Top 20 All-Time F1 Drivers

THE TOP 20

With so many legends within the world of F1, the first step is to create a grid of all-stars. To do this, the top 20 drivers with the highest number of total points are ranked.

A metric that, although it will essentially punish drivers before the 1990s, will at least give us a sample of high-quality drivers to work with. The reason that any pre-1990 driver will be left in the pitlane is that there were far fewer races and also far fewer points available in those days, and therefore, any champions, including Juan Manuel Fangio, John Surtees or counterparts such as Sterling Moss, will have to make do with missing out. Although there will be complaints from the historians, there must be some cut-off point.

Here, we can see that Lewis Hamilton is top of the list with 4813.5 points to his name at the time of writing. The soon-to-be-departed Mercedes man has an advantage of 1715.5 points over former foe Sebastian Vettel. With the German winning four world titles between 2011 and 2014, his tally of 3098 puts him 180.5 points ahead of Max Verstappen.

The current and defending three-time champion who is looking to make it four in just a few weeks has 2917.5 points and undoubtedly has Vettel's second rank in his sights before attempting to chase down seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton.

Next in the list is Fernando Alonso whose tally of 2329 points is good enough to earn fourth in the all-time points list and he also has a margin of 456 points between him and Kimi Raikonnen in fifth. 

Fernando Alonso

With the Finnish former champion long since retired, he will not be any threat to Alonso and compatriot Valtteri Bottas is hunting down Raikonnen but with no guaranteed drive for 2025, he is running out of opportunities to overtake him.

A list ot current or recently retired drivers making up the first three rows but what aboiut the true legends who have made the cut through this metric
The first name of those drivers is Michael Schumacher and with the seven-time world champion managing ninth-place in the all-time points ranking with 1566 to his name, it is also double the amount that Alain Prost earned in 17th.

Prost and former McLaren teammate Ayrton Senna were no strangers to each other and would have many arguments on and off the track. In this case, the French driver wins the all-time points argument with Senna for now just making the top 20.

F1 World Championship Betting Odds

These are the current odds with Betting sites for the current World Championchip Drivers title

Formula 1 Drivers Championship 2024

Latest odds at Nov 24, 2024

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	Selection	Probability	Odds
1	Max Verstappen	98%	1.02
2	Lando Norris	5.9%	17.00

POINTS PER RACE

Now that we know who tops the standings in terms of all-time points, we can take those same 20 drivers and see how they fare in terms of points per race or PPR. Who is the most efficient driver of them all? 

This time it is Max Verstappen who earns Pole Position when it comes to the PPR metric. The son of former F1 driver Jos currently has a PPR of 14.37 - 0.62 more than that of rival Lewis Hamilton.

While Sebastien Vettel who also spent a chunk of time at Ferrari after his success at Red Bull finds himself with 10.36 PPR.

Max Verstappen - Image: shutterstock

A figure that bar a sensational comeback will not be improved anytime soon but current Ferrari star Charles Leclerc could eventually overtake that figure with 9.35 PPR to his name at present.
Leclerc finds himself in fourth and one-time Nicolas Rosberg finds himself in fifth. The 2016 champion went out on a high after retiring from F1 straight after the race and with an average of 7.74 PPR, he finds himself in the crosshairs of both Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris.

With Bottas languishing towards the back of the grid these days, that average is only going down with every poor showing and with 7.49 PPR to his name, Norris' 7.48 could soon be extended to a top-five placing if his impressive title hopeful form continues.

Rounding out the top 10 are Sergio Perez with 5.93 PPR, Fernando Alonso with 5.90 and Carlos Sainz with 5.86 and with all three currently on the grid, these positions could interchange quite easily before the end of the 2024 season.

For reference, Michael Schumacher's 5.1 PPR came in a time when the prize for winning races was largely 10 points, while Alain Prost's 4.01 and Ayrton Senna's 3.81 came at a time when the top prize was nine.

Now that we know the PPR rankings, what if we listed the same 20 drivers by win percentage?

WINNER TAKES IT ALL

If we rank the top-20 drivers on win percentage, the grid would like like this: 

A photo finished is required when looking at this metric as Max Verstappen just edges out Lewis Hamilton by 0.05%

Verstappen with a win percentage of 30.05% - 61 from 203, beating Hamilton's 105 from 350 to record 30.00% 

Very little in it but a margin that could either expand or contract depending on how the two drivers finish the 2024 season.

Two current drivers right at the very top but this is where the legends of yesteryear are not punished as much, when looking at win percentage things bode far better for Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. 

Michael Schumacher

Schumacher winning 91 from 307 and were it not for his Mercedes comeback, that percentage could even better than Verstappen's 30.05%.

Instead the seven-time champion has to make do with 29.64% instead - nearly three wins for every 10 races he contested.

Behind him in fourth is Prost who recorded a win percentage of 25.63% and with 51 wins from one short of 200 races, it means a win rate of just over one in four.

Just over one in four and just ahead of arch-rival Senna who in turn earned a 25.47% win rate with 41 victories from 161 attempts.

Now that we know who is top when it comes to win percentage, is the needle moved when we look at fastest lap percentage?

THE FINAL LAP

F1 World Championship. Grand Prix of San Marino. Image:cristiano barni//shutterstock

If we look at pure speed and the consistency of such performance, he is what the same 20 drivers look like:

Here we can see that it is Michael Schumacher who sits top of the list with 77 fastest laps from 307 races. 

A fastest lap percentage of 25.08% - this means just over one race in four saw the German legend set the quickest circuit of the day.

Schumacher's fastest lap rate nearly 5% greater than Alain Prost in second. The former McLaren, Ferrari and Williams driver earned 41 fastest laps from 199 races and this equates to 20.60% or just over one in five.

Of the current drivers on our grid, it is Lewis Hamilton who is top of the list with a fastest lap of 19.14%, pushing Max Verstappen into fourth with 15.76%

Rounding out the top five is Sebastian Vettel with a fastest lap percentage of 12.71% and the first non-champion in the list is Mark Webber in eighth as the Australian recorded 19 fastest laps from 215 attempts (8.84%)

IN THE PADDOCK

Four different metrics, three different leaders and a lot of legends on the outside looking in.

The answer of who the greatest ever driver in F1 is incredibly hard to reveal and although we may not have categorically named it, we have at least created a very interesting talking point.