Readers hail hero Stirling

Eurosport - Mon, 17 Nov 17:05:00 2008

Eurosport-Yahoo! readers have voted Stirling Moss as the best driver never to win the Formula One World Championship, but it was a close call.

FORMULA 1 Stirling Moss - 0

Of the nearly 6,000 votes that were cast, 29 per cent were for Moss, who won 16 grands prix and finished runner-up four times in succession between 1955 and 1958.

Right behind the Englishman was former Ferrari star Rubens Barrichello (28 per cent), who now turns out for Honda.

The Brazilian finished fourth in the 2000 title race, third in 2001 and runner-up in both 2002 and 2004.

With only 40 votes separating the top two, the driver in third place, Gilles Villeneuve (26 per cent), was another 100 back - indicating just how close the competition proved.

The Canadian, whose best finish in the championship was runner-up to Jody Scheckter in 1979, was killed in a crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix in 1982.

Outside the top three it was slim pickings, with Gerhard Berger (eight per cent), Ronnie Peterson (four per cent) and Jacky Ickx (three per cent) managing a few hundred apiece, while Carlos Reutemann and Chris Amon (one per cent apiece) could not break the 100 barrier.

A selection of our reader responses (scroll down for results):

Risker: Gilles Villeneuve... along with Stirling Moss. Both were great drivers but Gilles was great for his desire to please the fans by overtaking. His crash was tragic. I seem to recall as a boy that he had an argument with his team-mate and that he wanted to beat him in his final lap of qually... his last one too.

Jason-lee: Got to be Sir Stirling Moss - perhaps if he hadn't been such a gentleman he'd have cliched it a good many times.

bohnet21: Anyone who ever saw Stirling Moss drive has to know that he was the very best.

thewildcard44: Gilles Villeneuve! Fastest man in F1! Watkins Glen (1979); it was pouring with torrential rain. Only a handful of drivers went out. Scheckter, who went on to become world champion that year, went out and set a lap which he thought was solid; a great lap despite conditions. Villeneuve went out and beat Scheckter's time by nine whole seconds!! Scheckter couldn't believe it. He asked his mechanic: "He's mad. How did he do that?" The mechanic said: "Gilles is just on a different plane to us!!"

Mr Burns: It's got to be Ronnie Peterson - he was number two driver at Lotus in name only: he could have whipped Mario Andretti's ass any time but for team orders!

Ted: In my opinion they all deserved at least one WC, but a series of misfortunes or tragedies have made it unreachable. They all deserve credit for making this sport more fun to watch. I would also include here Peter Collins, Wolfgang von Trips and Francois Cevert.

Scottish C: I'd have included David Coulthard in that list. Without a doubt the best team-mate you could have, just ask Mika Hakkinen - he owes at least one if not both his titles to DC's help. David Coulthard had the misfortune to race in an era when Michael Schumacher dominated, otherwise he would have been a world champion.

MC shambus: Juan Pablo Montoya was faster than DC or Rubens. I've only been watching since the late nineties but JPM has got to be in the discussion. The only thing the man lacked was the ability to be honest with himself about his weakness. If he could have kept a cooler head he could have won it with Williams.

Full results:

5944 votes (as of 09:30, Monday November 17)

Stirling Moss - 29% (1,698 votes)

Rubens Barrichello - 28% (1659)

Gilles Villeneuve - 26% (1550)

Gerhard Berger - 8% (470)

Ronnie Peterson - 4% (252)

Jacky Ickx - 3% (203)

Carlos Reutemann - 1% (67)

Chris Amon - 1% (45)

Eurosport

Comment 9 - 28 of 28

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  1. Maybe Bernie should give him a medal!

    From Andrew C, on Tue 18 Nov 12:17PM

  2. Darlings I have just got it. I am going on to a French­ F1 website just to insult the French all day, or an­ Italian one.
    But no I wont do this although I do speak­ French and Italian, but I wont do this because it's­ just such poor form and I am not psychologically­ scarred.
    Unlike some of these poor things who come on­ to this site just to criticise the Britain and all of­ the lovely people who live here. God Save The Queen.

    From Mrs Valerie Quigly, on Tue 18 Nov 11:51AM

  3. rorytots: Can you perhaps embellish your answer­ vis-a-vis the delightfull Stirling. If you look at his­ record it was formidable or as the Frence would say­ formidable.
    I would hate to think that you were saying­ this out of some perverted prejudices.
    So come on­ darling publish or be damned.

    From Mrs Valerie Quigly, on Tue 18 Nov 11:46AM

  4. I still think gerhard berger is the best

    From podilah, on Tue 18 Nov 1:12AM

  5. Barrichello is a good driver... but a­ "great"? give me a break. Moss was great, no­ doubt, and so was Villeneuve... a completely different­ driver but a true racer that was always there to give­ his best .... Ferraris those days (T3, T4) were awful­ trucks.

    From Can_male, on Mon 17 Nov 8:59PM

  6. Moss!!! Not even close. Only gets votes on a british­ website because the british media is always reminding­ us of him every Monaco grand prix. Jean Alesi was the­ greatest driver never to win the championship.­ Barrichello doesn't even qualify as a great driver.­ He was out-performed by nearly every teammate he ever­ had: Button, Schumacher, Herbert and Irvine. Three of­ those never won the championship either but they­ don't make it on the list either!

    From rorytots, on Mon 17 Nov 8:43PM

  7. didn't Robbie Williams play mork in mork @­ mindy.whats he doing coming 2nd in a music­ award????????????

    From MGA, on Mon 17 Nov 8:38PM

  8. Jerry R; It's the same with all polls. When they­ did a "best musician of the 2nd millenium"­ Robbie Williams was second and Bach languished at 35th­ I think.
    nuff said I think.

    From BigBill, on Mon 17 Nov 8:22PM

  9. Oh Mr Burns, the Mercedes-Benz W196 and the Lotus 24 in­ Racing Green - DIVINE! Thanks for the tip. Don't­ they look solid against today's cars? Solid and­ beautiful.

    From m.e.jenner, on Mon 17 Nov 7:50PM

  10. Sorry guys, such a poll is meaningless. Not the overall­ winner, fortunately, but I mean that seeing Barrichello­ (that I like bery much) getting 28% of the votes and­ close to beat Stirling Moss... and Ronnie Peterson­ getting 4%, what a joke!

    The problem is simple :­ what's the average age of a voter for such a­ Internet poll? And the answer it that most voters never­ heard of Ronnie Peterson, let alone Carlos Reutemann or­ Chris Amon...

    From Jerry R, on Mon 17 Nov 7:49PM

  11. Also if massa never wins it then maybe just maybe?...

    From Il Risker, on Mon 17 Nov 7:39PM

  12. I wanted to vote twice but in the end i chose stirling.­ i think the people who voted barrichello are just­ voting 'cause he's still in it.

    From Il Risker, on Mon 17 Nov 7:37PM

  13. Not Printable
    wot a thicko,,, even I no that,,, jeremy­ clark,,, and jacqeline stewart..,, was.... world champ

    From Major Bumsore, on Mon 17 Nov 6:01PM

  14. I was doing a bit of Googling about Sir Stirling and­ came across a pretty cool site - Just enter­ 'Solitude Revival 2008' - Some great pics of­ historic racing cars and drivers. Aaah! The good old­ days!

    From Mr Burns, on Mon 17 Nov 5:33PM

  15. Thank you Hot Rats and m.e.jenner. No disguises here,­ I'm just a dog who lives a very busy canine life­ ;~))

    From Pete, on Mon 17 Nov 5:29PM

  16. Gosh! I got a mention in 'A selection of our­ reader responses' - Does this make me even more­ famous? Ah ... the excitement! Oh no! Smithres! ­ Fresh undies!

    From Mr Burns, on Mon 17 Nov 5:19PM

  17. Sterling Moss was awaesome to watch and deserved to be­ a world champion many times over but never was. Still­ one of the greatest names in British motorsport though.

    From GEORGE, on Mon 17 Nov 5:03PM

  18. not printable, read the story before you comment or you­ just make yourself look stupid, oops, too late.

    From GEORGE, on Mon 17 Nov 5:01PM

  19. Here Boy ! Good to see you Dogbiscuit (or have you­ been in disguise?)

    From m.e.jenner, on Mon 17 Nov 4:47PM

  20. Well I like you dogbiscuit, don't worry about­ pondlife he is dumber than Lnolam aka "Marnio The­ Insomolent"

    From BigBill, on Mon 17 Nov 4:36PM
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