Wheel Men...Drivers of the Lotus 49

[Lou Drozdowski]

Time lapse... British GP 1969

I wonder what Ronnie was thinking?

Poised to make the jump from F3 into F1, a young Peterson wanders over to the Lotus mechanics to get a better glimpse at the workings of the 49. I'm sure Colin noticed his presence, as a future star and works driver he was to hire some three years later.

[BDA]

I love these old pictures! It's so incongruous to see people working on a Formula One car in conditions no better or worse than when I was club racing!

I'll bet you're right that Chunky had been watching Ronnie for a while!

[Bainford]

Cool photos, Lou. Interesting scene.

[Lou Drozdowski]

The definition of class...Rob Walker

Mostly mid field runners due to under funding, the Walker led team was always considered a first class operation. With strong ties to the factory led Lotus effort and quality drivers like Hill and Siffert, they were never to be counted out of scoring championship points.

With a rich heritage in the early open wheel classes, a true privateer, Walker's influence as a contributing writer in Road and Track magazine helped develop Formula one's global reach.   

[BDA]

Such a different time! F1 is so far beyond the reach of privateers now. Ironically, Chapman is partially responsible because he brought sponsorships to F1 and raised the stakes. It was going to happen anyway but he started it.

[Lou Drozdowski]

Car control at the limit...

Jim Clark had it all, a raw talent, pure speed courage, technical brilliance and a sympathy for machinery. Like Fred Astair he would be one and dance with the car depending on the situation. Be it a tango or waltz, you would always know he had a mastery of calculating exactly what was needed to gain the edge on the competition.

I was reminded of how Jackie Stewart explained in his driving F1...

"The car is like a woman, sometime you have to caress her and be gentle like tender lovemaking...other times you have to be a brute and show who's the boss "
   

[BDA]

Stewart described Jimmy's driving in words to the effect that he was so smooth, it didn't seem fast and appeared effortless.

[Lou Drozdowski]

 Graham Hill...his triple still stands...F1, Indy,Le Mans...(rip)

[BDA]

I found this video about Graham towards the end of his career (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x-V5a1c6w0&feature=youtu.be). In includes his fatal crash.

[Lou Drozdowski]

Congrats to Lewis Hamilton, no doubt destined to be a legend in the ranks of F1's finest. As we find it so difficult to match driver skills from era to era and the advancements in technology,we can only speculate who is the best by results.

Today was Hamilton's 250th race...with 84 wins = 29%
Clark had 72 races and had 25 victories = 28%

However...if you factor in the number of races versus accomplishments achieved, Clark's domination of his short entries as compared to Lewis still has a slight edge in the perfect weekend.

33 poles, 32 podiums, 28 fastest laps and still the leader in grand slams with 8
        ( Pole, Win, Led all laps, Fasted lap)

Ascari-5  Hamilton-5 Shumacher-5 Stewart-4 Senna-4 Mansell-4 Vettel-4 Piquet-3

If we look at % of pole position..
Hammy pips Jim 28 to 26%...podiums it's Lewis again 60 to 44%.

You can argue that today's driver aids and outside assistance have evevated the talent pool to make the decision more influenced. 

[BDA]

I like a lot about Hamilton and I do think he is destined to be considered among the best ever but you're right that comparing drivers of different eras is difficult if not impossible. And there are so many yardsticks and many of them leave out significant drivers.

Both Ascari and Fangio had a higher winning percentage at 39.4% and 46% respectively.

Consider that the only driver that Jim Clark really feared was Dan Gurney.

Chris Amon probably shouldn't be considered one of the greatest of his era, but he was surely much better than his record - he was probably the best driver to never win a race.

And how many drivers joined a team that had been on the top but no longer was? How many died (e.g. Senna) or retired (e.g. Stewart) before they had a chance to accumulate wins and championships to be considered among the very best. That's not to mention that there are a lot more races held now than in the past.

There is no doubt that Clark should be considered a member of a very short list of possible best ever drivers and that list should span all eras. Who of any era could fall a lap down due to a puncture, over took the entire field, equaling his pole time in the process, and finished third only because he ran out of gas (Monza '67)?

[Bainford]

Great stuff, Lou.

[gideon]

Here's one for the statistics nerds.   The most full-on statistical analysis of formula 1 driver performance that I've seen is available to read here

http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/96995/14/WRRO_96995.pdf

It's based on data from 1950 to 2014.  The aim was to see how much each driver contributed to racing success, and how much the team contributed.  Fangio is found to be the greatest driver of all time followed by Prost, Clark, Senna, Alonso, Piquet, Stewart, Schumacher, Fittipaldi (Emerson), Vettel, Fittipaldi (Christian), Hamilton, Rosberg (Nico), Hill (Graham), Gurney, Scheckter, Button, Surer, Hill (Damon) and Rosier in that order. 

Hamilton would surely rise up the rankings if the analysis was re-done with data to 2019.  I wouldn't have guessed Prost for number 2, maybe he's underrated.  Schumacher is an interesting case.  If his career after his 2006 retirement is discounted then he rises to 3rd place.

They also break it all down into wet and dry weather performance, and performance on different kinds of track, etc.  It's worth a look, but if you don't want to plow through it all then just scroll down to the end for the various top 20 lists.

[Bainford]

Lou, do you mind if I swipe the Nov 29 photo of Jimmy for my personal collection?

[Lou Drozdowski]

Lou, do you mind if I swipe the Nov 29 photo of Jimmy for my personal collection?

Of course Trevor, many of the images I have posted have come from years of collection via books and the web. I try to acknowledge copyright when necessary,but in this forum they are for all to appreciate and use as they seem fit.