Best Racing Driver in the World Today?

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Not considering the best drivers are all in F1 as money buys privilege

Thinking a best driver has to be excellent racing open wheel, closed wheel, circuit, oval, endurance, sprint, loose surface, hard surface, on road, off road

Alonso seems to be the only driver that has shown this, I'm convinced if he was put in a competitive Baja Trophy truck or NASCAR or WRC car he'd finish at the top of the field by the end of his 1st championship

Has Larson ever raced in any high speed open wheel races, oval or circuit?

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Not considering the best drivers are all in F1 as money buys privilege

Thinking a best driver has to be excellent racing open wheel, closed wheel, circuit, oval, endurance, sprint, loose surface, hard surface, on road, off road

Alonso seems to be the only driver that has shown this, I'm convinced if he was put in a competitive Baja Trophy truck or NASCAR or WRC car he'd finish at the top of the field by the end of his 1st championship

Has Larson ever raced in any high speed open wheel races, oval or circuit?

Larson ran his first Indy 500 this year. He finished 18th in a car fielded by Arrow McLaren.

[Tervuren]

Curt, Larson is both a paved and unpaved racer.
He has a very broad cross section of racing he is good at.

If I look at the past, Sir Jackie Stewart was the first "Best Racing Driver" I can think of.
He has competition from Graham Hill, and I'm sure others had they lived.
I pick Sir Jackie for how he leveraged his racing into extensive relationships, wealth, family, trophies, a title, etc...

I'm gonna pull a quote from another thread here.

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Racing, all sports, academics, piloting, etc.: You can improve average, make them excellent, but you can not teach gifted, you can only hone the gift, give perspective.

We all know it, most just do not want to admit it.

If we take the honing example, a race driver is a blade.
There are many different blades and many different things to cut.
Is a Rapier better than a Dane Axe?
The answer to that depends on the use case.

Driver's are honed by teams, their knowledge base and communication methods developed for a joint endeavor.
Some drivers would not have achieved as much were it not for a co-driver that was good at sitting down with the engineers so that both drivers would have a better car.

It's an aspect that without direct contact and knowing the workings of the teams and drivers can be difficult to know.

[flatbutt]

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?

Until I read this ^ I was thinking the guys in MotoGP are the best racers in the world.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I forgot about John Surtees, multiple motorcycle world champion 350 and 500cc, F1 world champion and 3rd Le Mans 24hrs

[herr_oberst]

I keep circling back to people like Parnelli Jones and AJ Foyt, maybe even someone like Robby Gordon or John Andretti or Tony Stewart.

[red 928]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

Not considering the best drivers are all in F1 as money buys privilege

Thinking a best driver has to be excellent racing open wheel, closed wheel, circuit, oval, endurance, sprint, loose surface, hard surface, on road, off road

Alonso seems to be the only driver that has shown this, I'm convinced if he was put in a competitive Baja Trophy truck or NASCAR or WRC car he'd finish at the top of the field by the end of his 1st championship

Has Larson ever raced in any high speed open wheel races, oval or circuit?

Let me preface this with I am a huge F1 fan,
much more so that NASCAR
although I rarely miss a race from either org.
I'm also a huge fan of Alonso but I believe Larson
to be a better overall talent.
it would have been very close when Alonso was younger.


Early in his career Larson had his sights set on Indycar racing
and was close to securing a seat when he was lured away
with a NASCAR contract (and big $$$$).
he has tried many forms of racing and has excelled at
just about all of them.

in addition to many closed and open wheel races on
pavement and dirt, and championships won,
Larson won the 24 hours of Daytona in a prototype and
was also named 2024 rookie of the year at the Daytona 500,
where he qualified with a four-lap average of 232.846 mph

I don't recall Verstappen getting
close to that speed in anything short of a private jet.
Another thing about Larson:
he can compete with a car that is not dominant without crying,
complaining, protesting or crashing into the wall or his closest competitor.
A claim that the spoiled brat can't really make without his fingers crossed.

PS, we are discussing CURRENT race car drivers.
If we were to talk about all time,
no doubt it would be Mario Andretti.
He could and did win on any surface in any car in any condition.
Didn't matter.

[astrochex]

red, you mean ROTY and qualifying speed for the 2024 Indy 500.

[red 928]

Larson started as a kid racing karts, just like most F1 drivers.
But Larson's karts were a little different.
500cc and 100 hp on dirt.
Can you imagine how fun it would be to be a kid
and race karts like that?

[red 928]

Originally Posted by astrochex

red, you mean ROTY and qualifying speed for the 2024 Indy 500.

yes, you are correct.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Not enough different championships for Verstappen to be considered, same goes for Senna, Prost, Schummacher or Hamilton

Larson could easily be the best Driver in the USA but certainly not Driver in the World as he doesn't appear to have much, if any experience or success of racing outside of the USA in World Championships

Can't knock Larson for his claim, every winning driver thinks they're the best in the world, they have to have that self belief or mentally they've lost before they've started a race

[Deschodt]

At the moment, I'd say Seb Ogier - he retired and he might still win the WC with a 1/2 season... IMO as much as I respect F1 drivers they can't hold a candle to WRC drivers sheer talent.

[herr_oberst]

Did anyone watch Larson last Saturday at Daytona? Didn't look like "the best driver in the world" to me. I know plate races are a crapshoot but he seemed to be in the middle of a lot of the wrecks, and I'm thinking "the best driver in the world" would be cerebral enough to at least TRY to be running at the end. You know there's going to be at least one "the big one", and chances are excellent that there will be at least one green-white-checker at the end, so why are you getting involved in front of the pack, high-risk, low reward 3-wide racing scrums at the midway point of the race?

I'll admit he was a better race driver when he was six years old than I could ever in my wildest dreams ever hope to be....but still.....

[Tervuren]

Kyle didn't see he was the best, just better all around than Verstappen.

And Verstappen has got quite the crash wreckord himself.

[cockerpunk]

kyle larson or alex palou