Very surprised that Sebastien Loeb wasn't mentioned. Won the World Rally Championship 9 times in a row and raced in multiple categories (and won races in most). Is still racing at the age of 49. Insane record and always missed in this conversation.
I think its because rally is pretty hard to compare to other racing series. You can compare Indy, F1, NASCAR and GT series pretty easily and with some accuracy, but if you try to bring rally into the same picture it just gets muddy because rallying really doenst have anything in common with any other series other than rallycross but thats just rallying on a small track really. So because people dont really have any idea how good rally drivers are compared to other racing drivers they get left behind in these conversations.
@@carrotplox you can't compare different categories against each other easily but a driver who has raced in multiple categories and won in them enters the conversation. He was quick enough for F1 (Toro Rosso were due to sign him) but failed due to the Super License requirements.
Surprised didn’t hear more Dan Gurney. Won races in F1, Nascar, and Indy car, and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Add in the Cannonball run with Brock Yates and innovations with full face helmets and the Gurney flap and you’ve got one the greats.
Without a doubt, Jim Clark. Can’t believe that no one in the video mentioned him. Unbelievable. He was before my time, but his talent was limitless. Second to Jim, I would have Ayrton Senna. May 1st 1994 changed racing forever. RIP Jim & Ayrton. I wonder who is winning the races you are having in heaven.
Surprised I didn't hear A.J. Foyt, from IndyCar (first 4-time winner of the Indy 500 back when cars were way harder to handle, most consecutive starts at the race), Le Mans, NASCAR, sprint cars...wherever, whenever, driving whatever car on whatever surface he was a formidable adversary. And his temper was a fan favorite too!
I'm really surprised nobody talks about the first real champion Juan Manuel Fangio 5 time F1 champion when F1 started back in 1950 very rough conditions, then Jackie Steward, Nikki Lauda & Alain Prost and the mighty M.Schumacher..
The question “who is the greatest racing driver of all time” definitely has its ambiguity, there’s TONS of great names out there but I tend to learn toward the people who raced in all forms of the sport across the globe, especially back in the golden years. They’re the ones with the greatest skills in my opinion
I love and respect AJ. He’s one of the most versatile drivers in history. I’m mildly surprised he wasn’t mentioned, but there was an obvious F1 bias in this video.
I agree! The title might be tied but I'd bet the house AJ's wins were harder to get, from cars being far more difficult to drive to mechanical failures and the primitive tech by today's standards. And he was his own mechanic too
Growing up in Scotland in a family that is motor sport mad Jim Clark is the name that was always associated with absolute greatness, you hear other drivers and commentators all sharing the view that his talent was hard to better, I never thought that would change, I was shocked therefore to have a discussion with my father (now in his 80s) a couple of years ago after the Turkish GP where he stated that he believes that Lewis Hamilton is the greatest he’s seen. I never had the pleasure of seeing Clark race but in my lifetime where if you take Formula 1 as the pinnacle of motor sport (for American’s reading the clue is in the name), I have to say that Hamilton is the Greatest with Senna in second place & Lauda in third spot.
I think too few people (especially of today’s generations of young people under 60) know about the legend that is Jim Clark. IMHO most of it has to do with his soft-spoken nature and lack of flashiness. He was as salt-of-the-Earth as they come, which I also think is why the highest praise he often received was from his own competitors. He was known for being a gentleman behind the wheel as well as not, while exhibiting an ease and level of control few even in the hallowed ranks of the best all-time drivers could. I for one also believe if Clark hadn’t been racing for Chapman he could easily have survived into his later years like Sir Moss.
I feel like guys like Earnhardt, Petty, Senna, Schumacher etc. are all masters of their given disciplines. However I think to qualify as the greatest of all time you have to master multiple disciplines. To me three names that immediately come to mind, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Bobby Unser. All of whom could compete in sports cars, open wheeled, stock cars, sprint cars, you name it they have competed in and won in. And against some of the true titans of 20th century racing.
Speaking of different disciplines: John Surtees was world champion in the top racing class on 2 and 4 wheels. Walter Röhrl won 2 world championships in Rallye, and won races on gravel, snow and ice and asphalt. Won the "race to the clouds", lapped the whole field apart from second place guy in his 2nd Trans Am race... He won his second Rallye world championship with a rwd car against the 4wd competition. And he set a stage record on a special stage with the Opel Ascona 400 (!) on the Rallye Montecarlo in 1982 that only got beaten in the 2000's. So he was faster with an early 80's suspension and tires, a f%$§ live rear axle and shifting gears by hand in an H pattern, than other professional rallye drivers (and champioins) with advances suspensions, active awd systems and differentials, electronically controlled engines, semi auto gearboxes and way grippier tires.
@@nirfz Both are also good choices. Bobby Unser was responsible for 13 (10 over all)of the Unser family’s +20 wins at pikes peak. He also never failed to finish. A little known fact about him was he did testing for Audi after he retired from Indycar Racing he did testing for Audi on the Quattro in 1982 driving it 220 MPH at talladega. The reason Bobby was selected was actually because Rohrl was running at Pikes peak. He the test to leverage a ride with Audi at the 1986 Hill climb after over a decade’s absence he went on to set a new course record by 16 seconds. There’s a fantastic interview Bobby did with Road&track that I would recommend checking out. Fascinating story.
@@arclight1241 Oh, i have great respect for him. Even as a european i have heard that pikes peak was called something like the "unser mountain" or something similar. Thing is, knowing a track that well gives you a real advantage. (as you said, he started way more often than Mouton or Röhrl or Ari Vataanen for example.) That's the reason why to me their wins weigh a little higher. Mr. Unser knew/knows the road up there like almost no one else, and they did a hand full training runs and still beat the rest. That said, you also need to survive and improove each time, which he did. So he deserves great respect.
The master is used loosely here, all great drivers but they were more of good at everything great at nothing, not to know knock on them but the people you just mentioned aren’t better then any of the drivers you first listed 💀 an what’s to say that if any of the goats you just mentioned can’t go to another Motorsport an dominate, gt an f1 are more or less the same with different rules an different type of race cars, same with nascar, wrc most other Motorsports
The absence of AJ Foyt is glaring. He is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (which he won four times-1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977), the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Foyt also won the International Race of Champions all-star racing series in 1976 and 1977. Foyt was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000. Foyt was named in NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers list in 1998. He was named in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1990. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the only open wheel driver in the first class of 1989. He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1988. He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1978.
McRae was amazing, just watching him fix a bent track control arm with a rock was amazing and his driving was just insane, but there are many amazing motorsport drivers like Jim Clark, Richard Petty, Dale, Senna, Hakkinen, Schumi, Max Verstappen, Kalle Rovanpera so it is a very hard question to answer
Earnhardt! When I met him in person in 98 at the Pepsi 400 which was postponed until October from the wildfires, I could tell he was one genuine man. Loved racing, loved his family, mentored many drivers had hobbies hunting and fishing, he was the blue collar man with a million dollar smile. I wish we had competitors today with that kind of integrity, he would help anyone out in the garage until it was time to pull off pit road.
Surprised there wasn't more Michael Schumachers thrown out. Only F1 driver in history to have a podium in every single race in a season, not to mention 19 straight Podiums from 2001-end of 2002, a win in every season from 1993-2006, first F1 driver to win 7 titles. First F1 driver to win more than 5, and 6 titles. Only F1 driver to win more than 4 straight titles, one of only 3 F1 drivers to win more than 11 wins in a season (Others being Vettel and M. Verstappen.) Successful in Endurance Racing. Successful in literally everything and every car he drove. First F1 driver to secure more than 51 wins. First F1 driver to secure 150+ Podium finishes. His list of accomplishments could go on for miles, that's how damn good he was.
Surprised no one mentioned Jim Clark. That guy was a legend. Racing in just about every series, all across the world.. And during one of the most deadly eras in racing history
Best ever, Senna. Favorite driver with palpable success, Jeff Gordon. 4 NASCAR Cup championships, 3rd all time in wins, 3x Daytona 500 winner, inaugural Brickyard 400 winner, NASCAR HOF'er, and being a California kid raised in Indiana racing Southern stock cars, he nearly single-handedly brought NASCAR from a purely southern sport to a national audience.
...180 on the straight in a polo shirt and helmet: Fangio. Somebody talked about balls--those guys ALL had'em, and you forget how crazy fast those cars were...
Graham Hill, the man is the only one to achieve the triple crown of racing and given that we talk about "the greatest" then it really comes down to most versatile and most successful in all across
Alan Kulwicki, 1992 Winston cup champion. He built the cars he drove and was one of the last to do it and be competitive. If he didn't pass away in 1993 he could have been a powerhouse.
I'd say Jim Clark. What he did was, well, godly. Fangio, Ascari, Moss Stewart, Senna, Lauda, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton Vettel, Mansell, Ickx, Kristensen, Bell, Earnhardt, Whincup, Gordon, Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Loeb, Ogier, Rohrl, Kankkunen, Makinen, Peterhansel, Sainz Sr, Andretti, Villeneuve, Graham Hill, Brabham, Brock, Johnson, Lowndes, Pescarolo and when it comes to bikes, Agostini, Dunlop, Rossi, Marquez, Doohan, Roberts.
I’m a Senna guy through and through. The way he went racing encapsulates what a racing driver should aspire to be. He was fast in all conditions, fast in every car he drove, and always went for the gap. He died leading a Grand Prix, which adds to the legend, but even without that he’s still the best to ever do it in my mind. It’s very cool to be reminded of these other great drivers that did fantastic things in their career though. It’s hard not to get romantic about racing.
Mario Andretti is the greatest driver. He has the most diverse and prestigious list of racing victories overall. Lewis is the greatest F1 driver of all time. No one has shown the consistency in F1 over an almost 20 year career. THESE ARE FACTS.
Jim Clark since we are talking F1. Senna and Schumacher are right behind him. My father met Fangio when he was a kid, so he'd pick him. On all motor vehicles? Toni Bou. 32 world titles is pretty incredibly hard to beat.
@@jeff7.629 and racing now for BMW I understand, certainly not on par with Senna, Andretti and such. That being said you’re entitled to your opinion so cheers to you.
I agree dude won in 125, 250, 500, 1000, and the 800s. 9 world titles and beat everybody. Smashed every record in the book then drove for another decade. Dude was different. Even had an offer to drive for Ferrari in F1 and from what I remember was only .5 off of the lap record in practice in his first few laps. Dude would have been great in anything.
Juan Manuel-Fangio hands down. In 7 seasons he won 5 F1 World Championships with 4 different manufacturers and finished runner up twice. This was back in the day with open cockpits, leather helmets and no seatbelts. You crashed you most likely died. Driver safety wasn't even on the radar. I have no prob with Ed's choice. Senna was a unique genius but in a Senna documentary even he said its Juan Fangio.
For me it falls between Senna and Schumacher. Senna had the most innate feel for the car ever seen. But Schumacher was capable of driving consistently perfect laps for an entire race. Both are insane.
I would personally say Loeb, he started racing, won every championship he entered for almost a decade before getting bored and retiring from full time WRC. Now he just shows up to a race, gets a podium and then fucks off to do something else. Despite his age he's still winning and setting records to this day.
For me it's Walter Röhrl. To drive fast around a closed track is hard enough, especially in ancient machinery, but the courses they drove in rally and their speed while doing it, back to back is just even more impressive
Michele Mouton also won in Group-B which was tough enough for men's but her she did put up a fight twice harder in a deadly rally race that was dominated by man.. BTW she also won first record at Pikes Peak with Group-B cars on dirt few years earlier before Walter and she was elected feminine FIA boss, so yeah she was pretty & tough..
@@poplaurentiu4148 Oh yeah, she's awesome, definitely my favorite female racing driver. Paving the way for women while kicking absolute ass, really cool lady. I do give it to Walter because i've seen a lot of him and he's from the same state as me :D
Has no one ever heard of Walter Röhrl?? Audi Sport Quattro S1 driver - Pikes Peak winner - and probably the best rally driver ever on Audi, Lancia and Opel. He has been working for Porsche since 1993 as an engineer and test driver and fine tunes the final cars. Without him, Porsche would not be where they are at now.
For me Sebastian Loeb his very old now but still racing currently in Extreme E but if remembered correctly he is 9 world champion in rally Honorable mention Is Stefan Bellof during the race where Aryton Senna is famously known Stefan Bellof is actually catching both Prost and Senna but red flagged although the car is DQ because it’s NA i think. He has the Nurburgring lap record and it was qualifying conditions since there is a race over there with those Grp C monsters before 919 Evo existed another thing has balls since he wanted to prove the engineers wrong but crashed. He is like the Bianchi of his time. Massively talented but cut short to a what if. Jimmy Broadbent honestly doesn’t stick to one specific genre he loves everything and also relateable even funny.
One to think of just for length of competitive driving career is John Force. Yes it's drag racing but he won his first championship in 1984 and is still competing at the highest level of drag racing. 16 championships, 155 wins.
No one mentioned my pick, which would be Sébastien Loeb. So smooth, able to win on any terrain, able to look after his car better than any other driver, and has more FIA world championships than anyone else, and as well as rallying, he’s also won in rallycross, touring cars, and GTs.
Abso-fecking-lutely. It's a shame really because I think people are a tad snobby about F1 being the best and other Motorsports being almost lesser and forgetting or writing off drivers because they aren't in F1. And from what I remember quite a few of Loeb's championships were against some pretty stiff competition as well from the likes of Gronholm etc as well
Senna is by far the greatest. I mean you gotta be good to win monaco, you gotta be great to win it 2-3 times but to win it 6 times and that to 5 times in a row? That's on some different level.
So what about winning a race that's partially in the night, with changing conditions by the km, changing from dry and wet asphalt to ice and snow? And winning that race 4 times on 4 different cars against the elite of the sport...
@@pendremacherald6758 Nothing against that, Legend is a good and fitting word. But still to me there's something missing for "the greatest race driver ever", as these are one sort of race that only happen on the same track under mildly varying conditions.
As an Aussie, I gotta give it to the King of the Mountain, Peter Brock. Genuine Aussie legend and probably the greatest guy ever to drive a car in anger around the mighty Mount Panorama circuit.
If youre going to pick an Aussie, pick Jack Brabham instead. He actually won on a world stage, not just a local one. And he did it in a car of his own design, the only person in history to achieve such a feat. And most importantly, he didn't believe crystals made his car go faster like Brock did.
I think for the ATCC ranks i'd choose Whincup over Brock. Might be recency bias but Whincups time in v8 Supercars was dominant and basically unbeatable for 10 years with 7 titles in that time. His Bathurst record might have only 4 wins but if his famous blunders didnt happen he might have 7-8 wins in the Great Race.
There was one monaco race where Senna had a minute over the rest... he was so ahead and pushing so hard that he made a mistake and bumped the wall.... but it was insane to make that amount over the next on this street race track... Senna was also rain master where others lose their balls... he had this gift to find a grip on a wet track and it was insane too... like donington park started fifth at the end of first lap he was first and he had to fight with williams that had all the electronics assisting driving and self leveling and he was able to reduce this advantage with his skills... But you need to know f1 at that times well to know how capable he was. The only shame on Senna i can find is that he was able to put abother driver in poaition where he had to choose brake or hit Senna... but rules allowed it in that time... but dangerous... Senna was also supportive for Brazilian ppl... thru foundations and so on...and ppl knew it that why whole Brazil loves him to this day. Was watching his last race as teenager on sat tv... RIP Senna. Died in accident that shouldnt have a place...
@@nascarfan8891 Dale was a great stock car driver, I’m not sure his talents would have worked outside of NASCAR though. Tony can race anything and be a champion.
@@nascarfan8891 I have been around Nascar since 1992 when I went to the Daytona 500. Dale Sr was great, but if we are speaking truths, he isn’t the best. I would take Smoke over him in pretty much any other form of racing and I believe Smoke would race right with him prime vs prime. Bill Elliot, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch are equals to Dale Sr in my opinion too. What many fans hold on to is his legendary persona. I was at the 1998 Daytona 500, I was at the 2001 Daytona 500 and I’ve met Dale Sr back in 1999. I loved him too, but I don’t let emotions cloud my judgement of driving ability. Saying he would be as good as Smoke in others forms of racing is just silly.
Posted a comment about this cause I didn’t see one. Scrolled two comments down and saw this. Disappointed the King was mentioned but no Silver Fox. Also Loeb too. We could argue on this one topic for decades and never come to a unified answer 😂
Just throwing a few names. Fangio - IMO, the greatest F1 driver of all time. Won nearly all of his wet races, was so dominant that he would let his teammate win races, only crashed twice in his whole career, THAT 1957 Nurburgring race and the reason why he lost his only one title loss in a full season was because he had too many mechanical failures. Only problem was that in Sportscar races, he wasn't as fast as Moss, Hawthorne and Ascari. Jim Clark -IMO second best in F1, but his outside of F1 career is impressive. BTCC wins, BRAC wins, Indy 500 wins and F2 wins. Alain Prost -3rd best F1 driver of all time. Some might say he showed the way to drive a Grand Prix car, implementing a style which even the best of the modern day drivers struggle to get to. Walter Röhrl -not only was his rally career magical, his GT career was impressive as well. A class win in Le Mans, did IMSA and Trans Am with Audi, and held the pikes peak record when it was still gravel. He also beat Schumacher at the Nurburgring. Jacky Ickx -he drove everything. A driver who butted heads with Motorsport giants such as Enzo Ferrari and the ACO. Started winning on 2 wheels, and had a good run in F1, could've arguably won the 1970 title if his car was more reliable. We all know how great of a sportscar driver he was. But he also drove big heavy ATCC cars and won with them. He also won the Paris-Dakar rally. Mario Andretti -won Indy, won the F1 title but never won Le Mans. Valentino Rossi -great motorcycle rider obviously but many don't realise his a decent rally and GT driver. There was also that Ferrari F1 drive waiting for him. Tom Kristensen -9x Le Mans. Also I believe he could've challenged Hakkinen and Schumacher in F1 if he got the opportunity Honourable mentions: -Tazio Nuvolari -Stefan Bellof -Bernd Rosemeyer -John Surtees -Jochen Rindt -Pedro Rodriguez -Stirling Moss
For Me Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸, Showed that NO MATTER Type of car, and NO MATTER type of racing, He can Keep up on good performance. Won at monaco, 2 F1 championships, 3 SubChampionships, 2 LeMans Wins, 1 WEC Win, 24H Daytona, Rookie of the Year on Indy 500, Quite good performance on Dakar, also numerous times he has driven other cars like the nascar of Jimmie Johnson and got quite close to a 1 Lap pace. Still, a very competitive driver with 41 Years Old.
Tom Kristensen deserves a mention in the modern era aka "Mr Le Mans". Greatest of all time is difficult but if you have 10 cars sitting there from different eras and disciplines Mario Andretti can drive them all...and win.
As an Aussie I am Honourbound (and am suprised nobody else mentioned him) to select Sir, yes SIR Jack Brabham. He was the first and only (and probably always will be) Championship winning driver to also design and build his own racecar in F1.. He bought professionalism to the sport which in his own words, was dominated by 'Playboy Racers' at the time. He, or Brabham race team was pioneering in alot of the aero and ground effect breakthroughs of the 1970s. And showed that an outsider can make it throught sheer determination, grit and perserverence -something we see less and less of today to the point where it is an anomaly..
I always respected the “ all aroundere “ like Jim Clark, Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney and even guys like Tony Stewart. In f1 it requires a different type of style than a touring car vs a oval car and even dirt cars like a late model or sprint car. You have great specialist who only focus on their series but Jim Clark is definitely up there cause he was fast in touring cars, f1, Indy. When you got the likes of Senna and Fangio holding you in such regards it definitely shows.
Surprised to not see a few names on this roundup. Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Seb Loeb, Tom Kristensen to name a few. All superb drivers at the top of their respective fields. Many titles and big wins to their names.
Valentino Rossi my nr 1 from bikes to rally cars even tested F1 Ferrari , and to understand the geometry between 2 and 4 wheels and the absolute insane skills involved with bending physics to your needs around a race track. I will always admire The Dr VR46
Senna, hands down. I believe his passion for model aviation (he flew RC airplanes and helicopters) helped him maintain his hand eye coordination and keep his brain tuned-in during the off season.
If this is based on who’s done it all then the answer is Tony Stewart without question. NASCAR and Indy Car Champion. He’s currently racing NHRA Drag Racing. Tony Stewart is a NASCAR and NHRA team owner and Eldora track owner and he is in charge of the SRX series. This doesn’t include his dirt racing and other series he races in. I believe he even tested in an F1 car.
Gilles Villeneuve was incredible, jamws hunt raced him in the 70s and lost to gilles, Enzo Ferrari was in love with this guy, sad that gilles died in a race in the 80s, greatest canadian racing driver of all time
I would have to say Jimmie Johnson is the greatest of all time, despite not doing well in Indycar. His NASCAR career is what is impressive. He had 7 championships and 83 race wins. He won 5 championships in a row in the most competitive era of NASCAR, racing against Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and many more.
@@sakshamsharma5429 yeah they were even driving the same ferrari 599. Thing is he got that good without a billionair father getting him into racing at a really early age.
A friend of mine was driving Formula Ford in the early 80s, he still remembers Ayrton Senna as being "the one who can and will win everything". But for the spirit of racing it will be Alex Zanardi all day long. Racing, crashing, losing both legs, going back to race and winnig four olympic gold medals with the handbike: Only a true racer can accomplish this.
My Top Driver is Aryton Senna Period. He was wet weather specialist as shown in 93’ at Donnington Park starting 5th advancing to 1st on the first lap which was absolutely masterclass. Especially considering that these cars had more power than grip. All while competing against multiple WDC Drivers (Prost, Mansell, Schumacher, Lauda, Piquet) in Manually shifted cars, which is the ultimate pure form of driving imo. If you watch old film at Monaco during his time drivers are fighting the cars just to keep them straight from the power. In my eyes driving/fighting cars that powerful/lightweight and managing to keep them from crashing at every turn and straight shows what being on the absolute limit is. Lastly what doesn’t get talked about enough is the ability to develop a car. Prime example was the NSX(New SportsCar eXperimental) which started as the HP-X concept in 1984 (Honda Pinifarina eXperimental). When Honda presented it to Senna they swore it was as refined as specially crafted Katana, but after Senna’s test drive he said "I'm not sure I can really give you appropriate advice on a mass-production car,"”but I feel it's a little fragile." So Honda increased its stiffness by 50% along with refining the the suspension after his development input. So to me that why I consider him the GOAT.
To me it's between John Surtees and Walter Röhrl. -Surtees to this day is the only person to be World champion in motorcycle racing and formula 1 in his time. So he was the best on 2 and 4 wheels. (And i have seen him in a 30's Mercedes with 500hp and tires as wide as 5 fingers of a hand on a cobble stone road drivfting onehanded while waving to the crowd with the other hand. And just to make sure: no seatbelts, no assisted steering...) -And Walter Röhrl, because in every racing series he started, he won races to my knowledge. He won races on dry and wet asphalt, on gravel, dirt, mud, snow and ice. (He won the Monte carlo rallye which is usually a mix of wet and dry asphalt with snow and ice on 4 different car models against the best rallye drivers there were.) He won rallye races with rwd against the advantageous 4wd, he set a record time in a rwd Opel Ascona 400 with manual gearbox in 1982 or so that only got beaten in 2006 or 2016 (not sure about the 3rd digit here) but think about that. By the time it got beaten they had flappy paddle gearboxes way more gears, active differentialy, tyres that gripped more, better suspension... And when you look at the few touring car races he started in, he was incredibly fast. I mean he lapped everybody but the second place guy in his second Trans Am race. (and the italians voted him as the rallye driver of the century)
Phil Hill. Just imagine driving any of these cars with no safety features and just a helmet. 156 Shark Nose at the Nurburgring, Monaco and Monza with the oval, 250 GTO at Daytona 24 hours and 12 hours of Sebring, Shelby Cobra and Daytona Coupe at 12 Hours of Sebring. He also drove the Chapperal 2D and 2F and the Ford GT40X in Le Man's 24 hour.
When Enzo says Tazio Nuvolari, Fangio says Nuvolari & Dr. Porsche says the same, who is anyone to argue? Champion on bicycles, motorcycles G.P. cars, rally cars, sports cars. Won Le Mans, Monaco, Vanderbilt cup, Targa Floria, Mille Miglia, Nurburgring G.P. - where he beat the might of Mercedes &Auto Union in a 5yr. old Alfa Romero, called the greatest upset/ race of all time. No other driver comes close.
Y’all should do a follow up video of this. Where the same guys get asked the same question, after they watch videos of all the drivers mentioned just to see if it changes their minds. Picking drivers that are great at one particular discipline is very telling of the persons choice and of what type of racing they were exposed to in their lives. I would think it would be drivers in multiple racing classes/ types…. Just my two cents.
A follow up suggestion: greates female racing driver of all time. My pick would be Michelle Mouton. (No other lady ever was closer to be world champion, and loosing against the almighty Walter Röhrl by 1 point doesn't realy count as loosing.)
The greatest racing driver is and only can be Jim Clark. He competed in every motor race series on the planet. Indy, F1, Touring car, Rally and everything else on wheels. He flew all over the world from race, to race, to race until he sadly crashed and died. If you don't know who he is then you need to research him. He was an absolute machine.
The GOAT has to be multi-disciplinary in nature, because a driver who excels in endurance racing might struggle in open-wheel circuit racing or oval racing. And, a driver who excels at those disciplines might struggle with something like rallying. To that end, Vic Elford is my GOAT driver. He, Clark, and Hill stand head and shoulders above the rest as having the bravery, the skill, and the technical competency to excel in multiple disciplines.
@d-zone , there were a bunch during that era--Surtees, Andretti. But Vic's rallying and endurance racing pedigree (be it at the Nurburgring, Targo Florio, Spa, Le Mans, etc.) really puts him almost in a tier of his own.
@@flyingphoenix113 Elford and Surtees are incredibly underrated, Andretti had his brief day (winning) but could not be called the GOAT. 1 championship and 12 wins is 10 less than Damon Hill 🤣
Clark, Surtees, Andretti, Montoya, Tony Stewart, Revson, so many names have success in multiple categories, but they are so split that they aren’t recognized.
how many F1 championships did JPM win? How many races have JPM and Andretti won in total? They are not recognised because they won so few races. Surtees won the F1 and 7 MotoGP World Championships. Mansell won both IndyCar and F1 and more race wins than them both, he's not the GOAT. JPM and Andretti are great drivers no doubt and JPM had a great racing spirit. They both had great personalities but they are not the GOAT racing drivers.
NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, and Jeff Gordon F1: Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton LeMans: Ken Miles Drifting: Keiichi Tsuchiya and Vaughn Gittin Jr Rally: Colin McRae, Tommi Makinen, and Ken Block
Senna was the ultimate complete driver. You just need to see him qualifying on Monaco or see him in Brazil winning stuck in third gear. And even Schumacher recognize that Senna was the Best.
Fangio definitely, the guy won 5 F1 Championships during a time when it was safer to play russian roulette than race in F1. He had really bad luck with retires in 1950 and 1953, could have definitely beaten Farina in 1950 for the championship if he hadn't retired once every two races, and could at worst given Ascari a run for his money in 1953, but again retired 3 out of 7 races. His race at the Nurburgring in 1957 was absolutely legendary, and even the modern greats have praised his accomplishments, Schumacher when he won his 6th title said: "Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself. What he did stands alone and what we have achieved is also unique. I have such respect for what he achieved. You can't take a personality like Fangio and compare him with what has happened today. There is not even the slightest comparison." You can look for the words of Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart and even Ayrton Senna as well.
There are three drivers who won both the Indy 500 and a Formula 1 championship and they are Mario Andretti, Jim Clark and Graham Hill. But only one, Graham Hill , won the triple crown of motorsports by adding a win at Le Mans. Hill was also the only rookie to win the Indy 500 on his first try and he started farthest back in the starting grid of any winner ever. He won two Formula 1 championships and was second three times. If he hadn't been in a serious accident where he broke both of his legs in 1969 it's hard to know how many more races he would have won. After that accident he asked the team from the hospital to pass a message to his wife that 'he wouldn't be dancing for two weeks.' He is the greatest race car driver of all time.
Of the three, Clark, Andretti and Graham Hill, only Jim Clark won Indy and the formula one championship in the same year-1965. I was so impressed by him that I named my son after him...
Jim Clark is the GOAT and it's not close. Won in everything he touched. Would've been a 5 time champion if he didn't die in 1968 due to no fault of his own.
Simple...John Surtees...F1 and moto gp equivalent world champ...not been done since and likely will never be done again...an absolute legend and just a cool guy.
Absolutely cool guy! Was lucky to see him two times in an oldtimer rallye where live years ago. One time he drifted on cobble stones in a Mercedes W125 onehanded while waving to the crowd with the other. (It was a normal road and the spectators were standing on the sidewalk in a small austrian town.) And another time when the Mercedes Museum let him drive the 722 of Stirling Moss for a few show laps.
Unfortunately I was never able to see Ayrton or Dale Sr, but if the modern drivers I have to say Lewis Hamilton for F1 and Jimmie Johnson for nascar, 2 of the most dominant drivers I’ve ever seen
I've been rewatching the CART seasons, and just on a driving talent level, Montoya should be in the conversation for his absolutely insane car control.
Jimmie Johnson won 7 championships, 5 of which were in a row in 3 different car setups and 4 different point systems. Nascar tried a lot of different ways to stop him. What other top professional series has this been done in?
Greatest race car driver of all time? That’s not even a question. It’s the Intimidator #3 Cmon! Watch the video of him driving with one knee while hanging out the window cleaning the windshield on his old yellow Wrangler car while moving down the lane. He was the best. Hands down. Michael Schumacher right behind him. Alan Kulwicki close third. That’s my top three. I couldn’t stop.
It’s impossible to compare eras and the different series and I admire so many of the greats such as Mario, MSC, Hamilton,Prost, Lauda (who should be on the list for conquering death then placing 4th at Monza weeks later) but for many reasons, the all time great podium for me would be 1.Senna 2. Fangio 3. Nuvolari and just missing the podium with a puncture and broken nose cone Gilles Villeneuve
Fernando Alonso, simple. Proven all round best in F1 won 2 championships and 2 Le Mann in WEC, was super competitive first time out at Indy 500 and was quick in Dakar. It doesn’t get better than that, he is the best all round best racing driver.
AJ Foyt. Won in everything he ever drove. From midgets and sprint cars on dirt, to indycar, stockcars and sports cars. The only reason he didn't go to formula 1 is because he didn't like European food
Absolutely, if i go current they they should atleast honoured Fernando Alonso and in future it will be Max for sure and I have huge respect for Clark 🐐🐐
Ayrton Senna all day any day! Could you imagine if he lived longer and raced several years later? He was still rising in his racing 'abilities' - only hindrance was the race team, and many knew it.
Because they don't think outside their usual race watching habits. And because he didn't do many whole championships. Especially not in the US. But they should remember him for lapping the whole field apart from second place guy in his second Trans Am Race. (It's even on YT and you can see the speed they were going at a certain corner being mentioned by the commentator, and they almost didn't show Röhrl as he was so far ahead. But once they showed him going round the speed trap corner, and he was 12mph faster in the corner than everybody else.) But to me it's between him and John Surtees, as Surtees is to this day the only one to be world champion in the top class on 2 and 4 wheels. (No one else ever managed to do that.)
Very surprised that Sebastien Loeb wasn't mentioned. Won the World Rally Championship 9 times in a row and raced in multiple categories (and won races in most). Is still racing at the age of 49. Insane record and always missed in this conversation.
I think its because rally is pretty hard to compare to other racing series. You can compare Indy, F1, NASCAR and GT series pretty easily and with some accuracy, but if you try to bring rally into the same picture it just gets muddy because rallying really doenst have anything in common with any other series other than rallycross but thats just rallying on a small track really. So because people dont really have any idea how good rally drivers are compared to other racing drivers they get left behind in these conversations.
@@carrotplox you can't compare different categories against each other easily but a driver who has raced in multiple categories and won in them enters the conversation. He was quick enough for F1 (Toro Rosso were due to sign him) but failed due to the Super License requirements.
Ogier is better. Yes, he have only won 8 times to Loeb's 9, but in 3 different cars to Loeb's 1.
100%%
@@tomingejosefsen Ogier might be your opinion on a Rally Driver but that's not the conversation.
Surprised didn’t hear more Dan Gurney. Won races in F1, Nascar, and Indy car, and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Add in the Cannonball run with Brock Yates and innovations with full face helmets and the Gurney flap and you’ve got one the greats.
Dan Gurney def Belongs in the Convo. I feel Mario Andretti just Clips him in my Opinion but Dan is Top Driver
Very valid choice!
Jim Clark. He was a legend and was cut down in his prime. And Ken Block is also on my list. RIP to the legends.
Clark ok, but Ken Block? No offense but look at his results during is WRC tentative.
ken block and Jim Clark in the same phrase , what drug do you use mate ?
LOLOL...seriously? Ken block!! LOLOL!!!
You must have never watched a single ken block race. He was a great guy, but not a great Racer 😂
Ken Block?! 🤦
Without a doubt, Jim Clark. Can’t believe that no one in the video mentioned him. Unbelievable. He was before my time, but his talent was limitless. Second to Jim, I would have Ayrton Senna. May 1st 1994 changed racing forever. RIP Jim & Ayrton. I wonder who is winning the races you are having in heaven.
Totally agree.
Absolutely
even senna said it was clark
@@gemnifan6045 That’s right, I forgot about that. 😃
Completely Agree
Surprised I didn't hear A.J. Foyt, from IndyCar (first 4-time winner of the Indy 500 back when cars were way harder to handle, most consecutive starts at the race), Le Mans, NASCAR, sprint cars...wherever, whenever, driving whatever car on whatever surface he was a formidable adversary. And his temper was a fan favorite too!
I'm really surprised nobody talks about the first real champion Juan Manuel Fangio 5 time F1 champion when F1 started back in 1950 very rough conditions,
then Jackie Steward, Nikki Lauda & Alain Prost and the mighty M.Schumacher..
The question “who is the greatest racing driver of all time” definitely has its ambiguity, there’s TONS of great names out there but I tend to learn toward the people who raced in all forms of the sport across the globe, especially back in the golden years. They’re the ones with the greatest skills in my opinion
I love and respect AJ. He’s one of the most versatile drivers in history. I’m mildly surprised he wasn’t mentioned, but there was an obvious F1 bias in this video.
No doubt!!!!! He owns the wins record, which I don't see getting broken. His titles are tied with Dixon, but he's still the GOAT of Indycar.
I agree! The title might be tied but I'd bet the house AJ's wins were harder to get, from cars being far more difficult to drive to mechanical failures and the primitive tech by today's standards. And he was his own mechanic too
has to be Jim Clark, he was absolutely incredible no matter what car he was in.
Growing up in Scotland in a family that is motor sport mad Jim Clark is the name that was always associated with absolute greatness, you hear other drivers and commentators all sharing the view that his talent was hard to better, I never thought that would change, I was shocked therefore to have a discussion with my father (now in his 80s) a couple of years ago after the Turkish GP where he stated that he believes that Lewis Hamilton is the greatest he’s seen. I never had the pleasure of seeing Clark race but in my lifetime where if you take Formula 1 as the pinnacle of motor sport (for American’s reading the clue is in the name), I have to say that Hamilton is the Greatest with Senna in second place & Lauda in third spot.
I think too few people (especially of today’s generations of young people under 60) know about the legend that is Jim Clark. IMHO most of it has to do with his soft-spoken nature and lack of flashiness. He was as salt-of-the-Earth as they come, which I also think is why the highest praise he often received was from his own competitors. He was known for being a gentleman behind the wheel as well as not, while exhibiting an ease and level of control few even in the hallowed ranks of the best all-time drivers could. I for one also believe if Clark hadn’t been racing for Chapman he could easily have survived into his later years like Sir Moss.
I feel like guys like Earnhardt, Petty, Senna, Schumacher etc. are all masters of their given disciplines. However I think to qualify as the greatest of all time you have to master multiple disciplines. To me three names that immediately come to mind, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, and Bobby Unser. All of whom could compete in sports cars, open wheeled, stock cars, sprint cars, you name it they have competed in and won in. And against some of the true titans of 20th century racing.
Speaking of different disciplines: John Surtees was world champion in the top racing class on 2 and 4 wheels.
Walter Röhrl won 2 world championships in Rallye, and won races on gravel, snow and ice and asphalt. Won the "race to the clouds", lapped the whole field apart from second place guy in his 2nd Trans Am race...
He won his second Rallye world championship with a rwd car against the 4wd competition.
And he set a stage record on a special stage with the Opel Ascona 400 (!) on the Rallye Montecarlo in 1982 that only got beaten in the 2000's. So he was faster with an early 80's suspension and tires, a f%$§ live rear axle and shifting gears by hand in an H pattern, than other professional rallye drivers (and champioins) with advances suspensions, active awd systems and differentials, electronically controlled engines, semi auto gearboxes and way grippier tires.
@@nirfz Both are also good choices. Bobby Unser was responsible for 13 (10 over all)of the Unser family’s +20 wins at pikes peak. He also never failed to finish. A little known fact about him was he did testing for Audi after he retired from Indycar Racing he did testing for Audi on the Quattro in 1982 driving it 220 MPH at talladega. The reason Bobby was selected was actually because Rohrl was running at Pikes peak. He the test to leverage a ride with Audi at the 1986 Hill climb after over a decade’s absence he went on to set a new course record by 16 seconds. There’s a fantastic interview Bobby did with Road&track that I would recommend checking out. Fascinating story.
@@arclight1241 Oh, i have great respect for him. Even as a european i have heard that pikes peak was called something like the "unser mountain" or something similar.
Thing is, knowing a track that well gives you a real advantage. (as you said, he started way more often than Mouton or Röhrl or Ari Vataanen for example.)
That's the reason why to me their wins weigh a little higher. Mr. Unser knew/knows the road up there like almost no one else, and they did a hand full training runs and still beat the rest.
That said, you also need to survive and improove each time, which he did. So he deserves great respect.
I would think more Mario and Gurney as being fast with any type of steering wheel in their hands.
The master is used loosely here, all great drivers but they were more of good at everything great at nothing, not to know knock on them but the people you just mentioned aren’t better then any of the drivers you first listed 💀 an what’s to say that if any of the goats you just mentioned can’t go to another Motorsport an dominate, gt an f1 are more or less the same with different rules an different type of race cars, same with nascar, wrc most other Motorsports
The absence of AJ Foyt is glaring. He is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (which he won four times-1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977), the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Foyt also won the International Race of Champions all-star racing series in 1976 and 1977.
Foyt was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000.
Foyt was named in NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers list in 1998.
He was named in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1990.
He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America as the only open wheel driver in the first class of 1989.
He was inducted into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1988.
He was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1978.
People forget how good AJ was...in ANYTHING!
Foyt was good at driving in circles, and won with Gurney keeping a lid on him!
Thank you!! AJ Foyt is THE MAN
Foyt!!!
McRae was amazing, just watching him fix a bent track control arm with a rock was amazing and his driving was just insane, but there are many amazing motorsport drivers like Jim Clark, Richard Petty, Dale, Senna, Hakkinen, Schumi, Max Verstappen, Kalle Rovanpera so it is a very hard question to answer
I agree, and he drove with fierce competitors such as Juha Kankkunen and Carlos Sainz right at his tail to push him even harder
Nice list op…
Jim clark wasnt mentioned..😢. Neither was loeb, ari vitari, joey / michael dunlop, john surtess , graham hill and the list could go on.
Earnhardt! When I met him in person in 98 at the Pepsi 400 which was postponed until October from the wildfires, I could tell he was one genuine man. Loved racing, loved his family, mentored many drivers had hobbies hunting and fishing, he was the blue collar man with a million dollar smile. I wish we had competitors today with that kind of integrity, he would help anyone out in the garage until it was time to pull off pit road.
That legendary video of him rolling the Legacy rally car and then kept driving like nothing happened is awesome
Exactly! + Vladimir Chagin and Stephan Peterhansel for Dakar
For me it's got to be Jim Clark. He didn't but he could have done a whole season on one set of brakes! So smooth.
Wish we had data and more film on clark. What i have seen looks like a magic carpet ride. When senna was asked he said jim clark.
@@pranc236 jimmy was the man
I've also seen stories about his tires lasting multiple weekends. Now some compounds last only 3-5 laps before they start to fall off.
Surprised there wasn't more Michael Schumachers thrown out. Only F1 driver in history to have a podium in every single race in a season, not to mention 19 straight Podiums from 2001-end of 2002, a win in every season from 1993-2006, first F1 driver to win 7 titles. First F1 driver to win more than 5, and 6 titles. Only F1 driver to win more than 4 straight titles, one of only 3 F1 drivers to win more than 11 wins in a season (Others being Vettel and M. Verstappen.) Successful in Endurance Racing. Successful in literally everything and every car he drove. First F1 driver to secure more than 51 wins. First F1 driver to secure 150+ Podium finishes. His list of accomplishments could go on for miles, that's how damn good he was.
Surprised no one mentioned Jim Clark. That guy was a legend. Racing in just about every series, all across the world.. And during one of the most deadly eras in racing history
Best ever, Senna. Favorite driver with palpable success, Jeff Gordon. 4 NASCAR Cup championships, 3rd all time in wins, 3x Daytona 500 winner, inaugural Brickyard 400 winner, NASCAR HOF'er, and being a California kid raised in Indiana racing Southern stock cars, he nearly single-handedly brought NASCAR from a purely southern sport to a national audience.
...180 on the straight in a polo shirt and helmet: Fangio. Somebody talked about balls--those guys ALL had'em, and you forget how crazy fast those cars were...
Graham Hill, the man is the only one to achieve the triple crown of racing and given that we talk about "the greatest" then it really comes down to most versatile and most successful in all across
Alan Kulwicki, 1992 Winston cup champion. He built the cars he drove and was one of the last to do it and be competitive. If he didn't pass away in 1993 he could have been a powerhouse.
alan us my favorite driver from that era, but cmon now if the racing gods didnt hate davey allison he wouldve been the 92 champion
Imagine if Alan took junior Johnsons offer
Jim Clark would be my pick with Mario Andretti and Michael Schumacher up there, but Clark was so versatile and smooth with such mechanical sympathy.
Jim Clark..... for sure! Everyone needs to watch Hammond's tribute from the Grand Tour to understand!
Jim Clark is the GOAT
Only photos on Enzo's desk were Nuvolari and Gilles. Says it all. Tazio invented the 4 wheel drift, plus he also held the Land speed record.
I'd say Jim Clark. What he did was, well, godly. Fangio, Ascari, Moss Stewart, Senna, Lauda, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton Vettel, Mansell, Ickx, Kristensen, Bell, Earnhardt, Whincup, Gordon, Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, Loeb, Ogier, Rohrl, Kankkunen, Makinen, Peterhansel, Sainz Sr, Andretti, Villeneuve, Graham Hill, Brabham, Brock, Johnson, Lowndes, Pescarolo and when it comes to bikes, Agostini, Dunlop, Rossi, Marquez, Doohan, Roberts.
I’m a Senna guy through and through. The way he went racing encapsulates what a racing driver should aspire to be. He was fast in all conditions, fast in every car he drove, and always went for the gap. He died leading a Grand Prix, which adds to the legend, but even without that he’s still the best to ever do it in my mind. It’s very cool to be reminded of these other great drivers that did fantastic things in their career though. It’s hard not to get romantic about racing.
Mario Andretti is the greatest driver. He has the most diverse and prestigious list of racing victories overall. Lewis is the greatest F1 driver of all time. No one has shown the consistency in F1 over an almost 20 year career. THESE ARE FACTS.
Jim Clark since we are talking F1. Senna and Schumacher are right behind him. My father met Fangio when he was a kid, so he'd pick him.
On all motor vehicles? Toni Bou. 32 world titles is pretty incredibly hard to beat.
John Surtees, became a champion on 2 and 4 wheels.
Agreed. Between 1956 and 1966 he won 7 motorcycle championships, F1 World championship, and the Can-Am championships. Unmatched.
I say Jim Clark by a whisker but John Surtees in 2nd its so hard to pick between them for me. But i love you mentioned Him.
Valentino Rossi. He did so much for MotoGP and brought it to a whole new level
I would agree if this was for riders and not drivers, Vale was and is amazing, perhaps he will do something amazing in cars too.
@Jim CCC Vale did race cars in the off season.
@@jeff7.629 and racing now for BMW I understand, certainly not on par with Senna, Andretti and such. That being said you’re entitled to your opinion so cheers to you.
Best rider not driver
I agree dude won in 125, 250, 500, 1000, and the 800s. 9 world titles and beat everybody. Smashed every record in the book then drove for another decade. Dude was different. Even had an offer to drive for Ferrari in F1 and from what I remember was only .5 off of the lap record in practice in his first few laps. Dude would have been great in anything.
Senna! Car control just came SO naturally to him. The 1993 European Grand Prix "Lap of the Gods" is STILL utterly amazing, 30 years later.
1 lap doesn't even come close to being best ever
@@davidgray1515for me it does..The great Ayron Senna....
Juan Manuel-Fangio hands down. In 7 seasons he won 5 F1 World Championships with 4 different manufacturers and finished runner up twice. This was back in the day with open cockpits, leather helmets and no seatbelts. You crashed you most likely died. Driver safety wasn't even on the radar. I have no prob with Ed's choice. Senna was a unique genius but in a Senna documentary even he said its Juan Fangio.
Made my day when Dale Earnhardt was mentioned several times. R.I.P THE INTIMADATER. My favorite of all time.
Same here
my favorite too but sadly i only got 5 years to watch him i started watching nascar at 7 was 12 years old when he passed
For me it falls between Senna and Schumacher.
Senna had the most innate feel for the car ever seen. But Schumacher was capable of driving consistently perfect laps for an entire race. Both are insane.
I really want to visit the timeline where Senna didn't crash and raced against Schumacher for longer.
Both drove dirty. Ask Prost, Mansel, Hill, and Villeneuve.
We’ll certainly not the guy who crashed and burned.
@@ajwasp3642 Agreed. But they still won. Other drivers should have taken some pointers.
I would personally say Loeb, he started racing, won every championship he entered for almost a decade before getting bored and retiring from full time WRC. Now he just shows up to a race, gets a podium and then fucks off to do something else. Despite his age he's still winning and setting records to this day.
Ayrton Senna hands down , no one touches him , his skills where impeccable , his style was impetuous , he was all of F1 into one driver .
Just F1. He didn’t succeed anywhere else
All of F1 isn't saying much
Tom Kristensen, Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel fangio, ayrton senna, Sebastian loeb, Walter rorhl, Valentino Rossi, the list goes on… so many greats
For me it's Walter Röhrl. To drive fast around a closed track is hard enough, especially in ancient machinery, but the courses they drove in rally and their speed while doing it, back to back is just even more impressive
One of the greatest to ever run on dirt. A true rally legend
Michele Mouton also won in Group-B which was tough enough for men's but her she did put up a fight twice harder in a deadly rally race that was dominated by man..
BTW she also won first record at Pikes Peak with Group-B cars on dirt few years earlier before Walter and she was elected feminine FIA boss, so yeah she was pretty & tough..
@@poplaurentiu4148 Oh yeah, she's awesome, definitely my favorite female racing driver. Paving the way for women while kicking absolute ass, really cool lady. I do give it to Walter because i've seen a lot of him and he's from the same state as me :D
Has no one ever heard of Walter Röhrl??
Audi Sport Quattro S1 driver - Pikes Peak winner - and probably the best rally driver ever on Audi, Lancia and Opel.
He has been working for Porsche since 1993 as an engineer and test driver and fine tunes the final cars.
Without him, Porsche would not be where they are at now.
Walter Röhrl, best ever.
For me Sebastian Loeb his very old now but still racing currently in Extreme E but if remembered correctly he is 9 world champion in rally
Honorable mention Is Stefan Bellof during the race where Aryton Senna is famously known Stefan Bellof is actually catching both Prost and Senna but red flagged although the car is DQ because it’s NA i think. He has the Nurburgring lap record and it was qualifying conditions since there is a race over there with those Grp C monsters before 919 Evo existed another thing has balls since he wanted to prove the engineers wrong but crashed.
He is like the Bianchi of his time. Massively talented but cut short to a what if.
Jimmy Broadbent honestly doesn’t stick to one specific genre he loves everything and also relateable even funny.
Dont forget Walter Rohrl.
One to think of just for length of competitive driving career is John Force. Yes it's drag racing but he won his first championship in 1984 and is still competing at the highest level of drag racing. 16 championships, 155 wins.
The Goat of top fuel/funny car racing. His daughter is a "Force" to be reckoned with too.
Ayrton Senna
Senna = 🐐
No doubt!
Vin Diesel
Yes Senna...
No one mentioned my pick, which would be Sébastien Loeb. So smooth, able to win on any terrain, able to look after his car better than any other driver, and has more FIA world championships than anyone else, and as well as rallying, he’s also won in rallycross, touring cars, and GTs.
Right, 7 seems to be the glass ceiling for racing championships, Loeb has 9.
Abso-fecking-lutely. It's a shame really because I think people are a tad snobby about F1 being the best and other Motorsports being almost lesser and forgetting or writing off drivers because they aren't in F1. And from what I remember quite a few of Loeb's championships were against some pretty stiff competition as well from the likes of Gronholm etc as well
Senna is by far the greatest. I mean you gotta be good to win monaco, you gotta be great to win it 2-3 times but to win it 6 times and that to 5 times in a row? That's on some different level.
So what about winning a race that's partially in the night, with changing conditions by the km, changing from dry and wet asphalt to ice and snow? And winning that race 4 times on 4 different cars against the elite of the sport...
@@nirfz anyone who has won the 24 hours of Le Mans, Nurburgring, Daytona, Spa, and 12 hours of Sebring should be given the title of legend.
@@pendremacherald6758 Nothing against that, Legend is a good and fitting word.
But still to me there's something missing for "the greatest race driver ever", as these are one sort of race that only happen on the same track under mildly varying conditions.
As an Aussie, I gotta give it to the King of the Mountain, Peter Brock. Genuine Aussie legend and probably the greatest guy ever to drive a car in anger around the mighty Mount Panorama circuit.
If youre going to pick an Aussie, pick Jack Brabham instead. He actually won on a world stage, not just a local one. And he did it in a car of his own design, the only person in history to achieve such a feat. And most importantly, he didn't believe crystals made his car go faster like Brock did.
hard to argue with
I think for the ATCC ranks i'd choose Whincup over Brock. Might be recency bias but Whincups time in v8 Supercars was dominant and basically unbeatable for 10 years with 7 titles in that time. His Bathurst record might have only 4 wins but if his famous blunders didnt happen he might have 7-8 wins in the Great Race.
Senna is the best driver of all time. Amazing on the track and off the track. Can't believe it been 29 years on the 1st May since he passed away
29 years
Yes it really has been that long
@Harold yes that what i ment 29 bloody fat fingers lol
There was one monaco race where Senna had a minute over the rest... he was so ahead and pushing so hard that he made a mistake and bumped the wall.... but it was insane to make that amount over the next on this street race track...
Senna was also rain master where others lose their balls... he had this gift to find a grip on a wet track and it was insane too... like donington park started fifth at the end of first lap he was first and he had to fight with williams that had all the electronics assisting driving and self leveling and he was able to reduce this advantage with his skills...
But you need to know f1 at that times well to know how capable he was.
The only shame on Senna i can find is that he was able to put abother driver in poaition where he had to choose brake or hit Senna... but rules allowed it in that time... but dangerous...
Senna was also supportive for Brazilian ppl... thru foundations and so on...and ppl knew it that why whole Brazil loves him to this day.
Was watching his last race as teenager on sat tv... RIP Senna. Died in accident that shouldnt have a place...
Senna is a legend...
Mario Andretti and Tony Stewart more recently are my picks. Senna is also a great pick.
tony stewart is a great racer but dale earnhardt was better
@@nascarfan8891 Dale was a great stock car driver, I’m not sure his talents would have worked outside of NASCAR though. Tony can race anything and be a champion.
@@GregAllenF1 oh please dale would have adapted just like tony if he wanted too
@@nascarfan8891 I have been around Nascar since 1992 when I went to the Daytona 500. Dale Sr was great, but if we are speaking truths, he isn’t the best. I would take Smoke over him in pretty much any other form of racing and I believe Smoke would race right with him prime vs prime. Bill Elliot, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch are equals to Dale Sr in my opinion too. What many fans hold on to is his legendary persona. I was at the 1998 Daytona 500, I was at the 2001 Daytona 500 and I’ve met Dale Sr back in 1999. I loved him too, but I don’t let emotions cloud my judgement of driving ability. Saying he would be as good as Smoke in others forms of racing is just silly.
@@nascarfan8891 maybe you need to look at the records
So glad to see Andretti mentioned multiple times. No one has ever had that much success in different kinds of series.
AJ Foyt and Tony Stewart have.
No question for me : Senna. What he could do with those F1 cars in the rain was masterful.
David Pearson. Look at his number of starts and wins. Wow!
Posted a comment about this cause I didn’t see one. Scrolled two comments down and saw this. Disappointed the King was mentioned but no Silver Fox. Also Loeb too. We could argue on this one topic for decades and never come to a unified answer 😂
He had manufacture backing, as did Petty at a time when they raced against literal moonshiners
Just throwing a few names.
Fangio - IMO, the greatest F1 driver of all time. Won nearly all of his wet races, was so dominant that he would let his teammate win races, only crashed twice in his whole career, THAT 1957 Nurburgring race and the reason why he lost his only one title loss in a full season was because he had too many mechanical failures. Only problem was that in Sportscar races, he wasn't as fast as Moss, Hawthorne and Ascari.
Jim Clark -IMO second best in F1, but his outside of F1 career is impressive. BTCC wins, BRAC wins, Indy 500 wins and F2 wins.
Alain Prost -3rd best F1 driver of all time. Some might say he showed the way to drive a Grand Prix car, implementing a style which even the best of the modern day drivers struggle to get to.
Walter Röhrl -not only was his rally career magical, his GT career was impressive as well. A class win in Le Mans, did IMSA and Trans Am with Audi, and held the pikes peak record when it was still gravel. He also beat Schumacher at the Nurburgring.
Jacky Ickx -he drove everything. A driver who butted heads with Motorsport giants such as Enzo Ferrari and the ACO. Started winning on 2 wheels, and had a good run in F1, could've arguably won the 1970 title if his car was more reliable. We all know how great of a sportscar driver he was. But he also drove big heavy ATCC cars and won with them. He also won the Paris-Dakar rally.
Mario Andretti -won Indy, won the F1 title but never won Le Mans.
Valentino Rossi -great motorcycle rider obviously but many don't realise his a decent rally and GT driver. There was also that Ferrari F1 drive waiting for him.
Tom Kristensen -9x Le Mans. Also I believe he could've challenged Hakkinen and Schumacher in F1 if he got the opportunity
Honourable mentions:
-Tazio Nuvolari
-Stefan Bellof
-Bernd Rosemeyer
-John Surtees
-Jochen Rindt
-Pedro Rodriguez
-Stirling Moss
Surprised aj Foyt didn’t even make the honorable mentions
Schumacher and Rossi, ICONS!
Sebastian Vettel, Ken Block, Senna, Dale senior and jr, Jeff Gordon, are mine for now.
Jim Clark - Hands Down
For Me Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸, Showed that NO MATTER Type of car, and NO MATTER type of racing, He can Keep up on good performance.
Won at monaco, 2 F1 championships, 3 SubChampionships, 2 LeMans Wins, 1 WEC Win, 24H Daytona, Rookie of the Year on Indy 500, Quite good performance on Dakar, also numerous times he has driven other cars like the nascar of Jimmie Johnson and got quite close to a 1 Lap pace.
Still, a very competitive driver with 41 Years Old.
Bro atleast someone sais this man's soo underrated even with abilitiesbut people only see titles sad
Tom Kristensen deserves a mention in the modern era aka "Mr Le Mans". Greatest of all time is difficult but if you have 10 cars sitting there from different eras and disciplines Mario Andretti can drive them all...and win.
As an Aussie I am Honourbound (and am suprised nobody else mentioned him) to select Sir, yes SIR Jack Brabham. He was the first and only (and probably always will be) Championship winning driver to also design and build his own racecar in F1.. He bought professionalism to the sport which in his own words, was dominated by 'Playboy Racers' at the time. He, or Brabham race team was pioneering in alot of the aero and ground effect breakthroughs of the 1970s. And showed that an outsider can make it throught sheer determination, grit and perserverence -something we see less and less of today to the point where it is an anomaly..
I always respected the “ all aroundere “ like Jim Clark, Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney and even guys like Tony Stewart. In f1 it requires a different type of style than a touring car vs a oval car and even dirt cars like a late model or sprint car. You have great specialist who only focus on their series but Jim Clark is definitely up there cause he was fast in touring cars, f1, Indy. When you got the likes of Senna and Fangio holding you in such regards it definitely shows.
Of course spaghetti answered Patrick 😂
Surprised to not see a few names on this roundup. Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Seb Loeb, Tom Kristensen to name a few. All superb drivers at the top of their respective fields. Many titles and big wins to their names.
Valentino Rossi my nr 1 from bikes to rally cars even tested F1 Ferrari , and to understand the geometry between 2 and 4 wheels and the absolute insane skills involved with bending physics to your needs around a race track. I will always admire The Dr VR46
Senna, hands down. I believe his passion for model aviation (he flew RC airplanes and helicopters) helped him maintain his hand eye coordination and keep his brain tuned-in during the off season.
If this is based on who’s done it all then the answer is Tony Stewart without question. NASCAR and Indy Car Champion. He’s currently racing NHRA Drag Racing. Tony Stewart is a NASCAR and NHRA team owner and Eldora track owner and he is in charge of the SRX series. This doesn’t include his dirt racing and other series he races in. I believe he even tested in an F1 car.
Gilles Villeneuve was incredible, jamws hunt raced him in the 70s and lost to gilles, Enzo Ferrari was in love with this guy, sad that gilles died in a race in the 80s, greatest canadian racing driver of all time
Gilles was the most skilled but Jacques Villeneuve takes it on statistics
I would have to say Jimmie Johnson is the greatest of all time, despite not doing well in Indycar. His NASCAR career is what is impressive. He had 7 championships and 83 race wins. He won 5 championships in a row in the most competitive era of NASCAR, racing against Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and many more.
Walter Röhrl is number one. Rally drivers are the best drivers on the planet and he was the best.
Group B was beyond insane and the fans were even worse.
@@KingHayabusa384 yeah its a shame i wasn’t around back then. It was craziest racing series ever.
He also beat Schumacher around the Nurburgring too
@@sakshamsharma5429 yeah they were even driving the same ferrari 599. Thing is he got that good without a billionair father getting him into racing at a really early age.
I was going to say Senna, but that's probably more emotional than rational for me... Jim Clark is the original GOAT.
John Surtees, or Sebastian Loeb
F1 for me, Hamilton, Senna and Stewart. I think Sir Jackie is Often overlooked.
A friend of mine was driving Formula Ford in the early 80s, he still remembers Ayrton Senna as being "the one who can and will win everything".
But for the spirit of racing it will be Alex Zanardi all day long. Racing, crashing, losing both legs, going back to race and winnig four olympic gold medals with the handbike: Only a true racer can accomplish this.
My Top Driver is Aryton Senna Period. He was wet weather specialist as shown in 93’ at Donnington Park starting 5th advancing to 1st on the first lap which was absolutely masterclass. Especially considering that these cars had more power than grip. All while competing against multiple WDC Drivers (Prost, Mansell, Schumacher, Lauda, Piquet) in Manually shifted cars, which is the ultimate pure form of driving imo. If you watch old film at Monaco during his time drivers are fighting the cars just to keep them straight from the power. In my eyes driving/fighting cars that powerful/lightweight and managing to keep them from crashing at every turn and straight shows what being on the absolute limit is. Lastly what doesn’t get talked about enough is the ability to develop a car. Prime example was the NSX(New SportsCar eXperimental) which started as the HP-X concept in 1984 (Honda Pinifarina eXperimental). When Honda presented it to Senna they swore it was as refined as specially crafted Katana, but after Senna’s test drive he said "I'm not sure I can really give you appropriate advice on a mass-production car,"”but I feel it's a little fragile." So Honda increased its stiffness by 50% along with refining the the suspension after his development input. So to me that why I consider him the GOAT.
To me it's between John Surtees and Walter Röhrl.
-Surtees to this day is the only person to be World champion in motorcycle racing and formula 1 in his time. So he was the best on 2 and 4 wheels. (And i have seen him in a 30's Mercedes with 500hp and tires as wide as 5 fingers of a hand on a cobble stone road drivfting onehanded while waving to the crowd with the other hand. And just to make sure: no seatbelts, no assisted steering...)
-And Walter Röhrl, because in every racing series he started, he won races to my knowledge.
He won races on dry and wet asphalt, on gravel, dirt, mud, snow and ice. (He won the Monte carlo rallye which is usually a mix of wet and dry asphalt with snow and ice on 4 different car models against the best rallye drivers there were.)
He won rallye races with rwd against the advantageous 4wd, he set a record time in a rwd Opel Ascona 400 with manual gearbox in 1982 or so that only got beaten in 2006 or 2016 (not sure about the 3rd digit here) but think about that. By the time it got beaten they had flappy paddle gearboxes way more gears, active differentialy, tyres that gripped more, better suspension...
And when you look at the few touring car races he started in, he was incredibly fast. I mean he lapped everybody but the second place guy in his second Trans Am race.
(and the italians voted him as the rallye driver of the century)
Phil Hill. Just imagine driving any of these cars with no safety features and just a helmet. 156 Shark Nose at the Nurburgring, Monaco and Monza with the oval, 250 GTO at Daytona 24 hours and 12 hours of Sebring, Shelby Cobra and Daytona Coupe at 12 Hours of Sebring. He also drove the Chapperal 2D and 2F and the Ford GT40X in Le Man's 24 hour.
When Enzo says Tazio Nuvolari, Fangio says Nuvolari & Dr. Porsche says the same, who is anyone to argue? Champion on bicycles, motorcycles G.P. cars, rally cars, sports cars. Won Le Mans, Monaco, Vanderbilt cup, Targa Floria, Mille Miglia, Nurburgring G.P. - where he beat the might of Mercedes &Auto Union in a 5yr. old Alfa Romero, called the greatest upset/ race of all time. No other driver comes close.
P.S. Tazio also held the Land Speed Record. Who else won as many TOP Events + the L.S.R. ?
@@burdineestep4224 thing is, Taz was a brilliant driver but his team mate at AU was even better..Rosemeyer.
@PJ's In-Car nah, he didn't win the various races that "Taz" did. Didn't win in 4 decades either.
@@burdineestep4224I agree with you but with Rosemeyer coming from the bikes didnt know how s**ty the AUs actually handled ;)
Fun discussion for sure. Thank you to everyone that submitted their answers and ideas.
Y’all should do a follow up video of this. Where the same guys get asked the same question, after they watch videos of all the drivers mentioned just to see if it changes their minds. Picking drivers that are great at one particular discipline is very telling of the persons choice and of what type of racing they were exposed to in their lives. I would think it would be drivers in multiple racing classes/ types…. Just my two cents.
A follow up suggestion: greates female racing driver of all time.
My pick would be Michelle Mouton.
(No other lady ever was closer to be world champion, and loosing against the almighty Walter Röhrl by 1 point doesn't realy count as loosing.)
Alan Prost. Always found a way to win with a lesser car. Incredible car control.
To me the one that was the best but unfortunately taken too early is Henri Toivonen
The greatest racing driver is and only can be Jim Clark. He competed in every motor race series on the planet. Indy, F1, Touring car, Rally and everything else on wheels. He flew all over the world from race, to race, to race until he sadly crashed and died. If you don't know who he is then you need to research him. He was an absolute machine.
The GOAT has to be multi-disciplinary in nature, because a driver who excels in endurance racing might struggle in open-wheel circuit racing or oval racing. And, a driver who excels at those disciplines might struggle with something like rallying. To that end, Vic Elford is my GOAT driver. He, Clark, and Hill stand head and shoulders above the rest as having the bravery, the skill, and the technical competency to excel in multiple disciplines.
John Surtees was pretty amazing.
@d-zone , there were a bunch during that era--Surtees, Andretti. But Vic's rallying and endurance racing pedigree (be it at the Nurburgring, Targo Florio, Spa, Le Mans, etc.) really puts him almost in a tier of his own.
@@flyingphoenix113 Elford and Surtees are incredibly underrated, Andretti had his brief day (winning) but could not be called the GOAT. 1 championship and 12 wins is 10 less than Damon Hill 🤣
Clark, Surtees, Andretti, Montoya, Tony Stewart, Revson, so many names have success in multiple categories, but they are so split that they aren’t recognized.
how many F1 championships did JPM win? How many races have JPM and Andretti won in total? They are not recognised because they won so few races. Surtees won the F1 and 7 MotoGP World Championships. Mansell won both IndyCar and F1 and more race wins than them both, he's not the GOAT. JPM and Andretti are great drivers no doubt and JPM had a great racing spirit. They both had great personalities but they are not the GOAT racing drivers.
NASCAR: Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, and Jeff Gordon
F1: Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton
LeMans: Ken Miles
Drifting: Keiichi Tsuchiya and Vaughn Gittin Jr
Rally: Colin McRae, Tommi Makinen, and Ken Block
Senna was the ultimate complete driver. You just need to see him qualifying on Monaco or see him in Brazil winning stuck in third gear. And even Schumacher recognize that Senna was the Best.
Fangio definitely, the guy won 5 F1 Championships during a time when it was safer to play russian roulette than race in F1. He had really bad luck with retires in 1950 and 1953, could have definitely beaten Farina in 1950 for the championship if he hadn't retired once every two races, and could at worst given Ascari a run for his money in 1953, but again retired 3 out of 7 races.
His race at the Nurburgring in 1957 was absolutely legendary, and even the modern greats have praised his accomplishments, Schumacher when he won his 6th title said: "Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself. What he did stands alone and what we have achieved is also unique. I have such respect for what he achieved. You can't take a personality like Fangio and compare him with what has happened today. There is not even the slightest comparison." You can look for the words of Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart and even Ayrton Senna as well.
There are three drivers who won both the Indy 500 and a Formula 1 championship and they are Mario Andretti, Jim Clark and Graham Hill. But only one, Graham Hill , won the triple crown of motorsports by adding a win at Le Mans.
Hill was also the only rookie to win the Indy 500 on his first try and he started farthest back in the starting grid of any winner ever. He won two Formula 1 championships and was second three times. If he hadn't been in a serious accident where he broke both of his legs in 1969 it's hard to know how many more races he would have won. After that accident he asked the team from the hospital to pass a message to his wife that 'he wouldn't be dancing for two weeks.' He is the greatest race car driver of all time.
Of the three, Clark, Andretti and Graham Hill, only Jim Clark won Indy and the formula one championship in the same year-1965. I was so impressed by him that I named my son after him...
@@Miklos82 Mad respect man. We lost both of them far too soon.
Jim Clark is the GOAT and it's not close. Won in everything he touched. Would've been a 5 time champion if he didn't die in 1968 due to no fault of his own.
While there have been many incredible drivers over the year, there's no doubt in my mind that the greatest of all time is Lightning McQueen. 🌩🌩
Jim Clark, Fangio and Senna both said it.
Simple...John Surtees...F1 and moto gp equivalent world champ...not been done since and likely will never be done again...an absolute legend and just a cool guy.
Absolutely cool guy! Was lucky to see him two times in an oldtimer rallye where live years ago.
One time he drifted on cobble stones in a Mercedes W125 onehanded while waving to the crowd with the other. (It was a normal road and the spectators were standing on the sidewalk in a small austrian town.)
And another time when the Mercedes Museum let him drive the 722 of Stirling Moss for a few show laps.
Before watching, I wonder if Sebastian Loeb will be mentioned
Unfortunately I was never able to see Ayrton or Dale Sr, but if the modern drivers I have to say Lewis Hamilton for F1 and Jimmie Johnson for nascar, 2 of the most dominant drivers I’ve ever seen
For nascar I'd definitely say dale or johnson.
Dale Earnhardt was better than Jimmie ever was
I've been rewatching the CART seasons, and just on a driving talent level, Montoya should be in the conversation for his absolutely insane car control.
Jimmie Johnson won 7 championships, 5 of which were in a row in 3 different car setups and 4 different point systems.
Nascar tried a lot of different ways to stop him. What other top professional series has this been done in?
No one! And no other racing driver that won 7 championships in their series had the parity and competitive equality they had to win against.
Greatest race car driver of all time? That’s not even a question. It’s the Intimidator #3 Cmon! Watch the video of him driving with one knee while hanging out the window cleaning the windshield on his old yellow Wrangler car while moving down the lane. He was the best. Hands down.
Michael Schumacher right behind him. Alan Kulwicki close third. That’s my top three. I couldn’t stop.
It’s impossible to compare eras and the different series and I admire so many of the greats such as Mario, MSC, Hamilton,Prost, Lauda (who should be on the list for conquering death then placing 4th at Monza weeks later) but for many reasons, the all time great podium for me would be 1.Senna 2. Fangio 3. Nuvolari and just missing the podium with a puncture and broken nose cone Gilles Villeneuve
Jim Clark!!He still has a record that even Hamilton hasn't broke. He raced everything and won including the indy 500. Sena even called him the best.
My favourite has to be Michael Schumacher, but objectively Sébastien Loeb as he dominated like no other in a sport that is completely unpredictable.
Fernando Alonso
Also no John Surtees? F1 world champion and 7 time Moto gp champion.
Fernando Alonso, simple. Proven all round best in F1 won 2 championships and 2 Le Mann in WEC, was super competitive first time out at Indy 500 and was quick in Dakar. It doesn’t get better than that, he is the best all round best racing driver.
Absolutely but it's sad that some people think it's only about who has high stats and they go for Lewis Schumacher.
AJ Foyt. Won in everything he ever drove. From midgets and sprint cars on dirt, to indycar, stockcars and sports cars.
The only reason he didn't go to formula 1 is because he didn't like European food
The disrespect in this video for the greatest drivers of all time Fernando Alonso and Jim Clark is insane.
Absolutely, if i go current they they should atleast honoured Fernando Alonso and in future it will be Max for sure and I have huge respect for Clark 🐐🐐
Tyler Hoover: Jeff Gordon.
Next interviewee: actually Jeff Gordon.
Me: Boy, that escalated quickly.
Video deserves a like just for mentioned Senna. Thanks, Ed! Lots of legends in the video 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Ayrton Senna all day any day! Could you imagine if he lived longer and raced several years later? He was still rising in his racing 'abilities' - only hindrance was the race team, and many knew it.
Im really surprised nobody mentioned Walther Röhrl
Because they don't think outside their usual race watching habits. And because he didn't do many whole championships. Especially not in the US. But they should remember him for lapping the whole field apart from second place guy in his second Trans Am Race.
(It's even on YT and you can see the speed they were going at a certain corner being mentioned by the commentator, and they almost didn't show Röhrl as he was so far ahead. But once they showed him going round the speed trap corner, and he was 12mph faster in the corner than everybody else.)
But to me it's between him and John Surtees, as Surtees is to this day the only one to be world champion in the top class on 2 and 4 wheels. (No one else ever managed to do that.)
100% agree with you Ed. Ayrton Senna’s talent behind the wheel was something to behold. I watched that accident live. Man that was a tough one.