The Greatest of Their Time: 2000s

Welcome to the second part of our new series; The Greatest of Their Time. Here we will be looking at three drivers from the 2000s and leaving up to you to vote on who you believe is the Driver of the Decade.

We’ll start with the obvious choice. Schumacher won five consecutive world titles with Ferrari between 2000 and 2004 in a period of domination never seen before or since by a single driver. The German won 56 races in the decade, including 12 of the first 13 in 2004. Schumacher retired (for three years) at the end in 2006 after being beaten to the title by our next contender.

The Spaniard made his F1 debut aged 19 in 2001 with backmarkers Minardi but failed to score points in his first season, leading to him being without a drive in 2002. However, he returned with a bang in 2003, scoring podium finishes in three of the first five races, and later won his first F1 race in Hungary. He followed this up with a strong 2004 before winning his two world titles in 2005 and 2006. A move to McLaren didn’t work out for him in 2007, but he did win two further races in 2008 on his return to Renault.

The Flying Finn made his F1 debut in 2001 with Sauber, and his performances were good enough to see him given a seat at McLaren for the following year. He was held back by reliability problems until 2005, where he was Alonso’s closest challenger, winning seven races. His consistency paid off in 2007, now at Ferrari, when 12 podiums and three wins in the last four races saw him claim his first and only world title.

Special mentions: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Felipe Massa

So now it’s up to you, vote below for your Driver of the Decade.