LoveAllRacing - 05 August 2008 10:50 AM

JagBro - 02 August 2008 05:36 AM

Top three

Britain: Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, Nigel Mansell, and now Lewis Hamilton

Brazil: Emerson Fittipaldi, Senna

Germany: Schumacher,

US: Andretti, Gurney, Mark Donohue

Love Donohue but shouldn't Phil Hill be on the list?

Canada - Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques Villeneuve Jr., Ron Fellows

since you left FOYT out, I must presume that you feel, as do I, that TEXAS is it's own country... other than US, I feel Finland and Brazil fill the bill...rf

Australia - Population 2008 is 20 million so work these nuimbers out on a pro rata basis!

Jack Brabham won 3 workld titles in 1959 – 1960 – 1966 and is the only driver to win a title driving his own designed car.

Alan Jones also won a world title.

Mark Webber......... nah forget him.

But lets not forget Mick Doohan, Wayne Gardiner & Casey Stoner who have done it on two wheels in MotoGP and Troy Bayliss & Troy Corser who have won WSB titles.

Oh..... and usually (sometimes a Kiwi) an Aussie wins the V8 Supercar championship *snigger snigger*

LightTower4 - 12 August 2008 09:51 PM

Australia - Population 2008 is 20 million so work these nuimbers out on a pro rata basis!

Jack Brabham won 3 workld titles in 1959 – 1960 – 1966 and is the only driver to win a title driving his own designed car.

Alan Jones also won a world title. . . .

Sorry. On a per capita basis, Australia places a distant 5th. Scotland and Finland rule.

Rank. Country: Population in Millions/Number of World Championships = Score
1. Scotland: 5.1/5 = 1.0
2. Finland: 5.3/4 = 1.3
3. Austria: 8.3/4 = 2.1
4. New Zealand: 4.3/1 = 4.3
5. Australia: 21/4 = 5.2
6. England: 49/7 = 7.0
7. Argentina: 40/5 = 8.0
8. Germany: 82/7 = 12
9. France: 64/4 = 16
10. Italy: 59/3 = 20
11. Spain: 46/2 = 23
12. Brazil: 187/8 = 23
13. Canada: 33/1 = 33
14. South Africa: 48/1 = 48
15. USA: 304/2 = 152

I think Brazil has to be #1. Ayrton & Bruno Senna, Emerson & Christian Fittipaldi, Helio Castroneves, and all the others I fail to mention account for too many race wins and championships to be overlooked. America has an edge just in the sheer number of drivers, but has had little effect in F1. When was the last time an American driver fought for the IRL championship? Without Hornish in '06, it's been awhile. There's only a handful that can even fight for wins and that's not often. Brazilian drivers of note - Felipe Massa, Mauricio Gugelmin, Ricardo Zonta, Bruno Junqueira, Raul Boesel, Raphael Matos, Vitor Meira, Nelson Piquet, Cristiano da Matta, Rubens Barichello. Not a bad lineup in world wide motorsports for a relatively small country. At one time or another brazilian drivers have dominated F1, CART, Champcar, and the IRL. If they decide to go Nascar - look out! It would take some time to research, but I bet Brazil is the home to more chamionships and race wins at the top levels of motorsports than any other country, especially in the last 20 years.

Germany definitely has the best GT field drivers!

Alright, let's bring this topic back to life.

Which country do you think produces the best race car drivers based on statistics? Also, what series do you think that country has dominated in at one point? Plus, if you had to pick just ONE driver that has best represented the countries you selected, who would they be?

1. Brazil (Senna! and most of the best karters on the International scene)

2. Finland (Raikkonen, Hakkinen, Keke and Nico Rosberg, most rally drivers, very good young karters as well)

3. UK (Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Brian Redmen)

Strange that ppl put USA up there (I'll chalk that up to Pride)Post Andretti, Foyt, and Phil Hill we have produced almost no drivers to speak of on the International scene of late.

We do have the odd amazing karter at times, but the Brazilians and Canadians still have a pretty good handle on us, and we generally are pretty weak as a whole at International Karting events considering we have more karters than any other nation.

I'm excited though as we finally have some up an commers that will arrive on the scene very soon! Some of our best Karters have already been turning heads in International F-BMW, A1GP, and F3