Post by sean on Sept 28, 2020 0:37:56 GMT 2
Where the idea came from and how it's supposed to work
I've always wanted to have a way of being able to rate drivers in Formula One however it's not an easy thing to do because you have teams that are good and bad which makes it difficult to know how good a driver is. For years I've looked at ways of trying to work out how to rate Formula One drivers but most of the time I was never satisfied with the results so for a while I gave up on the idea.
But recently while watching Mercedes dominate I noticed something rather simple obvious the best driver that would be Hamilton almost always leads ahead of Bottas in the race so what if you applied that same idea to the whole of Formula One's history a system that rates drivers on how they perform against their teammates the more laps ahead they complete the better higher-rated they become. One important thing to note that if a driver retires from the race then the laps are not long counted the only time they are counted is when both drivers are racing each other.
This would mean getting data from every single lap ever completed in Formula One and luckily the website called StatsF1 lets you do just that. It does mean you have to spend many hours going through lots and lots of data and recording it all for every single driver but I was always satisfied with the results I found them more accurate than when you compare drivers between who finished ahead of more often or who got more wins and podiums when you do the lap by lap you get much more of what happened in the race rather than just the result which doesn't always tell the whole story.
How do you rate the drivers?
Since I was going to use the lap by lap data and compare it with teammates I needed a system in place that would then rate the driver's performances that rating will change over time. I decided to go with the Elo rating system but a slightly modified version of it that allows me to put in the number of laps led and the more a driver does that the higher their rating will become. Drivers must complete at least half a season worth of races to be rated for that year. Each driver starts with a rating of 1500 from there each year that can go from anywhere between 0 and 3000. So what does a rating of 1800 compared to 1500 mean? It would mean the driver rated 1800 has an 85% chance of beating the other driver. The list is ordered based on their peak rating that they achieved during their time in Formula One.
Example of how it works
Let's say a highly rated driver like Hamilton becomes teammates with a rookie like Latifi who would be lower rated. If Hamilton completed over 90% of the laps ahead his rating wouldn't change too much simply because Latifi isn't a highly rated driver. But if Latifi was to lead 90% of laps ahead of Hamilton his rating would change drastically he still wouldn't be as rated as high as Hamilton since it was just one season but eventually, overtime Latifi rating would become higher than Hamilton's.
Things to remember before reading further
I wanted to do something different from how other people have rated drivers in the past I wanted to do something that has never been done before and we've already had people make up the best of all time driver lists based on wins and championships or they made their own mathematical model. Remember each model you come up with it's always going to have results some people will think is strange or not right so just remember this is just all based on real life data and not someone's own opinion. I want people to read this and just enjoy it for what it is and hope they find it interesting and maybe learn a thing or two about some of the drivers.
What do the graphs mean?
You'll see for most drivers a graph with a blue and red line on it the blue line shows the drivers rating over time and the red line is the average rating of every single driver that took part in that year for comparison so you know if their rating that year was better than average or below average.
20. Prince Bira - Peak Rating 1568 (Year 1950)
After the war, Bira returned to racing but was not seriously competitive as he generally drove outdated vehicles. In 1954, in a Masarati 250F which was up with the pace, he won the Grand Prix des Frontières on the Chimay road circuit and then finished fourth in the 1954 French Grand Prix with his own Maserati.
Prince Bira's start in Formula One went great he faced 10 different teammates during 1950 and managed to lap ahead of all 9 apart from one that being Louis Chiron. This was Bira's strongest year after 1950 to the end of his career in 1954 his rating gradually went down to the point he was rated below average compared to other drivers he was racing against.
19. Lance Macklin - Peak Rating 1606 (Year 1953)
Macklin was highly regarded and many felt he could have achieved far more were it not for his laid-back approach. In 1950 he finished fifth at Le Mans alongside George Abecassis, and as a result Abecassis invited him to join an underfunded fledgling Formula 2 HWM team which included Stirling Moss.
The cars were never able to compete with the big manufacturers. Still with Aston Martin, he came third at Le Mans in 1951, his career high, but in Formula One the HWM cars were always off the pace and in 13 starts he never scored a point.
Lance Macklin first year in Formula One was a below average performance he was beaten by almost all of his teammates and only lapped ahead 37% of the time however in 1953 we saw a vast improvement now with a year experience under his belt Lance Macklin lapped ahead of his teammates 78% of the time those who were Collins, Frère and Giraud-Cabantous all who are ranked higher than Macklin on this list simply because they had longer careers. With Lance Macklin showing a promising sign early on it's fair to say that if he had stayed in Formula One longer into the 1950's he could have had greater success.
18. Peter Collins - Peak Rating 1609 (Year 1952)
His break in Formula One came in 1952 (the year he won a nine-hour endurance race at Goodwood in an Aston Martin) when he replaced Stirling Moss in the HWM team, but after two disappointing seasons he moved on, taking drives with Vanwall, Maserati and BRM. In 1956 he was signed by Ferrari on the strength of a superb drive with Moss to win the Targa Florio in Sicily - the move proved inspired - he won back-to-back races in Belgium and France. He was poised to secure the drivers' title when he handed over his car to Juan Manuel Fangio during the Italian GP and the car then suffered mechanical failure.
In 1957, Mike Hawthorn joined him at Ferrari and the pair bonded immediately both on and off the track. But the car was not as competitive as it had been and two third-place finishes were the highlight of a disappointing season. All that was put right in 1958 when Ferrari introduced the Dino 246, allowing Collins to take his third and final win at the British GP.
The model rates Peter Collins debut season in 1952 as his best and peak performance overall. While he suffered from reliability issues and only finished one race he did lead 72% of all laps ahead of his teammates laps through out the season some of these names worth mentioning are Moss and Frère who are rated higher up on this list along with the previously mentioned Macklin.
The following year Macklin was usually lapping ahead of Collins which explains his large drop in performance. 1954 and 1955 aren't rated because he failed to complete half a season worth of races.
Peter Collins in 1956 raced against two teammates who have managed it into the top 20 on this list. He raced against Musso what we saw was Musso lapping ahead 81% of the time. We have another comparison with one of the all time greats Fangio as the image above shows who lapped ahead 72% of the time in 1956. The following year in 1957 Collins come back to have a much stronger season he managed to lap ahead of his teammates 74% of the time beating some drivers like Hawthorn and Musso who had beat him in the previous year.
After a stronger year in 1957 the following season in 1958 saw things going downhill as he was beaten by Hawthorn and Musso. Unfortunately 1958 was the last year for Peter Collins as he died in an accident during the German Grand Prix. Overall the model ranks him just below Hawthorn and Musso as most of the time they were lapping ahead of Collins however only just.
17. Mike Hawthorn - Peak Rating 1622 (Year 1958)
His enthusiasm for racing was born watching pre-war events at Brooklands as a schoolboy, and aided by his father he started competing in 1950 with immediate success, winning the Brighton Speed Trials. By 1952 he had switched to single-seaters and that year won his first race in a Formula Two Cooper-Bristol at Goodwood, and the further successes that followed brought him to the attention of Enzo Ferrari who offered him a place on his team. By the end of the season he had already secured his first podium - third at the British Grand Prix - and a brace of fourths driving a Cooper.
At Ferrari, Hawthorn immediately showed his worth with victory in what was only his ninth start, outthinking Juan Manuel Fangio in a gripping finish at the French Grand Prix. This and two more podium finishes helped him finish the season in fourth.
Between 1952 and 1954 Hawthorn had fairly good years and achieved a rating higher than the average driver on the grid for four years in a row. 1956 was his poorest year because he was beaten by a few of his teammates during that time by the likes of Moss and Behra.
Hawthorn gradually improved in 1957 he still finished behind Collins in laps led ahead but he did perform better than Musso. The following year in 1958 which would be his last season in Formula One was Hawthorns best year the model says and it's where he hit his peak rating. This is where he managed to out lap every teammate those being Musso, Collins, Phil Hill and von Trips as seen in the images above.
What's interesting about Mike Hawthorn is he did race against some of the best the 1950's had to offer so we can see how he compared against some of them in the images below.
While Mike Hawthorn wasn't able to match some of our highest rated drivers from the 1950's the model does rate him slightly better than the average drivers of his time.
16. Onofre Marimón - Peak Rating 1630 (Year 1954)
Onofre Marimón was guided and supported by Fangio. Onofre joined the works Maserati team in 1953 after showing great promise. He stood in for Fangio in some early-season non-championship races, and when Fangio left to join Mercedes he found himself effectively leading the team. He finished an excellent third in the British Grand Prix, ahead of Fangio, and seemed destined for great things, but he was killed instantly in a crash at the Nurburgring during practice for the German Grand Prix in 1954.
Marimón's first year was slightly below average as he was beaten by both Fangio and González by quite some margin. However the following year is where he started show his great potential finishing ahead in laps over drivers such as Wharton, Schell and Salvadori all who managed to go on to have a higher peak rating later on however Marimón was still beaten that year by Moss.
Marimón showed he had potential early on in only his second season he was lapping ahead of some of the most highly rated drivers of the 1950's while he didn't appear to be on the same level as Fangio, González and Moss he was still much better than your average 1950's driver.
15. Luigi Musso - Peak Rating 1636 (Year 1956)
Musso dominated sports car racing in Italy in the early 1950s before buying a Maserati 250F, winning the non-championship Pescara Grand Prix and finishing second in the Spanish Grand Prix in 1954. A string of good results in 1955 saw him join Ferrari for 1956, and he won his first race, the Argentinian Grand Prix, sharing his Lancia-Ferrari with Fangio before a crash in a sports car race prematurely ended his season.
For the entirety of his career he always maintained a rating above the average driver competing in that year. His first season saw him beat the likes of Behra. In 1956 his peak year according to the model he managed to lap ahead of teammates Fangio by just 20 more laps and Collins by 55 more laps. However he wasn't able to stay on this high level of performance for long as in 1957 Collins would come back to beat him this time along with Hawthorn. During his final year before his unfortunate accident his rating was on the rise again Hawthorn was still ahead but Musso was back to beating Collins again.
During his peak year he was able to go up against the likes of Fangio and be closely matched with him even if it was just for a very short time they raced together but at times he proved to be a bit inconsistent.
14. Paul Frère - Peak Rating 1646 (Year 1952)
A motoring journalist who came good, Paul was always eager to retain his training and race for fun. With remarkably little experience beyond racing an MG, he found himself driving an HWM in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and he came fifth... Paul was in and out of drives in the latter half of the 1950s and thus his second-place finish for Ferrari at Spa in 1956 was the utmost surprise. He also managed to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1960.
Although Frère had a very short lived career with only 11 races he did show potential to being something much greater if he had been given the chance. In 1952 his peak year he raced against four other teammates those being Macklin, Laurent, Gaze and Collins he managed to lap ahead of all of them. In 1953 he did the same again with Macklin and in 1954 even lapped ahead of Behra who was one of the highest rated drivers of the 1950s.
Paul Frère was one of the first writers to treat motor racing as a skill that could be analysed, explained, and taught. His 1963 book, Sports Car and Competition Driving is still a standard reference in the field. It influenced the development of competition driving schools, such as those founded by Jim Russell, Bob Bondurant and many others.
13. Hermano da Silva Ramos - Peak Rating 1652 (Year 1956)
In 1955 he took part a three grands prix for the Gordini team. In 1956 he came fifth at Monaco, his best championship result, but then suffered poor returns at the Italian and British GPs. The 1957 campaign was overshadowed by the travails of the Gordini team, and after it failed he concentrated mainly on sports cars having bought a Ferrari. In 1959 he returned to F1 in a Maserati without success, and was also hired by Ferrari to take part in the Le Mans 24-Hour. Ramos is one of many drivers in the 1950's who had a short lived career but showed potential to be something much greater in 1955 he led 68% of all laps ahead of his teammates and 59% in 1956 which was his peak year.
12. Harry Schell - Peak Rating 1673 (Year 1956)
Schell made his World Championship debut in 1950, but started to make his mark in 1953 when he joined Gordini, and was even more impressive in 1954, driving a Maserati. He was employed by both Vanwall and Maserati in 1955 and gave the first showing of Vanwall's potential in 1956 when he snapped at the heels of the Ferraris in the French Grand Prix. He also won the non-championship Grand Prix de Caen in a Ferrari in 1956 and was employed as support for Juan Manuel Fangio at Maserati in 1957, before moving to BRM in 1958, taking a career-best second place in the Dutch Grand Prix. He was driving a private Cooper when he crashed and died in the wet in practice for the Silverstone International Trophy in 1960.
Schell did a fair job in 1952 and 1953 to gain a rating higher than average but only just his worst year was in 1954 when the likes of Moss lapped ahead 101 times over Schell while all he could manage was 20 against Moss. Also Marimón, Bira, Mantovani, Mieres and Villoresi were some of his other teammates who managed to beat him that year. However the following year in 1955 Schell made a remarkable comeback leading 71% of laps over his teammates some names worth mentioning are Farina, Mieres and Musso. In 1956 his strong performance continued leading 81% of laps against his teammates before hitting his peak in 1957 from there to 1959 when he raced against tougher teammates from the likes of Fangio and Behra. This caused his rating to gradually drop over time.
While Schell managed to do fairly well against most of his teammates who were rated around average or slightly above average when compared with some of the highest rated drivers of the 1950's you can see from the images above that he was no match for the likes of Moss, Behra and Fangio.
11. Yves Giraud-Cabantous - Peak Rating 1676 (Year 1950)
Cabantous only took part in 13 races mostly from which were from 1950 and 1951 he drove for the Talbot-Lago-Talbot team and later on HWM-Alta. During 1950 he dominated all of his teammates and led an incredible 96% of laps ahead of his teammates which was more than what any other driver could managed that year. 1951 However wasn't as good while he still managed to beat most of his teammates both Rosier and Chiron managed to lap ahead of him more often. It's difficult to say how good Cabantous was when we only have two years to go by but he did show some signs of a promising career. The fact he dominated his teammates so much in the first year unlike anything we've seen before was enough to land himself just outside the top 10 drivers from the 1950's.
10. Ken Wharton - Peak Rating 1684 (Year 1952)
A motor agent and engineer from the Midlands, Ken Wharton was one of the most versatile drivers of his generation. A leading hillclimber in the 1950s, he won the British title in four consecutive years from 1951. Even by then he was a highly experienced driver as he started out racing an Austin Seven in 1935 and went on to make his name in sprints. In 1952 he made his Formula One championship debut in an old-fashioned Frazer-Nash but to his credit finished fourth in Switzerland.
He only broke into the top six once more in his career, again in Switzerland two years later. In that year he managed second in the non-championship New Zealand Grand Prix after a terrible crash at Albi. In 1955 he was set to be Vanwall's No. 2 driver behind Mike Hawthorn when he was burned after crashing in the non-championship International Trophy at Silverstone and quit F1. He was killed while driving a Ferrari in a sports car race in New Zealand.
In 1952 which was Wharton's peak year he led 98% of laps over his teammates and one of those were Hawthorn who would later go on to be a future champion. 1953 Wharton did not enter enough races to be rated but in 1954 his final year where he entered at least most of the races that season saw some mixed results he was beaten by Moss, Marimón, Mantovani, Villoresi but actually did a good job racing more laps ahead of Bira, Mieres, Schell and Rosier and Graffenried. It's again difficult to fully say how good he was since we only have 2 rated years to go by but his peak was enough to just land him inside the top 10 drivers of 1950.
9. Louis Rosier - Peak Rating 1705 (Year 1951)
He featured in the early days of the FIA World Championship, winning the non-championship Dutch Grand Prix in 1950 and 1951 as well as the Le Mans 24-Hour in 1950. However, a win in a championship F1 race eluded him.
When Rosier started in F1 he was already into his 40's but had a lot of racing experience behind him. In 1950 he lapped ahead of his teammates 59% of the time then in 1951 Rosier became pretty much unbeatable against all of his teammates he lapped ahead 93% of the time more than any other driver that year and lets remember that he raced against 13 different teammates in 1951. From 1952 onwards to the end of his career in 1956 his rating gradually dropped probably because by 1956 he was 50 years old and past his prime. During this time he faced some of our highest rated drivers such as Farina, Ascari and Moss who all managed to beat Rosier. If Rosier was younger when he started in F1 there would be a good chance that he would have been able to have been much stronger later on during the mid 1950's but unfortunately that was not the case.
8. Robert Manzon - Peak Rating 1744 (Year 1956)
After being one of the rising stars in the immediate post-war years, Robert was a mainstay of the Gordini team in the early 1950s, despite the fact that it was an era dominated by Maserati, Ferrari and then Mercedes. He did put in some excellent performances, however, including third places in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and at Reims in 1954, driving a privately entered Ferrari in the latter. After winning the Pescara sports car race for Gordini against the more powerful Ferraris in 1956, Robert retired to run the family business.
While his first year in F1 was nothing to write home about in 1952 he led 76% laps ahead over his teammates including Behra. Then in 1954 he went up against some tougher teammates and didn't fair too well against Ascari, Hawthorn and González which explains his dip in rating during 1954 on the graph. However in 1955 he dominated any teammate who went against him although none were highly rated he still led 91% of laps in 1955 more than any other driver that year and in 1956 led 79% of all laps ahead of his teammates. While Manzon didn't manage to do too well against some higher rated drivers he was able to in his final two years while driving for Gordino dominate his teammates.
7. Jean Behra - Peak Rating 1753 (Year 1958)
Behra's career was plagued with technical failures he came to F1 in 1952 after a career racing motorcycles. He first raced for Gordini but was increasingly frustrated by his unreliable cars. In 1955 he switched to Maserati and again made an immediate impression with non-championship wins at Pau and Bordeaux. In 1957, when he finished fourth in the drivers' championship, he registered his best-ever grand prix result in Argentina when he finished second to team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio. He was heading for victory in the British Grand Prix when he suffered clutch failure.
A drive for BRM in 1958 was not a success, but in 1959 he appeared to receive his break in 1959 when he was signed by Ferrari but that relationship ended after Behra, angry at what he saw as a team error at the Reims Grand Prix, punched his team manager. Not long after he was killed in a sports car race.
1958 would also be Behra's last year in F1 what we have learned though is even though he wasn't on the same level as the likes of Moss and Fangio he was able able to give them a decent enough challenge and beat almost anyone they could too.
6. José Froilán González - Peak Rating 1762 (Year 1954)
González made his Formula One debut in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, racing a Maserati for the Scuderia Argentina team in place of Fangio who had crossed over to Alfa Romeo. His luck changed in 1951 when he joined Ferrari and he managed podium finishes in all five grands prix he entered for the team in 1951 with victory at the British Grand Prix - it was also Ferrari's maiden championship win. The Times described both Gonzalez and Fangio, who waged an epic battle at Silverstone, as "absolute masters".
In 1952 he again moved, this time to Maserati, and while he was competitive he did not manage wins in the two seasons he remained with the team. A return to Ferrari in 1954 brought another victory at the British Grand Prix (on the same day he also won separate 35-lap and sports car races) followed by a brace of seconds in Germany and Switzerland, and he ended the year second to Fangio in the drivers' championship. He also won the Le Mans 24-Hours partnered by Maurice Trintigant.
But he missed the end of the season after crashing practising for a race in Northern Ireland, and returned to Argentina to look after his garage business. He continued to enter the Argentine Grand Prix - he came second in 1955 and fifth in 1957 - before bowing out altogether in 1960.
As seen on the chart above González never had a bad or underperforming year every rated season his rating continued to increase although he did only have 3 rated seasons 1951, 1953 and 1954. González was clearly one of the best drivers from the 1950's he even managed 2 wins and 15 podiums from only 26 races.
What also makes González achieve a high rating and placed just outside the top 5 is he was one of the very few drivers who actually managed to get close to Ascari as seen in the image above. Although we have to remember they both only really raced each other properly for one whole season.
While González was clearly no match for Fangio but he was also another driver who out of the very few sometimes give Fangio a bit of a challenge.
5. Giuseppe Farina - Peak Rating 1778 (Year 1955)
Farina raced for Alfa Romeo in 1950 and was duly rewarded when he won that first ever World Championship title - winning three of the year's grand total of six grands prix in the process. A model to other colleagues with his straight-arm driving style, Farina could not match the pace of his team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951 and ended up fourth overall, having won only the Belgian Grand Prix. For 1952 he joined Ferrari, but this did not produce a race win.
Engulfed in flames in a sports car race at Monza at the start of 1954, shortly after opening his campaign with second place in the Argentinian Grand Prix and breaking an arm in a crash in the Mille Miglia, he had to take time off to recover from his burns and was not back in the cockpit until 1955. However, this return did not last long as he was unable to live with the pain when racing and had to dose himself with morphine. So, he elected to retire midway through the season.
Farina had a very impressive start to Formula One in 1950 he was up against 5 different teammates that year and lapped ahead 82% of the time and he even beat Fangio by some margin as shown in the image below.
I've heard many people say that Fangio could have won in 1950 or was close to Farina but that wasn't entirely the case seen here Farina was almost always ahead of Fangio for the majority of the whole year. However the following season in 1951 we saw things swap over this time Fangio taking the lead as shown in the image below.
Fangio came back to this time lap ahead more than Farina however apart from Fangio the other 5 teammates Farina had that year could not match him at all. In 1952 Farina went up against an even larger number of teammates 13 to be exact and he managed to beat 12 of them by some margin apart from Ascari who was just in a complete different league. In 1953 Farina continued to lap ahead 7 of his 8 teammates but was beaten again by Ascari. The image below shows Farina in 1953 lapped ahead Hawthorn.
So far we've established that Farina was a solid driver and easily one of the best from the 1950's as he could beat almost all of his teammates and even won against Fangio in 1950. But what you see below is the lap count over two years between 1952 and 1953 when Ascari and Farina raced as teammates.
As you can see Ascari completely dominated in fact Farina didn't even manage a single lap ahead of Ascari at all in 1952. Farina's lasted rated year was also his peak in 1955 where he continued to remain a strong opponent against any other teammate although in 1955 as mentioned previously he was suffering from burns caused by an accident and led 56% of laps that year while it wasn't his strongest year he still had some competitiveness left in him.
4. Roy Salvadori - Peak Rating 1795 (Year 1959)
This is what I love about this model system to rate drivers you don't need the best car or most wins, podiums or poles to be good all you have to do is lap ahead of your teammates the better rated they are the better rated you are. I'm happy to see Salvadori being rated this high as it shows it's working as intended he was a man who could do it all in any type of car and while he never won a race in his 47 starts in Formula One he did drive for teams who weren't competitive he remained loyal to Aston Martin which by the way he won the Le Mans with in 1959.
Salvadori also had offers from the bigger teams that could have made him world champion so everyone knew he was good unfortunately because he doesn't have all the wins, podiums and poles stats he isn't often mentioned as one of the best drivers from the 1950's. The image below compares Salvadori to Brabham from 1958 and Brabham would go on to win 3 championships later on.
3. Stirling Moss - Peak Rating 1845 (Year 1956)
Often tagged as the best driver never to win a world championship, and while some might be willing to debate that, what is certain is that a fair number of inferior drivers have lifted the title over the years. In an 11-year career that included some of the greats and in which the drivers had to do all the work, he was outstanding.
Like many of the great drivers from the 1950's Moss beat almost every teammate he went up against consistently through his entire career. Moss also faces a large number of teammates in his time as well 32 to to be exact! As shown in the graph above Moss from 1952 to 1956 steadily rose through the rankings and hit his peak in 1956 a rating so high that only 2 other drivers from the 1950's have managed to score higher. During 1957 you'll notice a big drop this was perhaps his weakest year he was beaten by Fangio, Behra, Menditeguy, Schell and Bonnier that year but still managed to lap ahead of Brooks, and Lewis-Evans. Below are some comparisons to Moss and two world champions.
2. Juan Manuel Fangio - Peak Rating 1887 (Year 1957)
Juan Manuel Fangio came to be known universally as "the maestro". He won five world titles and 24 races from 51 starts. He was noted for being able to win a race at the slowest possible speed and, although older than his rivals. I'll also add a personal note that Fangio is one of my favourite drivers of all time hence my avatar picture on the forum.
As mentioned in Farina's column the main reason why Fangio's rating was lower in 1950 was because Farina managed to beat him by some margin. But from 1951 to the end of his career Fangio gained a higher rating each year and reached his peak in 1957 his final season. Apart from Farina beating Fangio in 1950 which Fangio managed to out lap Farina the following year and no other teammate could match Fangio later on. Some comparisons have already been made between Fangio an other drivers on the grid so here's another one with Castellotti who was for a time F1's youngest pole sitter in the 1950's.
Like Moss and other Fangio faced a large number of teammates in his career 33 and Fangio was almost always ahead of every single one of them year after year proving that he really was one if not the best driver from the early days of F1. However two things did hurt his rating most of his teammates were lowly rated and Farina beating him in 1950.
1. Alberto Ascari - Peak Rating 1901 (Year 1954)
I've often thought Ascari doesn't get mentioned enough when it comes to the greatest drivers of all time and I suppose most people don't have too much knowledge about 1950's F1 to know much about him but most know Fangio won 5 titles and just mention him instead or maybe because it's he only won 2 titles? Or maybe it's because he had the dominant Ferrari in 1952 which has taken some credit away from him? But the lap by lap data shows even in 1955 while driving for Lancia he led over 90% of laps in the first two races against his teammates. Ascari still holds many records to this day such as the most consecutive laps in the led set in 1952 and no one has been able to beat it despite there being longer seasons now. He scored 100% of possible points in 1952 and has the most consecutive fastest laps and the highest win percentage in a season.
When Ascari was killed in an accident Fangio said "I have lost my greatest opponent." It's clear that many regarded him as a brilliant driver Enzo Ferrari said "When leading, he could not easily be overtaken – indeed it was virtually impossible to overtake him."
The graph above shows that Ascari never had a bad season each year his rating improved. You might wonder why Ascari is rated higher than Fangio? Well Fangio mostly competed with lower rated teammates while Ascari faced slightly more higher rated teammates. Here is Ascari compared to 2 champions from the 1950's who he had as teammates.
The graph below shows even if you add all the laps ahead from teammates together Ascari's dominance over them really shows.
Overall Thoughts
It was interesting to see that the best drivers that are usually mentioned from the 1950s still stood out despite taking away that having a fast car, claiming wins, podiums and poles didn't all matter this time. There are some more graphs below for you to check out the first one is the top 10 drivers all in one graph with their ratings. The black line shows the average rating the entire grid of drivers had each year for comparison.
The top 5 all compared.
Which years had the strongest driver line up taking part?
You will have seen in the charts posted the red line saying average and in the last 2 charts the black line for average this showed the average rating of every single driver that took part in that year so I'm able to looking at each individual year and see which one had the strongest and weakest driver line up. As you can see 1954 the average highest rating this is where the likes of Fangio, Moss and Farina where all still taking part but as some of the highest rated drivers were killed or retired this would bring down the quality of the drivers on the grid and in 1951 we saw that it had overall the poorest and weakest amount of competition.
What next?
I will continue where I left off and move onto the next decade the 1960's.
How it was made,
Sources used about information for the drivers - Wikipedia and ESPN.
Charts and graphs made with - Infogram and Canva.
Lap by lap data and teammates information - StatsF1
I've always wanted to have a way of being able to rate drivers in Formula One however it's not an easy thing to do because you have teams that are good and bad which makes it difficult to know how good a driver is. For years I've looked at ways of trying to work out how to rate Formula One drivers but most of the time I was never satisfied with the results so for a while I gave up on the idea.
But recently while watching Mercedes dominate I noticed something rather simple obvious the best driver that would be Hamilton almost always leads ahead of Bottas in the race so what if you applied that same idea to the whole of Formula One's history a system that rates drivers on how they perform against their teammates the more laps ahead they complete the better higher-rated they become. One important thing to note that if a driver retires from the race then the laps are not long counted the only time they are counted is when both drivers are racing each other.
This would mean getting data from every single lap ever completed in Formula One and luckily the website called StatsF1 lets you do just that. It does mean you have to spend many hours going through lots and lots of data and recording it all for every single driver but I was always satisfied with the results I found them more accurate than when you compare drivers between who finished ahead of more often or who got more wins and podiums when you do the lap by lap you get much more of what happened in the race rather than just the result which doesn't always tell the whole story.
How do you rate the drivers?
Since I was going to use the lap by lap data and compare it with teammates I needed a system in place that would then rate the driver's performances that rating will change over time. I decided to go with the Elo rating system but a slightly modified version of it that allows me to put in the number of laps led and the more a driver does that the higher their rating will become. Drivers must complete at least half a season worth of races to be rated for that year. Each driver starts with a rating of 1500 from there each year that can go from anywhere between 0 and 3000. So what does a rating of 1800 compared to 1500 mean? It would mean the driver rated 1800 has an 85% chance of beating the other driver. The list is ordered based on their peak rating that they achieved during their time in Formula One.
Example of how it works
Let's say a highly rated driver like Hamilton becomes teammates with a rookie like Latifi who would be lower rated. If Hamilton completed over 90% of the laps ahead his rating wouldn't change too much simply because Latifi isn't a highly rated driver. But if Latifi was to lead 90% of laps ahead of Hamilton his rating would change drastically he still wouldn't be as rated as high as Hamilton since it was just one season but eventually, overtime Latifi rating would become higher than Hamilton's.
Things to remember before reading further
I wanted to do something different from how other people have rated drivers in the past I wanted to do something that has never been done before and we've already had people make up the best of all time driver lists based on wins and championships or they made their own mathematical model. Remember each model you come up with it's always going to have results some people will think is strange or not right so just remember this is just all based on real life data and not someone's own opinion. I want people to read this and just enjoy it for what it is and hope they find it interesting and maybe learn a thing or two about some of the drivers.
What do the graphs mean?
You'll see for most drivers a graph with a blue and red line on it the blue line shows the drivers rating over time and the red line is the average rating of every single driver that took part in that year for comparison so you know if their rating that year was better than average or below average.
20. Prince Bira - Peak Rating 1568 (Year 1950)
After the war, Bira returned to racing but was not seriously competitive as he generally drove outdated vehicles. In 1954, in a Masarati 250F which was up with the pace, he won the Grand Prix des Frontières on the Chimay road circuit and then finished fourth in the 1954 French Grand Prix with his own Maserati.
Prince Bira's start in Formula One went great he faced 10 different teammates during 1950 and managed to lap ahead of all 9 apart from one that being Louis Chiron. This was Bira's strongest year after 1950 to the end of his career in 1954 his rating gradually went down to the point he was rated below average compared to other drivers he was racing against.
19. Lance Macklin - Peak Rating 1606 (Year 1953)
Macklin was highly regarded and many felt he could have achieved far more were it not for his laid-back approach. In 1950 he finished fifth at Le Mans alongside George Abecassis, and as a result Abecassis invited him to join an underfunded fledgling Formula 2 HWM team which included Stirling Moss.
The cars were never able to compete with the big manufacturers. Still with Aston Martin, he came third at Le Mans in 1951, his career high, but in Formula One the HWM cars were always off the pace and in 13 starts he never scored a point.
Lance Macklin first year in Formula One was a below average performance he was beaten by almost all of his teammates and only lapped ahead 37% of the time however in 1953 we saw a vast improvement now with a year experience under his belt Lance Macklin lapped ahead of his teammates 78% of the time those who were Collins, Frère and Giraud-Cabantous all who are ranked higher than Macklin on this list simply because they had longer careers. With Lance Macklin showing a promising sign early on it's fair to say that if he had stayed in Formula One longer into the 1950's he could have had greater success.
18. Peter Collins - Peak Rating 1609 (Year 1952)
His break in Formula One came in 1952 (the year he won a nine-hour endurance race at Goodwood in an Aston Martin) when he replaced Stirling Moss in the HWM team, but after two disappointing seasons he moved on, taking drives with Vanwall, Maserati and BRM. In 1956 he was signed by Ferrari on the strength of a superb drive with Moss to win the Targa Florio in Sicily - the move proved inspired - he won back-to-back races in Belgium and France. He was poised to secure the drivers' title when he handed over his car to Juan Manuel Fangio during the Italian GP and the car then suffered mechanical failure.
In 1957, Mike Hawthorn joined him at Ferrari and the pair bonded immediately both on and off the track. But the car was not as competitive as it had been and two third-place finishes were the highlight of a disappointing season. All that was put right in 1958 when Ferrari introduced the Dino 246, allowing Collins to take his third and final win at the British GP.
The model rates Peter Collins debut season in 1952 as his best and peak performance overall. While he suffered from reliability issues and only finished one race he did lead 72% of all laps ahead of his teammates laps through out the season some of these names worth mentioning are Moss and Frère who are rated higher up on this list along with the previously mentioned Macklin.
The following year Macklin was usually lapping ahead of Collins which explains his large drop in performance. 1954 and 1955 aren't rated because he failed to complete half a season worth of races.
Peter Collins in 1956 raced against two teammates who have managed it into the top 20 on this list. He raced against Musso what we saw was Musso lapping ahead 81% of the time. We have another comparison with one of the all time greats Fangio as the image above shows who lapped ahead 72% of the time in 1956. The following year in 1957 Collins come back to have a much stronger season he managed to lap ahead of his teammates 74% of the time beating some drivers like Hawthorn and Musso who had beat him in the previous year.
After a stronger year in 1957 the following season in 1958 saw things going downhill as he was beaten by Hawthorn and Musso. Unfortunately 1958 was the last year for Peter Collins as he died in an accident during the German Grand Prix. Overall the model ranks him just below Hawthorn and Musso as most of the time they were lapping ahead of Collins however only just.
17. Mike Hawthorn - Peak Rating 1622 (Year 1958)
His enthusiasm for racing was born watching pre-war events at Brooklands as a schoolboy, and aided by his father he started competing in 1950 with immediate success, winning the Brighton Speed Trials. By 1952 he had switched to single-seaters and that year won his first race in a Formula Two Cooper-Bristol at Goodwood, and the further successes that followed brought him to the attention of Enzo Ferrari who offered him a place on his team. By the end of the season he had already secured his first podium - third at the British Grand Prix - and a brace of fourths driving a Cooper.
At Ferrari, Hawthorn immediately showed his worth with victory in what was only his ninth start, outthinking Juan Manuel Fangio in a gripping finish at the French Grand Prix. This and two more podium finishes helped him finish the season in fourth.
Between 1952 and 1954 Hawthorn had fairly good years and achieved a rating higher than the average driver on the grid for four years in a row. 1956 was his poorest year because he was beaten by a few of his teammates during that time by the likes of Moss and Behra.
Hawthorn gradually improved in 1957 he still finished behind Collins in laps led ahead but he did perform better than Musso. The following year in 1958 which would be his last season in Formula One was Hawthorns best year the model says and it's where he hit his peak rating. This is where he managed to out lap every teammate those being Musso, Collins, Phil Hill and von Trips as seen in the images above.
What's interesting about Mike Hawthorn is he did race against some of the best the 1950's had to offer so we can see how he compared against some of them in the images below.
While Mike Hawthorn wasn't able to match some of our highest rated drivers from the 1950's the model does rate him slightly better than the average drivers of his time.
16. Onofre Marimón - Peak Rating 1630 (Year 1954)
Onofre Marimón was guided and supported by Fangio. Onofre joined the works Maserati team in 1953 after showing great promise. He stood in for Fangio in some early-season non-championship races, and when Fangio left to join Mercedes he found himself effectively leading the team. He finished an excellent third in the British Grand Prix, ahead of Fangio, and seemed destined for great things, but he was killed instantly in a crash at the Nurburgring during practice for the German Grand Prix in 1954.
Marimón's first year was slightly below average as he was beaten by both Fangio and González by quite some margin. However the following year is where he started show his great potential finishing ahead in laps over drivers such as Wharton, Schell and Salvadori all who managed to go on to have a higher peak rating later on however Marimón was still beaten that year by Moss.
Marimón showed he had potential early on in only his second season he was lapping ahead of some of the most highly rated drivers of the 1950's while he didn't appear to be on the same level as Fangio, González and Moss he was still much better than your average 1950's driver.
15. Luigi Musso - Peak Rating 1636 (Year 1956)
Musso dominated sports car racing in Italy in the early 1950s before buying a Maserati 250F, winning the non-championship Pescara Grand Prix and finishing second in the Spanish Grand Prix in 1954. A string of good results in 1955 saw him join Ferrari for 1956, and he won his first race, the Argentinian Grand Prix, sharing his Lancia-Ferrari with Fangio before a crash in a sports car race prematurely ended his season.
For the entirety of his career he always maintained a rating above the average driver competing in that year. His first season saw him beat the likes of Behra. In 1956 his peak year according to the model he managed to lap ahead of teammates Fangio by just 20 more laps and Collins by 55 more laps. However he wasn't able to stay on this high level of performance for long as in 1957 Collins would come back to beat him this time along with Hawthorn. During his final year before his unfortunate accident his rating was on the rise again Hawthorn was still ahead but Musso was back to beating Collins again.
During his peak year he was able to go up against the likes of Fangio and be closely matched with him even if it was just for a very short time they raced together but at times he proved to be a bit inconsistent.
14. Paul Frère - Peak Rating 1646 (Year 1952)
A motoring journalist who came good, Paul was always eager to retain his training and race for fun. With remarkably little experience beyond racing an MG, he found himself driving an HWM in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and he came fifth... Paul was in and out of drives in the latter half of the 1950s and thus his second-place finish for Ferrari at Spa in 1956 was the utmost surprise. He also managed to win the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1960.
Although Frère had a very short lived career with only 11 races he did show potential to being something much greater if he had been given the chance. In 1952 his peak year he raced against four other teammates those being Macklin, Laurent, Gaze and Collins he managed to lap ahead of all of them. In 1953 he did the same again with Macklin and in 1954 even lapped ahead of Behra who was one of the highest rated drivers of the 1950s.
Paul Frère was one of the first writers to treat motor racing as a skill that could be analysed, explained, and taught. His 1963 book, Sports Car and Competition Driving is still a standard reference in the field. It influenced the development of competition driving schools, such as those founded by Jim Russell, Bob Bondurant and many others.
13. Hermano da Silva Ramos - Peak Rating 1652 (Year 1956)
In 1955 he took part a three grands prix for the Gordini team. In 1956 he came fifth at Monaco, his best championship result, but then suffered poor returns at the Italian and British GPs. The 1957 campaign was overshadowed by the travails of the Gordini team, and after it failed he concentrated mainly on sports cars having bought a Ferrari. In 1959 he returned to F1 in a Maserati without success, and was also hired by Ferrari to take part in the Le Mans 24-Hour. Ramos is one of many drivers in the 1950's who had a short lived career but showed potential to be something much greater in 1955 he led 68% of all laps ahead of his teammates and 59% in 1956 which was his peak year.
12. Harry Schell - Peak Rating 1673 (Year 1956)
Schell made his World Championship debut in 1950, but started to make his mark in 1953 when he joined Gordini, and was even more impressive in 1954, driving a Maserati. He was employed by both Vanwall and Maserati in 1955 and gave the first showing of Vanwall's potential in 1956 when he snapped at the heels of the Ferraris in the French Grand Prix. He also won the non-championship Grand Prix de Caen in a Ferrari in 1956 and was employed as support for Juan Manuel Fangio at Maserati in 1957, before moving to BRM in 1958, taking a career-best second place in the Dutch Grand Prix. He was driving a private Cooper when he crashed and died in the wet in practice for the Silverstone International Trophy in 1960.
Schell did a fair job in 1952 and 1953 to gain a rating higher than average but only just his worst year was in 1954 when the likes of Moss lapped ahead 101 times over Schell while all he could manage was 20 against Moss. Also Marimón, Bira, Mantovani, Mieres and Villoresi were some of his other teammates who managed to beat him that year. However the following year in 1955 Schell made a remarkable comeback leading 71% of laps over his teammates some names worth mentioning are Farina, Mieres and Musso. In 1956 his strong performance continued leading 81% of laps against his teammates before hitting his peak in 1957 from there to 1959 when he raced against tougher teammates from the likes of Fangio and Behra. This caused his rating to gradually drop over time.
While Schell managed to do fairly well against most of his teammates who were rated around average or slightly above average when compared with some of the highest rated drivers of the 1950's you can see from the images above that he was no match for the likes of Moss, Behra and Fangio.
11. Yves Giraud-Cabantous - Peak Rating 1676 (Year 1950)
Cabantous only took part in 13 races mostly from which were from 1950 and 1951 he drove for the Talbot-Lago-Talbot team and later on HWM-Alta. During 1950 he dominated all of his teammates and led an incredible 96% of laps ahead of his teammates which was more than what any other driver could managed that year. 1951 However wasn't as good while he still managed to beat most of his teammates both Rosier and Chiron managed to lap ahead of him more often. It's difficult to say how good Cabantous was when we only have two years to go by but he did show some signs of a promising career. The fact he dominated his teammates so much in the first year unlike anything we've seen before was enough to land himself just outside the top 10 drivers from the 1950's.
10. Ken Wharton - Peak Rating 1684 (Year 1952)
A motor agent and engineer from the Midlands, Ken Wharton was one of the most versatile drivers of his generation. A leading hillclimber in the 1950s, he won the British title in four consecutive years from 1951. Even by then he was a highly experienced driver as he started out racing an Austin Seven in 1935 and went on to make his name in sprints. In 1952 he made his Formula One championship debut in an old-fashioned Frazer-Nash but to his credit finished fourth in Switzerland.
He only broke into the top six once more in his career, again in Switzerland two years later. In that year he managed second in the non-championship New Zealand Grand Prix after a terrible crash at Albi. In 1955 he was set to be Vanwall's No. 2 driver behind Mike Hawthorn when he was burned after crashing in the non-championship International Trophy at Silverstone and quit F1. He was killed while driving a Ferrari in a sports car race in New Zealand.
In 1952 which was Wharton's peak year he led 98% of laps over his teammates and one of those were Hawthorn who would later go on to be a future champion. 1953 Wharton did not enter enough races to be rated but in 1954 his final year where he entered at least most of the races that season saw some mixed results he was beaten by Moss, Marimón, Mantovani, Villoresi but actually did a good job racing more laps ahead of Bira, Mieres, Schell and Rosier and Graffenried. It's again difficult to fully say how good he was since we only have 2 rated years to go by but his peak was enough to just land him inside the top 10 drivers of 1950.
9. Louis Rosier - Peak Rating 1705 (Year 1951)
He featured in the early days of the FIA World Championship, winning the non-championship Dutch Grand Prix in 1950 and 1951 as well as the Le Mans 24-Hour in 1950. However, a win in a championship F1 race eluded him.
When Rosier started in F1 he was already into his 40's but had a lot of racing experience behind him. In 1950 he lapped ahead of his teammates 59% of the time then in 1951 Rosier became pretty much unbeatable against all of his teammates he lapped ahead 93% of the time more than any other driver that year and lets remember that he raced against 13 different teammates in 1951. From 1952 onwards to the end of his career in 1956 his rating gradually dropped probably because by 1956 he was 50 years old and past his prime. During this time he faced some of our highest rated drivers such as Farina, Ascari and Moss who all managed to beat Rosier. If Rosier was younger when he started in F1 there would be a good chance that he would have been able to have been much stronger later on during the mid 1950's but unfortunately that was not the case.
8. Robert Manzon - Peak Rating 1744 (Year 1956)
After being one of the rising stars in the immediate post-war years, Robert was a mainstay of the Gordini team in the early 1950s, despite the fact that it was an era dominated by Maserati, Ferrari and then Mercedes. He did put in some excellent performances, however, including third places in the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix and at Reims in 1954, driving a privately entered Ferrari in the latter. After winning the Pescara sports car race for Gordini against the more powerful Ferraris in 1956, Robert retired to run the family business.
While his first year in F1 was nothing to write home about in 1952 he led 76% laps ahead over his teammates including Behra. Then in 1954 he went up against some tougher teammates and didn't fair too well against Ascari, Hawthorn and González which explains his dip in rating during 1954 on the graph. However in 1955 he dominated any teammate who went against him although none were highly rated he still led 91% of laps in 1955 more than any other driver that year and in 1956 led 79% of all laps ahead of his teammates. While Manzon didn't manage to do too well against some higher rated drivers he was able to in his final two years while driving for Gordino dominate his teammates.
7. Jean Behra - Peak Rating 1753 (Year 1958)
Behra's career was plagued with technical failures he came to F1 in 1952 after a career racing motorcycles. He first raced for Gordini but was increasingly frustrated by his unreliable cars. In 1955 he switched to Maserati and again made an immediate impression with non-championship wins at Pau and Bordeaux. In 1957, when he finished fourth in the drivers' championship, he registered his best-ever grand prix result in Argentina when he finished second to team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio. He was heading for victory in the British Grand Prix when he suffered clutch failure.
A drive for BRM in 1958 was not a success, but in 1959 he appeared to receive his break in 1959 when he was signed by Ferrari but that relationship ended after Behra, angry at what he saw as a team error at the Reims Grand Prix, punched his team manager. Not long after he was killed in a sports car race.
1958 would also be Behra's last year in F1 what we have learned though is even though he wasn't on the same level as the likes of Moss and Fangio he was able able to give them a decent enough challenge and beat almost anyone they could too.
6. José Froilán González - Peak Rating 1762 (Year 1954)
González made his Formula One debut in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, racing a Maserati for the Scuderia Argentina team in place of Fangio who had crossed over to Alfa Romeo. His luck changed in 1951 when he joined Ferrari and he managed podium finishes in all five grands prix he entered for the team in 1951 with victory at the British Grand Prix - it was also Ferrari's maiden championship win. The Times described both Gonzalez and Fangio, who waged an epic battle at Silverstone, as "absolute masters".
In 1952 he again moved, this time to Maserati, and while he was competitive he did not manage wins in the two seasons he remained with the team. A return to Ferrari in 1954 brought another victory at the British Grand Prix (on the same day he also won separate 35-lap and sports car races) followed by a brace of seconds in Germany and Switzerland, and he ended the year second to Fangio in the drivers' championship. He also won the Le Mans 24-Hours partnered by Maurice Trintigant.
But he missed the end of the season after crashing practising for a race in Northern Ireland, and returned to Argentina to look after his garage business. He continued to enter the Argentine Grand Prix - he came second in 1955 and fifth in 1957 - before bowing out altogether in 1960.
As seen on the chart above González never had a bad or underperforming year every rated season his rating continued to increase although he did only have 3 rated seasons 1951, 1953 and 1954. González was clearly one of the best drivers from the 1950's he even managed 2 wins and 15 podiums from only 26 races.
What also makes González achieve a high rating and placed just outside the top 5 is he was one of the very few drivers who actually managed to get close to Ascari as seen in the image above. Although we have to remember they both only really raced each other properly for one whole season.
While González was clearly no match for Fangio but he was also another driver who out of the very few sometimes give Fangio a bit of a challenge.
5. Giuseppe Farina - Peak Rating 1778 (Year 1955)
Farina raced for Alfa Romeo in 1950 and was duly rewarded when he won that first ever World Championship title - winning three of the year's grand total of six grands prix in the process. A model to other colleagues with his straight-arm driving style, Farina could not match the pace of his team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio in 1951 and ended up fourth overall, having won only the Belgian Grand Prix. For 1952 he joined Ferrari, but this did not produce a race win.
Engulfed in flames in a sports car race at Monza at the start of 1954, shortly after opening his campaign with second place in the Argentinian Grand Prix and breaking an arm in a crash in the Mille Miglia, he had to take time off to recover from his burns and was not back in the cockpit until 1955. However, this return did not last long as he was unable to live with the pain when racing and had to dose himself with morphine. So, he elected to retire midway through the season.
Farina had a very impressive start to Formula One in 1950 he was up against 5 different teammates that year and lapped ahead 82% of the time and he even beat Fangio by some margin as shown in the image below.
I've heard many people say that Fangio could have won in 1950 or was close to Farina but that wasn't entirely the case seen here Farina was almost always ahead of Fangio for the majority of the whole year. However the following season in 1951 we saw things swap over this time Fangio taking the lead as shown in the image below.
Fangio came back to this time lap ahead more than Farina however apart from Fangio the other 5 teammates Farina had that year could not match him at all. In 1952 Farina went up against an even larger number of teammates 13 to be exact and he managed to beat 12 of them by some margin apart from Ascari who was just in a complete different league. In 1953 Farina continued to lap ahead 7 of his 8 teammates but was beaten again by Ascari. The image below shows Farina in 1953 lapped ahead Hawthorn.
So far we've established that Farina was a solid driver and easily one of the best from the 1950's as he could beat almost all of his teammates and even won against Fangio in 1950. But what you see below is the lap count over two years between 1952 and 1953 when Ascari and Farina raced as teammates.
As you can see Ascari completely dominated in fact Farina didn't even manage a single lap ahead of Ascari at all in 1952. Farina's lasted rated year was also his peak in 1955 where he continued to remain a strong opponent against any other teammate although in 1955 as mentioned previously he was suffering from burns caused by an accident and led 56% of laps that year while it wasn't his strongest year he still had some competitiveness left in him.
4. Roy Salvadori - Peak Rating 1795 (Year 1959)
This is what I love about this model system to rate drivers you don't need the best car or most wins, podiums or poles to be good all you have to do is lap ahead of your teammates the better rated they are the better rated you are. I'm happy to see Salvadori being rated this high as it shows it's working as intended he was a man who could do it all in any type of car and while he never won a race in his 47 starts in Formula One he did drive for teams who weren't competitive he remained loyal to Aston Martin which by the way he won the Le Mans with in 1959.
Salvadori also had offers from the bigger teams that could have made him world champion so everyone knew he was good unfortunately because he doesn't have all the wins, podiums and poles stats he isn't often mentioned as one of the best drivers from the 1950's. The image below compares Salvadori to Brabham from 1958 and Brabham would go on to win 3 championships later on.
3. Stirling Moss - Peak Rating 1845 (Year 1956)
Often tagged as the best driver never to win a world championship, and while some might be willing to debate that, what is certain is that a fair number of inferior drivers have lifted the title over the years. In an 11-year career that included some of the greats and in which the drivers had to do all the work, he was outstanding.
Like many of the great drivers from the 1950's Moss beat almost every teammate he went up against consistently through his entire career. Moss also faces a large number of teammates in his time as well 32 to to be exact! As shown in the graph above Moss from 1952 to 1956 steadily rose through the rankings and hit his peak in 1956 a rating so high that only 2 other drivers from the 1950's have managed to score higher. During 1957 you'll notice a big drop this was perhaps his weakest year he was beaten by Fangio, Behra, Menditeguy, Schell and Bonnier that year but still managed to lap ahead of Brooks, and Lewis-Evans. Below are some comparisons to Moss and two world champions.
2. Juan Manuel Fangio - Peak Rating 1887 (Year 1957)
Juan Manuel Fangio came to be known universally as "the maestro". He won five world titles and 24 races from 51 starts. He was noted for being able to win a race at the slowest possible speed and, although older than his rivals. I'll also add a personal note that Fangio is one of my favourite drivers of all time hence my avatar picture on the forum.
As mentioned in Farina's column the main reason why Fangio's rating was lower in 1950 was because Farina managed to beat him by some margin. But from 1951 to the end of his career Fangio gained a higher rating each year and reached his peak in 1957 his final season. Apart from Farina beating Fangio in 1950 which Fangio managed to out lap Farina the following year and no other teammate could match Fangio later on. Some comparisons have already been made between Fangio an other drivers on the grid so here's another one with Castellotti who was for a time F1's youngest pole sitter in the 1950's.
Like Moss and other Fangio faced a large number of teammates in his career 33 and Fangio was almost always ahead of every single one of them year after year proving that he really was one if not the best driver from the early days of F1. However two things did hurt his rating most of his teammates were lowly rated and Farina beating him in 1950.
1. Alberto Ascari - Peak Rating 1901 (Year 1954)
I've often thought Ascari doesn't get mentioned enough when it comes to the greatest drivers of all time and I suppose most people don't have too much knowledge about 1950's F1 to know much about him but most know Fangio won 5 titles and just mention him instead or maybe because it's he only won 2 titles? Or maybe it's because he had the dominant Ferrari in 1952 which has taken some credit away from him? But the lap by lap data shows even in 1955 while driving for Lancia he led over 90% of laps in the first two races against his teammates. Ascari still holds many records to this day such as the most consecutive laps in the led set in 1952 and no one has been able to beat it despite there being longer seasons now. He scored 100% of possible points in 1952 and has the most consecutive fastest laps and the highest win percentage in a season.
When Ascari was killed in an accident Fangio said "I have lost my greatest opponent." It's clear that many regarded him as a brilliant driver Enzo Ferrari said "When leading, he could not easily be overtaken – indeed it was virtually impossible to overtake him."
The graph above shows that Ascari never had a bad season each year his rating improved. You might wonder why Ascari is rated higher than Fangio? Well Fangio mostly competed with lower rated teammates while Ascari faced slightly more higher rated teammates. Here is Ascari compared to 2 champions from the 1950's who he had as teammates.
The graph below shows even if you add all the laps ahead from teammates together Ascari's dominance over them really shows.
Overall Thoughts
It was interesting to see that the best drivers that are usually mentioned from the 1950s still stood out despite taking away that having a fast car, claiming wins, podiums and poles didn't all matter this time. There are some more graphs below for you to check out the first one is the top 10 drivers all in one graph with their ratings. The black line shows the average rating the entire grid of drivers had each year for comparison.
The top 5 all compared.
Which years had the strongest driver line up taking part?
You will have seen in the charts posted the red line saying average and in the last 2 charts the black line for average this showed the average rating of every single driver that took part in that year so I'm able to looking at each individual year and see which one had the strongest and weakest driver line up. As you can see 1954 the average highest rating this is where the likes of Fangio, Moss and Farina where all still taking part but as some of the highest rated drivers were killed or retired this would bring down the quality of the drivers on the grid and in 1951 we saw that it had overall the poorest and weakest amount of competition.
What next?
I will continue where I left off and move onto the next decade the 1960's.
How it was made,
Sources used about information for the drivers - Wikipedia and ESPN.
Charts and graphs made with - Infogram and Canva.
Lap by lap data and teammates information - StatsF1
