Romeo next he won. The 1952 was sat out injured, and 1953 was an uncompetitive year with three 2nd place finishes, whilst Ascari wrapped up his 2nd title with 5 wins from 6 poles. In 1954 Fangio won 6 races and won the title clearly. In 1955 Fangio had maybe his greatest achievement as he was paired with the super-fast Stirling Moss. Fangio achieved 3 poles and 4 wins, two of them one-twos over his talented team-mate. 1956 saw him move to the quick Ferrari and finish ahead of Moss and the pacy Peter Collins, with 3 wins. 1957 saw his final full season, and another dominant one with Maserati. He won 4 races and finished 2nd in two winning by a clear margin. 1957 also saw one of f1's great victories. After a pit stop from a comfortable lead, Fangio came out 50 seconds behind Hawthorn and Collin's Ferrari's . He chased them down and passed them with a lap left. His fastest lap being over 10 seconds quicker than the nearest rival.

Fangio's tactic to jump from best car to best car does detract from his lustre, though shows great politicking for drives. Equally, he must be placed higher than most other drivers because when given the equipment he won with it, including when paired with Moss, who Henry placed as the best driver of all time, difficult when considering that he was outdriven by Fangio when in the same car. Also many of his achievements were conducted in his forties. Ultimately a legendary driver and deserving of his high placing, though I'd accept not as high as many would expect.

Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 5; Jackie Stewart

• Season Points Av. 40
• Best Championship Finishes. 1st (x3), 2nd (x2), 3rd
• Average Constructor Placing over Career. 2.4
• 27 wins from 17 poles

Starting in 1965 Stewart matched Graham Hill whose previous 3 championship finishes had been a first and two seconds, with a win and three 2nds.. After a tougher second year and an average 1967 Stewart moved to Tyrell. Behind the faster Lotus Stewart was best of the rest. In 1969 Stewart won 6/11 races and won the title by 26 points. 1971 again saw him take the title, this time by 29 points. In 1972 he couldn't match the faster Lotus, but still took 4 wins and finished 2nd. In 1973 he won by 16 points and then retired, after being affected by the deaths of F1 drivers, especially team-mate Francois Cevert. His post racing career was filled with a mission too improve safety. In the 1990s he ran his own F1 team Stewart GP, again winnning with Johnny Herbert at the Nurburgring in 1999.

His constructor average showed he had a reasonable car often. However, his win to pole ratio shows that when he didn't have the fastest driver and car package on the grid he could still win races. It must also be said that he was often paired with great qualifiers as well. HIs points avergae is very good also gievn that the racing season was shorter than now at 11/12 races. Winning form his debut season, matching the super quick Hill in his first season shows real skill, and challenging for the title in most seasons he had incredible ability, in a career lasting only 9 years.

Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 6; Nelson Piquet

• Season Points Av. 34


• Best Championship Finishes. 1st (x3), 2nd, 3rd (x2)


• Average Constructor Placing over Career. 3.6


• 23 wins from 24 poles

Often not in the number one package on the grid, Piquet stayed too long at Brabham when the car had lost pace and reliability, and moved to the declining Lotus after a world title win at Williams. However, Piquet was a triple world champion, twice in the Brabham. In 1980 he won 3 races and finished in the points 10 times. In 1981 the top five in the championship were separated by 7 points, and whilst Reutemann or a Renault should have drove home their advantage, Piquet showed himself the consummate racer to take his 1st title. After a poor 1982 only lifted by a good win in Canada, Piquet won again in 1983. Renault and Ferrari were fastest taking 11/15 poles, and not just by their first drivers. However, Piquet won 3 to Prost's 5, and Arnoux's 3 to take a canny 2nd title. 1984 marked a big disappointment with 9 poles, but only 2 wins, and despite a race win 1985 proved worse. In 1986 Piquet joined Mansell at Williams, losing out to Mansell by 1 point to finish 3rd. After losing to Mansell in Britain at the halfway point Piquet was never again beaten in the points by his rival that season. When they both finished in the points the score for who finished higher stood equal at 4-4. In 1987 he showed his racing ability again, rarely outscoring Mansell (the tally this year being 5-3 to Mansell) when both finished in the points, but taking the title comfortably, albeit helped by Mansell being injured in the penultimate race weekend. It could be argued Mansell slightly had the better of Piquet in their time together and should be here instead, however winning is important, and the ability to take 3 world titles cannot be sniffed at. And despite what some saw as Mansell's domination over Piquet, after their 2 years together it was the Brazilian who left as World Champion. An unsuccessful 2 years at Lotus did little for his career, though he fared better in the 1990 Benetton matching young gun Nannini before his career ending injury. The arrival of Schumacher at Benetton ended his career, but his years with Mansell and Nannini had showed he could compete with an equal driver, even if he didn't like to.

Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 7; Stirling Moss

• Season Points Av. 16.8
• Best Championship Finishes. 2nd (x4), 3rd (x2)
• Avergae Constructor Placing over Career. 2.7
• 16 wins from 16 poles

Moss is known as the unluckiest driver in f1, who despite a great record never won the championship. In 1955 in a Fangio's team he kept the Argentinian great honest and finished 2nd. In 1956 he won 2 races and finished 3 points behind Fangio. In 1957 he won 3 and was again 2nd in the championship. 1958 was his unluckiest year, as he won 4 races and finished one point off the champion, Mike Hawthorn who won only 1 race in his Ferrari. In 1959 he finished 3rd, with 4 poles showing the speed, and wins in Portugal and Italy where he lapped the whole field. 1961 saw him win 2 races in a Lotus vastly inferior to the Ferrari's. Unfortunately a serious crash ended his career in 1962 and prevented him again challenging for the title.

Alan Henry placed Moss 1st in his poll. However, few would contend that when in the same car Fangio outdrove Moss and therefore should be considered the better driver.Unfortunately, whether by bad luck, or loyalty to British machinery Moss never won a title and therefore loses out to others who were either luckier, or engineered better drives for themselves, a vital part of F1.

Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 8; Alberto Ascari

• Season Points Av. 21.4
• Best Championship Finishes. 1st (x2), 2nd (x1)
• Average Constructor Placing over Career. 2.2
• 16 wins from 16 poles

Alberto Ascari was there from the beginning of Formula One. In only the third F1 season an injury kept the great Juan Manuel Fangio out and Ascari pounced on the chance taking pole in five out of seven races, and winning 6 of them excluding Indy. In the next year Ascari took pole in 6/8 races, and won the title with 5 wins. Like alot of contemporaries, F1 started when Ascari was already in his thirties, and therefore he had few years late on in his career to take the title and in the two opportunities that came up he achieved this. He was extremely successful in the pre-F1 era and therefore would have won more than two titles had he had a decade in f1 like many modern drivers. Following years were plagued by retirements. An interesting piece of f1 trivia is that Ascari was extremely superstitious insisting on using his pale blue helmet, the day he died it was not available. He died crashing a Ferrari four days after driving into the water at Monaco, his father had died in a crash four days after an accident. Ascari was only four days older than his father when he died, both 36.

Ultimately, a driver who took his chances when they came and won two world titles in a short Formula One career

Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 9: Emerson Fittipaldi

• Season Points Av. 26
• Best Championship Finishes. 1st (x2), 2nd (x2)
• Average Constructor Placing over Career. 3.7
• 14 wins from 6 poles

In 1970 Fittipaldi won in his debut season, but struggled to make the most of this and move on in the second year. Getting a good car in the Lotus of 1972 he won 5 races and the title in his third season. In 1973, partnered by the super-fast Swede Ronnie Peterson who took nine poles, Fittipaldi won the inner team battle at Lotus to finish second to Jackie Stewart in the Tyrell. Fittipaldi joined Mclaren in 1974, a season in which the Ferrari was the quickest car on the grid with 10/15 poles, yet Fittipaldi won three races against the odds and took the title. In 1975 he stretched his run of top two championship finishes to four consecutive years with 2 wins and four 2nds.

Then at the height of his racing powers he left to start his own team with brother Wilson. These were a series of frustrating and stressful years in which Fittipaldi wound down the last 5 years of his career in a poor car, only alleviated by a podium in his final season in the United States West Grand Prix. This reduces his constructor average to a poor 3.7. It must be considered that given four years in a good car he always finished first or runner up and therefore deserves a place amongst the top ten. After this Emerson went to US racing and achieved considerable success showing that he still had the skill if given the car.

Top Ten Formula One Drivers, 10: Jack Brabham

• Season Points Av. 15.8
• Best Championship Finishes. 1st (x3), 2nd (x1)
• Average Constructor Placing over Career. 3
• 14 wins from 13 poles

After reading Alan Henry's Top F1 Drivers and seeing several internet lists, I have reviewed available footage and season reviews to compile a list, here follows the first in the Top Ten countdown. Just to outline the points, the averages per season will obviously be higher for drivers in seasons with more races, but can be used to compare generationally. In addition the constructor number takes the position in which the team the driver drove for finished each season and averages it over a career to give an indication of the strength of car the driver had on average. Prost and Lauda do not get inside the Top Ten for example, because they should have (in my opinion only) made much more of the cars they had, seen as their average suggests they were almost always in one of the top two cars on the grid. However, issues of who's in or out will be addressed throughout.

Jack Brabham was a highly successful driver who won drivers championships in 1959 and 1960 in Coopers. The 1959 season saw Brabham take two wins from one pole and only one fastest lap all season. Moss suffered a poor early season with DNF's and a DQ, and his 3 poles and wins to finish the season shows what could have been. Yet Brabham did what gets you in history books, finished in the points when not winning to take his first title. In fact this first title came courtesy of him pushing his car over the line to finish fourth in the final GP. 1960 saw a more natural championship victory. In races 4 thru' 8 Brabham notched up five wins from 3 poles. This along with his win to pole stats (14:13) shows him to be a calculated steady racer, rather than the pacier drivers, such as Moss. However, it is Brabham's progress after this second title that puts him above other more expected drivers to fill this tenth spot. In 1962 Brabham set up his own team and raced in his own cars. In his debut season he took home two 4th place finishes. In his second year as a team boss he finished 2nd in Mexico and 3rd in the Constructors championship. Following steady progress Brabham took the drivers and constructors titles in 1966 scoring all the points in both championships, no less remarkable seen as he was 4o years old at the time. In 1967 he beat the supreme Clark to pole twice and won 3 races taking the constructors title and finishing second behind his team-mate in the drivers title, scoring a Brabham one-two. In 69 he scored a pole and several podiums to take second place in the constructors. 1970 was Brabham's final season, in which aged 44 he took a final win at the season opener in South Africa and three other podiums.

Over his career Jack Brabham won three world titles against quicker drivers, such as Hill, Clark and Moss, and therefore deserves his place in the Top Ten. He edges out other similarly crowned champions through the spectacular feat of running his own team, more common then, but also winning his third title in it, something the Fittipaldis or Hill failed to do.