F1'S GREATEST DRIVERS - AUTOSPORT persuaded 217 world championship Formula 1 heroes to vote for the all-time greates driver

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How F1's heroes voted for the greatest

The science behind AUTOSPORT's unique driver poll

AUTOSPORT invited drivers who have raced in the Formula 1 world championship (including those who raced under F2 rules in 1952-1953) to vote for their top 10 "greatest" drivers of the world championship era.

The definition of the term "greatest" was left open for the voters to interpret for themselves.

Each top 10 was then scored on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis to create the overall ranking, with a countback system used to decide the order.

It was decided to focus solely on the world championship era, which began in 1950, as there are so few living links to the pre-war years.

Represented in our jury are over 9000 grand prix starts and 270 wins. As well as including current world champion Jenson Button's vote, our jury includes an astonishing cross-section of opinion.

This includes the earliest surviving world championship grand prix winner, Jose Froilan Gonzalez, the most successful driver of all time, Michael Schumacher, the oldest living driver, Paul Pietsch, and F1's first child of the 1990s, Jaime Alguersuari.

This poll represents the most comprehensive vote on the greatest world championship drivers. There have been 809 world championship grands prix (excluding the 11 Indianapolis 500s) and starters from all but 10 of these have voted.

This list represents the opinion of the greats, of grand prix winners, of those who have watched admiringly as they are lapped, of those who have been stunned by their legendary team-mates and those whose grand prix careers have been as fleeting as the blink of an eye.