The most overrated and underrated F1 drivers

First of all, to call a driver overrated or underrated isn’t necessarily to question that person’s abilities behind the wheel. Rather, it’s a reflection of the way that driver has been perceived by fans and/or the media. Since its inaugural season in 1950, Formula One has produced some of the top drivers on the planet. Regardless of how they’ve been valued (in some cases too highly, and in other cases not highly enough), there’s no denying that the following 20 drivers are some of the most elite the sport has ever seen.Here are the most overrated and underrated F1 drivers of all time.

Overrated: Nigel Mansell

Depending on whom you ask, Nigel Mansell can either be considered overrated or underrated. Skilled as he was, a great deal of his success can be attributed to the sensational Williams cars he drove during his heyday. On an even playing field, he was no match for Alain Prost, Elio de Angelis, and Nelson Piquet, who described his 1987 championship victory over Mansell as “a win of intelligence over stupidity.”

Underrated: Jenson Button

The “Jenson Button is underrated” narrative is almost cliché at this point, but it still bears repeating. As PlanetF1 notes, the 2009 World Champion “managed to outscore [Lewis] Hamilton over the course of their three seasons together as team-mates,” and is one of only two teammates (the other being Nico Rosberg) to best Hamilton over an entire season. So while he may not have quite as many career accolades, there’s no denying that he’s among the very elite.

Overrated: Stefan Bellof

Stefan Bellof is rightly regarded as a racing legend, cited as the inspiration for such legends of the sport as Michael Schumacher, but to call him one of the all-time Formula One greats is a stretch, since most of his success came outside of F1, such as winning the Drivers' Championship in the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship. Sadly, Bellof died in a crash at just 27, before he could show what he was truly capable of.

Underrated: Nick Heidfeld

In many ways Nick Heidfeld was a victim of circumstance. He had the misfortune of being stuck in the midfield for the prime years of his career during the dominant reign of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari and therefore failed to win a race in F1. Nevertheless, he managed to defeat drivers such as Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa, Jacques Villeneuve, Robert Kubica, and Vitaly Petrov.

Overrated: Eddie Irvine

The former Ferrari driver made headlines in 2019 for calling Sebastian Vettel an overrated “one-trick pony.” The irony is that Irvine himself may be considered overrated. The product of Northern Ireland sure liked to talk a big game, but his confidence never quite matched his performance on the track. Case in point: his failure to win the 1999 Drivers’ Championship in the absence of Michael Schumacher.

Underrated: Jacques Laffite

WTF1 called Jacques Laffite one of the “best-of-the-rest” drivers of the late 1970s and early ’80s, often overshadowed by the big-name title contenders of the era, such as Mario Andretti, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, and Jody Scheckter. The French driver did, however, have a shot at the World Championship in 1981, finishing fourth in the standings behind Nelson Piquet, Carlos Reutemann, and Alan Jones.

Overrated: David Coulthard

While acknowledging that he was “fast from the offset” and therefore often out-qualified and even out-raced his teammates, AtlasF1’s Mark Andrews says that David Coulthard “just never seemed brutal enough.” Despite his impressive driving skills, the British driver, who spent the bulk of his lengthy career with McLaren, was never able to achieve greatness in Formula One because he failed to “appreciate how cut-throat” it could be.

Underrated: Damon Hill

The British racer was somewhat underappreciated during his career due to the lofty legacy left by his father, two-time World Champion Graham Hill. The younger Hill, however, was a champion in his own right, with 22 career wins, 42 podiums, and one World Championship (1996). Hill and Nico Rosberg are the only sons of former champions to have also won the title.

Overrated: Michael Andretti

As the son of racing legend Mario Andretti, Michael had some big shoes to fill. And to say the least, he didn’t quite deliver during his brief stint in F1. Andretti earned a spot with McLaren in 1993 but left the team at the end of the year with little success. Unfamiliar with the new tracks, and with a new rule in place that limited the number of test laps drivers were allowed, many of his first races ended in crashes.

Underrated: Nico Rosberg

Like Damon Hill before him, Nico Rosberg is the son of an F1 legend whose talents in the sport have often gone underappreciated. Beyond just living up to his father’s legacy, however, he has had to race in the shadows of Lewis Hamilton, compared to whom anyone’s accomplishments would pale. Nevertheless, Rosberg deserves plenty of recognition for his 23 wins and 2016 World Championship.

Overrated: Robert Kubica

Robert Kubica deserves all the credit in the world for mounting a miraculous comeback following his devastating accident at the Ronde di Andora rally in 2011. But it’s possible that his comeback narrative has led some fans to overvalue the driver, wanting to believe that he was living up to his potential before the crash. After eight years, Kubica returned to F1 in 2019, which in itself should be lauded, but it was anything but the “fairy-tale return” that he or his fans had hoped for.

Underrated: Kamui Kobayashi

It’s not a question of whether or not the Japanese driver was undervalued, but rather just how undervalued he was. His time in F1 may have been short-lived, lasting from 2009 to 2012 with another brief stint in 2014, but during that time he established himself as one of the fastest drivers on the track, with an aggressive overtaking style that allowed him to out-qualify Sauber teammates Pedro de la Rosa and Nick Heidfeld. Kobayashi currently races in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Overrated: Juan Pablo Montoya

JPM was consistently one of the fastest guys on the track during his time in F1. But as any racing fan knows, there’s more to the sport than pure speed. The biggest thing holding Montoya back from greatness was himself. The notoriously hotheaded Colombian driver often let his temper get the best of him, like at the 2003 U.S. Grand Prix, where he was penalized for clipping Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello, costing him a chance at the F1 world championship.

Overrated: Fernando Alonso

The 1979 champion Jody Scheckter took issue with Fernando Alonso being labelled a “legend” and “F1 great” by McLaren boss Zak Brown, arguing that the Spanish driver is overrated. Furthermore, Scheckter claimed that Alonso doesn’t behave like a champion, telling BBC Radio 5live, “One of his problems is he seems to upset teams and everybody around him. That’s not the way to win world championships.”

Underrated: Felipe Massa

The Brazilian driver came up just short of winning the Drivers’ World Championship in 2008, finishing second to Lewis Hamilton after a spirited title battle. A devastating injury at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, which required him to be airlifted to the hospital, changed the course of his career, going from a great driver to a largely overlooked one. Massa retired in 2017 with 269 Grand Prix starts under his belt (currently 11th-most all time), turning in a stellar career that nevertheless left many wondering what could have been.

Overrated: Lewis Hamilton

Calling a driver overrated doesn’t mean you think they’re not an excellent driver. Considering the seven championship titles to his name (tied for the most all time with Michael Schumacher), no one in their right mind would make that claim about Lewis Hamilton. But the media often talks about the British driver as if he’s in a league of his own, while everyone else in the field is laps behind him, so to speak. The truth is, a great deal of Hamilton’s unprecedented success comes down to driving hands-down the best vehicle on the track.

Underrated: Alain Prost

If you ask Prost himself, he’ll tell you that he’s one of the most underrated drivers in F1 history. A four-time Formula One Drivers’ Champion and 51-time winner (a Grand Prix record he held until Michael Schumacher broke it in 2001), the Frenchman is undoubtedly one of the most decorated drivers to hit the track. So then why is he often left out of discussions of the all-time greats? It may have had something to do with his calculated, and some might say cautious, approach to racing, earning the nickname “The Professor” by avoiding risks and saving his brakes and tires for later on in races.

Overrated: Ayrton Senna

Can we acknowledge that Ayrton Senna is one of the greatest drivers the sport has ever seen, while also accepting that his legacy has been somewhat inflated over time? Following his death due to a crash at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the Brazilian driver has been elevated to the status of racing god, put on an untouchable pedestal high above any other driver. As great as he was—and he was certainly great, capturing three championships in a brief time—he’s not the undisputed F1 GOAT, as many like to claim.

Underrated: Elio de Angelis

Underrated might not be the best word to describe the Rome-born racing driver, since we’ll never know the full extent of his talents on the track. Forgotten, or unfulfilled, may be more accurate. De Angelis tragically passed away at just 28 years old during a testing crash at the Paul Ricard circuit in May 1986. Regarded as Formula One’s “last gentleman player,” the Italian was quiet, humble, and highly popular among his peers, and considered one of the sport’s rising stars.