Atlas F1   Rating By Ratios
  by Richard Swales, England

How do you rate different drivers against each other? Fairly? Richard Swales presents a possible the answer to this question


As well as supporting current drivers, many enthusiasts are still loyal to drivers from past years, from the years they can remember watching as well as the seasons they have read about in books.

Fans often want to find a way of comparing drivers from past years. Of course, we can never know what results would have been achieved if, for example, Keke Rosberg had stayed on at Williams instead of going to McLaren, or if Fangio had been a driver in the mid 80s era of McLaren-Porsches and Brabham-BMWs, but we can at least compare their records.

Some would say the best parameter to compare is the number of wins, giving Alain Prost the best record with 51 wins. The problem with this method is that it gives too much of an advantage to drivers from the 16 races per season era, as picking up a few race wins each season is easier when there are 16 races than when there are 8.

Other people say you should take the number of races a driver entered into account and find the wins to races ratio. The problem with this system is that it punishes drivers who entered Formula One young while they were still learning, or those who stayed on after their heyday was finished for the love of the sport (such as Stirling Moss, Emerson Fittipaldi or Graham Hill).

Two years ago I found a third way of looking at it (http://atlasf1.autosport.com/98/san/swales.html). Basically, it works by weighting all the races a driver won according to the number of races in the season they won them. Ayrton Senna's 41 wins, all scored in 16-race seasons, would count for 41/16 and Baghetti's single win in the 8-race 1961 season would count for 1/8. Simply put, you count the number of "season's-worth" of wins a driver won.

Fangio is top, and his record of almost 3 and a half "seasons-worth" of races won looks unsurpassable. Schumacher is up to 6th in the chart, but he would have to win another 21 Grands Prix to have a better record than Fangio - although on the absolute wins chart he is well past Fangio already. On this system of comparison, Damon Hill never did beat the record of his father Graham.

The lowest position for a World Champion is equal 43rd for Keke Rosberg (but then he always deserved to win more than 5 races). The highest position for a non-World Champion is Stirling Moss in 7th. Moss is considered by many to be the greatest driver never to win the World Championship, but although he is not particulary high on the wins or the wins per race competed charts, he is ranked 7th by this method. The next highest non-World Champion is Reutemann in 17th.

The chart runs from 1950-1999 - this year's results are not included yet because in Formula One you can never know for sure whether all the races will be held. Note also that while the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the championship in the fifties, it is not included here as very few World Championship drivers entered it.

In the last two years, the main climbers have been Michael Schumacher, up to from 9th to 6th in the chart, and Hakkinen, up from 72nd equal, to 16th. The only new entry from two years ago is Eddie Irvine, who comes in at 47th.


Pos Name Weighted Wins Actual Wins
1 Fangio 3.470 24
2 Prost 3.217 51
3 Senna 2.563 41
4 Clark 2.491 25
5 Stewart 2.296 27
6 Schumacher 2.136 35
7 Moss 2.003 16
8 Mansell 1.938 31
9 Ascari 1.768 13
10 Lauda 1.604 25
11 Brabham 1.509 14
12 Piquet 1.489 23
13 G Hill 1.385 14
14 D Hill 1.360 22
15 Fittipaldi 1.036 14
16 Hakkinen 0.871 14
17 Jones 0.816 12
18 Reutemann 0.785 12
19 Farina 0.768 5
20 Andretti 0.764 12
21 Ickx 0.670 8
22 J Villeneuve 0.662 11
23 Hulme 0.656 8
24 Peterson 0.654 10
25 Scheckter 0.644 10
26 Hunt 0.623 10
27 Berger 0.621 10
28 Surtees 0.613 6
29 Brooks 0.550 5
30 Rindt 0.476 6
31 Arnoux 0.468 7
32 McLaren 0.431 4
33 Gurney 0.402 4
34 Laffite 0.397 6
35 G Villeneuve 0.396 6
36 Collins 0.386 3
37 Patrese 0.379 6
38 Coulthard 0.364 6
39 Phil Hill 0.361 3
40 Hawthorn 0.350 3
41 Regazzoni 0.344 5
42 Watson 0.321 5
=43 Rosberg 0.317 5
Alboreto 0.317 5
45 Gonzalez 0.268 2
46 Trintignant 0.267 2
=47 Irvine 0.250 4
Von Trips 0.250 2
49 Pironi 0.196 3
50 Boutsen 0.188 3
51 Frentzen 0.184 3
52 Herbert 0.180 3
53 Siffert 0.174 2
54 Rodriguez 0.168 2
55 Taruffi 0.143 1
56 Jabouille 0.138 2
57 Revson 0.133 2
=58 Depailler 0.129 2
Tambay 0.129 2
=60 De Angelis 0.125 2
Bonnier 0.125 1
Baghetti 0.125 1
Ireland 0.125 1
64 Scarfiotti 0.111 1
=65 Bandini 0.100 1
Ginther 0.100 1
=67 Gethin 0.091 1
Cevert 0.091 1
69 Beltoise 0.083 1
=70 Pace 0.071 1
Mass 0.071 1
Brambilla 0.071 1
=73 Nannini 0.063 1
Panis 0.063 1
=75 Nilsson 0.059 1
Alesi 0.059 1

Richard Swales © 2000 Kaizar.Com, Incorporated.
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