Fernando Alonso the greatest driver of this Century

Nigel Roebuck posits this opinion, citing Felipe Massa to whom he posed the question, Michael or Fernando? with both of whom Felipe raced. Massa replied Fernando. Here's the url:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/131915/roebuck-alonso-the-greatest-of-this-century?utm_source=Autosport+Newsletter&utm

 

Excellent piece, thanks for posting. I wonder if Furoni has any thoughts on the matter?

 

Michael will never be eclipsed as the G.O.A.T.

Michael - 7 WDC
Fernando - 2 WDC

 

Utter rubbish - that would be Juan Manuel Fangio. He raced for four different teams - Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and Maserati - started a total of 51 Formula 1 races, had 29 poles, 35 podiums, 23 fastest laps and 24 wins, a percentage never remotely approached, in an era when race cars were far more fragile than today and failed mechanically with great frequency. And drivers died. And he didn't begin racing in F1 until he was forty years old and won his last WDC when he was forty-seven.

As much as I was and am a Michael fan, don't even talk to me about anyone else.

 

Unpopular opinion around here I'm sure, but Schumacher will never even get into my top ten. I feel massively for the tragedy that has befallen him and his family. I have nothing but for respect for him as a humanitarian with the money he gave away after things like the Tsunami etc. But in the cockpit he was just too dangerous and cheated too many times. He had to cheat his way to his first WDC by running Hill off the road and he was driving what is generally accepted illegal car. Too many cases of driving people off the road, dangerous moves, deliberate mistakes etc. If he hadn't pulled that stuff and 'only' got 4 or 5 WDC's I'd rate him, but there's just too much baggage for me.

Let's talk Prost, Alonso, Piquet Sr., Mansel, Hamilton, Alonso and (possibly) Vettel for best over the last 30 years (no order implied, just the order they popped into my brain)

 

The title of this thread mentions "this century". Some people here have wandered back in time a bit.

 

Fair point, but the drivers I listed all raced against Schumacher going back to 91.
Knock off Prost, Mansel, Piquet and add Kakkinen then.

 

I didn't like Schumacher either, for the reasons you give.

A man of great talent, but playing dirty.

 

Fangio #1 by a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong shot.

My gosh the guy had balls the size of bolders to do what he did at the time he did it.

Two other honorable mentions

Jimmy Clark
Jackie Stewart

But they are not alone. Alonso is a great driver for this time but for the last 100 years? Gimme a break (or brake!)

 

Schumacher, number one, every time, forza ferrari. End of discussion

Generally accepted illegal car?, who generally accepts this? Utter tosh

Run hill off the road?, maybe once, just as hill pointed his car at schumi and crossed the grass apex just to punt Schumacher offf, at best they both had a tough battle, nothing dirtier for Mike there.

Winning races with a duff car - Michael and Fernando, end of. Elton?, anything less than a dominant car and he is toast.

 

Again i think people are a bit confused by wich century we are...

 

I do actualy, Nigel is the person i most respect when it come to f.1 knowledge, to me he is nº1, nº2, nº3 ..maybe in nº 10 someone else will show up. I know he is a great admirer of Alonso and i can see why, because ever since Gilles, and Alesi, Fernando is probably the best driver in a ****ty car, he's currently and had been by far the more capable driver to extract the maximum of a bad car....although i think that in a top car, there are faster drivers than him. I honestly believe that if yoo gave a perfect car to Kimi and Fernando, Kimi would trash him, 10 years ago he would do it by a significant margin, today not so much. I'm a long time admirer of mr Roebuck, maybe because he was Gilles closet journalist, and i love hearing his stories about him. I once told Nigel i belived Alesi was every bita s good as the other greats of his time, like Shumacher and Hakkinen, and in his response, after praising Jean and explaining he agreed with me, he told me this "not only i agree with you but, more importantly, so does Gerhard Berger and Sir Frank williams!
My "thing" with Alonso was never his ability to drive, rather his big mouth, his cheating, his lies, plots, etc, etc..that's what i can't stand about him, he was acancer to ferrari, but of course, i suspect Nigel love for Ferrari is not quite the same as mine, so these "things" will be a fewer importance to him.

 

That is a righteous post. I too respect Nigel enormously, and revere the talents of Gilles and Alesi--two of the giants in my book--and I hold Alonso right up there with them. I greatly appreciate your honesty and your forthright response. Bravo Pedro.

 

William (Aka Victor Meldrew) has been bit quiet recently?

 

Currently banned. It's all the rage these days on the F1 forum.

 

Ohh ok,sorry, i missed that.

 

Look out, or when he comes back he'll put your name, address, and telephone number on the forum, and then google earth you and try to disparage you and generally undermine you. He's temporarily gone after doing exactly that to me, and refusing to apologise for overstepping the mark. Shame really, but it was totally unjustified

 

This century is only 17 years old. It's a bit premature to crown the best driver at this point!

 

Yet that's exactly what the thread states. So why not stay on topic instead of wandering?

 

By logic you use in other threads::

Fangio used a manual transmission and thereby has to be slower.
Michael got to use the F1 transmissions and won more.

Now, if you are willing to reverse your stance on manual transmissions, I might agree with you.

 

Pity that he said that Ferrari was horrible and that he could go wherever he wanted because he´s the better driver of the Universe. So he went to McLaren-Honda. What idiot changes team at the last minute, without any margin for negotiation, jumping to a car of unknown quality? I think that this guy needs a new manager.

Both he and Ferrari lost in the transaction, Alonso would be doing very well with this years´car.

 

These questions are always difficult and mostly opinion based speculation rather than fact. It's difficult to separate talent, personality, and success. This plus the fact that the equipment is so different just makes this a fun topic.

Fangio
Senna
Schumacher

 

Roebuck claims Alonso is the greatest Formula one driver of: "this Century" (2000~2017 so far), not of: "the last 100 years", and I'm pretty sure Fangio had retired long before 2000!

(BTW, Tazio Nuvolari makes Fangio look like a big girls blouse! )

With 5 WDC's and 56 race wins since 2000, compared to Alonso's 2 WDC's and 32 race wins, like him or not, Schumacher has to be considered a greater driver this Century than Alonso.

(I seem to recall that Roebuck has always been quite anti-Schumacher, especially during his Ferrari days, so he would have been ruled out as being the greatest of this Century, and the fact that Alonso was the last driver to both challenge, and beat Schumacher in the WDC, more than likely adds to his belief that Alonso is the better of those two).

Vettel's 4 WDC's probably came too easily for Roebuck's liking, as have Hamilton's 3 WDC's (so far).

Alonso will alwayss be remembered as one of the F1 greats, but Schumacher will be remembered as being an F1 legend!

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Nigel Roebuck and I are best buds . . . . . Just kidding. But he was kind enough to sign my Gilles Villeneuve book authored by him (Grazie Paul Zimmerman).

 

That is the coolest!