Top 5 most INSANE F1 driving styles...

I have analysed hundreds of onboard videos and telemetry data, and these are the most insane driving styles in the history of Formula One.

5. Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher is undoubtedly one of the most successful drivers in Formula One. He had an incredibly aggressive driving style, perhaps the most aggressive in F1 history. Schumacher was extremely comfortable with an oversteery car setup, liking to have the rear end slide around.

On corner entry, he would brake hard and late into the corners, using the limit of the brakes and the rear tyres. Mid-corner, he would micro-correct the steering and modulate the pedals to keep the car on the absolute limit. On exit, he was confident onto the throttle, sliding the car out of the corners.

Most other drivers with an aggressive style didn’t have the car control or talent to push the car to its limits. Whereas Schumacher was innately talented and hard-working, allowing him to fine-tune his aggressive style so that he could push the car to its absolute limit.

4. Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso is a seasoned 2-time world champion, having driven in F1 for over 23 years. He has a unique driving style, aggressively inducing understeer into the car on entry. It is noticeable from his onboards, that he forces the front tyres going into corners, heating them up quickly. He had an extremely aggressive driving style back in his Renault era, but is now smoother, favouring the more sensitive modern day F1 cars.

On entry, he would chuck the steering into the apex, forcing the tyres above the limit of grip. Mid-corner, he keeps the steering wheel position consistent until the fronts grip. On exit, he gets aggressively onto the throttle, making use of the understeery car setup.

Alonso has an innate feel for the limit of the front tyres, and is aggressive when dealing with the car. While most other drivers like to oversteer when being aggressive, Alonso prefers to have an Aggressive Understeer driving style.

3. Jenson Button

Jenson Button had one of the smoothest driving styles in F1 history. He was incredibly sensitive to the limit of the car, being ultra-smooth with the steering wheel. Button would rarely upset the car’s  balance, loading the tyres to the limit very gradually. His style was always better on the tyres, as he would tend to drive under the limit of grip. Even when pushing the car hard, he remained calm at the wheel and drove with a smooth style.

On entry, he would brake early and turn in early, starting to rotate the car quite early in the corner. Mid-corner he was the master of keeping the steering consistent and modulating the pedals to drive the car on the limit. On exit, he was smooth onto the throttle and gradually unwound the steering wheel, being careful not to slide the tyres around. 

Button was such a refined driver, being confident with the car to the extent that he only needed to modulate the pedals to adjust the balance when needed. His smooth style was beneficial during the races, helping conserve his tyres and look after the car for more consistent performance.

2. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton is known as a late-braking driver, having crafted his driving style over many years of Formula One. He is incredibly sensitive to the limit of the car on entry, having an innate feeling for the brakes. He brakes hard, late and deep into corners, extracting the most out of the car on the braking phase. He carries lots of speed into the corner as a result, beating others to the apex.

On entry, he is aggressive on the brakes, going deep into the mid-corner. He takes a more V-shaped racing line, getting the car slowed down in the mid-corner to rotate the car and point it towards the exit. On exit, since he sets up his racing line, he can be aggressive onto the throttle as well.

Hamilton is an extremely talented driver, having the ability to feel the absolute limit of the car on the entry phase. However, his aggressive braking style does not bode well with the modern day F1 cars that like to be handled smoothly.

1. Ayrton Senna

Ayrton Senna was a highly successful F1 driver, winning 3 World Drivers Championships and even winning over a quarter of the races he entered. He had the most extreme and unique driving style that no other F1 driver has mastered to this day. The reason why his driving style was so extreme was because of what he did with the throttle pedal. He would rapidly blip the throttle, going on and off again and again, as if he was a human-like traction control system.

On entry, he was smooth when turning into the corner, despite being aggressive with the pedals. Mid-corner, even before he had the car turned, he would start to violently stab at the throttle pedal. On exit, he would continue this until he had enough traction to use full throttle.

Senna would do this to balance the car with extreme precision. His throttle blips were so fast and severe that the car would not react instantly to the spikes in power. He kept the tyres on the edge with this unorthodox technique, pointing the car with the steering wheel and controlling his rotation with the throttle. This was ultimately a successful technique, as he went on to have a successful F1 career, dominating the sport.