planetf1.com

Very, very few I think.

By all accounts fangio was a humble man and I've never heard a bad word about him. Out of the car... senna, at least as he comes over in the recent doc film when it comes to putting f1 into a broader context in life.

Hill comes across we'll in that respect too, although I'd have to correct the poster above about the arrows move - it was about money. I seem to recall a figure of ca £5m, but can't be sure. Williams paid him buttons, esp given he was a wdc and deserved another in 94 after the superb manner he led Williams out of the darkness.

Of the current crop.... None.

Seeing as we don't know them, all we can do is go by how they come across in and are portrayed in the media, and various accounts of those that knew them. Even then we cannot be sure. The course of history seems to have put most WDCs from the past in rather a good light, but you'd assume that there was basically the same proportion of arrogance back then, and that it has merely been lost through the sands of time. Rose tinted glasses and all that.

Having said that, back pre 80's, the ever present specter of death (no not Phil) hanging over their heads probably lent itself to a fair slice of humility.

Being pedantic, the only person we can say for certain wasn't arrogant after winning his title was Rindt, but for rather obvious, and rather unwelcome reasons, he can't really count, seeing as the OP was after post-title winning humbleness.

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"you can never be too paranoid"

Since i have been watching at the start of the 80's...

Most to least humble:

Lauda
Hill
Rosberg
Button
Hakkinen
Raikkonen
Jones
Prost
Mansell
Senna
Schumacher
Hamilton
Piquet
Alonso
Vettel
Villeneuve

I'd say the cut off point in that list is Jones/Prost. Jones and above have dignity, Prost and below have arrogance... Although Jones & Prost being in the middle have a bit of both.

Apart from Button and Kimi, the recent winners have been pretty 'i deserve everything i get' generally.

I don't think believing you deserve to succeed if you've worked hard (they have ALL worked hard) is a mark against humility, just a sign of having faith and confidence in yourself, but thats just meeeee.

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Can't agree in the slightest about how you rank Vettel. On-track he can be a bad loser (but that counts for a lot of drivers on your list), but surely off-track behaviour counts too here, right?
Just about everybody who knows him is saying how down to earth he really is and how he's such a nice guy. Him being good friends with Kimi is also telling, I think.

Good post. Of course we don't know the drivers as fans even when we met them a few times, but from my experiences, from the current drivers the most humble are Hamilton and Vettel. I'm not a big fan of Vettel but he is not arrogant when he interacts with fans, and is still quite humble regarding all his achievements. Neither is Hamilton, he comes across as a quite shy person, a bit insecure, but absolutely genuine nice & humble.
Kimi does not care( about fans), Schumacher has no time ( he came across relatively arrogant), Button is not as nice , when his PR duties are done, and the cameras are off, as when he is on PR mode.
But this are only impressions from a fans point of view who can have only random impressions of them

+forgot Alonso, since he is at Ferrari, he got more "open", and is not as arrogant as I thought , he is a special character keeps his emotions quite hidden

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"Everything you can imagine is real." Pablo Picasso

Had kimi acts like Lewis earlier when he step into the sport, he wouldn;t be so underrated now.

I had heard some nonsense on kimi not able to setup the car earlier (in which the engineers bunch claim his sensitivity is 2nd to none) to he cant overtake ( mostly from those who start watching the sport on 2007)

Had kimi overhype himself in 2003 when he chases michael to title fight to the end ended up with 2 points behind him despite driving an 2002 chassis while others on much improved 2003 chassis, he would 've enjoy the same hype as alonso get this year. But instead, he kept quiet and got bashed heavily in 2003 claim that he does not deserve the title if he won it, because the guy with most wins deserve it most. Amazing how media can overturn it nowadays with similar feet on Alonso.

He nvr blame the team for the worst realibility he had experienced, receiving blame on the team 's behalf that claime he was the 1 who wreck the car. Sympathy is an insult to kimi, unlike Lewis that enjoy every single bit of it. In his ferrari stint, he nvr dominate the resources of the team although he could do that. But he is fine with everything as long as its FAIR. Even when during 2008, the new car's development cost kimi badly, he nvr once raise his voice and doubt the team 's preference over driver status (something alonso will do certainly), taking all the blame from public for being unmotivated. In 2009, when the team switch focus back to Kimi in a car that halted development after massa 's crash, he went on with podium streak and 1 win. He can come out with statement like, "had you guys focus on me earlier, these results are small matters", but he gave credit to the team and the car, leaving himself on the shade.

If kimi isnt the most humble driver, nobody deserve it. You can say he just doesnt care, and slam it as 1 of the arrogance act, but really?? since when you don't give a crap about fame make you an arrogant personality??


The whole life of this guy should be recorded down and make a movie in future, a total unique individual who really despise fame, hypes and only enjoy racing.

The ones are which most humble tend to be the people who suffer great tragedy in their lives and see life for what it is. Humble is a hard word to really prove as people tend to have moments of humility and then incredible highs and confidence which can be seen as arrogance when its actually just a positive moment at that point in time.

I'd prefer a thread to see which drivers give the most to charity/helping people/animals/environment, be it monetary contributions, Time, hard work. Then you wont just see a great champion but a great person and that is what I respect more.

Ayrton Senna then?

Think it was $10 mill x 40 though

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‘Ayrton had taken pole and now Alain said to me: “where the f*** did he find that time? How the hell can he be that quick?” In the corner, Senna…he looked up and winked at me. Ayrton had a look in his eye that said, “I’ve done it.”
Jo Ramírez

Not sure about you guys, but I sometimes lose respect for drivers that crash into people intentionally, give the 'finger' to other drivers, doesn't apologize to a certain driver that he crashed with even though he asked him nicely, ask his teammate to move over immediately, etc2. But they're all humans at the end of the day it just means they sometimes make mistake. But I can't help but thinking this way because the humble people do not do any of this..

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Latest F1 vid I made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C4qJXyRLDg&feature=youtu.be

They all come across as rather cocky really, but they function in an ultra-competitive environment, it's part of the skill set.
Some are just better at PR.
That said, the last couple of years Button has seemed pretty humble.

I don't know any of the drivers apart from Mansell (He hangs out with my Dad a lot as he is an RAC steward) so i can't rate any of my opinions on 'what other people say about him off track'. I obviously rate everything by what i see of these people on screen, and the persona they display to the world. Vettel comes across as one of the most 'i'm brilliant, look at me!' drivers in the last 20 years. Perhaps he IS different at home, but i don't know him...

Barrichello was a lovely chap when i met him too, but he wasn't a WDC.

I'm not talking at home per sé. Interviews, behaviour out of the car, etc. I don't think he behaves badly there - with one notable exception this year and that was the Karthikeyan incident.

Really? This (at 2:32) doesn't seem like a humble moment - Pretending to not even recognize his colleague and fellow WDC.

Mika Hakkinen has to be the most humble WDC I've come across. Kimi isn't humble, just doesn't show it.

And ofcourse he absolutely meant what he said, he wasn't joking whatsoever.

Didnt Hill have a few fall outs with Frank Williams, and Money was the driving force to Arrows.
Jenson, is arrogant, you just have to listen to them talking and making statements before the podium procession in the past couple years. He does talk nice to the media, but to me its all pretending.
For me it must be Lewis (After 2008)
Kimi definately, i guess he may become arrogant if you mess with his ice cream or vodka.
Alonso, since he moved to Ferrari has been pretty humble, we should not confuse his leadership and influence in Ferrai as Arrogant
Vettel needs to grow up a bit. He more innocent/naive/ than humble at the moment

I can't say if Kimi is humble, he just doesn't care much about anything to be arrogant about it. There's no drama with him. That's part of his charm I guess.

Mika seems like a very respectable man.

Contrary to what many people think, Vettel seems to me like a very humble guy. He's not extravagant, he doesn't parade around with a supermodel/superstar girlfriend. When people try to talk to him about his success, he gets embarassed and start talking about other people's success instead. He tries to keep his private life as normal as possible and away from the spotlight. Sure, some of his actions are taken negatively by those against him. His confidence is mistaken as arrogance and his frustrations as immaturity. F1 drivers are still human so why expect them to be perfect?

Oops. Someone just got trolled by Jenson. )

Im really not trying to pick a fight by asking this, I truly want to understand - how? What statements or incidents make you think that?

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Haven't actually read up a lot on Senna (you think you did, but then there's always someone with more to tell), but it is the Senna foundation you're talking about i guess... Also, i gave a hint... Would you please give me some good links to go through? I saw the documentary, it did cover a bit about what all Senna did for Brazil, and his fellow countrymen.

Well, i was speaking about Michael Schumacher... apparently there was a tsunami in SE Asia, and he donated $10 Million, and that is but just one instance that became public. Er, this was made public by one of his friends who was tired of reading in press how bad/ inconsiderate he is etc.

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My Top 5 drivers of all times:
1) Prost/ Schumacher
3) Fangio
4) Lauda
5) Brabham

if you don't like it, too bad! There's a reason why it says "My Top 5"

Have read that Michael has contributed more money to charitable causes than any other athlete, and yes, he does it with very little pomp and circumstance.

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The finger, the reactions to what happens in the car (e.g. backmarkers, crashing into Webber etc), i don't think he's ever said anything was his fault, generally when i've seen him on tv, he seems to act as if he's the best thing since sliced bread. I will qualify this that i don't tend to watch most inane interviews after the race with reporters fawning to the drivers, just how the drivers act while the races are on, i'm here for the sport, not the personalities.

Maybe i'm biased and i just find him more annoying than arrogant?

Who cares for humble?

Roger Federer, for example, can be very humble at times, but he's not afraid to beat his own drum a little. Given how talented he is, anything else would simply be dishonest. Michael Schumacher is a bit like this as well.

Yeah, I thought that was amazing. Obviously he's got 10 million to give, but still.

Ahh, now I understand. You can't really tell what a driver is thinking or feeling just by watching him in the car, so I prefer to form my opinions of their character and personality based on more than that.

I said I didn't want to pick a fight, and I still don't, but he does own up to his mistakes quite regularly

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Totally agree, especially on the bold part.

As we get near to the present we know far more about drivers than we would have previously.
There is much about earlier drivers we know nothing of, and it is easy for people with their own agenda to 'let' us see thing now.

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I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

Marx (Groucho)

Thank you, my apologies. I guess your avatar through me off.

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

sadly I am not reincarnated Jochen Rindt

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He may have 10 million to give , but who among us have donated over 10% of our yearly earnings to a help those from a single tragedy. I wish I could say that I have, but I can't. I felt that his generosity was amazing and am glad somebody leaked it so he could be seen in a different light than what so many of the media and forum were portraying him to be.

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Forza Ferrari
WCCs = 16
WDCs = 15

If I had the sort of money in the bank to not miss 10% of my annual wage is have no problem giving it to the needy but sadly I'll never have the sort of money in the bank where what I earn just piles on the top

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Multi 21 or Catch 22?!

It ain't hating just 'cause it's not love

To a certain extent I think Schumi is humble off-track. He's done quite a bit of charitable work and never really gloated about it. I only found out a couple of days ago that he made sure that the wife of the marshall killed in Monza 2000 had enough money for the rest of her life. I think Button's quite a down to earth character.

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I read this and i immediately thought of Spa this year... really if you think that posting telemetry to prove that he is fast is humble, then i have little to say

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My Top 5 drivers of all times:
1) Prost/ Schumacher
3) Fangio
4) Lauda
5) Brabham

if you don't like it, too bad! There's a reason why it says "My Top 5"

I don't know about humble are any of them really humble ? but I don't think there's another driver on the grid who praises his team so much as Hamilton, even when things go bad he thanks the team continually in the post race interviews, but having read your history of posts concerning anything Lewis Hamilton I myself have very little to say.

I'm sorry, but if you think that it was a mark of a gentleman to leak somewhat privileged information for the world to see... well i'm lost for words. Why would one ever do that, if not to console themselves?

About my posts... i think they're fair enough. Do i take a dig at Lewis? Well, sometimes his devotees here on the forum need to be reminded that he's a mere mortal after all. It is unfortunate... but someone has to do that.

Edit: Yes, yes... i fully realize that i'm made from flesh (and lots of it at 210 pounds) and have my foibles.

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My Top 5 drivers of all times:
1) Prost/ Schumacher
3) Fangio
4) Lauda
5) Brabham

if you don't like it, too bad! There's a reason why it says "My Top 5"

nobody mentioned Jim Clark? I mean I'm much too young to remember him race , but I just watched a documentary about him on youtube and he sounded like a humble guy.

Yes, you can tell he was being deadly serious there.

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Jenson Button
Kimi Raikkonen
Romain Grosjean
Nico Hulkenburg

I have to say, I do.

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We want heroes, but there are few, mainly it's cars - Pedro De La Rosa