The most underrated driver in F1

Hakkinen (yes he is a double WDC but I don't think his name is brought up enough as a great)

Heidfeld (always felt like he got boned throughout his career. very consistent, quick driver that made few mistakes. BMW pulling out screwed up his career and Boullier sent him packing for no good reason)

Alesi (very quick on his day, never really got a chance at a good car)

KOBAYASHI (should still be driving, IMO. was better than Perez. Very fast and ballsy driver)

Nelson Piquet (3x WDC and no one ever talks about him or includes him as a great. Seems forgotten, and he won his titles racing badass, dangerous cars against TOUGH competition)

 

Heidfeld, and from the scuttle Alonso created, Liuzzi.

 

Kubica

 

Jacky Ickx before he went to Lotus in 1974, Francois Cevert (as fast as Stewart in 1973 before he was killed), Mario Andretti (was plenty fast even before the Lotus 79), Elio De Angelis (outperformed Mansell when they were teammates), Alan Jones and Mika Hakkinen would be my votes.

 

How about Jean Alesi?

 

A L E S I !!!!!

 

Kubica....career was cut short well before hitting its zenith.

Not to set anything aflame, but I always felt Jean Alesi had more capabilities than his career would show. Maybe it was just the one race against Senna in his rookie year...well, he DID race for Ferrari, but they weren't necessarily a championship outfit at that time.

Definitely RK though...

 

Mika Salo?

Alan Mcnish?

 

Wow...I wrote my response before reading the last two posts. I thought I was the only one!

Heck, next time I should read everyone's entries. Obviously others saw what I did with Alesi.

 

I think everyone saw Francois as the next coming, we just were tragically cheated out of it actually happening.

 

The most underrated driver or the one with the most potential? Some folks seem to be confusing the 2 .

The most underrated is Vettel IMO. Many say it's just luck, or the car, or both. You make your own luck. He's on the best car for a reason. He provides the best feedback of any driver, and works his a$$ off, and that's why he's on the best car. Not by luck . Just compare him to Webber, who is no slouch.

With the most potential, I'd probably say Hulkenberg and Gutierrez.

 

Salo is an interesting choice, he fell on his sword for the Scuderia(and Eddie Irvine) when he replaced Shuey. Should have at least one GP victory for sure.

 

I think by "underrated" we're all talking about a guy with championship talent who never got a chance with the right team (read the original post). I don't think anyone can say that Vettel has championship talent but never merged with the right team.

 

Massa

 

Warwick, Larini, Caffi.

 

I agree. he was wicked fast and sadly did not survive long enough to become a great. never underrated though.

 

That'd be unlucky then, no? How do you know they'd perform better with another team? That's pure speculation.
Here's a definition of underrated: Something or someone that deserves much more respect than people will allow. And Vettel certainly qualify as such. Guess the thread should have been titled differently. Ha ha. But I get your point now.

 

In modern times, Koby & Heidfeld. Probably Rubens too, if he stopped complaining and focused on winning.

 

Hakkenin - I don't think Hakkenin is a great. He is like Vettel. Almost there but not.

Heidfeld - Agreed.

Alesi - He is great in Ferrari tifosi circles that's all that matters

Kobi - Agreed. A great loss to the sport.

NP - Well someone needs to make a film about him and make Prost look bad

 

F1 destroys careers nowadays due to the limited testing. There are huge numbers of young chaps who come in, race for the first offer from a team, even if they are rubbish like marrussia or caterham because if they don't take the offer, it may never come again, and have to learn how to drive arguably the hardest cars to drive during races, exposing flaws they would never have known they have on the world stage. Once these are seen, they get dropped, never to be seen again.

In the old days, you tested, tested and tested again until you found your level, so that in races people saw the true driver. If you then failed, fair enough. Just look at Bruno senna, I've seen him race all sorts, and he is very fast and very competent, but in f1, looked awful.

Schumi, hakkinnen, all of them came through and had opportunity to fine tune between races, made them greats. No such chances today, you either hit the ground running, or you hit the bricks looking crap

 

Alex Zanardi

 

Alesi probably...although i belive that people who have at least one good eye, and watched him race know tht he was as good as anyone at the top. I belive in terms of talent he was ebery bit as good as Shumy, and better than him and Senna in the rain....but he was together with Amon the unluckiest driver in the world, and like Amon he was at ferrari at the wrong time.....some people rave about Alonso because he drove great races with the f2012..but what Jean did with the f92A and f93 on many ocasions was out of this world.....

 

Stefan Bellof, killed before he got the chance to really shine.

Everyone remembers Senna in the Toleman catching Prost in the Mclaren at Monaco in 84. Rather fewer remember that Bellof was catching both of them in a Tyrell when the race was stopped.