Artificial Intelligence chooses top 10 F1 drivers of all time

[John S]

The list of ten includes mostly the names you might expect but not the order you may think. 

Just how they can claim it's unbiased is a mystery, most of what's on the world wide web that Chat Bot or any other AI can search is full of heavily subjective opinion as well as a lot of downright falsehoods. Maybe it's just a volume thing they're using, not the racing record but the online stuff. 

I'm still waiting to find out how AI can differentiate properly between fact and opinion before accepting it's nothing more than an aggregator rather than a true thinker. - Ooops perhaps I'm overdoing the sceptisism!     

[Dare]

I don't think the AI considers how dangerous the cars
were in the past. Some of the newer drivers may not have
been alive now if the drove in the 50's thru 90's

[lkjohnson1950]

For me, Schumacher is as usual, too high, while Clark is too low. I'm sure Stewart himself would say Clark was better than he. And what about other drivers whose careers were cut short by injury or death back when cars were considerably less safe? Rindt and Graham Hill come to mind. To me comparing current drivers to those of 50/60 years ago is apples to oranges. It would be fascinating to stick Lewis or Max into a Lotus 25 or 33 and see if they could match Clark's times. Cars with no aero and tires hard enough to last 3 or 4 races are entirely different animals.

[Jericoke]

To me comparing current drivers to those of 50/60 years ago is apples to oranges. It would be fascinating to stick Lewis or Max into a Lotus 25 or 33 and see if they could match Clark's times. Cars with no aero and tires hard enough to last 3 or 4 races are entirely different animals.

The opposite would be true too.  Dropping a driver from a previous era into a modern car with zero visibility, insanely high g forces, a steering wheel with more computing power than the entire Earth in 1975 and enough down force that breaking zones are merely a suggestion wouldn't be all that competitive with drivers with full time trainers, dieticians and physiotherapists.

[John S]

To me comparing current drivers to those of 50/60 years ago is apples to oranges. It would be fascinating to stick Lewis or Max into a Lotus 25 or 33 and see if they could match Clark's times. Cars with no aero and tires hard enough to last 3 or 4 races are entirely different animals.

The opposite would be true too.  Dropping a driver from a previous era into a modern car with zero visibility, insanely high g forces, a steering wheel with more computing power than the entire Earth in 1975 and enough down force that breaking zones are merely a suggestion wouldn't be all that competitive with drivers with full time trainers, dieticians and physiotherapists.

You may be right Jeri but I reckon Stirling Moss would give it a proper go. 

[Jericoke]

To me comparing current drivers to those of 50/60 years ago is apples to oranges. It would be fascinating to stick Lewis or Max into a Lotus 25 or 33 and see if they could match Clark's times. Cars with no aero and tires hard enough to last 3 or 4 races are entirely different animals.

The opposite would be true too.  Dropping a driver from a previous era into a modern car with zero visibility, insanely high g forces, a steering wheel with more computing power than the entire Earth in 1975 and enough down force that breaking zones are merely a suggestion wouldn't be all that competitive with drivers with full time trainers, dieticians and physiotherapists.

You may be right Jeri but I reckon Stirling Moss would give it a proper go. 

I suspect the best of any era would find a way to succeed in a different era.  Hamilton and Schumacher both won championships in very different F1 cars.  Alonso has shown aptitude in a variety of series.  Pre 80s drivers drove in a variety of series in a single season, so I presume could adapt quickly.

Modern drivers often get a chance to race old F1 cars.  They're rarely going 'all out', so it's not a direct comparison, but LeClerc has put more laps in the Ferrari 312B3 than Lauda has put in the SF-23

[Alianora La Canta]

I'm impressed it managed not to include any non-F1 drivers in that list, given the number of stories I've heard of AI incompetence (especially in terms of plain making stuff up - I was half-expecting a Sangio or Devon in the list).