Quote:
Originally Posted by coppice
I think one has to look at actual performance in Formula 1 rather than rely mainly on potential , which quickly ends up as speculation . And many drivers have been great in F3 for example but not carried through in F1- Dave Walker, Jan Magnussen and many , many others .
So Pryce , Williamson, Brise - who knows ? Too brief a career to know - my guess only Brise had the killer instinct.
Amon- no - too temperamental and lacked the mental strength of a Lauda or Stewart
Peterson and Villeneuve - nope.Feted for their press on style but tactical and not strategic drivers .
Watson , Arnoux - brilliant on their day but never consistently top drawer. And I'd put Regazzoni, Coulthard and Montoya here too .
Gurney - no. Too many other things on his plate- very much the renaissance man
Lots of nearly men like Siffert, Rodriguez , Reutemann, Lafitte et al
So my candidates are - the most obvious is MOSS of course, but very closely followed by ICKX (who was super smart,staggeringly quick and unflappable . But somehow lost his mojo by 73/4 - occasional flashes of brilliance but he looked invincible in 70 )
My wild card , but based on very few F1 drives - the multi talented VIC ELFORD
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I completely disagree about Peterson. One needs to bear in mind, that when he was driving for Lotus, he was the number 2 driver and therefore essentially wingman to first Fittipaldi and then Andretti.
He finished 3rd in 1973, notching up four wins and despite finishing 5th in '74 he still won three races. The venture with Tyrrell was a disaster but then things hadn't been good at Lotus either, with the ageing Lotus 72 and the problematic Lotus 76.
In 1978, he won two races with a spate of second places behind Andretti and still finished as runner up in the WDC, despite the tragic accident at Monza.