Greatest Racing Driver Debate

Jim Clark (Lotus-Ford) Zandvoort, 1967 Greatest racing driver debates now would include Michael Schumacher, whose seven world championships eclipse Juan Manuel Fangio’s five, Alain Prost’s four or the three apiece of Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Picquet and Ayrton Senna. But in 1993, during a debate at the National Motor Museum Beaulieu, the vote went to one who raced before there was ever a formal world title, Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari.

Above: The Sunday Times 28 February 1993. Click to enlarge or read version below. It’s different now of course. There are more races now than there were before. Drivers are technicians, more jet fighter pilots than Spitfire pilots, in computerised toboggans that wouldn’t fly without Playstation controls. Jensen Button, Lewis Hamilton, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel need a deeper understanding of electronics than the visual acuity, sense of balance or natural dexterity vital to drivers who changed gears in mechanical gearboxes and felt the attitude of a car through the seat of their pants.

With 1970s technology it was relatively easy to get into a racing car and set a decent back-of-the-grid lap time. I did it myself. Getting on to the front row and racing wheel-to-wheel was different. That needed competitive spirit and raw courage to see where the limits were. You had to go beyond them to find out and that was risky. I wasn’t good at risk.

Nuvolari was the bravest driver, which probably swung the jury at Beaulieu. Fangio, Clark and Senna didn’t need valour. They probably didn’t know themselves what made them so good. They just knew everybody else was slower. They could invoke that combination of hand, eye and cool detachment that remains inexplicable even to aviation medicine specialists who analyse aptitudes for space flight.

It is what separates a decent back-of-the-grid lap time from a world champion.

D-type Auto Union, final flower of the V12 mid-engined 2985cc car of the team Nuvolari drove for. Shown by Audi at a press launch in 2008, this is essentially a perfectly built replica of the Roots supercharged 1939 car, giving 485bhp @ 7000rpm. THE GREATEST RACING DRIVER
The race to the chequered flag in motor racing's hall of fame was debated last night (Saturday) between Juan Manuel Fangio, Tazio Nuvolari, Ayrton Senna, and Jim Clark. Car buffs gathered in the lecture theatre of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, to decide who was the greatest driver of all time.
There were only four finishers. Non-starters were Nigel Mansell, and Alain Prost who has won more grand prix races than anybody. Jackie Stewart, Stirling Moss, and Graham Hill were at the back of the grid, while world champions like John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Sir Jack Brabham, and Nelson Piquet remained in the pits. James Hunt was locked in the television commentary box.
Greatness in motor racing depends less on driving the fastest car than being able to do the best with whatever car you have. Winning against the run of play demands skill, courage, a sense of timing or touch of genius.
The advocates of the four super-heroes, motoring historian Doug Nye for Fangio, historic racing-car driver Alain de Cadenet for Nuvolari, veteran journalist Denis Jenkinson for Senna, and biographer Graham Gauld for Clark showed how their drivers had won against the odds.
Tazio Giorgio Nuvolari reached the height of his fame in the 1930s, racing for Italy against the mighty German Mercedes-Benz and Auto Unions. 'He was a hero in the heroic age of motor racing,' according to de Cadenet. 'His greatness stemmed from astonishing victories in uncompetitive cars. He got his adrenalin flowing, and won the 1935 German Grand Prix after a long pit stop in an old Alfa Romeo 200 horse power down.'
Nuvolari drove in races nine hours long in harshly sprung cars with heavy steering. 'These men were heroes,' says de Cadenet. 'I've driven these cars. Nuvolari had to do everything himself, - there was no big team backing him up. Clark had the benefit of Colin Chapman's engineering. Senna is only a high-speed technician, who doesn't even change his own gears. Nuvolari had to wrestle with heavy steering and a crash gearbox.'
Rivals respected Nuvolari. 'Rudolph Caracciola and Hermann Lang, champions in their day, used to go out to corners and watch Nuvolari practise. He invented the four wheel drift - sliding a car through a corner - to cope with the out-of-balance feel of the Auto Unions when he joined the German team in 1938. 'Enzo Ferrari desperately wanted Nuvolari to drive his cars.'
Nuvolari drove once for MG. He won the 1933 Ulster Tourist Trophy in an MG K3 Magnette after breaking the lap record seven times to. Alec Hounslow, his riding mechanic was astonished at how little he used the brakes.
'Brakes only slow you up,' said Nuvolari.
'Nuvolari was a fighter. He would race whether he was at the back of the field or at the front,' according to de Cadenet. 'Fangio tried to avoid appearing in uncompetitive cars. Jimmy Clark never had to. Senna won't even climb into one.'
Fangio could come from the back of the field too. Doug Nye recalled his brilliant performance in the 1957 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. With four world championships already under his belt Fangio, then a veteran of 46, stopped his Maserati for fuel and fresh tyres. It took 56 seconds. Ferraris driven by the new young English aces Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins swept into the lead.
The Nürburgring was the toughest track in the world, 14 miles through the Eifel mountains with 88 left hand and 84 right hand corners. Here driving mattered above all else. Fangio cut the Ferraris' lead to 33 seconds. Next time round it was 25.5 seconds, then 13.5 seconds. On the 20th lap Fangio carved an astonishing 6 seconds from the lap record, coming within two seconds of the fleeing Ferraris.
On the penultimate lap he passed Collins, then Hawthorn. It was a fitting climax to the career of a driver whom Stirling Moss still regards as the greatest.
'John Arlott once called Sir Jack Hobbs "Christ-like",' said Nye. 'I thought it was a bit over the top, but it describes Fangio. Hobbs would hit a bowler right out of the ground and then give away his wicket at a score of 99 so that the opponent could bask in the glory. Fangio did the same at the Berlin Grand Prix at Avus in 1955 and the British Grand Prix at Aintree.'
Fangio was driving for Mercedes-Benz, his world title was secure, and with victory within his grasp a local driver overtook him. At Berlin it was Karl Kling, at Aintree Stirling Moss.
Jim Clark was the master of precision. He was so gifted with whatever rare sense of balance, quick reaction, or acuity of vision that equips an individual to be a racing driver, that he could get more speed from a car than anybody else. He was an ineffective test driver; he simply adapted his driving to the deficiencies of his car and won just the same. When a vital anti-roll bar in the rear suspension worked loose in the 1964 Monaco Grand Prix it scarcely mattered. Clark drove at undiminished speed, his natural talent compensating for his car's inadequacy.
Clark too could race from the back. In the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1968, his Lotus Ford lost the lead when a tyre blew. He restarted over a lap of the track in arrears, and in an unsurpassed display of brilliance fought back from last but one to retake the lead in the closing laps.
Cruelly, he failed to win. He ran short of fuel on the final lap and coasted in third, behind John Surtees giving Honda its first grand prix victory, and Jack Brabham.
Denis Jenkinson accompanied Stirling Moss in the 1955 Mille Miglia. and claims that Ayrton Senna is cast in the same mould, a racer to his fingertips. Real racers, Jenkinson contends, are competitive in any car in any era.