Alain Prost
Jackie Stewart
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Alain Prost leads 4 of 5 categories. Our all-time ranking places Alain Prost at #6 and Jackie Stewart at #8.
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The case for Alain Prost
The Professor's four titles — 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993 — and 51 wins were built on an approach decades ahead of its time: manage the tyres, the fuel, the gearbox and the risk, be fastest only when it pays, and collect points with machine regularity, which is how he retired as the all-time leader in both wins and points. His teammate ledger is the strongest of his generation: he beat Lauda on points as a young driver in 1984 (losing the title by half a point), matched Senna at McLaren in 1988-89 and took the 1989 crown, and won 1986 in a McLaren that was slower than the Williams-Hondas, sealing it in the three-way Adelaide finale after Mansell's tyre exploded. In the turbo era's fuel-limited races, his economy of effort was a weapon nobody could copy. He is remembered as Senna's foil; the record says he was his equal, with a fraction of the drama.
The case for Jackie Stewart
Three titles — 1969, 1971, 1973 — and 27 wins from only 99 starts, a 27 percent win rate compiled in the deadliest years the sport has known. Stewart's defining drive is the 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring: in fog and rain, with a broken wrist in a cast, he won by more than four minutes. What elevates him beyond the numbers is that he transformed the sport twice over — as its best driver and as its conscience. After being trapped in his crashed BRM at Spa in 1966, soaked in fuel, he waged a relentless and deeply unpopular safety campaign: circuit barriers, seat belts, full-face helmets, medical facilities, boycotts of lethal tracks. Much of the safety architecture that later saved lives traces to him. He retired at the end of 1973, at his peak, after his teammate Francois Cevert was killed in qualifying at Watkins Glen — walking away as reigning champion.