Some people think Massa's made a strong claim the latest weeks or so, but I think he's a nice and friendly man, who's just trashtalking a bit. How about Nelson Piquet (Sr) or Flavio Briatore? It's close, but I'll settle for Briatore, cause he's the only one I think would rubber-stamp a race strategy in which as driver could deliberately risk hurting himself. That it was Nelson's son makes it even
better

This list could be a bit inaccurate, but as always I'll do my best

Definitely not Barrichello.

Shouldn't that be "best" badass?

Depends on how you see it

Or maybe the biggest?

Norbert Haug haha

No Andrea de Cesaris?

I was looking for James Hunt...

In the commentator booth?

Probably. Calling out a driver's excuses as "Bullsh**" on live TV is enough grounds for that.

which meaning of the word badass are you trying to get here.. ?
In slang terms "badass" is just another term for awesome, great.. ..

No, man...he said 'badass', not 'fatass'.

I watched a clip from the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix in which he said that Jean-Pierre Jarier had "a mental age of ten".

I find it surprisingly hard to pick one. Anyone else having trouble?

Dunno what that means...

By that definition, I think Eddie Irvine could be a candidate.

If badass means a no-nonsense guy who is used to call a spade a spade in no uncertain terms, then I go for Patrick Head, then Tom Walkinshaw.

That party crashing DJ dude.

There's an interview somewhere on the Evo.co.uk videos section with Andy Wallace, who raced for TWR Jaguar from 1988 (and won LM that year, of course). He basically said that Walkinshaw was a guy who scared the living daylights out of him at that time. A joke he made in that interview was that Andy thought that if he'd bin the car, he would leap over the barrier, run away, find a taxi and get as far away as possible from Le Mans, just not to meet Tom eye-to-eye.

Tom Walkinshaw for sure. That was the name that popped in my head when I saw this topic title. He was such an asshole, contracts didn't mean a thing to him. Firing Jos Verstappen a few weeks before the season start for instance.

If that's the case I got it totally wrong then. I voted for Piquet Sr as I don't like that man at all.

Also in 1990 at Le Mans, he shafted Eliseo Salazar out of what would be the winning car. I understand that team politics at the time were to get Brundle into the leading car if XJR-12 #1 hit trouble (which it did, big time), but that must have been pretty soul-destroying for Salazar. He got moved to the #4 car, and that also meant that Luis-Perez Sala never got a chance to drive during that race.

MS no doubt. Most manipulative and arrogant slimebag. Still, one of the bests ever.

The guy who told Piquet to crash. The scum of the Earth, really.

At least with Max and Bernie and Shuey their apologists can name some good they did (safety, deal brokering, and winning A LOT, respectively). What positive legacy has that scum left?

Ralf Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton are truly hilarious poll options in a 'badass' poll.

Bernie. There's not point in being a badass if it doesn't make you filthy rich.

Michael Schumacher might have been tough on track, but he's not a badass per se is he?

Not a lot of badass-iness happening with the lot offered. When I think 'badass', I think a defined character that everyone expects, and even respects, certain behaviour from. A true badass can talk down his current and past competition or employees, play dirty on track and/or in negotiations, live wild and most importantly, do it all with style while getting away with it. Er...Mosley's maybe the closest.

Briatore had a very badass in those beach pictures..

Badass in a good way - Paul Stoddart, called a spade a spade like no one else has done

In a bad way - Lewis Hamilton - stupid comments to the press, manipulating a team around him with his father, ruined every ITV broadcast by his existence, lies to the stewards to get a highly respected driver in trouble, bad sportsmanship at Hungary, cost a veteran team manager of 30 years of employment at McLaren his job

I always think of him rescuing that dog and adopting it. For me, that humanity undoes quite a lot of the unsporting side.

I want 6 votes just for whole the Todley gang and another 2 votes for Senna & Bernie and 1 for Legard

I was starting to forgive MS until his part in Todt's "election".

But Mosley's pictures were real sado ass.

Nice list of contenders, lots of worthy figures.

I voted Bernie Ecclestone. Other badasses came and gone, but he was with us for all 25 years, being at the top of the F1 hierarchy, which itself is full of badasses. This means he must be a monumental badass, simply the greatest badass of them all!

Has to be Alonso without doubt. Brake testing other drivers prior to 2007, traitor to his team in 2007 and in 2008 had a car crashed by his team so that he could win...the worst incident of cheating in sport according to pundits ...completely disregarding the life of a rookie. To make the matters worse he chose to keep the tainted trophy

Really tight between Walkinshaw, Mosley and Briatore. Drivers are another thing - Senna and Schumacher were the villains who changed the rules forever.

Bernie just does what capitalists do - make money, it's his obsession. It's not where I want the sport to be but he isn't intrinsicly "badass" IMO.

Well Lewis is out

He is such a wimp that he cannot even go for a little swim/bike/foot race without daddy saying OK

What a baby

Well Lewis is the worst liar and acts like he is mr. innocent in '07.

but when talking badass i think cool people so i say Montoya is the biggest badass.

Say what you want about Flavio but the blokes a stone cold pimp

''You broke my ****ing head''

Do you remember the other quote he said about Jarier? "the problem with Jarier is that he is a French pratt, always has been always will be"

Genius

Not forgetting Mika Salo and Pedro de le Rosa... and the court proceeding between Pedro Dinz and HHF.... of course contracts DID mean a thing to him when he prevented Damon Hill from testing Jordans in late 97 and Craig Lowndes from contesting the Adelaide Le Mans race in 2000.

+1

No Adam Parr ?

Nelson Piquet Jr

Frank Williams

Patrick Head is not up there. He is (I've been told) an absolute c##t to work for....

I am with you on that ensign14! he would be my pick too

If you only limit this to drivers, then there is a very apparent lack of any true badass in F1 in the recent history. The truly dreaded guys are all backstabbers rather than self-assured men walking with a swagger, like AJ Foyt.

Baddass? Plain old 'ass' would be more appropriate.

For those not sure, 'badass' means people DO NOT want to mess with you.

Well then it has to be Bertrand Gachot.

http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ft00094.html