Hill was a competent test driver in a car that was the class of the field, not a great racer. No one with Frank Williams' record of determination and success can be described as a moron.
Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm not saying Frank Williams is a moron overall but he has done several extremely moronic things over the years that has led his team to a fall from grace. Being a cheap ass has come back to bite him. Getting rid of Hill was stupid (Hill was a much better driver than you think, surely would have done better for Williams than Heinz Herald Frentzen did in 1997), and letting Adrian Newey go was an moronic move of titanic proportions. He should have also allowed BMW to take a bigger role in the team when they wanted to. Yes, he could have still held the majority and stayed in charge (like Dennis at McLaren with MBZ) but instead his stubbornness let the team slipped into cash-strapped mediocrity. Today, it has been reduced to hiring pay drivers to get by. All through mismanagement, it's a shame, really...
Stefan Bellof -- an amazing Gilles-style talent (and personality) Tony Brooks -- the archetype of the smooth, deceptively fast racing driver Adding in the oft above-mentioned Moss, Villeneuve, and Gurney would complete an impressive top five.
Frank Williams let many good drivers walk out the door figuring he could always find another driver willing to drive his then, competitive cars. Unfortunately, the last upper scale driver he's had in the past 10 years was Montoya, and again he let him go to McLaren. Hopefully we'll see them continue to improve as they have this year and end the winning drought that last saw Montoya win for them.
FWIW, he did not exactly crash, and in 2008 he would have been WC, had not his team treated him like a red-headed stepchild to his "faster" teammate. Just avoiding the failure to disconnect the fuel hose in Singapore would have allowed Massa to be WC. But, to his amazing credit, I don't recall Mass whining like certain other prima donna drivers.
sorry about rindt - had forgotten that. barichello, like many of the drivers on this list, did not make it to wc because they were driving as #2. barrichello could have won at least one of the years he was seconding schumi. and the year he drove with button at brawn he nearly had it too.
Shame he never got the chance to be a WDC contender. People love to get romantic about Senna's drive in the Toleman in 84 at Monaco when he was running down Prost but most don't remember that it was Bellof that was chasing down both of them...an incredible talent taken too soon.
Ah, Montoya. Talk about a talent squandered. Now he spends his time in boogityville driving in circles in hope of a top 20 finish. Any opinions here?
Superb candidates all. I'd add Ickx and Warwick. I'm sure there were/are plenty of other WDC possibles we're missing who just couldn't make it out of the minnows to be acknowledged, ie; Alex Caffi and Nicola Larini. Kind of wonder what Herbert would have done had he not injured himself before his F1 career began.
I'd say that Moss was unquestionably the best never to win the title. And Amon is clearly the best never to win a championship GP race.
Clark won 2 F-1 titles and wouldhave won again in 1967 but for reliability issues. He also won the Indy 500 (twice, if it weren't for home cooking at IMS) in 3 tries. He was so good, even AJ Foyt said he was great. How many people has AJ ever said that about?
Those who never won the WDC; 1. Stirling Moss 2. Jackie Ickx 3. Gilles Villeneuve 4. Carlos Reutemann 5. Tazio Nouvalari 6. Wolfgang Von Trips Ones that did not deserve it: 1. James Hunt 2. Keke Rosberg 3. Mike Hawthorn
Alesi is a tragic character right out of an Italian opera, at least in terms of his career choices. Again, my three top choices: Peterson, Villeneuve and Alesi. Pure talent and tenacity. I miss seeing them all.
