Photography by Federico Bajetti, Andrew Schneider, and courtesy of Ferrari North America
For me there is one answer: Formula One. I grew up watching NASCAR and, once a year (Memorial Day), Cart or IRL or whatever open-wheel racing is called in the US this week. And so when I first encountered Formula One I was blown away–”you mean cars can turn right too?!” It was an epiphany to say the least.
But I didn’t seriously start watching F1 until I was in my mid-twenties and by then Michael Schumacher was dominating the Euro-centric sport. Fortunately, I was already a tifoso and so Schumacher’s success meshed quite well with my street-car inclinations. And now I’m equally excited by consecutive four-time Weltmeister Sebastian Vettel’s arrival at the Scuderia.
One of the nicer aspects of the internet is more readily accessible motorsports. It seems hardly a week passes without Ken Block gyrating some car around a series of stationary objects in the middle of some very busy city (Los Angeles, last time). And apparently, he honed some of his skills driving, get this, some type of race car off-road! Apparently, rallying as it’s known was invented by Finns to escape violent charging moose and involves a move called the ‘flick’ (the moose just can’t change direction as fast a car with the hand-brake pulled up suddenly. On the car, not the moose).
Now, obviously I’m joking but growing up, rallying’s status approached rumor because there was no actual proof (in the US) that it existed. But I don’t think there is one absolute right answer. I believe that the quality of driving and drivers is constantly shifting. So we’d like to know:
Which motorsport (and in what era) offers (or offered) the best drivers?
