Best Racing Driver in the World Today?

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Not really given this any thought until reading this article....

https://www.planetf1.com/news/fernando-alonso-on-verstappen-v-larson-debate

I'd have to agree with Alonso, thinking he's the best, F1, Indy, Le Mans and Dakar require hugely different driving approaches

Apologies for being ignorant, stuck in my F1 bubble but I need to Google who Larson is, find out what he's achieved and in which world championship motorsport categories

Interested to know what other folk think of past and present drivers

And that's how the bar fight started

[CurtEgerer]

This is easy. Oh wait, you said today ....

[CurtEgerer]

I'm not sure F1 (or Indy, or NASCAR, or ...) is even the discipline to determine the 'best driver'. I think a good argument could be made that the World Rally Championship is where you might find the best drivers, at least as far as car control goes if that's the measuring stick.

[berettafan]

Rally was the first thing that popped into my head as well. Whoever the best in the world might be it's very likely his name has one or two K's in it and ends with 'en'. No question those guys are crazy, crazy talented. I mean when was the last time Alonso yumped his car?

And for sure I don't recall Verstappen having a stone going up into his ******* like this poor guy-

[917_Langheck]

Originally Posted by berettafan

I mean when was the last time Alonso yumped his car?

That would be 2020.


Unfortunately, Captain, the question may not be applicable today as many drivers hew to a single discipline.

In the old days, the answer would have been A.J. Foyt, because the guy won in nearly every motorsport class he entered. Fred fits that mold more closely than most others today.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

100% agree drivers from the old days we're much more versatile and WRC drivers like Seb should be considered some of the best

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by berettafan

Rally was the first thing that popped into my head as well. Whoever the best in the world might be it's very likely his name has one or two K's in it and ends with 'en'. No question those guys are crazy, crazy talented. I mean when was the last time Alonso yumped his car?

And for sure I don't recall Verstappen having a stone going up into his ******* like this poor guy-

A friend worked on the WRC car driven by your unamed driver

He was blindingly fast but after putting back together a car he crashed on a morning stage he found a half empty bottle of vodka under the drivers seat that he was sure survived a ride into some Scandinavian forest

[Jeff Higgins]

I remember years when ago Arnold Swarzeneger said that the best body builder in the world is probably out pulling nets on a fishing boat somewhere in the North Sea. His point was, of course, that it was all about opportunity. In the same vein, the best racing car driver in the world today is probably pushing shopping carts at some Safeway store.

I'm sorry, but in my lifetime it seems like every professional level series has evolved to where it is more about money than talent. Oh, there are still those who bring more talent (Alonso) vs those who bring more money (Stroll), but there is no arguing that motorsports as a whole have drifted much more towards the money end. The real talent gets left behind, buried under the heaps of cash that the rich kids can bring.

All of that said, I would agree that the "best" driver/drivers in the world today are competing in WRC. That begs the question, however, as to why none of them ever transition to a seat in F1. I think I answered that above.

[911 Rod]

Car racing, golf, tennis and other sports are about who you are as you are growing up.
There is a reason all the F1 drivers are good looking.

[Tervuren]

Perhaps instead of who someone is but who they can fake.
To another extend, "good looking" and fit for a male usually go together.
And F1 is a physically demanding sport.

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

Car racing, golf, tennis and other sports are about who you are as you are growing up.
There is a reason all the F1 drivers are good looking.

I've dropped off the racing world.

But off track talent is not to be ignored.
Testing has limits and bans.
Important to being the best race driver today is to also be a good test driver.
The feedback loops between engineers and driver to wring ever better importance can drag a team up or down the grid.

There are driver's that have moved to lapped traffic teams, and by the end of their first season are scoring podiums.
Those guys have a special something as a race driver that can go beyond the limits of their on track driving.

When I look at Alonso's move to Ferrari, the car's went down the grid, not up.
Was it him? I don't know.
It got better when Kimi returned.
And Kimi at Lotus, wowza!

Kimi drives by the front of the vehicle, and that can make crossing over into some forms of motorsport a bit difficult.

Larson might get surprised in kart racing at how good Verstappen would be.
I'm no longer out at the kart track like I used to be, but Larson still had room to improve years back.
His short track racing before NASCAR, he was very very good.

To some extent the many forms of racing are like the many forms of "sports ball".
Trying to decide who is the greater sports ball player between players that do not play in eachother's specific sports is likely to be a unresolved attempt.

[Tervuren]

Given the issues of cross discipline judgement I've come up with a few criteria to find who the greatest race driver is.

Marriage
Money
Kids

On those criteria, both Kyle Larson and Max Verstappen are not top contenders.

[3rd_gear_Ted]

I'm sticking with my childhood hero that I got to be around @ AAR.
Dan Gurney for president.

[JackDidley]

NASCAR also runs 36 car fields compared to 20 cars in F1. I'd like to see more cross over between the 2 before saying one driver is the best. Larson is pretty good. He races sprint cars 2 or 3 times and often wins any given week on top of NASCAR. I think he occasionally gets in a modified race also.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by berettafan

Rally was the first thing that popped into my head as well. Whoever the best in the world might be it's very likely his name has one or two K's in it and ends with 'en'. No question those guys are crazy, crazy talented. I mean when was the last time Alonso yumped his car?

And for sure I don't recall Verstappen having a stone going up into his ******* like this poor guy-

The clip at the end of the video is great with Tommi Makinen. I remember when that happened!

[red 928]

The debate was not who is the best race car driver,
it was who is the best ALL AROUND race car driver.
The answer is Larson by a fair bit.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by red 928

The debate was not who is the best race car driver,
it was who is the best ALL AROUND race car driver.
The answer is Larson by a fair bit.

Debate is who is the best all ALL ROUND race car driver in the WORLD and not best race car driver in the USA

What sort of international racing has Larson done, has he raced and been successful outside of the USA?

[Tervuren]

Something that can be missed is out of the countries with a decent percent of the population interested in professional motorsport it would take many many many other nations to form an equivalent pool to the US.

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Debate is who is the best all ALL ROUND race car driver in the WORLD and not best race car driver in the USA

What sort of international racing has Larson done, has he raced and been successful outside of the USA?

The more interest there is in a sport, the more money there is in it, and the tougher the talent pool competing for it.



NASCAR isn't a sporting body and it sits in weird territory.
It's still *mostly* racing, but they lean on things and it isn't a real sport.
Big money at the top.

Larson has plenty of racing outside NASCAR.
I am not familiar with his current schedule, but the guy was at a real track any day he could be, and going online to race the days he couldn't shoe into a racecar at a real track.

I've stopped following major motorsport so I don't know who has leveraged their ability farther between Verstappen and Larson, but it seems a fair way to compare.

[917_Langheck]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Debate is who is the best all ALL ROUND race car driver in the WORLD and not best race car driver in the USA

What sort of international racing has Larson done, has he raced and been successful outside of the USA?

And you specified past and present.

Unfortunately, too many forget or don't know the past, so only nominate those nearer the present, which is to be expected.

I'll add "Jacky" Ickx to my list of Fred and Foyt.

[Jeff Higgins]

Yes, the U.S. has by far the largest pool from which to draw. Not based on population numbers, as China should dominate based on that alone, but based upon population with access to sport. We pretty much dominate world sports as a result, regardless of discipline. Just look at all-time Olympic medals, no one else is even close.

We should be able to pretty much fill up the F1 grid all by ourselves. But we struggle to put anyone in that grid. It's all about the access. Even now that we have several F1 races, no one seems to be interested enough to start up the feeder series enjoyed in Europe and the UK. Our feeder series are all fairground ovals, both paved and not. Until go karting and lower level open wheel start pushing that aside, we will never start putting drivers on the F1 grid, which is where most look for their "best driver of all time".

[CurtEgerer]

I'd have to see Larsen in a rally. He's a good circuit driver for sure. But circuit racing, where you're doing lap after lap after lap of exactly the same line and same surface, is a different skill set from rally where not only does the line vary from turn to turn, but the surface grip is constantly changing. That said, not all rally drivers adapt well to circuit racing and vice-versa. But if the criteria is all around driving skill, I'll stick with rally.