Top 10 Best F1 Driver of All Time

10. Jack Brabham

Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE (born 2 April 1926) is an Australian former racing driver who was Formula One champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966. He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.

Brabham was a Royal Australian Air Force flight mechanic and ran a small engineering workshop before he started racing midget cars in 1948. His successes in midgets and Australian and New Zealand road racing events led to him going to the United Kingdom to further his racing career. There he became part of the Cooper Car Company's racing team, building as well as racing cars. He contributed to the design of the mid-engined cars that Cooper introduced to Formula One and the Indianapolis 500, and won the Formula One world championship in 1959 and 1960. In 1962 he established his own Brabham marque with fellow Australian Ron Tauranac, which became the largest manufacturer of customer racing cars in the world in the 1960s. In 1966 Brabham became the only man to win the Formula One world championship driving one of his own cars.

Brabham retired to Australia after the 1970 Formula One season, where he bought a farm and maintained various business interests, which included the Engine Developments racing engine manufacturer and several garages. He is the oldest surviving Formula One world champion.

Jack Brabham, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem

9. Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior born August 17, 1952), known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in 1981, 1983 and 1987. He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna (3 each), Alain Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio, and Michael Schumacher. In 1983, he became the only driver to win the F1 championship in a BMW engined car.

Nelson piquet, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem

8. Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari (13 July 1918 – 26 May 1955) was an Italian racing driver and twice Formula One World Champion. He is one of only two Italian Formula One World Champions in the history of the sport, and the only one winning his two championships in a Ferrari.

Alberto Ascari, source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maserati_4clt_48.jpg

7. Niki Lauda

Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (born February 22, 1949 in Vienna) is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver and three-time F1 World Champion. More recently an aviation entrepreneur, he has founded and run two airlines and was manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years.

Niki Lauda, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem.

6. Sir Jackie Stewart

Sir John Young Stewart, OBE (born 11 June 1939), better known as Jackie Stewart, and nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, is a Scottish former racing driver and team owner. He competed in Formula One between 1965 and 1973, winning three World Drivers' Championships. He also competed in Can-Am. He is well known in the United States as a color commentator of racing television broadcasts, and as a spokesman for Ford, where his Scottish accent made him a distinctive presence. Between 1997 and 1999, in partnership with his son, Paul, he was team principal of the Stewart Grand Prix Formula One racing team. In 2009 he was ranked fifth of the fifty greatest Formula One drivers of all time by journalist Kevin Eason who wrote: "He has not only emerged as a great driver, but one of the greatest figures of motor racing."

Jackie Stewart, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem

5. Jim Clark

James "Jim" (or "Jimmy") Clark, Jr. OBE (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British Formula One racing driver from Scotland, who won two World Championships, in 1963 and 1965.

Clark was a versatile driver who competed in sports cars, touring cars and in the Indianapolis 500, which he won in 1965. He was particularly associated with the Lotus marque.

He was killed in a Formula Two motor racing accident in Hockenheim, Germany in 1968. At the time of his death, he had won more Grand Prix races (25) and achieved more Grand Prix pole positions (33) than any other driver. The Times recently placed Clark at the top of a list of the greatest Formula One drivers.

Jim Clark, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem.

4. Alain Prost

Alain Marie Pascal Prost, OBE, Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (born 24 February 1955 in Lorette, Loire) is a French racing driver. A four-time Formula One Drivers' Champion, Prost has won more titles than any driver except for Juan Manuel Fangio (five championships), and Michael Schumacher (seven championships). From 1987 until 2001 Prost held the record for most Grand Prix victories. Schumacher surpassed Prost's total of 51 victories at the 2001 Belgian Grand Prix. In 1999, Prost received the World Sports Awards of the Century in the motor sport category alongside all-time greats like Pelé, Muhammed Ali, Carl Lewis and Steffi Graf.

Alain Prost, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem.

3. Juan Manuel Fangio 

Juan Manuel Fangio (June 24, 1911 – July 17, 1995), nicknamed El Chueco ("knock-kneed") or El Maestro ("The Master"), was a racing car driver from Argentina, who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing. He won five Formula One World Drivers' Championships — a record which stood for 46 years until eventually beaten by Michael Schumacher — with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati), a feat that has not been repeated since. Many still consider him to be one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time.[2] He has the highest winning percentage in Formula One, 46.15%, compared to Schumacher's 33.83% at the end of the 2010 season.

He is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, having won it four times in his career.

Juan Manuel Fangio 1986, Fotograf: Lothar Spurzem. 

2. Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna da Silva 21 March 1960 – 1 May 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He was killed in a crash while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix and is the last driver to die at the wheel of a Formula One car.

Senna began his motorsport career in karting, moving up to open-wheel racing in 1981 and winning the British Formula 3 championship in 1983. He made his Formula One debut with Toleman-Hart in 1984 before moving to Lotus-Renault the following year and winning six Grands Prix over the next three seasons. In 1988, he joined Frenchman Alain Prost at McLaren-Honda. Between them, they won all but one of the sixteen Grands Prix that year and Senna his first World Championship. Prost claimed the championship in 1989 and Senna his second and third championships in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, the Williams-Renault combination began to dominate Formula One. Senna nonetheless managed to finish the 1993 season as runner-up, winning five races and negotiating a move to Williams in 1994.

Ayrton Senna, source: http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/ File:AyrtonSennaAtHockheimGP1993-2.jpg

1. Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher; born 3 January 1969) is a German Formula One racing driver for the Mercedes GP team. Famous for his eleven-year spell with Ferrari, Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. He holds many of the formula's driver records, including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored and most races won in a single season – 13 in 2004. In 2002 he became the only driver in Formula One history to finish in the top three in every race of a season and then also broke the record for most consecutive podium finishes. According to the official Formula One website he is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen".

Michael Schumacher, credit: Rick Dikeman

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org