Let's face it, there really was no other candidate for the number one slot. This was also his first win for Ferrari. Throughout the Formula 1 season, it seemed like it was only Max Verstappen who could stop the Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes juggernaut. After winning the first Formula 1 race of the season, Valtteri Bottas was only able to better his teammate Lewis Hamilton on three further occasions. In lap 5 he spun off the track on the back straight with 240 km/h and hit a tree along the track. At the last lap he run out of fuel to finish 3rd. You can see this historical event in the video below. He holds the record of the most amount of F1 driver titles. His teammate at McLaren was the unbelievable talented Ayrton Senna. That wasn’t the only highlight of the Formula 1 season for Gasly, as kept his pace throughout the season to garner points race after race. He will have to take a step up and get McLaren back to its glory days along with Ricciardo. Verstappen's glory moment came in the last Formula 1 race of the season, when he put his Red Bull in pole position and drove fabulously to get a win. He became a 3 times world champion and scored his first podium in his rookie season with an unbelievable drive in a very wet Monaco with a very uncompetitive car. Who did we miss? Total Career Wins: 32 . Another famous British driver in the list; Lewis Hamilton! Here are the 10 best ever Formula 1 drivers. You can see a video of this magical moment below. He wasn't allowed to drive the last race of 1991 in Adelaide and was send home. Howevr, he was outclassed by George Russell, who filled in for Hamilton in the Bahrain Grand Prix. During one of the interviews last year, Hamilton did contemplate retiring and admitted to battling depression too. By: Alex Kalinauckas. With a few regular drivers getting quarantined after contracting the COVID-19 virus, reserve drivers stepped in and belied expectations. Prost also holds the seventh place in the list of the top 10 greatest formula 1 drivers of all time. Formula 1's team bosses have cast their vote for the sport's top-10 drivers of 2020, and the final tally unsurprisingly consecrates this year's world champion, the inevitable Mr. Hamilton. In the last 3 seasons of his career that he drove for Mercedes he didn't win a single race in 58 races. In 1963 he became world champion by winning 7 of the 10 races in that season. The car didn't have brake discs or protection barriers, they even didn't have seat belts! The Frenchmen celebrated his first win in Formula 1 after seeing off a late challenge from Carlos Sainz in the final lap. Fangio is not a name you hear a lot these days and not many fan's of today saw him ever race. Fangio started driving F1 on the age of 39! He also was part of the first ever F1 race held on May 13th 1950 at Silverstone. READ MORE: F1’s team bosses choose their Top 10 drivers of 2019. Sainz says Ferrari progress is the 'million dollar' question until testing, Why this F1 Bahrain test will be different by Peter Windsor, 2021 Williams FW43B F1 Car launch pictures, Mercedes team boss says Verstappen is on their radar for next season. The 1993 German Grand Prix was the last title he won. Verstappen will have an experienced driver this season to help him mount a challenge for the Driver's Championship. All rights reserved. Because Formula 1 was much more dangerous in the early seasons then it is now, that's why the amount of Championship wins cannot weight to much. All those statistics can be seen on each driver page and are comparable. Top 10: Most experienced Formula 1 drivers. Below you can see the last 3 laps of this historical race. He won it by only 1 point difference to Felipe Massa. For sure he was the best qualifier of all time. That led them to endure a lowly sixth-place finish in the Constructors Championship. 05/12/2020 F1. Not only was he consistent with his drives during the season, he was also able to put his Renault car twice on the podium. He was testing a Ferrari sports car to race the Monza 1.000 km race. Who are the biggest and the bravest racing drivers in F1? Bottas tallied the most points in the 2020 Formula 1 Drivers Championship after Lewis Hamilton. This corner is changed in 1972 into a chicane that now holds his name; Variante Ascari. During that race, it seemed Verstappen and Red Bull had more pace during free practice, but Mercedes pulled a rabbit out their hat to streak ahead. At the start of his last race he already had won his 3rd Formula 1 drivers title. He started his F1 career back in 2007 with McLaren and right away scored his first podium in his first race! One of his most memorable rain races was the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix. It took him 6 season to become world champion for the first time in 1985 with McLaren. Looking at the data of the list a few things are very remarkable. By Valentin Khorounzhiy and Edd Straw . However, Max Verstappen had the last laugh in qualifying, putting his Red Bull ahead of Mercedes, before winning the race the next day. Juan Manuel Fangio is still the one to beat and maybe will stay on the first spot for ever. Points were handed out based on F1’s current points system, with the top driver on each list earning 25 points down to one point for the driver in 10th. Jim Clark was Jackie Stewart's hero when he started racing in F1 in 1965. Stewart shared an apartment in London with Jim Clark since 1965 until Clark died. Nevertheless, before leaving McLaren, he and his teammate Lando Norris ensured a third-place finish for the manufacturer in the Constructor’s Championship. He left school at the age of 15 and had no education. At the first race tests for Tyrrell he was fast straight away and even faster then Bruce McLaren. comments . After that 2008 season he stepped up to the Red Bull Racing team, were he scored his 4 F1 drivers titles. The top 10 F1 Virtual GP drivers. With this formula you get a very clean percentage of the amount of success a drivers scored during his Formula 1 career and who is the best driver of all time. The lists were then combined to create an overall top 10 and there was one name who dominated the top of the charts. His best finish that season was a 4th place in China. 2001-2021 © F1-Fansite.com. He won 2 F1 driver titles with Benetton and 5 with Ferrari. He just missed it with 1 point! In 1965 Clark won the British Grand Prix for the 4th time in a row, became world championship winner for the second time and also won the Indianapolis 500 race by a never seen 2 laps lead on the second place finisher. F1 . Latest news. However, Charles Leclerc was a rare bright spark for the embattled Ferrari. However, he made too many mistakes and fell behind in the early stages of race. No Comments. He drove the car like none else and showed the world why he deserved to be the champion again. We all will be witnesses of how many he will win. In fact only 2 Italians ever won the Formula 1 drivers title. He followed that up with a fifth-place finish in the Styrian Grand Prix. By: Jan Sergeant. If nothing bad's happens to Hamilton he will go on to win more drivers titles. He drove the pace-lacking Ferrari as best he could, putting up some stunning qualifying drives. 3 spot of this list with a score of 36,6%! With Daniel Ricciardo as his new teammate, Lando Norris will have to push further and become more consistent. After scoring his first points in Formula 1, Russell will look to cook up something special for the upcoming season for Williams Racing under a new management and team ownership. He had to retire his Alfa Romeo due to an oil leak. via Motor Authority. He was friends with Jim Clark. With a few regular drivers getting quarantined after contracting the COVID-19 virus, reserve drivers stepped in and belied expectations. Here you can see a video with onboard footage of Juan Manuel Fangio driving for the Ferrari in Monaco back in 1956: During his F1 career Fangio drove at 4 different teams. He never finished 3rd and drove the least amount of races of the whole list, because he died at the age of 36. After Mercedes made the blunder with George Russell's tires, Sergio Perez was there to capitalise and win his first Formula 1 race. As a decade of F1 racing comes to a close. This first race was held on the 13th of May 1950 and was driven on the Silverstone circuit. The car he tested skidded unexpectedly in the high speed left-hander the Curva del Vialone. As part of a deal with Red Bull he entered Formula One as a test driver for Scuderia Toro Rosso and made his debut with the HRT team at the 2011 British Grand Prix. This famous brand will be part of F1 again in 2018 with Sauber. The other one is number 2 on our list Alberto Ascari. After his teammate Francois Cevert died during qualifying he decided to not drive the last race of his career. Farina also won the first ever Formula 1 grand prix race. In 1968 he broke the record of the most wins of any driver ever before with 25 wins in 72 starts. Now Sainz will look to replicate similar, or perhaps better, performances with Ferrari to help them come out of the slump they are in. Almost all drivers on the list are multiple F1 driver champs. Ascari died during a test session on the Italian Monza circuit on 26th of May 1955. It seemed he had a slow puncture that caused him to skid of the track. After the COVID-19 outbreak last year, many sports - including Formula 1 - mulled suspending their entire seasons. A star was born in the Bahrain Grand Prix, when Mercedes asked George Russell to fill in for Lewis Hamilton, who was out due to a positive COVID-19 test. Perez, however, believed in himself and kept chipping away up the grid. But maybe other and more factors are just as important. Some drivers shone, others struggled, so without further ado, we present our top-10 list of the F1 drivers of 2020. Prost won the Formula One Drivers' Championship four times in 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1993. Sebastian Vettel is famous for his very smooth driving style and the finger. British driver Jim Clark holds position 3. So that's the only statistic we are looking at to compile this list of top-10 greatest F1 drivers. One of Senna's most famous video's is the first lap on a wet Donnington circuit in 1993. Article continues under video. If anyone could stop Lewis Hamilton, it had to be his teammate driving the same car as the British driver. Prost was clever and fast and had some fears battles with Senna. He was able to extract the maximum out of his Red Ferrari when 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was struggling to put his car in striking distance of scoring. Each year, the F1 World Championship season is held. And please subscribe to our video channel by clicking on the link here and hitting the 'subscribe' button you will see on the page. After this performance, Red Bull did not hesitate to replace Alex Albon with Sergio Perez to team up with Max Verstappen. shares . He is the only driver together with Schumacher and Fangio who won 5 or more drivers championships. He for sure would have made life much more difficult for Fangio. The top 10 F1 drivers of the 2020 season: 3 - SERGIO PEREZ > Next. We all know this incredible racer. He didn't compete in 1952 because his team Alfa Romeo was not allowed to use their supercharged Alfettas under the new regulations of that season. Minardi, Jaguar, Williams, Red Bull. Because Kimi Raikkonen lead the race, Hamilton needed to finish 5th to win the drivers championship. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. As the 2000s decade concludes, Tony Dodgins compiles his top 10 Formula 1 drivers of the last 10 years. Many people say he is the best driver ever, but his statics show he had to many retirements to be the best driver. Today we have about 795 names of F1 drivers that ever took part in a Formula 1 race. He did everything in his power to make Williams team earn their first points of the Formula 1 season. With a success score of 50% Juan Manuel Fangio dominates this list by far. Carlos Sainz was also at the heart of the drivers' merry-go-round during the year. Stewart began Formula 1 racing at the age of 26 and is dyslectic. When you look at our all the F1 drivers Top 100 list, there are a lot of drivers who stand out from the crowd. This racing legend started F1 in 1960 at Lotus and stayed there until his last race in 1968. He also was an extremely talented driver. It will be intriguing to see Pierre pairing up with young Yuki Tsunoda, who was promoted to Formula One from Formula Two, and build on a promising 2020 campaign. For sure all the drivers who won a drivers championship or a race, scored their credits to be in this top 10 ranking. With 13 different drivers stepping onto the podium and two new winners gracing the top step over the 17-race schedule, there was no shortage of intrigue, despite the title race being decided with three races to … Below you can see on Stewart win the 1969 British Grand Prix driving the Matra. His Mercedes comeback only gave him one podium at Valencia. Top 10 Best F1 Drivers 10 Daniel Ricciardo. There has been no doubt about how talented Daniel Riccardo is behind a wheel. Top 10 Best F1 Drivers of All Time: Discover Formula 1's GOAT! With the help of our friends at Motorsport Stats, we list down the 10 drivers with most grand prix appearances in … His most interesting seasons were in 1988 and 1989. The list below shows the top 10 best formula 1 drivers of all time. Jason Barlow. Everyone remembers that magnificent drive by Pierre Gasly at the Italian Formula 1 Grand Prix, where he put his AlphaTauri on the poll after capitalising on the misfortunes of others. He started his F1 career at the age of 43 and drove 33 races and scored 20 podiums. The Argentine driver tops this list by 8% to runner up Alberto Ascari. Daniel Joseph Ricciardo is an Australian racing driver who currently competes for the Renault F1 Team in Formula One. He did everything right in the race till the Mercedes pit crew messed up, putting Valtteri Bottas' tires on Russell's car, a gaffe that cost Russel his first ever win in Formula 1. He also was the first foreign winner of the Indianapolis 500 since 1916. Nobody knows what his total records would be if he didn't had this fatal crash. Top ten Formula 1 drivers in 2020. He won the very wet Belgian grand prix by a lead of over 5 minutes on the 2nd place finisher ! Formula 1’s condensed but rapid-fire 17-race 2020 Formula 1 season has come to an end. His performance against Max Verstappen at the start of the year was subpar, and it was perhaps understandable why the team demoted him from Red Bull. Domination like this was never seen before. Sir Jackie Stewart is our last but not least on our top 10 list. The difficult thing in comparing all those drivers of different eras is the fact, that the overall drivers safety has changed a lot in racing and is very much a factor in the total success of a driver. and drove the first 8 F1 seasons of Formula 1. It displays 3 drivers of the 50,'s and even shows 2 drivers of the current formula 1. Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc, on his part, will hope for a better car to return the legendary manufacturer to the top of the Constructor’s Championship. To mark the end of the campaign, The Race has compiled its ranking of the top 10 drivers of F1 2020. We were made to wait for it, but the 2020 Formula 1 season eventually delivered the goods. He raced for 4 different teams. Lewis Hamilton has a few favourite tracks, he won the Canadian GP 6 times, the British, Hungarian and USA GP 5 times. Hamilton did an outstanding drive in 2019 and scored his 6th title and added 17 podiums to his F1 career with 11 wins, 4 second places, 2 third places, 5 poles and 6 fastest laps. One of the biggest names in F1, Lewis Hamilton is a British race-car driver who boasts great success. Sep 4, 2010 . He did an amazing job by finishing 2nd in rookie championship and even beat his highly regarded teammate Fernando Alonso. Nevertheless, he remains a huge favourite to win a record eighth Drivers Championship this year. But if he just would have stayed home after his last 2006 F1 season for Ferrari, he would have been on the no. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel and all legendary names like Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher. Australian Daniel Ricciardo made a promise to his Renault boss Cyrile Abiteboul that he would bring a podium to Renault, something the manufacturer has been lacking since 2011. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri struggled to keep up with the Brit on each race day even after getting pole in qualifying on a few occasions. Sergio Perez. Lewis Hamilton matched the great Michael Schumacher by winning a record-equalling seventh world title way before the season was over. In 1990 and 1991 Prost drove for Ferrari but was ousted at the end of the season because he was very negative about his car. That's an unbelievable rating of over 40%! He won the race for Alfa Romeo. This article is updated right after the 2020 F1 season was finished. Alain Prost is maybe to most underestimated driver of this list and the only French driver. Just like Senna, Schumacher also was a rain master. Ascari and Fangio where fears competitors. This British team was the only team that won right away in the first season it competed in. He retired his car in 50 occasions and 19 of them where because of an accident. Because he was always driving at the limit he often spun off the track or had an accident. He died in the ambulance on his way to the hospital. Yes, one could argue that he was driving the best car on the grid, but a car is often as good as its driver. Jun 17 2020 . It's the question where it's all about in racing. He almost got F1 drivers champion in his rookie season! After the 2019 season and according to the formula described above we get the the following result: This list shows the Top 10 F1 drivers list with a few surprises. However tumultuous their lives have been off track, drivers of a certain calibre are renowned for immense skill, determination and […] In 1953 Ascari also won the drivers championship with Ferrari and Fangio got second for Maserati. Being a teammate with 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is not easy. One of the greatest moments in his career was when he won his first drivers title for Ferrari in 2000. Before that race, Russell had performed exceptionally with an underperforming Williams car, which he put in contention to score points. Sainz was not too far behind Gasly and could have won that race if there were a few more laps remaining. 1. It took him 5 season to win his first of three drivers titles. Gasly is fairly far down on this list thanks to how he lost his Red Bull drive in mid-2019. Dec 29, 2020, 4:06 PM. Even after deciding to part ways with his team mid-season when McLaren came calling, he did not forget the promise he made to his Team principal when he joined. This is not simply a ranking of the best 10 drivers overall, but judged based on their performances in 2020 alone relative to the potential of their machinery. RELATED: 10 Every Day Cars Of Formula 1's Top Drivers. This talented Italian driver was the first driver who won the very first Formula 1 drivers championship back in 1950. By: Jan Sergeant. He showed his skill and regained the lead. Jochen Rindt tribute: Le Mans 1965 . Trending. Top Gear's definitive list of F1's greatest ever racers. More; The eight-race F1 Virtual GP campaign will be but a distant memory by the time the actual 2020 Formula 1 season wraps up, and its results are almost certainly not going to impact the real-life championship in any meaningful way.