[Driver] The GOAT - Round Two - Fangio vs Peterson

[crmalcolm]

The second match-up in Round Two sees Fangio vs Peterson.

Fangio was victorious 9-0 in the first round, whilst Peterson took a 9-2 victory.

So who do you vote for as the greater driver?

Juan Manuel Fangio
Fangio’s haul of five world titles stood as the record until it was eclipsed 46 years later by Michael Schumacher in 2003.

Fangio accumulated his wins at a rate never repeated again in F1 history. Among drivers who started at least 10 races, Fangio dominates most percentage statistics, including the highest win rate of 47% (24 wins in 51 starts) and the highest podium rate of 69% (35 podiums in 51 starts). Fangio scored 24 wins far faster than any other driver in history. The only driver whose trajectory is comparable to Fangio’s is Ascari’s, which tops out at 13 wins.
Among Fangio’s greatest achievements was his legendary comeback drive at Germany 1957. The race was held on the grueling 22km Nürburgring circuit over 22 laps, taking about 3.5 hours to finish. Fangio, in the Maserati, had decided to make one pit-stop for new tyres and fuel at half distance. Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, in the Ferraris, decided to run the race with no pit-stops. Fangio took the lead in the early stages and raced out to a lead of 28 seconds by the time of his pit-stop at the end of lap 12. However, a very slow pit-stop left him over 60 seconds behind the two Ferraris. In the remaining 10 laps, Fangio caught and passed both Ferraris, breaking the lap record 7 times in succession, even bettering his pole position time on 4 of those laps. Fittingly, it was Fangio’s final race win and sealed his fifth world championship title.

Ronnie Peterson
During his F1 career, Ronnie Peterson was widely considered one of the greatest raw talents in the sport’s history. His exceptional car control and devastating qualifying pace made him an obvious fan favorite. At his peak (1971-1974), he dominated the rookie Niki Lauda 6-1 in counting races, 10-2 in qualifying, and 12-0 in points. He closely matched reigning world champion Emerson Fittipaldi 3-3 in counting races, 11-4 in qualifying, and 52-55 in points (despite worse reliability). Across 1974-1975, he also dominated Jacky Ickx 7-3 in counting races, 21-3 in qualifying, and 38-15 in points.

From the mid-1970s onwards, Peterson’s driving performance clearly tailed off. In 1977, racing the uncompetitive Tyrrell P34B, he scored against teammate Patrick Depailler 3-2 in counting races, 8-9 in qualifying, and 7-20 in points. The following season, in the dominant Lotus, he was a clear number two to Mario Andretti, beaten 2-8 in counting races, 3-11 in qualifying, and 51-64 in points, before he sadly died following an injury sustained at the 1978 Italian GP.

[FIRE]

Fangio

[Racing Harz]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Fangio

Easy one!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

Easy one!

Yep. Not sure how Ronnie has picked up two votes, but that's the fun of the game!

[FastDB2s]

Fangio, much as I liked Ronnie

[midgetman]

Ronnie was my hero. But Fangio

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by midgetman

Ronnie was my hero. But Fangio

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

The second round is like this a lot.

Voting against some faves, not posting from Tapatalk

[Aysedasi]

The head or the heart, eh Adam.....?

[midgetman]

The head. Fangio all the way.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

[Gerard C]

Max, I know its Fangio/Peterson here, but could you imagine Prost having some success in this kind of contest? Not many voters atm, circa twelve in average. Fantastic game!

[midgetman]

Oh Gerard let's hope Fangio/Prost doesn't happen until the semi final. These are the greats.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

The head or the heart, eh Adam.....?

There are a lot that are both heart, but the head swings it.

My votes have been head, but my heart has felt the voting one way or the other.

[Gerard C]

Yes Max, gonna be tricky. Waiting for Nuvolari and Rosemeyer now…