Car Articles

This top one hundred may raise a few eyebrows; one because Sir Stirling Moss has been named number one and the great Michael Schumacher has been placed outside of the top ten. This is because in he deals with the Ferrari F1 Team, many people claim that he demanded seniority over other drivers.

Clearly Michael Schumacher is the number one F1 driver as he won 91 Grand Prix, while the top four of Moss, Clark, Senna and Prost only won 133 Grand Prix between them!

Anyway this is the list according to Autocar:

1. Stirling Moss

2. Jim Clark

3. Ayrton Senna

4. Alain Prost

5. Alberto Ascari

6. Juan-Manuel Fangio

7. Bernd Rosemeyer

8. Jackie Stewart

9. Tazio Nuvolari

10. Mika Häkkinen

11. Michael Schumacher

12. Gilles Villeneuve

13. Chris Amon

14. Tony Brooks

15. Carlos Reutemann

16. Achille Varzi

17. Emerson Fittipaldi

18. Jack Brabham

19. Mario Andretti

20. Niki Lauda

21. Jochen Rindt

22. Nelson Piquet

23. Guy Moll

24. John Surtees

25. Ronnie Peterson

26. Hermann Lang

27. Dan Gurney

28. Keke Rosberg

29. Kimi Räikkönen

30. Lewis Hamilton

31. Nigel Mansell

32. Fernando Alonso

33. Rudolf Caracciola

34. Didier Pironi

35. Jacky Ickx

36. Alan Jones

37. James Hunt

38. Phil Hill

39. Damon Hill

40. Mike Hawthorn

41. Giuseppe Farina

42. Jody Scheckter

43. Jean-Pierre Wimille

44. Graham Hill

45. François Cevert

46. Gerhard Berger

47 Pedro Rodriguez

48. Jean Behra

49. Jacques Villeneuve

50. Ricardo Rodriguez

51. Clay Regazzoni

52. Denny Hulme

53. Jean Alesi

54. Juan Pablo Montoya

55. Carlos Pace

56. Louis Chiron

57. Peter Revson

58. Jo Siffert

59. David Coulthard

60. Felipe Massa

61. Froilán Gonzalez

62. Stefan Bellof

63. Elio de Angelis

64. Lorenzo Bandini

65. Riccardo Patrese

66. Patrick Tambay

67. Jenson Button

68. Rubens Barrichello

69. Martin Brundle

70. Derek Warwick

71. Dick Seaman

72. Patrick Depailler

73. Peter Collins

74. Bruce McLaren

75. Michele Alboreto

76. Eddie Irvine

77. Richie Ginther

78. Jean-Pierre Beltoise

79. Johnny Servoz-Gavin

80. Thierry Boutsen

81. Rene Arnoux

82. Tony Brise

83. Tom Pryce

84. Innes Ireland

85. Jarno Trulli

86. John Watson

87. Luigi Musso

88. Raymond Sommer

89. Mike Hailwood

90. Roy Salvadori

91. Ralf Schumacher

92. Wolfgang von Trips

93. Stuart Lewis-Evans

94. Jacques Laffite

95. Eugenio Castellotti

96. Trevor Taylor

97. Piers Courage

98. Stefan Johansson

99. Jochen Mass

100. Brian Redman

Source [Bruce McLaren]

Preview: Malaysian Grand Prix

Where: Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Dates: 21, 22, 23 March 2008
Track: Sepang International Circuit
Laps: 56 required
Length: 5.543 km
Record: 1:34.223 Juan Pablo Montoya (2004)

The Malaysian Grand Prix should be extremely interesting due to the heat and humidity making it over 60 degrees in the cockpit - something very few of us could bear. It’s my prediction that it means we’ll see more incidents toward the end of the days’ racing. Sepang features fifteen turns altogether, several of which are pulling in excess of 3G’s of force - again, this is something that should keep the racing really interesting to watch.

A number of the turns allow for high gearing (a couple of which will allow the driver to stay in seventh gear), so expect some roaring performances into/out of these particular turns. Both Friday practices have now been completed (2-3.30am and 6-7.30am respectively) and the Saturday practice begins at 3am for one hour. Qualifying is at 6am and the race begins at 7am on Sunday.

So what’s happened so far? Well, the first practice saw a range of incidents. Not least was the apparently compromised Red Bull RB4 car that David Coulthard was driving. It looked to be a promising lap, but part way round, after running on a curb; Coulthard suffered what appears to be a track rod failure. This led to a request by the race stewards for the detailed technical report of the incident.

Of course, we want the sport to be as safe and fair as possible - but no one would predict mechanical problems of this nature, or they wouldn’t be happening in the first place. Either way, it would be a genuine upset if stewards decide that the car does not meet requirements, as they have the capacity to enforce a ‘no race’ exclusion on the Red Bull vehicle. The incident has left Coulthard missing second practice and placing him 16th on the grid.

Practice one held some interesting (and expected in the same instance) results. Ferrari set the pace for the whole morning, with both Massa and Raikkonen driving their cars particularly hard. Moving on to who I would like to personally see take the victory (I’m not biased at all!), the McLaren team started off well, not too far off the Ferrari team. Hamilton managed to steal pole in the second practice session with a blistering lap time of 1 minute 35.055 seconds - extremely quick and not a mile off the current record, even considering the to-the-wire F1 times.

Unfortunately for the other team I’m interested in - Super Aguri - things didn’t go half so well. Takuma Sato had overheating problems with his car, whilst Anthony Davidson just can’t seem to ring out exactly what he wants from his race machine. He couldn’t better his second practice time of 1 minute 39.021 seconds.

You can see the times here for the second practice session, which currently places Lewis Hamilton in pole position. Remember though, there’s another practice session and qualifying to go, though everything is looking good so far for the young English driver.

Based on the practice times table, it’s very clear that Ferrari is burning off to an excellent season start - something that is down to both driving skill and engineering. I’d never rule out Button in the Honda however - the amount of laps he is intent on driving shows is concentration and commitment. Overall, I think Malaysia could well be one of the highlights of this year’s F1 season. Mark my words; this is going to be a big one!

Lewis Hamilton, the Great British hopeful who missed out on becoming one of F1’s youngest ever champions by an incredible one point last year has managed to clinch pole position for this year’s Grand Prix in Australia. This is the seventh pole of his F1 career and should provide an excellent start for the young driver.

Hamilton’s McLaren team mate Heikki Kovalainen (a Finn who previously drove for Renault F1 in 2007) will feature in row two of the grid alongside Felipe Massa - the now Ferrari driver. This should be quite useful for tactical plays between the team-mates, always useful for the early races.

Kimi Raikkonen (not my favourite driver, but someone I have a lot of respect for the skill of unlike Fernando Alonso, who is now the driver for Renault and places at 12th place) has placed all the way down the field to 16th after he came to halt in the pit lane during the qualifier.

Due to the new F1 rule set (something I’ll cover in another post), Raikkonen was not allowed to participate in the second session even if his car was ready to go, due to the help he received from mechanics in the pit lane.

So, how does the grid line up for the first race of the season overall? Well here are the times from every qualifying racer:

Times
01. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:26.714
02. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:26.869
03. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:27.079
04. Massa Ferrari 1:27.178
05. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:27.236
06. Trulli Toyota 1:28.527
07. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:28.687
08. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:29.041
09. Glock Toyota 1:29.593
10. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari No time
11. Barrichello Honda 1:26.173
12. Alonso Renault 1:26.188
13. Button Honda 1:26.259
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:26.413
15. Webber Red Bull-Renault No times
16. Raikkonen Ferrari No time
17. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 1:27.207
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:27.446
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:27.859
20. Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:28.208
21. Piquet Renault 1:28.330
22. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 1:29.059

Of course, I’d love to see Lewis Hamilton take the win. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy and if his performance on Top Gear is anything to go by, he’s even faster than the mighty Stig. As Anthony Davidson has been on television I’d love to see him win a point in the Super Aguri-Honda car - he’s been claimed to be one of the better drivers on the grid and only a weaker car has slowed him down. I can’t wait to see the season start - it’s sure to be a very strong one this year.