Words by: Tim Bowdler
Photos by: Getty Images
Motorsport magazine F1 Racing has revealed the top 100 grand prix drivers, voted for by its readers.
Now, here's the thing. Lewis Hamilton came in at number 15, ahead of fellow Brits Graham Hill (18), Damon Hill (19), James Hunt (20), John Surtees (26) and Mike Hawthorn (53) - all of whom were F1 world champions.
So, has Hamilton-mania gone overboard? Surely it's a bit early to start putting a bloke, who has only done one season of F1, alongside multiple world champions?
We have every right to celebrate Hamilton - he's a Brit after all - but who is the best home-grown driver ever? Here's our take.
10. Mike Hawthorn
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Championships 1, GPs contested 47, wins 3
Mike Hawthorn was the first Brit to win an F1 world championship. He will never be as revered as Stirling Moss, but Moss never took the title. It's like comparisons between Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Greaves - Greaves was, arguably, the greatest English goalscorer of all time, but Hurst scored a hat-trick in the World Cup Final.
Hawthorn wasn't prolific - he only won three races - but he beat the best, including Juan-Manuel Fangio. He also won Le Mans the year a Mercedes crashed into the crowds and killed more than 80 people. For a while Hawthorn was blamed for the accident.
Hawthorn retired shortly after the death of Ferrari team-mate Peter Collins at the Nurburgring - he'd lost the appetite for racing - but the horrible irony is that at only 29 years old, he was killed after his Jaguar road car spun in the wet on the Guildford bypass.
