The Greatest Driver Never to Win the World Championship?

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In light of the warnings that Jenson Button gave to Lewis Hamilton a while back, I was curious: GTP-goers, who do you think was/is/will be the greatest driver never to be crowned in F1?

My personals are either Gilles Villeneuve, being the greatest Canadian to race in F1, or Stirling Moss, relentlessly pursuing it for 7 years, but coming up short. A real character otherwise.

(Note: Since there are so many options, a poll will only be added upon request)
 
Juan Pablo Montoya: He had such a good debut season and he could always beat his teammate, but the the last 2 season at McLaren something happened and he started to suck.

Jean Alesi: A big talent and was thrown into the lion cage, but held his head up high and did some good stuff. Too bad the Ferrari wasn't really good back then and bad luck plagued him too.
 
Michele Alboreto: One of Ferrari's favourite sons. Michele's determination won him 2 races during his early stint at Tyrrell. But when he was given the call by Enzo Ferrari his career really took off. In his first year with the prancing horse progress was slow. However in the next year he challenged Alain Prost for the championship all year but had to make do as runner up. The next few years at Ferrari were tough, in an effort to catch up to the dominating teams of McLaren and Williams, Ferrari tried to coax more power from their turbo engines. Reliability suffered and Michele was never to win a grand prix again.

At the end of 1988 he left Ferrari and this led him back to Tyrrell. His best result back with 'Uncle Ken' was a 3rd place at the Mexican grand prix. Michele would go on to race for Lola, Larrousse, Arrows/Footwork and Minardi. He ended his long and distinguished career at the end of 1994. After his retirement from Formula 1 he entered the 1996 Indianapolis 500 (to no avail) and in 1997 he would win the Le Mans 24 hours race along side Stefan Johansson and Tom Kristensen.

He would continue a career in sports car racing and joined the Audi team to help develop their R8 race car. His partnership with the Audi team was a perfect combination, Michele's determination and the Audi teams professionalism gelled together immensely well. So well infact that he won the 12 Hours of Sebring race in 2001. Spirits were high at the Audi team in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours. But tragedy was to strike, at a testing session at the Lausitzring in eastern Germany, Michele's R8 burst a tire on a straight section. The car spun out of control and overturned. Michele was killed instantly in the high speed accident and Italy lost one of its finest ever racing drivers.

Lost but not forgotten...
 
Now see... this kind of thread is something I would have come up with. You must have drawn inspiration from a similar thread I made called "Best Cars, Drivers, and Teams to Never Win Le Mans." I don't know my F1 history too well to actually make a valid point as to who the best in the business were. So I'll go with some of the posts in here and say...

Jean Alesi. I'm thinking of someone who could finish consistentely or be in the points long enough to make magic happen... only to fall short of a World Championship. I'm sorry, people. My Formula 1 history isn't up to par. I don't know the business too well to say I'm at least a qualified pro at it. That's why I don't participate in these discussions. Fisichella and Alesi are two drivers. I may even go with Alex Zanardi, even though he had that floundering run in F1. So I don't really know.
 
Well I do have a few, so hope you don't mind. I agree with Gilles Gilles Villeneuve and Jean Alesi. Their the best drivers at their time. 👍

Ralf Schumacher :lol:
David Coulthard
Eddie Irvine
Jacky Ickx
 
My votes would be for Villeneuve (although I think he would have won it) and Moss.
 
Stirling Moss, of course; also Peter Collins, who on hearing of JM Fangio's retirement from the 1956 Italian GP, pulled into the pits and gave Fangio his car - a move that resulted in Fangio finishing second and taking the championship from Collins, who would've won it had he not been so selfless.
 
Roo
Stirling Moss, of course; also Peter Collins, who on hearing of JM Fangio's retirement from the 1956 Italian GP, pulled into the pits and gave Fangio his car - a move that resulted in Fangio finishing second and taking the championship from Collins, who would've won it had he not been so selfless.
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Why did he do that?
 
I'm inclined to agree with the Stirling Moss choice! ... but i reckon the same debate in 10 years time would have Felipe Massa as the unlucky great :indiff:
 
Roo
Stirling Moss, of course; also Peter Collins, who on hearing of JM Fangio's retirement from the 1956 Italian GP, pulled into the pits and gave Fangio his car - a move that resulted in Fangio finishing second and taking the championship from Collins, who would've won it had he not been so selfless.
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He already did it when Luigi Musso needed a drive, but manager Ugolini forced Collins to make that choice.

That day, he said: "I really thought Fangio deserved the title. I don't possibly think that I could have caught Moss to begin with." However, Stirling Moss ran out of fuel during that race, and he was pushed to the pits by anther car (Piotti's private Maserati), so there was a chance that if Collins continued driving, he might have beat Moss after that episode to take the title.

Fangio needed a ride after his own car broke down, of course.

Gilles Villeneuve was also noble in ensuring his team-mate's success when he tailed Jody Scheckter in the race that would decide the World Champion in 1979. (Italian GP) The South African's first place ensured him the title.
 
Montoya, this guy made F1 actually worth watching...Too bad he gave up Williams for Mclaren...
 
There's one big thing that separates Moss and Villeneuve from drivers like Coulthard, Fisichella and Montoya. It's pure talent. The former ones had the talent, they were easily good enough, but bad luck stopped them from being champions. The latter ones are better than average and have done well when in great cars, but they lack the last drop of skill needed.

Sir Stirling gets my vote too. Faster than Fangio but his loyalty towards British cars cost him the championship.
 
Toronado
Why do I always do that?
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There was a time there when both Scaff and I had McRae's Subaru as avatars, and I was seeing his posts and thinking, "I don't remember posting that."
 
Greycap
There's one big thing that separates Moss and Villeneuve from drivers like Coulthard, Fisichella and Montoya. It's pure talent. The former ones had the talent, they were easily good enough, but bad luck stopped them from being champions. The latter ones are better than average and have done well when in great cars, but they lack the last drop of skill needed.
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Agreed. Villeneuve followed sheckter in the final race of 79, and easily could have overtaken him, whenever the hell he wanted. however he obeyed team orders of whoever was ahead by end of lap 1 would stay ahead. Pironi did not which eventually resulted in His death.
 

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