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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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The best American road racer of his generation and, of course, the only competitor that Jim Clark truly feared, Gurney was most at home in the 1.5-litre era of the early 1960s where his sympathy with the highly-fragile machinery counted for much.
Despite winning races for Porsche and Brabham, his greatest triumph was victory in the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix in his own car, the Anglo-American Racers-run Eagle-Weslake, making him the only man to take maiden world championship race wins for three different constructors.
Even more significantly, he was the first to fit a small strip of material - now known as the Gurney Flap - onto the wing of a racing car in order to increase downforce, and is credited as the man who kicked off the tradition of spraying - rather than drinking - champagne on the podium.
STATISTICS
| Born | 13 Apr 1931 |
| Died | 14 Jan 2018 |
| Active years | 1959 - 1970 |
| Best | 4th (1961, 1965) |
| Presences | 87 |
| Starts | 86 |
| Wins | 4 |
| Podiums | 19 |
| Poles | 3 |
| Front row | 22 |
| Fastest laps | 6 |
| Races led | 16 |
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