Why is ayrton senna the best driver ever

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We can't tell from the numbers which drivers had the quickest teammates. The table above says nothing of how many race wins were lost to reliability issues. Statistics don't reveal that Clark and Senna's careers were cut short by fatal crashes, that Jackie Stewart voluntarily retired in his prime or that Fangio was 39 when he made his F1 championship debut.

They don't give credit to Brabham for forming his own team with a partner and turning it into one of the success stories of the s. And most of all, we can't look at statistics and pick out the moments of brilliance that are the difference between a good driver and a great driver. Or in this case, a great driver and the greatest driver. An alternative method of assessing the merits of each driver is to actually watch the races, take in and analyse all the information and come to a conclusion based on what was seen — not what was written down afterwards.

This method should always produce a more accurate and real reflection than statistics, but it too has flaws. The biggest is that "greatness" measured in this way is subjective. What does greatness mean to you? Is the greatest driver the man capable of hitting the highest peaks, or the one who consistently performs at the highest level? The one with the most natural talent, or the one with a little less but who made more of it?

If each wins 30 races and three championships, who is "greater" — Driver A or Driver B? Another problem with this method is time.

Extensive coverage of historic races just isn't available, so the only people who could give a truly accurate assessment are those born before and who have religiously followed F1 all their lives.

At the turn of the millennium, two such men were asked by The Independent who they thought was the best of all time. Stirling Moss had no difficulties, replying, "That is surely the easiest question I've ever had to answer. Juan Manuel Fangio. Ken Tyrrell, then 75 years of age and a team owner for more than 30 years, had a different opinion. He said:. I find that's an impossible question.

To say that Fangio is better than Ayrton Senna is ridiculous. I couldn't say that any one of them was better than the other unless they were driving the same car at the same time, which is impossible.

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