Formula 1's Greatest driver

JACKY ICKX 
BELGIUM

Jacky Ickx is more famous for his sportscar exploits, including six Le Mans 24 Hours victories and two world titles, than he is for his F1 career. That tends to overshadow the fact that, at his peak, he was one of the top single-seater drivers in the world.

Eight GP wins, including two at the Nurburgring, 13 poles and 13 fastest laps indicate his quality.

Ickx's Ferrari took the fight to Jochen Rindt and the Lotus 72 during the 1970 season, narrowly losing out in a slipstreaming thriller at Hockenheim. After Rindt's death at Monza Ickx became the only man who could overhaul the Austrian's total. He just failed and thus finished runner-up for the second successive year.

After more successes for Ferrari, Ickx's F1 career went in to decline, but there was still time for one more success. Driving for Lotus, Ickx took a fine victory in the 1974 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch before eventually moving full-time to sportscars.

RICCARDO PATRESE 

ITALY

It's hard to believe that the veteran of 256 grand prix starts; the trusted pair of hands; the ideal number two, who retired in 1993, was once regarded as the wildest driver in the field.

Widely blamed for the crash that caused Ronnie Peterson's death at Monza in '78, but later exonerated, the young Italian soon matured into an accomplished performer after leaving Arrows for Brabham, but was outshone all too often by his team-mate Nelson Piquet.

Few will forget the incredible last-lap scenes at Monaco in '82 as he spun his way to a first GP win. But days like that, and his sensational drive at Mexico in 1991 for Williams - where he utterly trounced Nigel Mansell - were few and far between for a man who three times saw his team-mate take the world title.

JEAN BEHRA 

FRANCE

Behra could have been France's first title winner, but despite having the talent never won a world championship grand prix.

A fighter in the Gilles Villeneuve mould, with courage and car control to spare, he became a national hero leading the Gordini team after winning the non-championship Grand Prix de la Marne at Reims in 1952.

His days with Maserati were only slightly less frustrating. In 1955, he had little chance against the all-conquering Mercedes W196s, then played second fiddle to superstar team-mates Stirling Moss and then Juan Manuel Fangio in 1956 and 1957.

Punching Ferrari team manager Romolo Tavoni after retiring on his Ferrari debut in 1959 was a bad career move, and he was promptly sacked. A few weeks later, he was killed after being thrown from his Porsche RSK and hitting a flagpole during a sportscar race at Avus

GERHARD BERGER

AUSTRIA

A veteran of 210 grands prix over 14 seasons, Gerhard Berger had the potential to be the fastest driver in F1 on his day. He scored the first and last of his 10 wins for Benetton in two spells with the team, punctuated by stints at two of F1's greatest teams: Ferrari and McLaren.

Competing with the likes of Mansell, Prost and Senna during that time, he was always likely to be on a hiding to nothing.

His maiden win, at the 1986 Mexican GP, owed as much to clever strategy as it did to his speed, but Berger's 10th and final triumph, in the 1997 German GP at Hockenheim, may go down as his greatest F1 performance. Facing the sack, suffering the after effects of a sinus operation, and dealing with the recent death of his father, Berger took pole, cut fastest lap and dominated the race.

The warm reaction of the paddock said everything about how highly this good-humoured Austrian was regarded within the circles of the sport.

CLAY REGAZZONI

SWITZERLAND

Two stints at Ferrari and scoring Williams's maiden grand prix victory are the clear highlights of Clay Regazzoni's 10-year Formula 1 career.

The relationship with the Prancing Horse got off to a dream start when the Swiss driver took fourth on his debut in Holland, while there's nowhere better to take your maiden win in one of the red cars than Monza, which Regazzoni managed later that same season.

He left Ferrari for 1973, but was back a year later, playing the role of number two to Niki Lauda. Despite taking a win each season from '74-'76, he was moved on for 1977.

After two years out of competitive machinery he was playing the number two role again, this time to Alan Jones at Williams in 1979. But it was Regazzoni who gave Frank Williams's team its first win, inheriting the lead at Silverstone when Jones retired.

STEFAN BELLOF

GERMANY

This shy German had started just 20 grands prix when he died in the summer of 1985, aged 28, and his best result in F1 was a mere fourth place at Monaco. But the fact that more than 25 years on his peers consider him the 35th greatest talent further establishes the legend of a shocking level of unfulfilled potential.

Bellof's dumbfounding speed was attributed by many of his rivals to a complete absence of fear, but there are those who believe he played on this reputation and was more calculating than the reckless spirit he projected.

Either way, the results Bellof achieved in Formula 2 and sportscars were spectacular both in form and the manner he produced them. That he died fighting for the lead of a world championship sportscar race at Spa in circumstances that could only be blamed on him, just as his career seemed destined to bloom, is a tragic yet appropriate epitaph for the ultimate 'what-might-have-been' driver.

CARLOS REUTEMANN

ARGENTINA

Given that Carlos Reutemann went on to serve as governor of the Argentine state of Santa Fe, it should come as little surprise that his Formula 1 career was defined by politics.

Today, his name is immediately associated with a bitter fight with Williams team-mate Alan Jones during the 1981 season - a fallout that began when Reutemann ignored team orders in Brazil, and ended with Jones refusing to lend Reutemann his support in the title-deciding final race at Las Vegas, where Reutemann fell to Nelson Piquet by a single point. Bad blood between he and the team prompted him to quit F1 just two rounds into the following season.

But all of the controversy sells his talent short. Exceptionally smooth behind the wheel, Reutemann joins Giuseppe Farina, Mario Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve as one of just four drivers to take pole on debut courtesy of his effort in the year-old Brabham BT34 at Argentina in 1972. Consistency wasn't Reutemann's strong point, but on his day he was sublime. Plenty of drivers have done worse than win races with Brabham, Ferrari and Williams ...

PHIL HILL

UNITED STATES

America's first world champion, Phil Hill would probably have achieved more had he not switched to the ill-fated ATS operation at the end of 1962.

Hill, who also carved out a successful sportscar career, demonstrated himself to be a good team player when he moved aside at the 1958 Moroccan GP to enable Ferrari team-mate Mike Hawthorn to take the title. He was rewarded with a full-time drive and took his first GP win at Monza in 1960 after the British teams boycotted the banked circuit.

It's often said that only the death of Wolfgang von Trips allowed Hill to take his title in 1961, but he had been evenly matched with his team-mate and was still a threat when the German made his fatal mistake at Monza.

There were no more F1 wins, but Hill would go on winning sportscar races until 1967.

GIUSEPPE FARINA

ITALY

The Italian pre-war ace was arguably past his best when he won the inaugural world championship in 1950 when a month short of his 44th birthday, although a little age gave the driver who was once grand prix racing's wild man the maturity to win a title.

Alfa Romeo's lead driver in 1950, he fought hard to beat team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio to the 1950 title after winning three of the six world championship grands prix. But the writing was on the wall, and in 1951 he could do nothing about Fangio's speed.

It was a similar story at Ferrari in 1952-1953, when he played second fiddle to Alberto Ascari, although there was a final victory at the age of 47 in the 1953 German Grand Prix before he started to wind down in 1954.

If ever there was a case of the Second World War robbing a driver of his best years, it was Farina.