Jacques Villeneuve names 12-win driver as his best-ever F1 champion ahead of Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda

Follow us on Google Discover

There have been a multitude of F1 world champions who are worthy of being classed as the greatest of all time. Jacques Villeneuve has shared his opinion on who he thinks deserves the moniker.

Villeneuve ranked the best F1 champions in history using a bracket format, which saw some interesting choices being made, such as opting for a 32-win driver over Lewis Hamilton in the early rounds.

Names like Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, and Alain Prost all spring to mind when weighing up the prospect of who the best-ever F1 champion is.

They are all names that have won multiple world championships across different teams and eras, dominating the field as they triumphed.

However, Villeneuve has another name in mind for who he thinks is the greatest.

READ MORE: All to know about Alain Prost including Ayrton Senna rivalry and failed F1 team

Jacques Villeneuve chooses Mario Andretti as his greatest F1 champion over Fernando Alonso

In an episode of The Red Flags podcast, the 1997 world champion chose Mario Andretti over Fernando Alonso in the final round to crown the American as his best F1 champion in the history of the sport.

The pick came as a surprise, with Andretti winning a single drivers’ championship, in 1979, and registering just 12 Grand Prix wins over a 14-year career in F1.

Backing up his claim, the Canadian explained his decision, saying, “Look how long he’s raced. He was racing in the 60s. He finished racing in the late 90s.

He still went for the Indy in the 2000s and had a massive crash which is when his son told him, ‘Hey, no, you’re done.’ Too bad, it would have been three generations on the track at the same time.

“And he was still quick. He was still maddeningly quick. It’s the fact that he could win in anything.”

The American will be present again in F1 when Cadillac is introduced as the 11th team on the F1 grid in 2026. Andretti has been toying with the dilemma of who his drivers are going to be and isn’t short of candidates.

READ MORE: All to know about General Motors’ Cadillac F1 team from engine to drivers

Mario Andretti was a ‘more complete’ driver than Ayrton Senna and Niki Lauda according to Jacques Villeneuve

In one of the earlier rounds in the bracket, Andretti’s name was pitted against Ayrton Senna’s, whose legacy in F1 has become legendary following his death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

On choosing Andretti over Senna, Villeneuve said, “Andretti was more complete. He won the Indy 500, the Daytona [500]. He won anything he put his hand on. He won anything. Any kind of car, on dirt, it didn’t matter what it was.

“Senna was stuck to F1. Maybe he would have raced something else, but we will never know. There is a chance that Senna would have gone to the Indy 500 and won it. Who knows? We didn’t get to see it.”

Andretti was then matched up against Niki Lauda, another strong contender for the title of the greatest of all time, to which Villeneuve opted for the American again, stating, “Andretti has more under his belt. He’s a more complete driver. Lauda has F1. Andretti has everything.”

Andretti himself recently chose Senna over Schumacher as the driver whose approach he most admired in F1, highlighting some of the German’s dark actions on the track as the reason why.