Is this list in no particular order? It must be. Why else would Mika Hakkinen be above Michael Schumacher?

What about the list of top 100 whiney F1 drivers who write protest letters to Bernie on Flowered Stationary and then get a hot rock massage to calm down???????

Hmmmm, move Fangio above Prost and move Hakkinen down to about 50 or so and call it done.

Yay Moss.

Didn't we do something like this recently?

I love Jenson Button but...

No way in hell he's better than Bruce Mclaren, Alboreto, Irvine, Piers Courage and Brian Redman.

Cheever got robbed.

@Andrewpetty: Why else would Mika Hakkinen be above Michael Schumacher?

Because the team ordered Hakkinen to win?

Ridiculous, top to bottom.

A driver who never won a championship, the first? Fangio, sixth? Schumacher, eleventh? Choke artist, only one season under his belt, Hamilton, above two-time champion Alonso?

Laughable.

This was an era where you could actually see the drivers work. Although Stirling made it look easy; it wasn't.

BTW. Is Sir Stirling in a wheelchair? Have I missed something lately?

That Stirling link to Davey's work.....I'm okay, just got something in my eye...

Ralf Schumacher?!?!!? Ahahahaha. He shouldn't even be allowed to buy the book, let alone be on the list. And I would switch Rosemeyer and M. Schumacher. The point about him dictating race strategy and teammates is fair, but 7 championships is 7 championships.

@CafeRacer1200: i was wondering the same thing. i was surprised to see phil hill having parkinsons. it was a treat seeing him drive (very quickly) in an old Ferrari F1 car at Laguna Seca a couple years back.

I'd put Lauda ahead of Brabham, but what I find very sad about this list is how many great drivers died at the wheel. I guess that could be further testament to Moss leading this list as both a great and prudent driver.

@vwminispeedster:
These guys were immortal when I was a little kid. They were my dad's and my uncle's heroes. Now, they're old men with old men's issues. Sigh.

I can see how these lists are controversial, but this guy who compiled it is on crack. Button and Truli have no business being on this list.

How is Fangio not first, if not in the top 3?!

@beercheck: That link nearly spurred me on to reread all of Davey's old work for the, what is it, fifth time now? Maybe I'll just reread Bumbeck for the fourth time instead.

Anyone who died of racing is not good....obviously...count them out

Fangio in 6th, below Ascari?!? Schumacher 11th? 12 World Championships between them and they can't even crack the top 5? What a joke. As the first commenter suggested, this list must be in no particular order.

To put Moss first is just silly. A legendary great he was, but the best F1 driver of all time? I don't think so.

Martin Brundle?

Johnny Servoz-Gavin?

The publisher must have switched the top 100 list with "Famous F1 Drivers and Some Other Random Guys" by mistake.

@JantheMan:

Holy crap, man! You can't be serious! When you look at the non-existent safety consideration, the deplorable track conditions and the primitive equipment these men drove with, it's not that SOME of them died, it's more a case of why didn't they all? There are LOTS of drivers now, including Schumacher, Hakkinen, etc. that would not have survived similar accidents in the 50's and 60's. Men like Rosemeyer and Peter Collins were brave to a level that modern drivers can't fathom. I'm just boggled at your logic.

That Alan Henry guy is not British is he? Moss #1, you've got to be kidding me! The guy never won the championship. Anyone else remember when he crashed the Aston Martin at Laguna Seca Historics?

Hakkinen above Schumacher is just plain stupid.

Chris Amon is 13th. Any coincidence there?

I simply fail to understand how someone who never won a championship could be #1. Nuvolari is turning in his grave, for sure.

And the book isn't even titled correctly. According to the list (with many prewar drivers included), it should be "The Top 100 Greatest Grand Prix Drivers of All Time". "Formula One" refers to 1950 and beyond. Get the facts straight!

Chris Amon was a good talent, but having someone who never won a grand prix in 13th ahead of multiple world champions is just criminal.

The absurdity of this list forced me to register and comment. I was happy being a jalopnik lurker (jalurker?), but this list just took me at gunpoint and told me I must comment. Of course now it wants me to go to an ATM...

@beercheck: IIRC, that picture was taken at Goodwood two years ago. Sir Stirling had just received a hip replacement.

As for the list, one racing board I frequent absolutely demolished it although you'll find many people who agree with the top four or five. Dennis Jenkinson, a man who attended more than 600 Grand Prix in his lifetime as Motorsport's racing correspondant (and knew what the hell he talked about), rated Clark on top followed by Senna, Moss, Ascari and Gilles Villeneuve.

@JantheMan:
Addendum:
By your logic, the fact that I survived club racing motorcycles makes me a better racer than Senna? Not a chance in Hell.

Don't know if it goes on the coffee table, but i sure enough am gonna read it.

@CafeRacer1200: Sir Stirling was off his feet from surgery, but he's generally mobile.

Clearly the worst list of its kind. Hamilton has no right being there above so many great drivers. One season does not make you the best, he shouldnt even be on the list until a few seasons in F1. Further, this list should be titled "the top F1 drivers as rated by a biased, old man who obviously hasnt watched F1 since the 70s, and only started watching again because of Hamilton". Niki Lauda at 20????????? The guy pretty much died and was back in the seat 3 weeks later to fight for a championship. This makes me believe he clearly has an aversion to ferrari drivers, and the fact that jaques villenueve is on the list is pathetic (and im Canadian to boot). This list is a "my fav" lost more then anything. MS should be at least top 3, as no one in ANY sport had acheived that domination or consistancy ever before. I guess i could go on forever about this list, but truly among the worst ever comprised...

7x champion Michael Schumacher is on the list behind Mikka Häkkinen? And if Ralf Schumacher can make the list, then why not Takuma Sato since it seems the author was just pulling names out of a hat anyway? And chokemeister Hamilton above proven 2x champion Alonso? Well done Sparky!

@desmo: i agree mostly with desmo. Hamilton does not belong yet, especially considering Alonso has won two (2) world championships. I enjoyed watching JV and agree with him being on the list. He was the only one who had to beat MS and his loser team mate Eddie Irvine-who coincidentally is on the list(?). That alone is a load of bs. The only other driver that has beat MS is Alonso

Lists like this serve only one purpose: To invite comments on websites like this.

worst list of anything, ever!

So, you guys don't like the list?

How old is this Alan Henry joker? It looks like he was a fan in the mid 1960's, so he put his favorites from his era at the top. In his mind, the new kids (like Schumacher, Hakkinen - no difference between those two) aren't that good and the old guys (Ascari, Fangio) weren't all that great.

His analysis isn't supported by the facts.

@HansStuckJr: Switching Rosemeyer with Schumacher highlights the absurdity of this list. Rosemeyer drove a widowmaker. Schumacher did not. Would either have performed as well in their different eras? Perhaps, but who can say?

Still it's fun to make lists/read lists/trash lists.

Dont let the accent fool you, Sir Stirling Moss is so bad ass his name should be a verb.

Ralf and Jenson? WTF?

Nigel Mansell is 31st and Mika Häkkinen is 10th.

Hmm...

I say, this list has NO credibility.

@CafeRacer1200: No of course not. F1 is the best thing their is and I am a old F1 clip junkie...loved the the turbo era...and I am a big fan of the late Ronnie Peterson.

Sterling Moss was my boyhood hero, but he was no Fangio or Nuvolari!

This is so ridiculous. As an F1 fan (stop throwing beer cans!) I can't believe that this could be treated as anything other than fodder to get people to read this book. If you take away Schumacher's "contract" passes (and Ralph is there WHY?!) He maybe wins 1 less world championship, and 5 less races, so umm that still gives him 86 wins, and 6 world championships, no one even comes close except Fangio (who by the way is stupidly 6th!)

The dearly departed are difficult to list, many of them like Cevert, and Nuvolari were clearly fast, and tragically taken, yet, neither completed what many would consider a lengthy stay in F1 to say the least.

Additionally, many drivers are listed high whereas they don't have a world championship (I'm a little Jody Scheckter biased, maybe its cause my name is different by a letter,, but he still won a championship).

I'm sure the pictures are nice,, but there's no way I'm getting the book!

I think it's worth mentioning that Sir Stirling's peculiarly British sense of fair play meant that he usually drove for low-budget privateer teams like Rob Walker Racing; his only big-money rides were the all-conquering Mercedes-Benzes of the '50s. This is a guy who took a Formula 2 Cooper with a Coventry Climax engine (down half a liter on the competition) and won an F1 race in it... and since the Cooper lacked center-lock wheels, meaning tire changes were prohibitively time consuming, he did it on one set of tires. I agree that this list might be a little skewed (who the hell put Ralf Schumacher on the list, let alone ahead of Wolfgang Von Trips?), but to complain about Moss never winning a championship is to completely overlook his talents.

@smokeydog001: In an interview with Classic Motorsports magazine, Brian Redman said that the drivers of the immediate prewar era were the toughest men ever to take the wheel in anger. He may be right--anyone with the balls to drive a 500HP Auto-Union with skinny tires and swing-axles has my respect.

Oh, and Michael Schumacher loses points for being a douchebag. Real champions don't win races by running their opponents off the track.

@DSwig:
fangio doesn{t qualify as a "driver"...
because he was a "driving god"...

this ranking is an insult!!!!

my personal top 3:

1)Fangio
2)Senna
3)Stirling Moss

Everyone is clearly upset here... let's all calm down and focus on the task at hand: a good #71 Dick Seaman joke.

@Armand4:

Armand, I disagree. I don't think anyone is suggesting that Sir Stirling was anything less than a spectacular shoe in his day (prior to his '62 Goodwood accident). His Mille Miglia '55 performance was the stuff of legend (side note: he was high), as were his successes at the Nurburgring and other endurance events. He proved his skill in a vast variety of racing machines (Doug Nye wrote a great book about this, I forget the title)

As for his "British sense of fair play", well, I think you're phrased this wrong. He definitely had a sense of British nationalism, often choosing to compete in relatively uncompetitive British cars. But fair play? Have you ever been to the Monterey Historics?

On a lighter note...

"Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?"

@middlejester: Well we obviously have enough passion here. I'm gonna get a copy to read, just so I can see how's and why's. If I agreed with everything in it, there would be no need to read it.