Most disliked racing drivers?

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It can never really be right to dislike someone because we have never even met these people or spoken to them.

But my favourite driver is Alonso, and my favourite F1 season ever was 2007 when Hamilton and Alonso were team mates at McLaren. So intense was the fight all season long between these two legends that God decided that neither should win the title and against all odds Raikkonen sneaked through and took the title. A genuine classic.
 
MCFerocious
It can never really be right to dislike someone because we have never even met these people or spoken to them.

But my favourite driver is Alonso, and my favourite F1 season ever was 2007 when Hamilton and Alonso were team mates at McLaren. So intense was the fight all season long between these two legends that God decided that neither should win the title and against all odds Raikkonen sneaked through and took the title. A genuine classic.
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Indeed, 2007 was one of the last great seasons of F1.

And thinking more about it, there is another driver that I dislike: Vettel. I don't know really why, I just can't stand the man.
 
Never was a "hater" of any driver, but took sides in the many "duels" I witnessed through the decades. So, I was:

1 - With Stewart against Fittipaldi
2 - With Lauda against Hunt
3 - With Scheckter against Andretti
4 - With Jones against Piquet
5 - With Senna against Prost
6 - With Anyone against Schumacher (that's the closest to disliking someone I experienced)
7 - With Webber or Alonso against Vettel (tough luck, eh ? :p )
8 - Nowadays it's a bit "I don't care much as long as the racing is good. But I'd like Ricciardo to be WDC by year's end.
 
Can't think of one driver that hasn't been mentioned already, but you see the same names come up Hamilton/Schumacher/Senna.....nice guys finish last folks.
 
Hun200kmh
Poorly? Never knew the F1 World Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Jacques has a brother? What happened to that other guy? Is he a drug dealer, a pimp, in prison, or worse, is he posting nonsense in the webs?
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I'm not referring to what he has accomplished on the track, but what he says off it. I'm not being entirely serious either.
 
-Fred-
He learned all that and more from daddy. Michael Andretti is, pardon my language, the biggest asshole in motorsports, both for his on track and off track behavior. An utterly pompous, cocky douchebag in the most displeasant manner. Met him in Toronto back in 1995, where he refused to sign autographs, hushed fans away from him, yelled at his crew members and hid in his hauler for the rest of the session. He received a nice shower of boo's when he won the race.
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I've not had the misfortune of meeting Michael (and I pray I don't) but given his tendencies to vocalize his displeasure with just about anything that crosses his mind. It doesn't help that I live 20 miles from Nazareth, where Michael/Marco can't do any wrong, just because of their name. Or, it's talk about Sage Karam, who I've met without knowing who he was, all because of high school sporting events (I hated those, though.) I don't mind Karam, but he seems to be given some kind of chip on the shoulder just because there's a famous racing name floating around in the area...
 
Lewis Hamilton- I liked him to begin with especially his debut season and when he won the Championship. Since he joined Mercedes though, he's turned into a self-centred, unbearable bling king hiding behind his sunglasses. The way the toys come flying out of the pram when things aren't going his way makes me want to put itching powder in his driving suit.

Sebastian Vettel- the way this guy carried on when at Red Bull and teammate to Mark Webber, disobeying team orders made me want to break his fingers. Yes, all ten of them.

Helmut Marko- Where do I start with this 🤬? I could care less what he achieved as a driver but his performance as a Team Owner and employee at Red Bull makes him my most hated individual in professional motor racing. In 1997, he signed a contracts to have Montoya & Craig Lowndes drive for his F3000 team. On arrival in Austria, Lowndes, after being promised accommodation close to the team HQ, found himself living in a flat above the workshop with no heating, a mattress on the floor and a fold-up chair. When it came to race day, Lowndes had to wait for the one team Engineer to finish with Montoya before he would work with Lowndes.
His anti-Webber form is well documented so I won't list the numerous times he's displayed untold bias there.
If I ever met him, I'd poke him in his good eye :crazy:

Nigel Mansell- one of the fastest guys to ever sit in a F1 but my god, what a whinger! Did the guy ever win a race without complaining?
 
I can't think of more than a few top drivers that don't come across as completely unlikeable if you're looking for reasons to hate them. As others have mentioned, the very qualities you need to win a major competition are the same qualities that make you seem like an awful person. Most people appear to be hypocritical with regards to their favourite driver, despite that driver having similar attitudes to other competitors.

Really, the only difference would be offtrack, with how a driver treats the fans.
 
Pete05
Helmut Marko- Where do I start with this 🤬? I could care less what he achieved as a driver but his performance as a Team Owner and employee at Red Bull makes him my most hated individual in professional motor racing. In 1997, he signed a contracts to have Montoya & Craig Lowndes drive for his F3000 team. On arrival in Austria, Lowndes, after being promised accommodation close to the team HQ, found himself living in a flat above the workshop with no heating, a mattress on the floor and a fold-up chair. When it came to race day, Lowndes had to wait for the one team Engineer to finish with Montoya before he would work with Lowndes.
His anti-Webber form is well documented so I won't list the numerous times he's displayed untold bias there.
If I ever met him, I'd poke him in his good eye :crazy:
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Sounds like he has a hatred for Aussies.
 
GTPorsche
Sounds like he has a hatred for Aussies.
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Well I can assure you the feeling is more than mutual :mad:
Unfortunately, when he's been staying here in Melbourne for the F1, I haven't been able to get my gift of complimentary 'fresh' seafood past the reception desk :mischievous:
 
GTP_Ingram
To be fair, if you take team radio over the past few seasons as evidence the exact same criticism can be levelled at Vettel, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa, Verstappen, Ricciardo...
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Please find me just one example of Ricciardo having a whinge that wasn't completely warranted & just.
 
nissman
He was always going for a safe finish rather than rally wins, unlike Colin Mcrae.
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So, you hate a driver that brings cars (and finishes) home?

TenEightyOne
Probably my least favourite driver ever, compounded when he killed himself, his friend and his friend's son by simply showing off. Sad.
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Wait, that's how that crash happened?

GTP_Ingram
To be fair, if you take team radio over the past few seasons as evidence the exact same criticism can be levelled at Vettel, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa, Verstappen, Ricciardo...
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So, every driver on the F1 grid. If that's the case, then that criteria for hating or loving a driver is suddenly a rather moot point.
 
RACECAR
So, you hate a driver that brings cars (and finishes) home?
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I don't have the feeling of hate towards anyone especially drivers. He is just not my favourite.

But yes, I prefer drivers that are taking risks and going for the win.
 
GTP_Ingram
To be fair, if you take team radio over the past few seasons as evidence the exact same criticism can be levelled at Vettel, Alonso, Button, Raikkonen, Grosjean, Massa, Verstappen, Ricciardo...
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The only thing I get out of Button's radio messages is that his drinks tube dispenses alcohol.


I don't think it's fair to judge driver's on their personalities when they're in the heat of the moment, or just after an on track session when the adrenalin is pumping. We all say/do stupid things in those situations. I wouldn't really consider any of the current crop of F1 drivers to be bad people, for the most part they all seem relatively down to earth during interviews.
 
wolfsburgraz
You just have to look at Lewis' season (and awful starting line performance) so far to get that answer. Up until the most recent race or two Mercedes has easily had the most dominant car. If it starts ahead of the pack, it tends to stay there in pretty commanding fashion.

Race 1 - Lewis gets an awful launch off the line and is edged off the track by Rosberg, dropping several places and was unable to retake the lead.

Race 2 - Lewis does a crap launch again and gets body-checked by Bottas at turn 1, receives damage and is unable to catch up.

Race 3 - Garbage launch for Lewis again and loses his front wing in the melee caused by, Kvyat, the Ferrari's gone sideways and other cars around him. Pits to replace nose and can only fight back to 7th.

Race 4 - Hamilton starts 10th after an engine failure during qualifying, can only battle his way to 2nd.

Race 5 - Poor launch again and Lewis drives into Rosberg trying to fit his car into a rapidly closing window that was never going to work, Lewis wipes out both cars.

Race 6 - Wins due to Rosberg having brake issues and lets him pass, and Red Bull destroying Ricciardo's lead stranding him for seconds without tires.

Like I said, Rosberg is clearly a capable driver, I just don't think he would be where he is if his car wasn't so dominant. Maybe it's my disposition of already disliking the guy in interviews and hearing his attitude on the radio, but in the previous seasons when he was trailing Lewis I would often hear him angrily and in a whining tone asking his engineers to "tell him how to go faster" or where he should be braking etc for him to beat Lewis.
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You can't fault the guy for taking advantage of a winning situation, it's how racing works, and the team wouldn't really want him not taking advantage of that chance just to follow Lewis down the order so they could race each other outside the top 5...
 
RACECAR
So, every driver on the F1 grid. If that's the case, then that criteria for hating or loving a driver is suddenly a rather moot point.
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Not necessarily. At that point you need to debate how reasonable their grounds for complaint are. Which brings me onto this:
Pete05
Please find me just one example of Ricciardo having a whinge that wasn't completely warranted & just.
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I completely agree with what you're suggesting; Ricciardo has had every right to feel aggrieved with the way recent races have panned out. He's lost two likely wins, one due a strategy call - a call made in his best interests, mind - which didn't go to plan, and another through comical disorganisation by Red Bull. Did he need to criticise his team so publicly on both occasions though?

I'd argue that most of Lewis Hamilton's whinges over the past few years have been pretty legitimate, too. I'd also say that to his credit, he has always been the most vocal driver in thanking his team when things go right - even if sometimes it seems rather cheesy.

I think worse than either of those two are Massa (who, like Collard who I mentioned before, complains about the driving standards of others when he's rarely blameless for the scraps he gets into) and Grosjean (yes, he seems like a lovely smiley person out of the car, but the instant his car isn't to his liking he's more focussed on whining than he is driving the damn thing).

My point is that the best Formula 1 drivers have succeeded because A) they're selfish, and B) they hate to lose. If they're not winning they'll be frustrated, because deep down they all genuinely believe that they're the best driver in the world.

Except for Jolyon Palmer. There's no possible way he believes that...
 
Pete05
Lewis Hamilton- I liked him to begin with especially his debut season and when he won the Championship. Since he joined Mercedes though, he's turned into a self-centred, unbearable bling king hiding behind his sunglasses. The way the toys come flying out of the pram when things aren't going his way makes me want to put itching powder in his driving suit.

Sebastian Vettel- the way this guy carried on when at Red Bull and teammate to Mark Webber, disobeying team orders made me want to break his fingers. Yes, all ten of them.

Helmut Marko- Where do I start with this 🤬? I could care less what he achieved as a driver but his performance as a Team Owner and employee at Red Bull makes him my most hated individual in professional motor racing. In 1997, he signed a contracts to have Montoya & Craig Lowndes drive for his F3000 team. On arrival in Austria, Lowndes, after being promised accommodation close to the team HQ, found himself living in a flat above the workshop with no heating, a mattress on the floor and a fold-up chair. When it came to race day, Lowndes had to wait for the one team Engineer to finish with Montoya before he would work with Lowndes.
His anti-Webber form is well documented so I won't list the numerous times he's displayed untold bias there.
If I ever met him, I'd poke him in his good eye :crazy:

Nigel Mansell- one of the fastest guys to ever sit in a F1 but my god, what a whinger! Did the guy ever win a race without complaining?
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I agree with everything you say about Liwes
Pete05
Lewis Hamilton- I liked him to begin with especially his debut season and when he won the Championship. Since he joined Mercedes though, he's turned into a self-centred, unbearable bling king hiding behind his sunglasses. The way the toys come flying out of the pram when things aren't going his way makes me want to put itching powder in his driving suit.

Sebastian Vettel- the way this guy carried on when at Red Bull and teammate to Mark Webber, disobeying team orders made me want to break his fingers. Yes, all ten of them.

Helmut Marko- Where do I start with this 🤬? I could care less what he achieved as a driver but his performance as a Team Owner and employee at Red Bull makes him my most hated individual in professional motor racing. In 1997, he signed a contracts to have Montoya & Craig Lowndes drive for his F3000 team. On arrival in Austria, Lowndes, after being promised accommodation close to the team HQ, found himself living in a flat above the workshop with no heating, a mattress on the floor and a fold-up chair. When it came to race day, Lowndes had to wait for the one team Engineer to finish with Montoya before he would work with Lowndes.
His anti-Webber form is well documented so I won't list the numerous times he's displayed untold bias there.
If I ever met him, I'd poke him in his good eye :crazy:

Nigel Mansell- one of the fastest guys to ever sit in a F1 but my god, what a whinger! Did the guy ever win a race without complaining?
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I agree with everything you said about Lewis Hamilton.
 
AJ Foyt, the driver you loved to hate.

Back in the day (Texas dirt tracks in the '50's), Foyt would beat any other driver in the paddock to a pulp with his fists if AJ thought he stood a chance of beating him on the track. Came the day AJ faced off with Mario Andretti, AJ could not bring himself to thrash upon Mario because he was so tiny. That was the day AJ started to become human and not a monster. It is still a work in progress.
 
GTP_Ingram
Not necessarily. At that point you need to debate how reasonable their grounds for complaint are. Which brings me onto this:


I completely agree with what you're suggesting; Ricciardo has had every right to feel aggrieved with the way recent races have panned out. He's lost two likely wins, one due a strategy call - a call made in his best interests, mind - which didn't go to plan, and another through comical disorganisation by Red Bull. Did he need to criticise his team so publicly on both occasions though?

I'd argue that most of Lewis Hamilton's whinges over the past few years have been pretty legitimate, too. I'd also say that to his credit, he has always been the most vocal driver in thanking his team when things go right - even if sometimes it seems rather cheesy.

I think worse than either of those two are Massa (who, like Collard who I mentioned before, complains about the driving standards of others when he's rarely blameless for the scraps he gets into) and Grosjean (yes, he seems like a lovely smiley person out of the car, but the instant his car isn't to his liking he's more focussed on whining than he is driving the damn thing).

My point is that the best Formula 1 drivers have succeeded because A) they're selfish, and B) they hate to lose. If they're not winning they'll be frustrated, because deep down they all genuinely believe that they're the best driver in the world.

Except for Jolyon Palmer. There's no possible way he believes that...
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I'm quite prepared to move on from the pitstop strategy employed by Red Bull in Spain but Monaco? Not a snowball's chance in hell. That was the most clueless, amateurish thing I've ever seen in F1.
Consider the residual feelings Dan must've had post Spain, looking for redemption and, on course to do so when the team let him down in an even bigger way & I think he well and truly kept a lid on his feelings. He's a lot more level-headed than I am I can promise you that. There's a better than 99% chance I would've switched the car off, walked home, phone off & had more than few calming beers.
 
Pete05
Helmut Marko- Where do I start with this 🤬? I could care less what he achieved as a driver but his performance as a Team Owner and employee at Red Bull makes him my most hated individual in professional motor racing. In 1997, he signed a contracts to have Montoya & Craig Lowndes drive for his F3000 team. On arrival in Austria, Lowndes, after being promised accommodation close to the team HQ, found himself living in a flat above the workshop with no heating, a mattress on the floor and a fold-up chair. When it came to race day, Lowndes had to wait for the one team Engineer to finish with Montoya before he would work with Lowndes.
His anti-Webber form is well documented so I won't list the numerous times he's displayed untold bias there.
If I ever met him, I'd poke him in his good eye :crazy:
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Nah, poke it hard so he'd go blind in both eyes. Guy screwed Webber and Dani out of their seats. Max was a deserving RB driver, sure, but shoving Dani out like that was just unnecessary. He's just trying too hard to make RB as political as Ferrari.
 
Dotini
AJ Foyt, the driver you loved to hate.

Back in the day (Texas dirt tracks in the '50's), Foyt would beat any other driver in the paddock to a pulp with his fists if AJ thought he stood a chance of beating him on the track. Came the day AJ faced off with Mario Andretti, AJ could not bring himself to thrash upon Mario because he was so tiny. That was the day AJ started to become human and not a monster. It is still a work in progress.
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I don't see how anyone can legitimately dislike Mario.
 
Ayrton Senna
However talented he was, his cheating to win method at Suzuka 1990 was utterly reprehensible behaviour. His glib attitude in the aftermath didn't engender ideals of sportsmanship either.
I kind of lump him together with a Diego Maradona (Footballerist) - supreme skill but a "Hand of God" (1986 world cup) ability to cheat without any remorse.
 
Ryk
Ayrton Senna
However talented he was, his cheating to win method at Suzuka 1990 was utterly reprehensible behaviour. His glib attitude in the aftermath didn't engender ideals of sportsmanship either.
I kind of lump him together with a Diego Maradona (Footballerist) - supreme skill but a "Hand of God" (1986 world cup) ability to cheat without any remorse.
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Better read about what happened in Suzuka '89 first, and also how they tried to cheat him out of pole spot in '90 and you'll understand it better.
 

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