the greatest driver ever is?

  • Thread starter steveninthematrix
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steveninthematrix

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schumacher?
senna?
prost?
mansell?
m andretti?
fangio?
clark?
g hill?
 
Schumacher is good, no doubt about that, but I'm just not sure that he would be where he is these days had Ayrton Senna not been killed. But then again, that will always be debated. I'll give my vote to Senna.
 
buckaroo said:
Schumacher is good, no doubt about that, but I'm just not sure that he would be where he is these days had Ayrton Senna not been killed. But then again, that will always be debated. I'll give my vote to Senna.
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Ditto that from me, buckaroo. ;)
 
brazilian GP 1994, MS pushes senna, senna spins off after lap 21, pacific gp 1994, senna spins off after lap 1, imola GP, senna pushes hard after a restart and is killed... MS was driving an underpowered V8. MS is just That good!
 
How can we debate this question when there are instances wherein one driver excelled in a particular type of car (formula one) while only a few drove various style race cars on assorted surfaces and at different shaped facilities doing well in each situation ?????

There is only one driver who won and posted championships in nearly every venue.
Mario Andretti became Formula 1 World Title champion 1978, has won four championship in both USAC and CART, is a Daytona 500 winner, won the Indy 500 in 1969, Pikes Peak winner, won numerous races in both sportsman and modified stock cars, midgets and sprint cars, and has so many other awards and championships to numerous to mention here.

Mario raced against the greatest and best and beat them all at their own game and on their own turf.
Schumacher is good, as are the others, but until they accomplish what Andretti has done, they are the greatest driver only in the series in which they excell.
If there were a legitimate method to compare the drivers of today against those of yesteryear with any accuracy, my money and vote would have to go to Mario Andretti.
 
Have to agree about Mario, but, my sentimental fav is Nigel Mansell.
I was going through a very serious medical problem In the early 90's, and one of the technicians I had to visit pretty regularly was a Nigel fan. We got to talking about F-1 and Nigel. From that time on, I loved Nigel.
It always seemed to me that Senna had some kind of vendetta against Nigel and wrecked him in nearly every race they were both in. Nigel got pretty upset after one encounter with Senna that wrecked Nigel's car, and Nigel signaled his chopper and just left!!!
got a huge laff outta me for that one. But, I saw Nigel on Dave Despain's show one night. He claims nothing but respect for Senna as a racer. That impressed me too.
 
No question about Nigel being a great racer, and for that matter, a gentleman. Always liked the man and wondered why he didn't go further than he did.

This thread is like those questions about who was the best baseball team, or football team, or the like. It's always fun to try to compare different drivers from different times, but we can never know who among them were truely the best. I think it's safe to say that most of those listed were the top of the top in their time and that's what's important.

Whiz, using your logic, it would be safe to say that Kenny Schrader is a better driver than Dale Earnhardt was, simply because of the various types of cars that he's won while driving. It takes a very special person to be able to drive different types of racing cars, and even more special for that driver to be a champion/winner. Maybe in Mario's case, you have a good case, but you just can't use that logic overall in my opinion.
 
Whizzer said:
How can we debate this question when there are instances wherein one driver excelled in a particular type of car (formula one) while only a few drove various style race cars on assorted surfaces and at different shaped facilities doing well in each situation ?????

There is only one driver who won and posted championships in nearly every venue.
Mario Andretti became Formula 1 World Title champion 1978, has won four championship in both USAC and CART, is a Daytona 500 winner, won the Indy 500 in 1969, Pikes Peak winner, won numerous races in both sportsman and modified stock cars, midgets and sprint cars, and has so many other awards and championships to numerous to mention here.

Mario raced against the greatest and best and beat them all at their own game and on their own turf.
Schumacher is good, as are the others, but until they accomplish what Andretti has done, they are the greatest driver only in the series in which they excell.
If there were a legitimate method to compare the drivers of today against those of yesteryear with any accuracy, my money and vote would have to go to Mario Andretti.
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I agree with you Whizzer. It would be hard to not think of Mario as the best of all the drivers. His record speaks for itself.
 
Thinking about this a bit more, I have come to question a few things that have been written. First off, why would the ability of any driver that can drive different types of vehicles make him the best in any of those categories? Let's face it, Kenny Schrader would not be considered the best of the best in any of the different series that he has competed in, but his ability should never be questioned. I mean in what series would anyone consider him the very best? How about AJ Foyt? He has shown himself to be a champion in autoracing, but probably the only series that anyone would realisticaly call him one of the best of the best would be USAC/CART. What brings to mind is that fact that it takes a total commitment of the mind to totally dominate something, and when one decides to dilute it with other series, that in itself can dilute the success. Mario was no doubt a champion where he drove, well at least he was an F1 champ and a USAC/CART champ, but at what level? Would anyone for example say that Mario was better in a USAC/CART car than say Johnny Rutherford? How about Rick Mears? AJ Foyt? Though Mario spent most of his racing life competing against those particular drivers, they won more titles in that series than he did. Still, he was and will always be a Champ. To me, the thought that Mario was better than Shumacher or Senna isn't even close. Now had he spent his entire racing carreer competing against those guys and consistently beating them, then I would consider it. But such is not the case. If one were to ask the question, who is the best overall driver of all time, then that is when I would seriously consider Mario Andretti. Until then, Mario is a one time champ that will fall in line with any number of one time champs in the F1 series.
 
buckaroo said:
Thinking about this a bit more, I have come to question a few things that have been written. First off, why would the ability of any driver that can drive different types of vehicles make him the best in any of those categories? Let's face it, Kenny Schrader would not be considered the best of the best in any of the different series that he has competed in, but his ability should never be questioned. I mean in what series would anyone consider him the very best? How about AJ Foyt? He has shown himself to be a champion in autoracing, but probably the only series that anyone would realisticaly call him one of the best of the best would be USAC/CART. What brings to mind is that fact that it takes a total commitment of the mind to totally dominate something, and when one decides to dilute it with other series, that in itself can dilute the success. Mario was no doubt a champion where he drove, well at least he was an F1 champ and a USAC/CART champ, but at what level? Would anyone for example say that Mario was better in a USAC/CART car than say Johnny Rutherford? How about Rick Mears? AJ Foyt? Though Mario spent most of his racing life competing against those particular drivers, they won more titles in that series than he did. Still, he was and will always be a Champ. To me, the thought that Mario was better than Shumacher or Senna isn't even close. Now had he spent his entire racing carreer competing against those guys and consistently beating them, then I would consider it. But such is not the case. If one were to ask the question, who is the best overall driver of all time, then that is when I would seriously consider Mario Andretti. Until then, Mario is a one time champ that will fall in line with any number of one time champs in the F1 series.
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Exactly where does Kenny Schrader come into the equation. Are we voting for the nicest guy or greatest driver. Has Kenny won "ANY" championship in a major racing series.
 
The whole question here goes back to why some people think that Mario Andretti is the greatest ever and their reasoning is that he was a champion in more than one series. I was comparing Mario to Kenny in that respect, not to say that Kenny is or was in the same league, but there could be a good argument there using the same argument. I'm just saying that if you think that Mario is the greatest ever, that's fine, but to use the argument that he is the greatest F1 driver ever because he didn't just drive and win in F1 cars is silly.

As far as I'm concerned, many greats are great for two reasons and if they don't fufill both reasons, they won't be nearly as great. First of all, they have to be overly talented, and second of all, they must be in the best of equipment. The best driver driving a soso car will never get the numbers he could if given the chance with the best equipment. And a soso driver in the best equipment will never get the numbers a better driver could. Often, but not always, the champs drive the best equipment available, and in F1, teams rules also apply. Which brings me to Kenny Schrader...nah, I won't go there because I only believe that he is a talented soso driver. :)

And while I'm at it, and sorry if this is thread drift, but it still goes to the reasoning of the best, or in this instance, a great driver, take the case of Alan Kulwiki. Here's a guy who won a championship for the simple reason that he was smarter than Junior Johnson and Bill Elliott. Many people claim that he is a one of the greatest drivers in his series, but other than outsmarting his rivals for that championship, he didn't win very many races. What I'm trying to say here is that most people seem to use their hearts when talking about the best instead of using their minds, in other words, popularity takes a big role in ones dicision.
 
Though he's not listed, I'll say A J Foyt is the greatest driver ever.
 
Hi; i know this is a f-1 column; but i think the greatest driver is # 11 STEVE KING KINSER of bloomington indiana
 
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