Lumping together the best drivers in the world’s top three forms of motor racing is, to purists, tantamount to comparing apples, oranges and kiwi fruit.
Long gone are the days when you could plug A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti or Jim Clark into a Formula One car, Indy car or NASCAR stock car and count on a contender. The higher the three types of cars have evolved, the further apart they have grown.
But we dare to rate the planet’s 10 best, regardless of series. After all, the quintessential qualities remain the same–lightning-fast reflexes, ice-nerved daring, uncanny instincts for staying out of trouble and making the winning move at the right millisecond.
We do it because nobody else is willing to.
And because motor racing is the most borderless passion in sports, other than soccer.
And most of all because race fans around the globe would rather argue than eat–and are certain that their favorite form is unquestionably the best.
1. Michael Schumacher
Age 33
Country: Germany
Series: Formula One
It isn’t even close, NASCAR and Indy fans. “Der Uberflieger,” the super flier, is clearly the best racing driver alive, if not the best ever. Only Scotland’s Jim Clark, killed in 1968, and Brazil’s Ayrton Senna, killed in 1994, bear mentioning in the same breath among Grand Prix drivers.
Despite what NASCAR and Indy-car drivers say about Formula One cars being so sophisticated the racing is out of the hands of the drivers, F1 remains by far the most skill-intensive form. In sheer car control, becoming one with the machine, making it behave as a living being or his own appendage, only the late Dale Earnhardt of NASCAR was in the same class as Schumacher.
And don’t even start about how Schumacher’s success– an F1 record 60 wins; four world championships, bearing down on Juan Manuel Fangio’s record five; seven victories in 10 races this year–is all due to strength of team. Schumacher brought Ferrari back from has-been status with his will and intensity, and by demanding that Englishman Ross Brawn be hired as team technical director–this after Schumacher had lifted Benetton out of upstart status at the dawn of his career.
You would think his $73 million annual income–including $40 million in base salary from Ferrari–would ease his hunger for winning. No way.
2. Tony Stewart
Age: 30
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR
What a pity he decided not to “do the double”–run the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in the same day–this year. This time, he might have won them both. He’s that good, in cars that are vastly different–the fender-armored stock cars weighing more than twice as much as the tricky, open-wheel Indy cars.
Last year he drove all 1,100 miles, and rode the helicopters and private jets in between–and still managed to finish sixth at Indy (after leading for a while) and third at Charlotte. He is the only active throwback to Foyt and Andretti, in terms of versatility.
His attitude and temper are notorious and controversial–but we’re talking pure talent here, not a popularity contest. His frustrations stem from a somewhat star-crossed start to his career. As a rookie at Indy in ’96, he was hurled into the limelight as poster boy for the fledgling Indy Racing League. To this day, no one ever has led Indy with faster laps than Stewart did his rookie year, 234 m.p.h.-plus. When he got to NASCAR, nobody knew what to make of his volatile intensity–which is considered a positive trait in every other major form of racing. And you have to admit, he has spiced the oft-vanilla realm of NASCAR considerably.
3. Jeff Gordon
Age: 30
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR
Gordon has slipped from No. 1 in NASCAR, not so much because of his recent 25-race losing streak as because you have to wonder if the youthful hunger is still there in full measure. Car owner Rick Hendrick says Gordon is secure with who he is and what he has accomplished–and that may be getting close to a comfort zone.
Still, with 58 career victories and four championships, he has far and away the most impressive resume among active NASCAR drivers. And he still has the skills to go with it. Nobody is better at setting up an opponent, and timing the pass beautifully. Depth perception and sense of where he is on the track remain superb. He remains as savvy, almost metaphysical, about staying out of trouble as the old maestro David Pearson was. But Pearson didn’t have to face the crazy crapshoots of restrictor-plate racing that Gordon does, and so sometimes Gordon doesn’t look as good as he is.
How badly does Gordon want the career records–the seven-championship tie between Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, or Petty’s 200-victory total. And even Gordon readily acknowledges he doesn’t get caught up in numbers. It’s just not something he’s intensely interested in.
4a. Helio Castroneves
Age: 27
Country: Brazil
Series: IRL
4b. Gil de Ferran
Age: 34
Country: Brazil
Series: IRL
Alone, neither would make the top five. Together, Roger Penske’s hand-in-glove Brazilians are a shoo-in. They’re the most exemplary teammates in world racing today. Finished 1-2 in Indy 500 last year with Castroneves on top, but after de Ferran had led. Castroneves won Indy again this year and de Ferran would have been there again, but for a loose wheel left by his crew late in the race.
De Ferran won CART championships in 2000 and 2001. Because of Penske’s switch from CART to the IRL this year, both drivers are back in a bit of a learning curve. The IRL cars are cruder and more difficult to drive, and the IRL races solely on ovals so there’s no showcase for the tandem’s road racing background and talent. But if they weren’t succeeding, the exacting Penske wouldn’t have extended their contracts beyond this year.
Personalities dovetail nicely. Castroneves is an effervescent chatterbox, humorously notorious for his love of himself–and for originating the Spiderman fence climb after his first Indy victory. De Ferran is reticent, workmanlike, but quietly emotional. Castroneves gets more media attention, while de Ferran is content to remain in the background.
5. Juan Pablo Montoya
Age: 26
Country: Colombia
Series: Formula One
Montoya’s venture into American racing, spectacular as it was–he won the CART championship in 1999 as a rookie, and breezed to an Indy 500 victory in his first try in 2000–may have hindered him a bit in F1. It left him wilder, slightly more impulsive, than is always wise on the Grand Prix tour.
His other current problem is within his Williams-BMW team, where he and Ralf Schumacher (Michael’s younger brother) aren’t exactly buddies. They talk only about the cars, if at all. Too, Williams is a cyclical team that hasn’t quite risen back to its glory days of a decade ago–it’s resurgent, but still isn’t the technological equal of Ferrari, and therefore doesn’t provide Montoya with an adequate showcase yet.
Montoya remains a dazzling driver, if not consistently. He’s a master, beyond his years, at pushing a car right up to the razor edge of its limits, and he usually holds it there–but sometimes goes over. With usually strong McLaren-Mercedes in a down cycle, Montoya in the Williams may emerge by the end of this season, or the beginning of next, as the only real challenger to Michael Schumacher.
6. Kenny Brack
Age: 36
Country: Sweden
Series: CART
Probably the most underrated driver in all of major racing, especially on ovals. Won the Indy 500 in 1999 for A.J. Foyt, which wasn’t remotely easy. In fact, no one else has won Indy for the cantankerous old Texan who’s still set in the ways in which he won four 500s himself in the ’60s and ’70s.
Brack is a late bloomer only in that he has encountered one rocky road after another trying to crack the big-time. But he has moved steadily up. Frustrated as a Formula One test driver for Arrows, he came to the United States on a longshot in ’97 to try the fledgling IRL. By ’98 he was series champion, and after the Indy victory Bobby Rahal infuriated Foyt by signing Brack for a CART ride in 2000. Brack responded with rookie of the year honors at age 34.
Last season he made Team Rahal a major force in CART, leading the series in races won (four), poles (six) and laps led (621), winning four races, tops in the series, and finishing second to de Ferran for the season title. So then Chip Ganassi snatched him from Rahal for this year. Team Ganassi isn’t as dominant as it was in the ’90s, when it won four CART championships. But it’s plenty strong enough.
7. Sterling Marlin
Age: 45
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR
The last of the good ol’ boys is just now hitting his peak, if you listen to team manager Tony Glover, who just happens to be the best driver coach in NASCAR. Twenty years of knocking around with so-so rides finally have culminated with the planets aligning for Marlin–Dodge’s intense factory effort and Chip Ganassi’s branching out as a team owner from CART into NASCAR, and Ganassi bringing his winning methods with him.
Marlin is on course toward what would be his first Winston Cup championship because he currently has no peer at blending patience with aggressiveness–working methodically through the madness of restrictor-plate races and working traffic on unrestricted but treacherous intermediate-size tracks such as Darlington, Charlotte and Chicagoland.
In this era of polished NASCAR drivers with squeaky-clean image-consciousness, it’s nicely nostalgic to hear a Tennessee driver who still refers to his car as “the o’ hotrod,” and who still arrives at winners’ interviews with real beer on his breath from the Victory Lane celebration.
8. Michael Andretti
Age: 39
Country: U.S.
Series: CART
The old boy (wasn’t it just the other day that he was Mario Andretti’s young son?) still can push the button in the big events. He’s still lightning clockwork on Indianapolis Motor Speedway and was foiled this year mainly by fuel miscalculations in his pits.
He’s still an excellent road racer, but would have to leave all that behind should his team owner, Barry Green, opt to follow Honda into the all-oval Indy Racing League next season.
Michael has split with Mario on the issue of CART vs. IRL. Mario remains a hard-line CART loyalist, but Michael says he now understands more of IRL founder Tony George’s intentions. Michael even has apologized to George for things said in the past. So if Green makes the move, Michael likely will go willingly–even though he still considers IRL cars less technologically advanced than CART’s.
9. Sam Hornish Jr.
Age: 22
Country: U.S.
Series: IRL
Hornish is the nearest thing to a purely IRL-produced prodigy since Tony Stewart left for NASCAR. Indeed, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and IRL founder George is widely believed to be preparing to do what it takes, financially, to keep Hornish from being picked off by some rich NASCAR team in the near future.
Last year, at 21, in his first full IRL season, Hornish won three races and dominated the standings on his way to the championship, beating second-place Buddy Lazier, 503 points to 398. This year he already is gunning for a second straight title, leading the points, with two victories in four races–this even after the arrival of Team Penske, full-time, as Hornish’s top competition.
The jury’s still out on him at Indy specifically. But if he’s near the front at the finish, look out. He doesn’t mind going all-out, wheel-to-wheel–witness his victories at Texas Motor Speedway last year and California Speedway this year, in the two closest finishes in IRL history.
10 Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Age: 27
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR
The good news-bad news is that he’s the kind of personality that made NASCAR what it is today–devil-may-care, party boy, indifferent to the fitness mania going on all around him among his peers.
No telling how successful he would be if he and his crew didn’t like their sponsor’s product (Budweiser) so much, or surround themselves with rock musicians and other MTV types hardly conducive to their racing focus. His gruff father used to shout them down and order the hangers-on off his property, but Dale Sr. is no longer there to temper the party and awaken Junior before noon.
But Junior’s talent comes bursting through at times. Put him on a restrictor-plate track, and he has no peer in sheer fearlessness and expertly “working the air” of the draft–a la the old man. Junior has one enormous disadvantage to his father–he didn’t have to come up hard, and doesn’t quite feel the relentless hunger that drove the Man in Black.
Top 10 young drivers
1. Jimmie Johnson
Age: 26.
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR.
Jeff Gordon’s protege is living up to his billing rapidly, running up front regularly, with two victories so far in his rookie season.
2. Kurt Busch
Age: 23.
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR.
Always in the mix now; has won one race, contended in several more; extremely self-assured and mature, with the cerebral demeanor of an F1 driver (that’s a compliment).
3. Nick Heidfeld
Age: 25.
Country: Germany.
Series: Formula One.
Has made inferior teams, most recently Sauber, look better than they are, with some impressive drives in the points; a top ride could make him an instant winner.
4. Ryan Newman
Age: 23.
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR.
Unique style is part all-out intensity, part mathematical approach by this formally trained engineer from Purdue.
5. Tomas Scheckter
Age: 21.
Country: South Africa.
Series: Indy Racing League.
In a spectacular rookie performance he led nearly half the Indy 500 this year before crashing.
6. Jenson Button
Age: 22.
Country: England.
Series: Formula One.
Prodigy sidetracked when farmed out from Williams-BMW to Renault–but if Renault returns to strength of mid `90s, he could win there.
7. Kevin Harvick
Age: 26.
Country: U.S.
Series: NASCAR.
After two victories last season as a rookie replacing the late Dale Earnhardt, his head began spinning in the form of bad-boyism. It still shows; if he levels off, he’ll be fine.
8. Bruno Junqueira
Age: 25.
Country: Brazil.
Series: CART.
Started on pole for Indy 500 but fell out early with mechanical woes; hasn’t filled Juan Montoya’s shoes as Chip Ganassi’s latest CART farm project from the Williams F1 team.
9. Kimi Raikkonen
Age: 22.
Country: Finland.
Series: Formula One.
Might have surged into F1 limelight this year if not for proud McLaren-Mercedes team’s sudden downturn in technological fortunes.
10. Sarah Fisher
Age: 21.
Country: U.S.
Series: Indy Racing League.
Youngest and fastest female driver yet at Indy, she has had misfortunes keeping sponsorship. A big victory would send her stock soaring.
