Perhaps it isn't in any way surprising that Ferrari tops this list. It has started more Grands Prix than any other constructor – by more than 100. It also started racing in Formula 1 eight years before any other team on this list, and 16 years before any other team still competing with them. It's also won more races than any other, had more 1-2 finishes, more podiums, more pole positions, more fastest laps and won more points than any other team in Formula 1 history. It took Ferrari four seasons to win its first constructors title after the crown was invented in 1958.
That first title was secured in 1961 by the American-German duo of Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips, securing the title, and with it a Drivers' crown for Hill, without racing at the final race in the US . Since then Ferrari's championship victories have come in sprees. It clinched crowns through the '70s with the likes of Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve, then a couple more in the early-'80s with Villeneuve (without clinching a drivers' crown this time). But it would then be nearly two decades before Ferrari held aloft the trophy again. It took the force of nature that was the Ross Brawn-Jean Todt-Michael Schumacher trio to restore Ferrari to glory.
At which point they went ahead and won almost everything in sight, winning seven titles in the 2010s. Since then it's been another dry spell for the Prancing Horse, with the new forces of Mercedes and Red Bull coming to control the '10s. Many of these teams have won a series of titles by taking a change to Formula 1's rulebook and finding the sweet spot. Cooper on the other hand just built something no-one had seen before.
Lewis Hamilton, in full Lewis Carl Hamilton, , British race-car driver who was one of the most successful Formula One Grand Prix racing drivers of all time. He owns the F1 record for career race victories and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most drivers' championships . In 2008 he became the first Black driver to win the F1 world drivers' championship. There is a legitimate argument to be made that both Brawn and Tyrrell's single constructor crowns could be included into this legacy. But officially the Mercedes team has just the six F1 titles to its name.
There are two reasons for this, firstly Merc's first dominant period in F1 came before the invention of the world title. In the 1950s the great Juan Manuel Fangio won two titles driving Mercs, but there was no constructors crown to win then. Secondly after the 1955 Le Mans disaster Mercedes decided to quit motorsport, and the name wouldn't return to F1 as a constructor until 2010. When they did come back though, having purchased the Brawn team that used to be Honda, that used to be BAR, that used to be Tyrrell, they did it hard. A few fallow years at the start were merely marking time while the ruleset changed and hybridisation arrived. Since the debut of the V6-hybrid engines in 2014 Mercedes has only failed to win 32 races...
It has clinched the constructors title every season, and Lewis Hamilton has won five of the available drivers' crowns – with the other going to team-mate Nico Rosberg. Whether that will become a seventh consecutive crown when the 2020 season finally gets going feels like an almost forgone conclusion. At 36, he is the most accomplished Formula One driver of all time, with 98 grand prix wins, 100 pole positions and 171 podium finishes.
The only meaningful record he hasn't broken is the number of drivers' championships won, where he is tied with Michael Schumacher at seven. Put bluntly, he's the best the world has ever seen and is still at the top of his game. The racing drivers who participate in the Formula one races, also known as F1 races are called F1 drivers. F1, officially referred to as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is a single seat auto racing governed by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile . The 'formula' refers to a set of rules that must be followed by all the participants. F1 drivers participate in a series of races called the Grands Prix that are held all over the world on public roads or race circuits built specifically for this purpose.
The F1 races constitute the highest class of auto racing and the F1 cars race at speeds of up to 350 km/h. These cars are the fastest multi-turn circuit-racing cars in the world. Only the best racing drivers are able to make it to the F1 races. Drivers with several years of experience in other competitive racing events and the highest level of driving skills are the ones who ultimately get selected for F1 championships. F1 drivers also need to be risk-takers as the risk of automobile malfunction or accidents is ever present. This section provides you information about the life and works of various famous F1 drivers from all over the world.
Formula 1 Teams And Drivers 2021 Standings With a total of 8 constructors' championships, 12 drivers' championships, and 182 race wins; McLaren has seal itself into the record books of Formula 1 greats. These wins were due to some of the greatest McLaren racing car driver, such as Alain Prost, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, and Lewis Hamilton (the current 5-time world champion). Niki Lauda is the only driver to have been champion for both Ferrari and McLaren, the two most successful constructors in the sport.
Sadly Lauda is probably best known for the tragic crash that scarred his face with terrible burns to the head. Ironically the crash came in a race that Lauda personally had urged his fellow drivers to boycott due to unsafe racing conditions. He participated in the race anyways and on August 1st 1976 at the German Grand Prix on the Nurburgring, Niki swerved off the track, hit an embankment, and his car burst into flames.
Despite the life-changing crash, Niki returned to the sport to compete for several more years, and even went on to win two more championships in his career. France's Alain Prost (No. 6) won a grand total of four championships in his career, tied for the third most ever. But from 1988 to 1991, he would claim only a single title, thanks largely to the otherworldly skills of Ayrton Senna (No. 1), his one-time McLaren teammate. Senna won more than 40 percent of the races he entered during that span, peaking with one of the highest Elo ratings ever in 1989. Even Prost's lone title in those seasons — in 1989 — was more about Senna's bad luck than Prost outracing him; although Prost beat his teammate only once all year in races they both finished, Senna suffered six retirements2 to Prost's three. Senna was so dominant that Prost ended up leaving McLaren for Ferrari in 1990; the rivalry would continue off and on for the next few seasons until Prost retired after his 1993 championship.
Senna died the next year in a crash in the San Marino Grand Prix. Prost was a once-in-a-generation driving talent, but he had the misfortune to race against Senna, a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Toto Wolff is Team Principal & CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. He is the managing partner of the team alongside wider responsibilities as Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport.
After a short racing career in the Austrian Formula Ford, Torger Christian 'Toto' Wolff found a new outlet for his talent – investment. He founded his own investment company, Marchfifteen, in 1998, followed by Marchsixteen in 2004. In 2002, Toto started a new venture, co-owning a racing driver management company alongside two-time Formula One World Champion Mika Häkkinen. After purchasing a 30 per cent stake of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. in January 2013, Toto became managing partner. Later that year, he was announced Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport. He went on to assume full responsibility for the entire Mercedes-Benz motorsport program – from Formula One to DTM, sports cars and the Formula 3 engine program.
Under his leadership, the Mercedes-AMG F1 Team has clinched six consecutive Formula One Double World Championships, winning a total of 92 Grands Prix to date. Here, you will find the Formula 1 records for most championships race wins, pole positions, race entries for both teams and individuals. If you want to know more about the youngest drivers to win championships, races, points and podiums, read our article here. Ayrton Senna is regarded by many as the greatest driver in the history of F1.
He was known for his qualifying speed and aggressive driving style. He held the record for most pole positions, but was later surpassed by Schumacher in 2006 with just three more after a whopping 87 more starts. As mentioned earlier, Senna shared an intense rivalry with Alain Prost, and is probably the worst in F1 history. Since 1988 when their rivalry started, their competitions went so fierce that the two could only see each other on the track. Both would either block each other from advancing using dangerous maneuvers or intentionally crashed into each other. In 1989, he lost to Prost after a championship-deciding collision, but immediately got his revenge next year after another championship-deciding collision.
Despite all the controversies between the two, both had had mutual respect for each other. In 1994, while he was leading the race, Senna lost his life as his car left the track at high speed and hit the concrete retaining wall at around 135 mph. At the age of eight, Lewis sat in a kart for the first time and was immediately hooked. In 1997 McLaren Mercedes enrolled him in their young driver program while his Grand Prix debut on with the team came 10 years later, in 2007. The numerous records set by Lewis in his rookie season highlighted his class -including the most race wins, pole positions and points scored in a debut season. At 23 years old, he captured his first FIA Formula One World Championship - taking the accolade of the youngest ever champion.
After six successful seasons with McLaren Mercedes, Lewis joined the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 Team for the 2013 season and has since gone from strength to strength. To date, Lewis has won six further Formula One Drivers' World Championships with the works Mercedes team and continues to break records and set new standards with the world of Formula One. The Cooper works team was the first to win consecutive constructors' titles, winning its only two crowns in 1959 and 1960. On both occasions it was Australian driver Jack Brabham who claimed the drivers' championship, winning two grands prix in 1959 and five races in a row in 1960. Team-mate Bruce McLaren also collected a couple of victories in this period, as well as a handful of podium finishes. You'd be forgiven for not remembering a time when Mercedes wasn't dominating F1, such has been its grip on the sport in recent seasons.
However, it has relatively little F1 history to its name having only entered cars in 1954 and 1955 prior to its return in 2010. Juan Manuel Fangio won the drivers' title in both of those years, although he competed for Maserati for two races prior to his Mercedes switch midway through the 1954 season. But with no constructors' crowns awarded in that period, Mercedes would wait 60 years to notch up its first constructors' championship. Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Keke Rosberg, and Nelson Piquet.
All of these world-class drivers have raced for Williams Racing Team. With 114 race wins, 128 pole positions, and 7 drivers and 9 constructors' championships; Williams is without a doubt one of the most outstanding F1 teams ever to exist. Michael Schumacher, the living legend and the greatest Formula 1 driver, is the winner of 7 world championships for the year 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Other than winning maximum championships, his other records include fastest laps and maximum number of races won during a single season.
Schumacher, is the only F1 driver to have made history by finishing in the top three rank in every race of a season. Formula One official website quotes him as "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen". From 2014 to the end of 2020, the team scored 102 race wins, a winning percentage of over 70%. He attended the last race of his career in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix and finished in 14th place.
He won 91 races in total in his successful career which includes most of the major championships with the fastest laps and highest pole positions along with 72 Grand Prix victories. In subsequent seasons with McLaren, Hamilton continued to be one of the top drivers on the F1 circuit, winning two races in 2009, three in 2010, three in 2011, and four in 2012. In September 2012 Hamilton decided to leave McLaren to join the Mercedes-Benz F1 team. Brabham was set up by Jack Brabham in 1960; the year the Australian driver won his second F1 world championship title with Cooper.
Brabham's first race entry followed midway through the 1962 season, and four years later it claimed its first constructors' title with an engine built by Australian firm Repco. Meanwhile, the man who founded the company finished second in the standings. Juan-Manuel Fangio was the most dominant driver in the 50s. In his eight years of F1 career, he has won WDC five times and finished second place twice.
He is known to have the ability to win a race with any car. During his time, one could only rely on their raw driving skills when safety gear and electronic driver aids such as ABS, active suspension, and traction control were not available. Although his record for winning five championships was surpassed by Schumacher in 2003, his race winning percentage of 47% remains the highest even to this date. Without a doubt, Jim Clark is one of the most badass F1 drivers ever. He was a handsome and talented man admired by millions of fans and drivers all over the world.
With only 72 starts, he managed to achieve 25 victories and 33 pole positions. His most memorable performance is the Italian Grand Prix in 1967, where he lost a lap after a tire punctured while he was leading the race. After rejoining sixteenth, he eventually caught up and took the lead again in the last lap, but finished third after his car ran out of fuel. Like Senna, Clark's life tragically ended at the peak of his brilliant racing career. From humble surroundings in Vienna, Austria, Toto's first taste of motorsport came at the age of 17, when he watched a friend compete at the Nürburgring in Germany. As well as a short single-seater racing career in his early 20s, Toto has competed successfully in national rallying, touring cars, and world championship GT racing.
He is a class winner of the Nürburgring 24 Hours and Spa 6 Hours, and an overall winner at the Dubai 24 Hours. The team went on to win on its debut as a constructor with Jody Scheckter at the wheel in 1977 but by that point Frank Williams had left to set up a new team of his own, Williams Grand Prix Engineering. Williams went on to became one of the most successful constructors of all time with 114 race wins and seven drivers' championships to its name. In late 2020 the business was sold and although Sir Frank stepped down from the management of the team, the legendary Williams name was retained. He made a 46 years unbeaten record by winning the most World Championship of Drivers starting from 1951 and then 4 consecutive times from 1954 to 1957.
With 24 wins, 29 highest pole positions, 35 podiums, 245 career points, and 23 fastest laps, he decorated his career with the greatest possible success. Hamilton progressed to car racing, and in 2003 he captured the British Formula Renault race series championship by winning 10 of the 15 races he entered. The following year he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries championship.
He won the championship in 2005, and in 2006 he joined a team competing in GP2 —a race series designed to help drivers prepare for F1—and won the GP2 title in his one season in the series. Mercedes have won nine drivers' world titles, with Juan Manuel Fangio winning twice in 1954 and 1955, before Hamilton went on to win six titles. The team from Brackley have won all seven constructors' championships from 2014 to 2020. Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver for the team, taking 75 of Mercedes' 116 Grand Prix wins. Another team for which you could potentially claim more titles, the current Renault team is the former Lotus, which is the former Renault, Bennetton and Toleman teams.
Renault has had several cracks at F1, first back in the 1970s and '80s, then again in this title winning period in the 2000s, before returning for its current foray into Formula 1. So far only one of those forays has born championship fruit. Since then things haven't been so kind to the part-government owned Renault brand in F1. It supplied engines to Red Bull for its run of four titles in the early 2010s, but has never managed to find the same success again with its own built cars. Lotus triumphed again with Clark in 1965 and then largely thanks to the exploits of Graham Hill in 1968, who recorded three victories and three further podium finishes on his way to the drivers' title. Success for Lotus continued into 1970, although its victory was marred by the tragic death of Jochen Rindt who died at the Italian Grand Prix having won five races for the team that season.
Rindt's lead in the drivers' championship wasn't overhauled in the four grands prix after his death, making him the only driver to date to be crowned champion posthumously. In 1950, at the first Formula One World Drivers' Championship, it was Team Alfa Romeo's Nino Farina who became the first F1 champion. In the 68 years since, there have been a total of 33 F1 champions. Of course, several of which have won multiple championships, with Michael Schumacher being the most successful driver in F1 history, winning seven championships during his career.
We've met 'Black' Jack Brabham with Cooper, winning two titles in those magic little rear-engined machines. Well, when he'd done with that he went off and founded his own team. With that team he went on to win another drivers' title in 1966, with his team also taking a debut constructors crown. The following season he was joined by Denny Hulme at the wheel of the Repco-engined Brabhams. Hulme promptly won his first, and only F1 title and Brabham won their second constructors crown. Ecclestone eventually lost interest in the team and sold it on, after which Brabham dropped sharply to the back of the grid.
