Ayrton Senna voted best ever F1 Driver in Autosport poll

I can see the perspective from both sides, Schumacher is the 'most successful' F1 driver of all time but he was supported by some great teams/designers/engineers. He will have plenty of tough opposition in 2010, so let's see how he manages, but he's been up against plenty of great drivers in his career (Senna, Hakkinen, Alonso) so it wouldn't be fair to state that he had little opposition.

I suspect this debate would differ depending on which generation you grew up in - I watched every one of Senna's F1 races and he was never anything by stunning - he was able to intimidate every other driver on the grid and achieve things that other greats (including Prost) just couldn't emulate.

There are plenty of drivers in that Top-40 list that I might consider greatest, for reasons other than how many races they won. Fangio was winning championships after starting off quite late in life and his ratio of wins-vs-starts was outstanding - bear in mind he achieved this as a balding middle-aged bloke..

Jim Clark was tragically taken from us at Hockenheim, but he was another that could have gone on to win multiple championships in the right team.

I would narrow down the list of 40 and single out those drivers that changed the face of Formula 1 by their outstanding talent and success.

I won't try and create a definitive list, but you'd have to include in that (shorter) list;

- Senna
- Schumacher
- Stewart
- Moss
- Fangio
- Clark...

no one could challenge schumacher? the man had the poorest oposition in like the last century.....what a nerve the voters are respectable drivers as you can see including schumi himself.....im so sick and tired of you i know everthing guys.....ROB so i have to ask you a question:did you won any world championship,if not please shut up

This is just not right. The most "Len Bias" surely as we will never truly know what Senna may have accomplished, but regardless Shumacher would've still eclipsed all his efforts. Senna was great but never dominant the way Shumacher has been. With Senna, there were rivals that could and would challenge him for the championship almost all the time. With Shumi, that was not the case. Only his teammate Rubens Barrichelo was able to challenge him until Alonso and Renault FINALLY got it right and beat him his last 2 years. Senna was a great Driver but Schumacher made Ferrari what it is today. They were lost for so long and once Schumacher came on board, things changed really quickly and Ross Brawn had his fair share in that as well. I'd say at Shumacher/Brawn – 65/35% split.