I posted this in another place sometime ago but I thought it might be of interest to get some comment from people on here as, as you can imagine, an article which didn't call someone names didn't receive much comment. This was also written before Button's World Championship win.
Having managed to track down a copy of Autocourse from 1980 and there is a fascinating article by Alan Henry entitled "The driver still counts - or does he?". I think this proves that every generation questions the importance of the driver as the cars get more complicated but there is one paragraph on what makes a truly great driver that deserves rewriting here in full.
“There have been very few great drivers who have been unable to drive effectively in the pouring rain. One simply has to glance back over the lists of the acknowledged front runners – Fangio, Nuvolari, Moss, Clark, Stewart, Fittipaldi, Lauda, Hunt… In each case one can point to more than one truly outstandingly impressive performance in the streaming rain. That’s because the versatility which gives them the talent to race effectively in the wet is just one incidental product of their natural ability. By contrast, nobody would call Jean-Pierre Beltoise or Vittorio Brambilla a great racing driver – but each of them managed to summon up great reserves of courage to win World Championship GP’s in appalling conditions of rain and spray. The difference between the talented and the brave is the talented can consistently repeat the performance. The brave usually have one, perhaps a handful, of really great memorable races”
Based on AH’s theory, since this article was written I would add Prost (although with some reservations towards the end of his career), Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton as truly great drivers; it remains to be seen whether Vettel can continue to shine in the wet. Other than these 4 I can’t think of any other driver of the last 28 years who could be categorised as truly great.
Having managed to track down a copy of Autocourse from 1980 and there is a fascinating article by Alan Henry entitled "The driver still counts - or does he?". I think this proves that every generation questions the importance of the driver as the cars get more complicated but there is one paragraph on what makes a truly great driver that deserves rewriting here in full.
“There have been very few great drivers who have been unable to drive effectively in the pouring rain. One simply has to glance back over the lists of the acknowledged front runners – Fangio, Nuvolari, Moss, Clark, Stewart, Fittipaldi, Lauda, Hunt… In each case one can point to more than one truly outstandingly impressive performance in the streaming rain. That’s because the versatility which gives them the talent to race effectively in the wet is just one incidental product of their natural ability. By contrast, nobody would call Jean-Pierre Beltoise or Vittorio Brambilla a great racing driver – but each of them managed to summon up great reserves of courage to win World Championship GP’s in appalling conditions of rain and spray. The difference between the talented and the brave is the talented can consistently repeat the performance. The brave usually have one, perhaps a handful, of really great memorable races”
Based on AH’s theory, since this article was written I would add Prost (although with some reservations towards the end of his career), Senna, Schumacher and Hamilton as truly great drivers; it remains to be seen whether Vettel can continue to shine in the wet. Other than these 4 I can’t think of any other driver of the last 28 years who could be categorised as truly great.