17 replies to this topic

[b3nster]

Ever or contemporary, who are the real gentlemen of the sport, and who are the Ty Cobbs? Meanest bastard to sit in a Grand Prix car? I want your opinions/stories!

[mhferrari]

I don't know any of the drivers personally.

[Chris Moellering]

I've only been following F1 this year, so my history is short. From what I've read, I would nominat Mika as being the best gentleman sportsman. Always congrats MS when he wins, never any big crap after the race that I have seen.

For the biggest jerk? Irvine. His jealousy of MS is uncontained.

That'd be my 2 cents worth.

[AD]

JV seems to carry a chip on his shoulder when it comes to MS. But I'd say all the drivers are dead on if you get to know them.

[Dudley]

Nicest from all accounts has to be Johnny Herbert. I've never heard a bad story about him and he was always willing to talk to anyone on the grid. He'll be missed.

Button is a friendly guy by all accounts too, as are Eddie Irvine and Mika to all who know them and Mika certinally livens up press conferences.

I don't think we really have any particually "nasty" drivers now, although Ralf is said to be noticeably more distant with his team and other F1 people than his brother.

[CA]

As far as nice guys go, I've only met one F1 driver (and a WDC to boot), so the award goes to Denny Hulme, who was overly nice to me for no reason,

And the meanest, probably Ron Dennis, but I think he likes it that way.

[RedFever]

it depends. In the cockpit they are all ferocious (how would you arrive in F1 otherwise???).

Outside, MikaH, Herbert, Fisichella, HHF, Trulli, Alesi, Barichello (very, very nice), DC when not talking about Schumacher, all come across as nice guys. Personally, when I met Schumi and JV I thought they were very nice too, but they also have bery strong personalities, so at times they're not easy.

[John B]

Piquet tends to be, shall we say, less than tactful at times: "(Mansell) is a blockhead with a stupid and ugly wife," etc.

i remember Jacques Laffite had a good reputation, also Patrese.

[Hooster]

Mika is very nice.

[Sean L]

I've heard rumours (AZ) that Ralf is not the easiest to get along with.

[Frans MSH]

Nicest guy in F1 : probably Mika Hakkinen. .... .


Meanest guy in F1 : Sjoemelmacher! Not hard at all to guess! dUh!!

[Bex37]

Nastiest guy in F1????? FransMSH

[arcwulf7]

If its true that Ralf has well disguised nasty streak in him, JPM nasty retorts are not disguised at all. Yup the knives will be flashing in the Williams garage next year. Looking forward to it. Nastiest guy in f1 for 2000?, well if nasty is stubbornness in giving up positions then i'd have to hand it to MS. Nicest guy, well MH is a nice guy, AND it's not always true that nice guys finish second.;)

[hannu]

For me the nicest guy is Häkkinen and second is HHF.
Both shumacher are arrogant. Irvine is also idiot.
I think senna had a complex: "I`m the number one and I`m allowed to anything to prove that"

[BuzzingHornet]

Nicest guy in F1 is Barrichello I reckon.

Nastiest... choice between JV (in terms of chucking his weight around at BAR at his teammates expense), MS (although he has changed a lot since his crash), Hakkinen (for screwing Coulthards year up with a little help from Uncle Ron ;) ) or Irvine (for just being a t***)

hmmm... JV. Jacques swung the lead at BAR and got Zonta booted out, and replaced by a man who whilst he has done well at McLaren, has a reputation for being a 'warm-up king '(Brundle), and who melts against a serious teammate. Seems that JV is taking leaves out of MS's book...;) Also, JV is the most annoyingly political driver in F1. I still thnk he's brilliant, but he's a baddie not a goodie.[p][Edited by BuzzingHornet on 10-26-2000]

[John B]

add Thierry Boutsen to the 'good guy' list

[tim]

One of the nicest guys I've seen in F1 is Alex Zanardi. A really lovely bloke, shame it didn't work out for him.

Hakkinen, Barrichello, Frentzen, Button and Wurz are all really nice too, especially Hakkinen. Michael Schumacher's reasonably nice some of the time and Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert are both nice ex-F1 drivers. From a non-driver view, I like Patrick Head, Frank Williams (yes, really - he's very funny and likeable) and even Bernie Ecclestone, who was on ITV's F1 shows recently and was very funny.

Meanest? Max Mosley, who I can't stand at all. Coulthard has an attitude problem and Ralf (who I rate highly as a driver) is a bit of a tosser too.

[614david]

I don't know any of them personally, ndeother have I met any of them, so i'm working purely on impressions from afar here:)

Mika Hakkinen- seems to be about the nicest guy on the grid.
Jacques Villeneuve- always seems game for a laugh or a bit of a joke, people shouldn't wind him up if they don't want to hear negative things about MS:(
Michael Schumacher- very chatty, especially when the language is German:)
Giancarlo Fissichella- from what i can decifer, he's pretty cool.

Not so friendly-

Ralf Schumacher, always appears to be scowling unless his brother is near by.

That's my thoughts:)