Ranking the Top 10 McLaren Drivers in History

For one of the best supported teams in Formula One, the 2013 season isn't quite what McLaren would have been hoping for.

After an encouraging preseason testing, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez have found the MP4-28 a handful to drive with the team languishing sixth in the constructors' standings behind privateers Force India.

So loyal McLaren fans, whilst you patiently stand by your ailing team, here's a little something to cheer you up as I select my top 10 McLaren drivers of all time. 

Honourable Mention: Jenson Button

It hasn’t been the greatest of seasons for the ‘Froome Flyer’ but he’s not been blessed with the greatest machine McLaren has ever produced in 2013.

Still, it must not be forgotten that the 2009 world champion has performed admirably since his move to McLaren in 2010 and as Murray Walker highlights in the above clip, he has scored more points in the years he has been at McLaren than Lewis Hamilton did.

It’s an easily forgotten fact that Button finished second to Sebastian Vettel in the 2011 season and at the time of writing he has won eight races for the Woking based team.

Button is now one of F1’s elder statesmen at 33 but who knows what the future holds and he could yet rocket up this list in the years to come.

10. Bruce McLaren

Where better to start than with the founder of the team?

New Zealander Bruce McLaren joined the Cooper factory team alongside Australian legend Jack Brabham in 1959 and became the youngest ever winner of a Grand Prix when he won the US Grand Prix of the same year aged 22 years and 80 days.

He won the 1960 Argentine Grand Prix en route to being title runner-up and the Monaco Grand Prix in 1962. McLaren founded Bruce McLaren Motor Racing in 1963 and took a historic victory driving his own car at the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. 

In doing so he became only the second team owner after Jack Brabham in 1966 to win a grand prix driving a car bearing his own name and a legend was born.

9. David Coulthard

A measure of consistency, David Coulthard won 12 times for McLaren in a career spanning nine seasons for the Woking based team.

"DC" was unlucky to be racing in the era of Michael Schumacher and teammate Mika Häkkinen and despite enjoying the quickest car in the field in both 1998 and 1999, he couldn't quite put himself in a position to contend for the title.

Coulthard finished on the podium no less than 11 times in 2000 and was briefly in title contention before fading to third in the title. He was second to Schumacher in 2001 albeit a massive 58 points adrift.

Always a a tough competitor and big fan favourite, Coulthard deservedly makes the top 10.

8. Kimi Raikkonen

Following an impressive debut season for Sauber in 2001, McLaren snapped up the ice cool Finn for the 2002 season to replace countryman Mika Häkkinen.

Raikkonen won his first race for the team in Malaysia in 2003, and nine further podiums meant second in the title to Michael Schumacher. The Finn came within a whisker of the title before finishing runner-up to Fernando Alonso in 2005 with seven race wins and five podiums.

Although he never won the title with McLaren, his time with the team set him up to win the 2007 title in his first year with Ferrari and made him into the driver he is today.

7. Emerson Fittipaldi

Affectionately known as 'Emo', Emerson Fittipaldi won his second world drivers' title with McLaren in 1974.

Three race victories and four podium finishes saw Fittipaldi edge Clay Regazzoni to the title.

Two more victories and four podiums followed in 1975, but he finished second to the title to Niki Lauda before leaving the team to join his brother Wilson's Fittipaldi Automotive team.

6. Lewis Hamilton

Nobody has come as close to winning the drivers' title in their opening season as Lewis Hamilton.

A part of Ron Dennis' McLaren family from childhood, Hamilton took the title fight to teammate Fernando Alonso and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen from the outset and looked on course to achieve his goal until retirement in China and seventh in Brazil allowed Raikkonen to snatch the title by a single point.

However, despair turned to joy a year later when Hamilton sealed the title in the most dramatic of title finishes ever.

Passing Timo Glock's ailing Toyota on the final corner meant that Hamilton took fifth place and the title by just a single point from under the nose of the already celebrating Felipe Massa.

Hamilton would go on to secure 11 more wins for McLaren before leaving the team for Mercedes in 2013.

5. James Hunt

No driver before or since has played the role of the Formula One playboy as much as James Hunt.

Sex, drugs and alcohol were all a staple part of Hunt's diet even on race weekends but he was still very focused and seriously quick once the visor was down.

Hunt spent three years with McLaren from 1976-1978, but it is the 1976 season and his memorable duel with Niki Lauda for which he will forever be remembered.

Hunt's bravery in dangerously wet conditions in the final round in Japan enabled him to finish third and overturn a three point deficit to beat Lauda who fortuitously withdrew on safety grounds.

Thus, he won the title by a single point.

4. Niki Lauda

Despite Hunt's dramatic 1976 triumph, Lauda was widely acknowledged as the more complete driver, and his three world titles are testimony to the fact.

Lauda was already a double world champion when he came out of retirement for the McLaren team in 1982.

He endured two difficult seasons, winning only twice before sealing his third world title by half a point from teammate Alain Prost in 1984.

3. Mika Hakkinen

Mika Häkkinen burst onto the scene in his opening Grand Prix for McLaren in 1993 by outqualifying a dumbstruck Ayrton Senna in Portugal.

The next three seasons were studded with podiums in a difficult car but Häkkinen got it all together in 1998 by winning eight races on his way to dominating the season. 

Five more victories followed in 1999 as surprise package Eddie Irvine pushed him close to the title.

Michael Schumacher gained revenge in 2000 as Häkkinen finished second in a valiant title defence but the Flying Finn had already booked his place in McLaren folklore and he remains one of Ron Dennis' favourite sons to this day.

2. Alain Prost

Nicknamed 'The Professor' for his calculated approach and smooth driving style, Alain Prost won three world drivers' titles for McLaren and is second on the list on that basis alone.

Niki Lauda edged Prost to the title in his opening season for the team but Prost dominated in 1985 to become France's first and only world champion to date.

The following year, Prost stole the title at the final race in Adelaide after Nigel Mansell suffered a spectacular tyre blow out. However, it is for his epic battles with teammate Ayrton Senna in 1988 and 1989 that Prost's McLaren career will be remembered for.

The Frenchman lost out in 88 before eventually taking the title in controversial circumstances the following year when Senna turned into him at the chicane and was subsequently disqualified for rejoining the circuit via the slip road.

1. Ayrton Senna

No real surprise here as to who would top the list. The great Brazilian won three titles for McLaren in 1988, 1990 and 1991.

In doing so, Senna broke several world records with McLaren many of which stand to this day including most consecutive pole positions (8), most consecutive front row starts (24), most consecutive wins at the same Grand Prix (5 at Monaco) and most wins for a McLaren team at 35.