multi21

REVEALED: Your Top F1 Driver of the Decade

You voted in your tens of thousands, and the time has now come to reveal who you have voted as the top F1 driver from the past decade of grand prix action...
Christmas is over for another year, the gym has been hit to take care of all the excess turkey and trimmings, the decorations have been packed back into their boxes, New Year's resolutions have been made – and perhaps already broken – and it is time for us to reveal who you reckon to have been the best F1 driver of the past decade.

Just before Christmas, we asked you to vote on the ten competitors we deem to have been the biggest stars on the grand prix grid since the turn of the Millennium – and following the casting of almost 30,000 votes, there is a clear winner.

Multiple F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher – of whose seven titles, five have come since 2000 – wound up comfortably on top, appropriately so for a driver of his undisputed talent and perhaps unsurpassable achievements in the sport. Behind the German legend, though, the battle was fierce.

The six world champions in the list annexed the top six places in the final reckoning, with McLaren-Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton narrowly snaring the runner-up laurels from Mika Hakkinen, a driver against whom he never raced but one the Briton palpably admired.

Fernando Alonso placed fourth, just ahead of the man he displaced from Ferrari last year, 2007 title-winner and World Rally Championship-convert Kimi Raikkonen, with F1's newest – and youngest – world champion Sebastian Vettel rounding out the leading half-dozen.

Amongst the 'wild card' entries, meanwhile, you rated Renault's Robert Kubica as 'best-of-the-rest' behind the big-hitters – with the Pole widely-considered to be a world champion in-waiting – with Mark Webber, who many had tipped to clinch the crown in 2010, just behind in eighth.

Your votes left Britain's most recent title-winner Jenson Button ninth, with colourful Colombian Juan-Pablo Montoya picking up the wooden spoon in tenth.

The full result, with each driver's average score out of ten, is as follows:

1. Michael Schumacher 8.497
2. Lewis Hamilton 7.595
3. Mika Hakkinen 7.511
4. Fernando Alonso 7.367
5. Kimi Raikkonen 7.265
6. Sebastian Vettel 6.961
7. Robert Kubica 6.374
8. Mark Webber 6.174
9. Jenson Button 6.023
10. Juan-Pablo Montoya 5.632

Land Jet

Oh man, here comes the faux avalanche.

paradisenb

Button in the top 10? Come on. Give me a break.

Fernando #4? Heads are exploding inside his butt. Good bye AW and Raj. Nice knowin ya.

Veloce Raptor

..

Land Jet

Yea, wouldn't have been my choice either.

Nizer

I'll be the first to admit that he drives as well as he dresses...

multi21

What's wrong with you Nizer? He's big pimpin'




You can hate him because he's beautiful, but the man has the championships to back him up. Ahhhh,...... I consider this my preseason testing......

multi21

I think Button at #9 is a factor of him having a WDC, but Montoya in the top 10? He won only 6 races while in top cars at Williams BMW and McLaren!

Mika was a great driver, no doubt and Hamilton beat Alonso straight up in the same car as a rookie and has a WDC and could of had another one so I don't see those 2 ahead of Alonso as any surprise whatsoever. You have to remember, Alonso was the beneficiary of a tire rule change in 2005 and was lucky in 2006 when MS engine exploded while leading gifting FA a 2nd WDC. What has Alonso done since 2006? Not much.... numbers don't lie. Have I mentioned 7 today?

The fans got it right on the top spot. No doubt!!!!!!

Nizer

Pete, like you I'm looking forward to MS cobbling together a repeat of 2010's successful season.

multi21

You can only hate. I understand that. He's older now and battling with guys that could be his children, but if MB had a simulator, that would have helped as stated by Brawn just this week. BTW, MB won't have a simulator until 2012 season.

That's okay, look at the list again...... closely...... can you name anyone on that list that you can say is a "dominate" driver? Alonso? no. Hamilton, no. Mika, no, Kimi, no. MS is the only one to dominate his era for the past 10 years.

Not my list, it's the fans.

ltc

I would hvae put Mika ahead of Lewis and Kimi ahead of Alonso ... too soon to tell about Vettel IMHO.

ltc

At this rate, the "Report Post" button ... aka "the Little Miss Sunshine Hurty Feely" button is not going to make it to the grid for the start of the 2011 season.

PPo

Hamilton is good... but I don't think he is #2 for the decade...

It is an opinion poll anyhow... and we all know popularity doesn't always equate to the best. Otherwise our basements and attics would have stacks of old BetaMax tapes of F1 races from the eightes...

(For what is is worth, my favorite old tape was from 1991 Cdn Grand Prix when Jean Alesi stalled on the start of the installation lap... it was a single V12 roaring around the circuit, trying to catch-up to the grid that was just about to set off. Everything else was quiet, and the you can here the V12 echoing off everything and just wailing around the circuit... I must have watched it 1000+ times.)

Nizer

No hating here Pete - not good for the health. Just think he's overrated. Don't take it personally as I think most drivers are overrated and most of these polls are pointless exercises designed to sell mags, page views, etc.

End of the day physics are physics and winning is much more about which team has the best car and makes the fewest mistakes.

Then again, I've spent time around MS so perhaps I'm unduly biased. But I still give him style points for dress.

My993C2

I am NOT a Schumacher fan ... but it should be a no brainer that Schumacher be voted #1 in this list for the best driver in the last decade. Schumacher had a lot of "Ferrari team help" along the way, but he was also a very talented driver (one only needs to go back and watch some of the races he won in the wet to know he was good). You have to be good to be lucky and you have to be lucky to be good. Schumacher had a lot of good luck, but he also made himself lucky. Plus you have to be driving a good car. Damon Hill was awesome when he drove for Williams (he had the best wins-to-starts ratio when he was with Williams), but he was not so awesome when he lost his Williams ride.

BTW why is Hamilton so high on the list? Don't get me wrong Lewis is one of the pure driving talents in the sport, but he is also his own worst enemy (IMHO he and Vettel share this distinction being their own worst enemies).

Who knows what Senna would have accomplished had he not died, but I still believe Senna, Prost and Schumacher make up the top list of drivers from the semi-modern era of F1 racing.