motorsportmania

Claims from some quarters that Fernando and Kimi make the best driver lineup ever in F1 indicate a shortage of memory perhaps. They may be two of the current top five, but the greatest pairing ever? I don’t think that they come close.

I could kick off in that first season of F1 and how about Fangio and Farina, winners of the first two world championships together at Alfa in 1950? Sticking with Fangio, how about him and Moss in 1955, surely a dream pairing? Then you could consider Hawthorn and Collins at Ferrari, Moss and Brooks at Vanwall (six wins that year including Brooks winning the three classics at Spa, Nurburgring and Monza).

For the 1960s there was perhaps more of a number one and number two system in operation, but I would offer Gurney and Brabham at the latter’s own team and then Clark and Hill at Lotus.

Lotus threw up more dynamic duo pairings in the 1970s, even if sometimes they couldn’t provide the cars, but how about Fittipaldi and Peterson in 1973, Peterson and Ickx or Peterson and Andretti? You could also look at Jody and Gilles at Ferrari.

From the 1980s you could try Lauda and Prost, Rosberg and Mansell, Mansell and Piquet, Prost and Mansell, but I’m starting to get bored now and my lack of interest in F1 from the back end of the eighties until more recently clouds my memory to a degree, but by now you surely get my drift; they have been a lot of very good driver pairings since the F1 world championship started, so to suggest the Fernando and Kimi are the best ever is a little bit of a stretch.

Comparing drivers of different eras is futile because the drove under different circumstances, but from my own list I would put Fangio and Moss at the top for there are two of the greatest drivers that the sport will ever have had.

Filed under: Drivers, F1 | Tagged: F1, formula one |