The European Grand Prix in Valencia provided the first win for Rubens Barrichello after Hamilton lost the lead with an error in the pits; he finished second while both Red Bulls failed to score. At the Belgian Grand Prix Giancarlo Fisichella gained Force India's first pole position, and his second-place finish behind Kimi Räikkönen gave their first points. Button's title charge was undermined by poor qualifying and a crash, involving him, Hamilton, Alguersuari and Grosjean, ending their races. Following the race Badoer, who had qualified and finished last in both races, was replaced with Giancarlo Fisichella after his performance at the Belgian race. Brawn returned to form in Italy, with Barrichello leading home the team's fourth 1–2 of the season. Lewis Hamilton crashed on the penultimate lap, but came back by winning the next race at Singapore.
Toyota teammate Glock was injured during qualifying, and a cracked vertebra meant he was replaced by reserve Kamui Kobayashi for the final two races. Dry conditions at Bahrain saw the Toyota team gain the front of the grid, but Button managed to fight up from a fourth-place start, and overtook race leader Timo Glock on his first pit stop. Hamilton and Räikkönen, in fourth and sixth respectively, gave their 2008 championship winning teams the best finishes of a disappointing season start. The Spanish Grand Prix was a battle between the Brawn teammates, with Barrichello getting ahead of polesitter Button while a first lap incident forced the retirement of four drivers. Button followed a different pit-stop strategy and passed Barrichello during his stop, leading Brawn's second one-two of the season. Red Bull was the closest team to Brawn finishing third and fourth, while Felipe Massa's fuel shortage lost him places as he slowed to finish the race.
Button won in dominant fashion at Monaco, leading the majority of the race from pole position ahead of his teammate Barrichello and Räikkönen, who scored Ferrari's first podium in 2009. At the Turkish Grand Prix Vettel started on pole but lost the position to Button on the first lap. Button went on to win, followed by Webber and a closely pursuing Vettel. Barrichello's car developed a gearbox problem, and incidents with Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil resulted in Brawn's first retirement of the season. By winning six out of the first seven races, Button had opened up a 26-point lead on his teammate, with Vettel a further six points behind.
Vettel followed his surprising 2010 title by dominating the 2011 F1 season. He clinched his second drivers' championship two months before the end of the season. Although less commanding in 2012, he nevertheless won five races to capture his third consecutive drivers' championship. Vettel's performance enabled Red Bull to win its second manufacturers' title in 2011 and its third in 2012. In 2013 he again ran roughshod over the F1 field, winning 10 of the first 16 series races to clinch his fourth consecutive title with a month remaining in the season.
That year he also became the first driver in F1 history to win eight consecutive races in a season, a record he extended to nine straight wins by the end of the year. Vettel's streak of drivers' championships ended with a fifth-place finish in 2014. Late in that season he announced that he was leaving the Red Bull team and joining Ferrari, beginning with the 2015 season. Vettel won four races and finished second in the world drivers' championship standings in his first season with Red Bull. In capturing the 2010 title, he became the third driver in F1 history to win the drivers' championship despite never being atop the championship standings until the final race of the season. He proved to have great talent and soon drew the attention of Gerhard Noack, a track owner who had shepherded Schumacher through his own youth-karting career.
Noack's support (as well as that of Red Bull Racing, which sponsored Vettel's karting career from age 12) helped Vettel win numerous karting titles before he switched to open-wheel racing in 2003. Vettel finished second in the overall standings in his first season of driving in the junior Formula BMW series and won the series championship handily in 2004, posting 18 victories in his 20 races. He subsequently moved to the Formula Three Euro Series and the World Series by Renault before making his Formula One race debut in 2007 after having served as an F1 test driver for two seasons.
The Drivers' and Constructors' championships were both decided at the penultimate race in Brazil. Storm-affected qualifying at Interlagos gave Barrichello pole during Formula One's longest qualifying session, while title rivals Button and Vettel started from 14th and 16th respectively. During the first lap, three incidents led to the retirement of three cars and a fire in the pit-lane, with Button taking advantage to move up the grid. Button fought up to fifth position by the race end, securing enough points to clinch the title. Mark Webber took the lead after Barrichello pitted and won the race, followed by Robert Kubica, to give BMW Sauber their joint best result of their final season and his only podium result in 2009. Lewis Hamilton completed the top three after starting 17th on the grid, moving him and McLaren above Kimi Räikkönen and Ferrari respectively in the championships.
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".
Formula One is the highest class of open-wheeled motor racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile , motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. The F1 World Championship season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix, held usually on purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. Each winner is presented with a trophy and the results of each race are combined to determine two annual Championships, one for drivers and one for constructors.
The World Championship for Drivers is held since 1950, after the Formula One standard was agreed upon in 1946. The Constructors' Championship was added for the 1958 season and has been awarded ever since. 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. They were front engined, with narrow-treaded tyres and 1.5 litre supercharged or 4.5 litre normally aspirated engines. When Formula One regulations returned in 1954 engines were limited to 2.5 litres.
Mercedes Benz made major developments until they withdrew from all motor sports in the aftermath of the 1955 disaster at Le Mans. In the late 1950s Cooper introduced a rear-engined car and by 1961 all manufacturers were running them. As an added incentive for the teams, a constructors' championship was introduced in 1958. The season opened at the Australian Grand Prix, won by Jenson Button with teammate Rubens Barrichello in second, giving the team a 1–2 on its début. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had been running in second until he collided with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica.
The accident meant the race finished behind the safety car, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli eventually classified third despite McLaren's false protest he had illegally overtaken Lewis Hamilton. Reigning champion Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian race for lying to the stewards and at the following Malaysian Grand Prix there were reports he was on the verge of quitting. The race was equally dramatic, being stopped because of monsoon-like conditions, meaning only half points were awarded for only the fifth time in F1 history. Button mastered the changing conditions for his second win, while quick starting Nico Rosberg dropped to eighth when the race was stopped.
In the interval between races, the controversial double diffusers, used by Brawn, Williams and Toyota, were declared legal by the FIA, ending the fight over their use. The Chinese race also took place in wet conditions, with the rain throughout the duration of the race necessitating a safety car start and causing several accidents. Vettel led teammate Mark Webber to Red Bull's first win in Formula One, ahead of the two Brawns and McLarens. The British Grand Prix was seen as a turning point, being dominated by Red Bull with Vettel leading home Webber, in dry conditions.
Button was not on the podium for the first time this season, finishing sixth. Red Bull also dominated the following German Grand Prix with Webber taking his first pole and race win, despite being given a drive through penalty. Ferrari were also showing signs of improvement, Felipe Massa finishing third in what would be his final race of the season.
He was hospitalised after being hit on the helmet by a flying spring when he was travelling at 162 mph in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. The accident overshadowed the race, with a lightly-fueled Fernando Alonso on pole retiring early in the race, which was won by Lewis Hamilton. Jaime Alguersuari finished his début race ahead of Buemi, the Toro Rosso test driver replacing the fired Sébastien Bourdais. Post-race, the Renault team received a suspension for the European Grand Prix, for an incident where Alonso's tyre came loose on the race track following a pit-stop error. An appeal overturned the decision, and the team raced in Valencia.
The first multi-team testing session took place at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona in November 2008, two weeks after the end of previous season. All teams, except Toyota, took part in the testing session where some teams tested their new aerodynamics package and slick tyres. The new look cars did not suit everyone's taste, with BMW Sauber's test driver, Christian Klien, labelling the car the ugliest car he'd ever seen. On 9 March, testing at Barcelona featured for the first time Brawn GP, who made an immediate impact by leading the times early in the day. The test, the first in which all teams used their 2009 cars, had BMW Sauber leading the times while Brawn GP finished fourth.
On day three, Brawn GP's Jenson Button was fastest by just over one second to Ferrari's Felipe Massa, while Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello went even faster the next day. At the other end of the timing sheets, reigning champion Lewis Hamilton's McLaren team were struggling to adapt to the new regulations, often 1.5 seconds off the pace. An era of British dominance was ushered in by Mike Hawthorn's championship win in 1958, although Stirling Moss had been at the forefront of the sport without ever securing the world title. Although the aerodynamically flawed McLaren MP4-24 would be vastly improved by a mid-season update, Brawn and Button won the respective 2009 constructors' and drivers' world championships. World champion John Surtees drove for the team in 1967 and scored a memorable victory at the Italian Grand Prix - winning with the new RA300 in its first race. The team withdrew from motor racing after the 1968 season, to concentrate their energies on developing new road cars, having cemented the Honda name in the motorsport hall of fame.
The Brawn team, formed as a result of a management buyout of the Honda team, won six of the first seven races, their ability to make the most of the new regulations being a deciding factor in the championship. Red Bull Racing caught up in an unpredictable second half of the season, with the season being the first time since 2005 that all participating teams had scored World Championship points. Sebastian Vettel and Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello were his main challengers over the season, winning six races between them to finish in second and third, respectively.
Jenson Button and Brawn GP secured the Drivers' Championship and Constructors' Championship titles, respectively, in the Brazilian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season. It was both Button and Brawn's first championship success, Brawn becoming the first team to win the Constructors' Championship in their debut season. Also notable was the success of Red Bull Racing, as well as the poor performance of McLaren and Ferrari compared to the previous season. Nine wins and 13 pole positions in five seasons followed but Webber could never quite match the sister car of Sebastian Vettel.
2010 was by far his best chance as he led Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel by 14 points after 16 of 19 rounds. Probably the toughest of this list and one of the hardest working, too, Webber was a fine driver, especially in qualifying and when up against it, but fell just short of the greatest prize in F1. His first year at Ferrari has been even more impressive, taking seven pole positions and winning two races, including his team's first home victory since 2010. Not only has he been quick, he has unsettled and is likely to beat four-time Vettel this season, announcing himself as the next big hope of F1.
Again, the small sample says means his statistics in our model are a little unrepresentative, like Hakkinen's, but his place in this list is fully deserved even after just 41 Grands Prix. A fine second year was enough for him to join McLaren but just as they started their slump. His one season there has been followed by seven very successful years at Force India/Racing Point, where he has cemented his reputation as one of the best drivers outside of the top teams. From 2014 to 2018 he never finished outside the top 10 in the championship and scored a total of 400 points over five seasons with five podiums. To limit the effect a drivers' machinery has on the rating we "weighted" the points and race wins to come up with an adjusted total.
This has been done by looking at how competitive the drivers' cars were during each season. For example, if a driver wins in a race in a car that came fourth in the championship, that win should be worth more than a win from a driver whose team dominated a season. The younger Piquet was fired midway through this year's 17-race schedule of races in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. The 2008 Singapore race came near the end of his first season in Formula One. At the time he was under heavy pressure after a series of lackluster performances and an inability to match the speed of his teammate, Fernando Alonso, the winner of two Formula One championships with Renault. A lunge by Senna into the final chicane ended in disaster as Prost turned in and took the pair seemingly out of the race.
Knowing that this gave Prost the title, Senna urged marshalls to start his car again and he fired away up the escape road up after the remaining drivers. Despite pitting for a new nose cone, miraculously he fought back to take victory. But while Senna was fighting out on track, Prost was fighting in the officials office, claiming that Senna had cut a section of the track.
The decision almost led to Senna walking away from Formula 1 altogether, but thankfully it only led to the separation of the pair as Prost left for Ferrari. The 1965 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is thought to have seen the most overtakes for the lead of any F1 championship race in history, with first place changing hands a whopping 41 times over the 76-lap event. According to tyre supplier Pirelli there were 147 overtakes at the 2012 season finale at the Brazilian Grand Prix, the most of any rain-affected race.
With the Spaniard finishing second behind McLaren's Jenson Button, sixth place was enough to hand Vettel his third consecutive crown, topping the standings by just three points. In Q3 , the last ten drivers contest for the best place on the starting grid. The driver with the fastest lap time is awarded the pole position on the starting grid. The remaining drivers are ranked according to their fastest lap times and will take their designated places at the start of the race. Once entering F1 in 1973, Hunt's first few seasons were a bit rocky. Making his debut with Hesketh racing, an aristocrat-owned, 'just-for-fun' team, Hunt led the team to some surprising results and even finished fourth in the 1975 drivers' championship.
After putting his Ferrari on pole, earning the fastest lap, and winning his first race for the team in Australia, Räikkönen was already keeping up with Ferrari's reputation for dominance at the time. 2007 progressed to see Räikkönen crowned world champion in Brazil, despite entering the final race in third place in the standings with the top three separated by just a single point. The teams were less successful in their attempts to have the long-running French and Canadian Grands Prix kept on the calendar, with the organisers of both events pulling out due to financial issues. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix made its début appearance as the last round of the season, at the Hermann Tilke-designed Yas Marina Circuit.
The race, starting at sunset, was Formula One's first day-night race. Whatever you make of his career decisions, Alonso is arguably the driver who got the most from their car. But winning the 2010 championship in a sub-standard Ferrari would have been perhaps his greatest achievement. Perhaps his talent stands out so much because of its partly unfulfilled nature. Just as there are drivers who fail to break into the very top level, Alonso failed to do his talent full justice – two world championships and 32 race wins is a relatively poor return. With two world titles and plenty of success in the mid-2000s, Alonso was always going to rank very highly.
No driver has a bigger increase in weighted wins, moving from 32 wins in reality to 38.5 in the model. Nobody has a better record against their team-mate either and over such a long period, too. The Spaniard beat the sister car in 16 of his 17 seasons – or 95 per cent of the time.
Raikkonen should not only be remembered as the driver who played second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, taking just one win in his five-season return to the team. Even back in the midfield at his old, rebranded Sauber team he has shown how much of an asset he still is as a driver. Over the course of 17-and-a-bit seasons in F1, Button's career was either feast or famine. Simply, he either finished in the top 10 of the championship or no higher than 15th . Button, like Raikkonen, perhaps falls just outside that list of the undeniable all-time greats who have raced in the 21stcentury.
He was, though, remarkably consistent and if the car was to his liking unbeatable. Barrichello then suffered further disappointment with a puncture in the closing laps, being forced into the pits and rejoining in eighth. Prost, who won 51 times in his career, won a career-high seven times in both 1984 and 1988 with McLaren. Both of those seasons, he finished second in the championship to teammates—Niki Lauda in 1984 and Ayrton Senna in 1988. The 2005 US Grand Prix at Indianapolis is infamous for only having six cars contest the race. The entire field bar Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi withdrew from the race at the end of the formation lap after a political fallout caused by a series of Michelin tyre failures in practice.
