MTosi

Thought this is an interesting statistic, one of the only way's to compare the all time greats, since they used to have less races in a year.

1 Juan Manuel Fangio 1950–1951, 1953–1958 52/24 46.15%
2 Alberto Ascari 1950–1955 33/13 39.39%
3 Michael Schumacher 1991–2006 250/91 36.40%
4 Jim Clark 1960–1968 73/25 34.25%
5 Jackie Stewart 1965–1973 100/27 27.00%
6 Ayrton Senna 1984–1994 162/41 25.31%
7 Alain Prost 1980–1991, 1993 202/51 25.25%
8 Stirling Moss 1954–1961 67/16 24.24%

Fangio was simply incredible, 24 race wins in 52 race starts, almost 50/50, In an era when cars didn't have bullet proof reliablility.

A few pictures just as a reminder, of how the maestro could drive-

Larry Herman

I don't know what is more amazing, the fact that Fangio won almost 1/2 of the races that he entered, or that Schumacher won more races than most F1 drivers participated in over their entire career.

MTosi

hahaha, yeah I just noticed that. Here's another something for all these 10 year old immature little boys racing in F1 to knaw on, the old retired guy aka Schui was 37 when years old when he retired (or close to that, not positive), Fangio did not start racing in formula one unitil he was 37 years old.

f8vr993

Remember boys, Fangio & Ascari could switch cars with teammates when their car broke down.
As much as I hate the Shumi, You do have to recognize that his record was the best in F1.
But if you ask me who was the best driver ever, then there is only one- "AYRTON SENNA"!!!!!!

MTosi

All in an era that when you crashed you didn't die (yes I know senna, but I'm refering to general trends), you could pull stupid immature moves and crash into your teammates or competitiors and come out unscathed, when you could abuse your car and it would still finish, when you could drive with understeer and be fast (a sin against the racing gods), when you got fresh tires twice during a race, when the races weren't three hours long, when cars realy didn't break down all the time, when there were actually runout's and curbs as opposed to tree's and rock faces.................

A.Wayne

Don't be so hard on Schumi, a few other things missing .

Yes fangio numbers are skewed by the teammate issues of his era, no wonder schumachers numbers are the way it is, he is the only driver on that list that,
1. had the same teammate contract support as fangio
2. could pull silly moves due to extreme safety of the current sport...
3. had modern electronics and reliability like no other....

schumacher once took a spin in a 80's era turbo car and was aghast at what it took to drive the thing, his first comment was, how ? without electronics....
crazy drivers................................................................. ........................
Still, his record numbers are astonishing and is full testament to the Ferrari car of the era , this should be noted against his record numbers........................

f8vr993

You're talking about Shumi, right?

Premier Motorsp

when you could drive with understeer and be fast (a sin against the racing gods),

Jim Michaels

But the old photos show oversteer. The tires were skinny and the drivers were fat. Now it's the reverse.

Lothar

Where is Alonso in that list? He is the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! That's why two team principles have said that they would not want him on their team!!!

Oh yeah, McLaren might miss his ability to develop the car. What they don't miss is his crappy attitude and enormous ego.

Veloce Raptor

But....but...but...ALONSO!!!!

-A Wayne's World

M758

Fangio is of an entirely different era. Different even than Jim Clark just a few years later.

I red a biography of Fangio a few years back. What he did to make it to Formula 1 was amazing. F1 or Fangio was the end of his racing life not the start as with most new comers. The race he did in Agentina were amazing. I really don't think racers today could be as good as racers back then. It is not that they were better drivers in the old days, but that the driving was so differnet. The risk reward curve was different. It took a special kind of guy to race in those days. Now with the safety of it all it changes the sport. One could say it allow driving skill to suceed were in the past WDC the most brave and lucky, but it is just not fair to compare them.

MTosi

+10000000000000000000000000000000

read the post I just put up in the "why f1 used to be so cool"

Back then you couldn't just be stupid and push 110% and make mistakes otherwise you died. There is realy no comparison, they were racing to win and to stay alive, balancing the two took an incredible amount of skill, which Fangio was a master of. This was Jacky Ickx on never having won the F1 championship (runner up twice and perhaps the best sportscar racer ever):
"The fact that I am still alive after 100,000 laps is my championship." - Jacky ickx

mitch236

Also racing today is much more of a team sport. With engineers telling you exactly where to brake, where to turn, when to accelerate, the track is broken down to the smallest detail and the team maps out the plan. In the old days, they just cut you loose and you figured out what worked.

M758

Well the flip side is I don't know that Fangio will be a WDC in today's cars. Certain trying enter F1 at 37 would simply never fly. Even if he did I don't know that the skills he had would suit today's cars. Still that doed not make him any less of a F1 great. In the end you cannot pull the drivers out of their era and compare them. The car's, tracks, competition and nature of the sport changes too much.