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F1'S GREATEST DRIVERS - AUTOSPORT persuaded 217 world championship Formula 1 heroes to vote for the all-time greates driver
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If this list was for the greatest all-round racing driver, there'd be a strong case for putting Stirling Moss right at the top. Success in sportscars, touring cars and rallying underlined the breadth of his talent.
And he was great enough in F1 to be high up here too. Having learned his craft alongside Juan Manuel Fangio at Mercedes-Benz in 1955, Moss increasingly became the great Argentinian's main rival. After Fangio retired, Moss took over the mantle of the best driver in the world until his Goodwood crash in 1962.
Among his 16 GP wins were some of the greatest F1 victories: beating Fangio by over three minutes at Pescara in 1957; winning the '58 Argentinian GP in a two-litre Cooper; defeating the otherwise dominant 1961 Ferraris at Monaco and the Nurburgring in a privateer Lotus.
Moss may never have won the world championship, but his peers used him as benchmark by which they judged their own performances. Enough said.
STATISTICS
| Born | 17 Sep 1929 |
| Died | 12 Apr 2020 |
| Active years | 1951 - 1961 |
| Best | 2nd (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958) |
| Presences | 67 |
| Starts | 66 |
| Wins | 16 |
| Podiums | 24 |
| Poles | 16 |
| Front row | 37 |
| Fastest laps | 19 |
| Races led | 31 |
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