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.
1. Jim Clark
:
Championships 2, GPs contested 75, wins 25
Clark was a softly spoken Scottish farmer, but devastatingly quick and better than Senna.
Don't agree?
Well, here's a few of facts to underscore that. His grands-prix-contested-to-win ratio is almost 1:3 (25 wins from 73 GPs). Senna's is around 1:4 (41 wins from 162 GPs). Clark also took 33 poles - almost half the number of GPs he contested, whereas Senna scored 65 poles - an inferior poles-to-GPs-contested ratio to that of Clark's.
Clark could drive anything quickly: sports cars, touring cars and even rally cars (he was once running second on Rally GB in a Lotus Cortina). He won the Indy 500 and Monaco in an era where drivers regularly got killed. But it was Hockenheim that claimed his life: during F2 testing, his car left the circuit, hit some trees and he was killed instantly. It was not down to driver error - the accident was due to a flat tyre.
