The unexpected Senna honour Hamilton's set to beat

Being quick in the wet is a badge of honour for racing drivers. It is one of the key criteria when assessing the best talents behind the wheel, partly because - rightly or wrongly - wet conditions are seen as a great car leveller.

Most of Formula 1's greatest drivers shone when rain arrived, but who is the best ever? Autosport decided to look at all world championship grands prix affected by rain to see which drivers have stood out over the last 67 years.

By our reckoning, 136 world championship races have been affected by rain, around 14% of the total events held. The first was the 1951 Swiss Grand Prix, with this year's Chinese GP the most recent.

Of those 136 races, only 17 drivers have won more than twice. Those drivers therefore seem a sensible place to start our search.

Winners of wet grands prix

The 17 drivers who have won more than two wet races

Michael Schumacher tops the list with 18 rain-affected wins, though his strike rate (38.3%) is beaten by Ayrton Senna (61.9%), Alberto Ascari (57.1%), Juan Manuel Fangio (55.6%) and Lewis Hamilton (38.5%), with the caveat that the figures for Ascari and Fangio are based on a smaller sample set.

Of course, 'rain-affected' can mean anything from a race held in constantly torrential conditions through to a brief, inconsequential shower at the end.

To refine the list, we took out the races where the rain made no significant difference to the result, and split the remaining events into those that were essentially wet throughout and those where rain had a decisive impact.

For example, the 2000 European GP at the Nurburgring started dry, but the arrival of rain was key in Schumacher's defeat of McLaren rival Mika Hakkinen and so is counted in the latter category.

Taking these 'proper' wet races into account, the more-representative scores for our 17 drivers become:

Adjusted wet-weather victories

Winners of races that were fully wet or had results influenced by rain

With this criteria, only five drivers have won three or more fully wet world championship GPs: Schumacher, Senna, Hamilton, Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark.

It is worth noting that, although the challenge of a fully wet track differs slightly from adapting to one that is changing from wet to dry or dry to wet, the same drivers tend to excel.

One exception is Jenson Button, who scored all but one of his seven wet wins (of 15 career victories) in changeable conditions (column 2).

His uncanny ability to read the weather and to continue running quickly on slick tyres in the rain makes him a strong candidate for the 'Mr Intermediate' title. But his 'full wet' tally trails those of the 'big five'.

Some drivers, such as Schumacher, Senna and Stirling Moss, reached the point where they were expected to win if it rained.

"If someone feels you are good in the rain you can take advantage of that psychological effect," reckons Jacky Ickx, a man who starred in the wet in both F1 and sportscars. "I think that's what Jim Clark did from time to time."

With that in mind, it is useful to investigate how many fully wet races our rainmasters didn't win.

Wet-weather defeats

The number of times drivers were beaten in these wet races

Fangio and Ascari top this list but, again, their sample size is small. While their abilities in the wet were clearly impressive, it would probably be unfair to put them ahead of those who were tested - and won - more times in those conditions.

Looking more into the reasons for the defeats above is also illuminating. Two of Moss's 'defeats' were in vastly inferior cars - in the case of the 1951 Swiss GP he was even in a Formula 2 HWM against F1 machinery. In the other, the 1961 British GP, he was challenging the dominant Ferraris in the wet before falling back as the track dried and then retiring with brake problems.

"If someone feels you are good in the rain you can take psychological advantage" Jacky Ickx

But, as in the cases of Ascari and Fangio, there aren't enough races to go on here, though Moss won plenty of wet races outside of the world championship.

Senna's four defeats were: the controversial second in the shortened 1984 Monaco GP; an engine failure while leading the 1989 Canadian GP; crashes from the 1989 Australian and 1992 Spanish GPs.

Hamilton's were: seventh at the 2008 Italian GP in which he started 15th but had a chance of victory on a different strategy to winner Sebastian Vettel; sixth in his troubled '09 Chinese GP outing; a fortunate second in Korea in 2010 following Vettel's late failure; retirement thanks to a clash with eventual winner Button in Canada in '11.

Clark was never in contention at the 1961 British GP, charged well to fourth after forgetting to turn his fuel pumps on at the '62 German GP, had a significant car disadvantage at the '66 German GP, and was leading the '67 Canadian GP when his Lotus 49 let him down.

Of the other top scorers from our previous list, Stewart and Schumacher both suffered six defeats (the two losses from Schumacher's second career are discounted on the basis that it was after his serious motorbike accident and he was never the same after his return, though in both Korea in 2010 and Canada in '11 he was more competitive - finishing fourth - than he normally was in the dry during that period).

Stewart rates his second place to Clark at the 1965 Belgian GP - in only his third world championship start - as one of his great drives; like Clark, he was outgunned at the Nurburgring in '66; he had to drive the difficult BRM H16 at Canada in '67; and was on inferior rubber at the '68 French, 1971 Dutch and '72 Monaco GPs.

Schumacher's defeats were: second at the 1992 Spanish GP; spinning off at Donington Park in '93; a tense fight with Damon Hill at the '94 Japanese GP; collisions or crashes at the '98 Belgian GP (while leading), 2003 Brazilian GP and the '05 Belgian GP.

Looking at the drivers in this way gives Senna the edge over Clark, Hamilton and Schumacher.

Of those four, only Schumacher and Senna competed against each other in full-wet races in their primes, doing so on two occasions. Schumacher finished an impressive second at Barcelona in 1992 on a day Senna crashed out, but the German went off during the 1993 European GP, a race widely regarded as one of Senna's greatest victories.

Any one of Clark, Stewart, Senna, Schumacher or Hamilton would be worthy of winning this contest. Each was the benchmark of their eras and each put in wet-weather drives that are among the most famous and brilliant in F1 history.

But for his incredible strike rate - only two (arguably three) genuine defeats from nine fully-wet races - along with the second-highest number of other rain-affected wins, Senna edges it.

"I want to be able to do things similar to Ayrton" Lewis Hamilton

There is, however, one caveat. Hamilton is close enough to overtake his hero before the end of his career.

He is already only one behind Senna in terms of full-wet race wins and, although his strike rate is worse, his recent run is the most remarkable of any in F1 history. Hamilton has won the last seven wet or damp GPs, including his superb victory in Brazil at the end of 2016.

If he continues at that rate, he could yet take number one spot - depending on how soon the next driver likely to join this debate, Max Verstappen, reaches his peak.

Given how much Senna has inspired Hamilton, that seems appropriate.

"Ayrton's ability in the rain is something I've aspired to since I've been racing," said Hamilton recently. "I've always tried to utilise the opportunity to shine, and that's what he was able to do.

"I want to be able to do things similar to him. My wet record in Formula 1 is pretty good, so I take great pride in that, knowing Ayrton was like that too."

For more on the wet-weather greats, including the top 10 best F1 drives in the rain, take a look at this week's (August 17) issue of Autosport magazine