Best driver of the 1970s?

[UgncreativeUsergname]

I was thinking about which drivers I thought were the best of a particular decade. I came up with:
1950s: Fangio
1960s: Clark
1980s: Prost
1990s: Senna
2000s: Schumacher
2010s: current leader is Vettel
But I can't decide who was the best driver of the '70s. Who do you think?

[pasta_maldonado]

Well at one end of the decade you have Stewart, Rindt, Fittipaldi,Cevert, and at the other you have Peterson, Lauda, Hunt, Andretti, Scheckter, Reutemann, Watson.

[JeremyMcClean]

Well that's easy, Emerson Fittipaldi! Would have been like Michael Schumacher had he decided not to go plug off at his brothers' team!

[shinji]

Masami.

[eurobrun]

Aruto Mezario.

[FullMetalJack]

Well at one end of the decade you have Stewart, Rindt, Fittipaldi,Cevert, and at the other you have Peterson, Lauda, Hunt, Andretti, Scheckter, Reutemann, Watson.

Exactly. The 1970s had so many top level drivers, and 3 very promising talents were killed before they reached their prime. Jochen Rindt (yes I know he was world champion, but he had the potential to achieve even more), Francois Cevert and Tom Pryce.

Piquet also debuted in the 1970s, but he didn't really star until 1980.

[JeremyMcClean]

Well at one end of the decade you have Stewart, Rindt, Fittipaldi,Cevert, and at the other you have Peterson, Lauda, Hunt, Andretti, Scheckter, Reutemann, Watson.

Exactly. The 1970s had so many top level drivers, and 3 very promising talents were killed before they reached their prime. Jochen Rindt (yes I know he was world champion, but he had the potential to achieve even more), Francois Cevert and Tom Pryce.

Piquet also debuted in the 1970s, but he didn't really star until 1980.

I read Rindt would have retired once he had known he clinched the title. So he wouldn't have raced much further than 1970.

[FullMetalJack]

Well at one end of the decade you have Stewart, Rindt, Fittipaldi,Cevert, and at the other you have Peterson, Lauda, Hunt, Andretti, Scheckter, Reutemann, Watson.

Exactly. The 1970s had so many top level drivers, and 3 very promising talents were killed before they reached their prime. Jochen Rindt (yes I know he was world champion, but he had the potential to achieve even more), Francois Cevert and Tom Pryce.

Piquet also debuted in the 1970s, but he didn't really star until 1980.

I read Rindt would have retired once he had known he clinched the title. So he wouldn't have raced much further than 1970.

You learn something new every day.

[JeremyMcClean]

Look, I even found the source:

http://www.uniquecarsandparts.com.au/ra ... _rindt.htm (last paragraph)

[dinizintheoven]

I say Gianfranco Brancatelli.

Given the machinery available at his disposal, there's no proof that he couldn't have won the World Championship if he'd had a Lotus 78 instead of that insanely awful copy...

[East Londoner]

This is a tough one indeed. I'd probably say Lauda, for his two world championships, that heroric (and some might say foolhardy) comeback so soon after his crash at the Nurburgring and taking the Brabham fan car to victory.

I think we need mario or our esteemed site authors to give their thoughts!

[darkapprentice77]

Ronnie Peterson or Clay Regazzoni.

[F1000X]

The correct answer is Patrick Depaillier.

[BlindCaveSalamander]

Lauda. Clearly Lauda.

[Klon]

Lauda. Clearly Lauda.

Indeed he was, indeed he was.

[dr-baker]

I am surprised nobody has yet mentioned Villeneuve. Best of the 70s would be between Villeneuve, Hunt and Lauda in my opinion.

[Faustus]

Niki Lauda or Emerson Fittipaldi.

[Stramala]

Sideburns vs Sideburns

[mario]

Well at one end of the decade you have Stewart, Rindt, Fittipaldi,Cevert, and at the other you have Peterson, Lauda, Hunt, Andretti, Scheckter, Reutemann, Watson.

There are a number of other drivers that could be added to that list - Ickx (whilst he was at Ferrari), Gilles Villeneuve, Pedro Rodriguez, Amon (often considered one of the best drivers never to have won a race), the list goes on. During that era, there were a great number of very talented drivers making their way through the ranks - some, like Stewart and Rindt, were veterans from the late 1960's, whilst those towards the end of the decade had come through the increasingly competitive Formula 3 and Formula 2 series of the time.

Part of the issue, though, is that at the same time the sport was changing very rapidly throughout that decade, on and off the track - commercial sponsorship expanded rapidly during that era, which saw teams going from budgets of maybe a few hundred thousand at the beginning of the decade to several million at the end of the decade.
That influx of cash meant that we saw other things appearing - wind tunnel testing became increasingly common as the decade wore on, even amongst midfield teams like Ligier, there was increasing pressure on tyre manufacturers for new developments (leading to Michelin's radial tyres), Renault completely upset the established school of thought with its turbo engines and ground effects appeared at the end of the decade. Four wheel drive reappeared before being banned, Lotus turned up with its turbine car and Tyrrell with the legendary P34, whilst all sorts of other experimental designs appeared across what was a quite inventive, if not always productive, period of experimentation.

With that, the fortunes of the teams would fluctuate wildly over the course of the decade - after being so competitive in the early years of that decade, Tyrrell were something of a spent force after 1973, whilst Ferrari and McLaren, both struggling in those early years, came to dominate the middle part of that decade, although McLaren's increasingly conservative design philosophy would see it collapse towards the end of that decade. BRM, at one point taking 2nd place in the WCC, vanished altogether that decade after a rapid decline, whilst Lotus went through a troubled period in the mid 1970's when the Lotus 76 proved to be an utter disaster and the 77 was too complex for its own good, before the 78 and 79 put them back into contention.

The sport was evolving so rapidly during that era - you can visibly see how markedly different the cars that the teams were building in the early 1970's are to those of the late 1970's - that the fortunes of the drivers also fluctuated quite wildly. Lauda might have dominated the mid 1970's but struggled when ground effect cars appeared, since the driving style required for those cars was at odds with the established pattern of driving at the time, whilst other drivers, like Alan Jones or Jacques Laffite, came to the forefront themselves as their teams adapted to the new regulations.
Given that variance, it is tricky to define a single driver as best during a period of great fluctuation, such that it almost feels like that decade needs to be broken up into sub-sections (with Stewart and Fittipaldi being the major influences of the early 1970's, Lauda and Hunt the middle part of the decade and Gilles and Peterson the most notable of the latter part of the decade).

[JeremyMcClean]

There are a lot of great drivers in the 70's. My vote still goes to Fittipaldi, since he had four great chances to win the title (72-75, of which he won in 72 and 74), plus had he stayed at McLaren and not have gone to his brother's team, he definitely would have won in 76, and maybe in 77. So if you consider everything, Fittipaldi might have won six titles, and had the real possibility to win four. The idiot.

[Barbazza]

Renzo Zorzi - those of us in the '3 Zs Club' need to stick together.

[This]

Obvious one: Lella Lombardi.

[FullMetalJack]

Obvious one: Lella Lombardi.

You obviously forget about Otto Stuppacher.

[This]

Obvious one: Lella Lombardi.

You obviously forget about Otto Stuppacher.

Otto Stuppacher was - as far as we know - not female

[dr-baker]

Obvious one: Lella Lombardi.

Second best: Davina Galica!

[ibsey]

Usually to reach an answer when faced with this sort of question I usually ask myself, who do I think would win a championship if they all had the same car?

The conclusion that I reach in this particular subject is Jackie Stewart, as I feel he had the correct attitude & was caluculated enough to reckonise what he needed to do to win, & do just that. Not letting emotions or other external things distract him from his goal.

Closely followed by Lauda & possibly Fittipaldi.

However if they were all in a qualifying session in the same car, then I would have to say I think Gilles would probably be the quickest and for a romanatic 'racer' like me, that is what REALLY matters.

Therefore although my head would say Stewart, my heart most definitely says Gilles.

[tommykl]

Very tough, this. The main contenders are obviously Stewart, Lauda, Hunt and Fittipaldi due to success, but there are others who could have a go: Jacques Laffite, Jacky Ickx, Ronnie Peterson, Francois Cevert, Denny Hulme and Clay Regazzoni come to mind.

But then again, there are others who could have been great, but had circumstances go the other way: Gunnar Nilsson, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Patrick Depailler...

Some WTF nominees: Tom Pryce, Tony Brise, Reine Wisell, Arturo Merzario or Hans Joachim Stuck.

For the lulz: Harald Ertl, Brett Lunger, Mike Beuttler, Rupert Keegan, Brian Henton.

But my personal best driver of the 70's has to be Jody Scheckter. Very wild in his early races for McLaren, but once he joined Tyrrell, he matured greatly, winning races in cars that were frankly a tad slower than the frontrunners and always outpacing Depailler, who was no slouch either. Then he moved to Wolf, and could have won the title as well had the car been more reliable. Then scoring 4 podiums with the car in 1978 when it was much slower compared to 1977, all the way to the title in 1979.

Sure, he was dismal for all of 1980, but which driver never had a bad season?

One title, could have had four (1974, 1976, 1977 and 1979).

[Stramala]

Usually to reach an answer when faced with this sort of question I usually ask myself, who do I think would win a championship if they all had the same car?

The conclusion that I reach in this particular subject is Jackie Stewart, as I feel he had the correct attitude & was caluculated enough to reckonise what he needed to do to win, & do just that. Not letting emotions or other external things distract him from his goal.

Closely followed by Lauda & possibly Fittipaldi.

However if they were all in a qualifying session in the same car, then I would have to say I think Gilles would probably be the quickest and for a romanatic 'racer' like me, that is what REALLY matters.

Therefore although my head would say Stewart, my heart most definitely says Gilles.

Probably this. Stewart retired at the top of his game, who knows what he could have achieved had he u-turned on his planned retirement. Francois Cevert had been nurtured by Tyrrell to be his natural successor, I imagine with his own natural ability, Stewart's teaching and a good team behind him he could have gone on to great things. Shame he'll never rank among Stewart, Lauda, Fittipaldi, etc based on merit rather than potential.

[eurobrun]

Jean-Pierre Jarier

1983 just called, is says hello.

[CoopsII]

Irrespective of stats (yawn) whenever I remember racing in the 1970s the first name that springs to mind would be..James Hunt.

After that its Andretti and then Lauda.

Sorry JYS.

[FullMetalJack]

Jean-Pierre Jarier

1983 just called, is says hello.

We're talking strictly about the 1970s, otherwise Piquet would be a top contender for best driver of the 1970s, and Prost would be best driver for both 1980s and 1990s, as he was the best driver that competed in the 1990s.

[DOSBoot]

Hard to say becuase of what many people have said already. For me, it would probably Jackie Stewart. But it's a tough call between him, Jody Sheckter and Niki Lauda. But then you have to look at the whole generation. Stewart was arleady world champion when he entered into the 70s, and was already conisdered one of the best at that point. As pointed out before had he not retired so soon, he might have continued his sucess even more. But when I think of him, I think of him as a late 1960s driver, and not a 1970s driver for some reason.

Niki Lauda was a very dominate driver in the mid 70s, but his career didn't really kick off until he joined Ferrari in 1974. After he he left the team in 1977, he career started took a little bit of a nosedive, despite putting on some good drives. As pointed before, he didn't get used to the ground effect, and left for a while before coming back to McLaren who were starting to make a comeback themselves. Eventually winning the championship again in 1984. But I always thought he was the case as a very good driver, but usually with the best car on the grid.

However, the more I look at it, the more I see Jody Sheckter being considered the best of the 1970s. As pointed out before, he put on very good drives in rather sub-par machinarey. He's one of the few to do the three things an F1 driver wants most in thier career. A win at Monaco (1977, and 1979), a win at thier home race (1975), and a drivers championship (1979). Sure both Stewart, and Lauda had done the same, but Sheckter did it all in the 1970s. Wheras, Stewart did it in 1969, and Lauda didn't achieve all three until 1984.

[AdrianSutil]

James Hunt or Gilles Villeneuve. Both wore their hearts on their sleeves, aggressive 100% committed driving, never say die attitude. All in, balls out. I like.

[Wallio]

Villenue, or Hunt. In my (not so) humble opinion. lol

[Copersucar]

1. Lauda
2. Stewart
3. Fittipaldi
4. Peterson
5.Hunt