[super_dooper]

(Original post by GunnerBill)
One intersting comparison is Mansell v Vettle.

Much was made of this but I don't know why as Mansells season was shorter, he did it in 16 races and Vettle 19. As % poles in a season go Mansell is very much infront.

Exactly. Mansell was king. He dominated that 1992 season and absolutely crushed the opposition. Vettel is good but he has a long way to go before he's as good as Mansell.

[GunnerBill]

The greatest thing that gives me respect for Mansell, three instances actually, were:

1. 1987 British GP at Silverston. Came back from 29 seconds behind Piquet with 28 laps to go. Took Piquet with 2 laps left and broke the lap record 11 times.
2. Second place at Monaco behind Senna. He had a puncture from the lead and came out to catch up Senna for the last few laps, he raced so hard all over the back of Senna that he had to be lifted out of the car at the end of the race.
3. Competing in the Indy 500 with hundreds (?) of internal stitches in his back and nearly winning!

Commitment is what Mansell had.

[The_master616]

(Original post by super_dooper)
Exactly. Mansell was king. He dominated that 1992 season and absolutely crushed the opposition. Vettel is good but he has a long way to go before he's as good as Mansell.

Vettel is already better than Mansell. Only thing he hasn't got that mansell had was the ability to carve his way through the field. He'll learn that in time.

[The_master616]

(Original post by GunnerBill)
The greatest thing that gives me respect for Mansell, three instances actually, were:

1. 1987 British GP at Silverston. Came back from 29 seconds behind Piquet with 28 laps to go. Took Piquet with 2 laps left and broke the lap record 11 times.
2. Second place at Monaco behind Senna. He had a puncture from the lead and came out to catch up Senna for the last few laps, he raced so hard all over the back of Senna that he had to be lifted out of the car at the end of the race.
3. Competing in the Indy 500 with hundreds (?) of internal stitches in his back and nearly winning!

Commitment is what Mansell had.

As much as i disagree that Mansell is one of the best of all time, I will say that he had the biggest balls of any racing driver.

[lennard]

Here are my 8.

I'm not even going to try and put them in to order

schumacher
prost
senna
alonso
hamilton
mansell
villeneuve
vettel

[f1mad]

(Original post by lennard)
Here are my 8.

I'm not even going to try and put them in to order

schumacher
prost
senna
alonso
hamilton
mansell
villeneuve
vettel

Hamilton? lol.

[SciFiRory]

that I have seen: (essentially 1995/1996 seasons onwards, too young really to remember much before then, though remember watching Mansell winning a race when I was very, very young)

1. Schumacher
2. Hakkinen
3. Hill
4. Alonso
5. Vettel
6. Button
7. Hamilton
8. Raikonen
9. Montoya
10. Coulthard

[lennard]

(Original post by f1mad)
Hamilton? lol.

Hamilton is one of the best driver's currently in F1. If anyone can get an extra few tenth's out of a car, you have to put your money on him... If you need someone to make an overtake... He will give it a go. Everyone makes mistakes and he had 1 bad season in his 5 years in F1.

[f1mad]

(Original post by lennard)
Hamilton is one of the best driver's currently in F1. If anyone can get an extra few tenth's out of a car, you have to put your money on him... If you need someone to make an overtake... He will give it a go. Everyone makes mistakes and he had 1 bad season in his 5 years in F1.

Who said we're talking about the present?

"Who are your top 10 F1 drivers of all time?"

Uh correction: second bad season.

[Raiden10]

(Original post by super_dooper)
Exactly. Mansell was king. He dominated that 1992 season and absolutely crushed the opposition. Vettel is good but he has a long way to go before he's as good as Mansell.

Mansell is a great driver, but I think Vettel is better. Vettel will take some stopping this season too.

[F1 fanatic]

I'm not going to rank mine, so I'm cheating a bit, but picking 10 is hard enough!

Juan Manuel Fangio
Stirling Moss
Jim Clark
Jackie Stewart
Niki Lauda
Alain Prost
Nigel Mansell
Ayrton Senna
Michael Schumacher
Fernando Alonso

And notable mentions to what might have been:
Jochen Rindt
Gilles Villeneuve

[Motorbiker]

Fangio,
Moss,
Stewart,
Lauda,
Hunt,
John Surtees, has to be on there purely for winning multiple championships on 2 wheels and 4 wheels.
Senna, the obvious choice
Schumacher
Alonso,
Vettel, he's still like the 5th youngest driver on the grid and you may think it's early to have him on this list but in 10 years time when you can almost guarantee he'll have a few more titles he'll fit right in.

[Konal]

I only started watching f1 half way through 2010 but I'm fully aware about the whole history of the sport:

1) ayrton senna
2) Michael schumacher
3) Fernando alonso
4) jim clark
5) Juan manuel fangio
6) jackie stewart
7) Nigel mansell
8) Alain Prost
9) mika hakkinen
10) Lewis Hamilton/ Jenson button ( Canada 2011 was pretty amazing)

[2468_James_Maaay]

1) Jean-Denis Deletraz
2) Ricardo Rosset
3) Taki Inoue
4) Giovanni Lavaggi
5) Domenico Schiattarella
6) Yuji Ide
7) Norberto Fontana
8) Vincenzo Sospiri
9) Esteban Tuero
10) Jan Magnussen

Beat that