Who Is The Most Successful Formula 1 Driver Of All Time

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. Chris Amon holds the record for most laps led and most pole positions without a win.

The driver from New Zealand scored 11 podiums from his 96 starts in the 1960s and 1970s, but terrible luck and poor reliability prevented him from claiming an elusive victory. Amon led seven races during his career with Ferrari, March and Matra, but suffered a series of heart breaking retirements within sight of the chequered flag. Despite never standing on the top step of the podium at a championship race, Amon did score eight victories in non-championship F1 races and also won the Daytona 24 Hours and Le Mans 24 Hours. His controversial victory at Le Mans in 1966, which was shared with countryman Bruce McLaren, was dramatised in the hit 2019 film, Ford vs Ferrari. Nick Heidfeld holds the record for most podium finishes in Formula 1 without a win.

The German driver stood on the podium 13 times from his 183 starts, but never on the top step. Heidfeld spent much of this career fighting for points in the midfield with Sauber, though he did enjoy several competitive seasons when the team was partnered with BMW in 2007 and 2008. The closest Heidfeld came to tasting victory was at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished four seconds behind race winner Lewis Hamilton. Jim Clark is undeniably one of the greatest and most dominant champions in F1 history, securing two titles in 1963 and 1965 and just missing out on the '62 World Championship due to an oil leak in the final race of the season. Clark has the fourth highest win percentage in history of 34.25%.

He also has an astonishing 33 pole positions from 72 starts. Famous for his formidable speed and partnership with Colin Chapman, Clark spent his entire F1 career driving for the Lotus team. Many fans and supporters alike believe the Scot would've added to his Championships if it wasn't for his fatal accident at an F2 race in Hockenheim in 1968. Clark still currently holds the record for the most career 'Grand Slams'. Vettel's F1 career started in 2007 and, in his first three years, he took nine podiums and five wins, though this was nothing on what was to come. Over the next four years he became the face of F1, winning four consecutive championships and becoming the youngest world champion in the process .

He replaced Roberto Nosetto who ran the team for one season in 1977 and won both the drivers' and teams' titles as well as four of the 17 races. It gave him a 23.5% success rate which puts him sixth on the list. Although he steered Ferrari to both titles in 1979 it didn't win the drivers' championship again under Piccinini and only took the teams' title two more times before he was ejected after Enzo Ferrari's death in 1988. 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. 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. 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. 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.

On a wet to drying track wheel-to-wheel battles raged throughout the field, beginning with Hamilton pushing aside his polesitting Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg on the opening lap. In the following seasons, though he continued to be one of the most aggressive drivers and a race winner, Hamilton failed to regain his championship form. His McLaren was not always a world-beater but in 2011 Hamilton blamed distractions in his private life for a loss of focus that he vowed to regain. In 2012, with his private life running smoothly, he drove hard and well and finished fourth in the standings with four wins.

Before that campaign was over he announced he was leaving McLaren, the team that had been so much a part of his racing life for so long, and would in 2013 replace the retiring Michael Schumacher at Mercedes. In his new environment he was a regular frontrunner, securing several poles and podiums and finished a respectable fourth in the 2013 championship. Statistically, German Michael Schumacher is the greatest F1 driver, with seven world championships, including most constructers titles, race victories, pole positions, points scored and biggest title winning margins.

He has won the most races in a single season—and remains the only F1 driver to have a full season of podium finishes in 2002. Clark set 33 pole positions and won 25 of the 72 GP starts he made, and can claim numerous records to this day – in 1963, for example, he led 71 per cent of all laps raced that season. As well as his versatility, Clark was revered for his incredible silkiness behind the wheel, and his extraordinary mechanical sympathy.

"Jim Clark was everything I aspired to be, as a racing driver and as a man," his great friend Sir Jackie Stewart said. Unfortunately for Vettel the regulation changes in 2014 didn't suit Red Bull , and the team quickly fell back through the pack. He went from nine consecutive wins in the final nine races of the 2013 season to not winning a single race until 2015, and since that 2013 season he's 'only' taken 14 wins.

Despite that he's still widely regarded as one of the best drivers on the grid, and his list of records is likely to stand for many more seasons. When Fangio was in his twenties, there was a problem for racing drivers – World War 2 hence Fangio's age when he first entered F1. During the war, firms such as Mercedes Benz were producing aero engines etc rather than racing cars. For Fangio to win five championships during the 1950s and survive was incredible to say the least – just research the numbers of drivers killed during this period.

Records always fall over time and the only man to have beaten Fangio's five championships is Michael Schumacher and it took a gap of almost forty years before this happened. You also have to take into account that there were few races in the early post-war years of F1. That is why the aces of that era drove in endurance races such as Le Mans, the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio etc. Hill losses the title for 1 point and the british was very unstable. And he could make the pressure over FIA about the rumours of Beneton's electronic devices. The Williams FW16B was a much better car than the original model.

Other point is that Senna could think that Schumacher was the new "Prost", a driver to be beaten and this thought could motivate the 3-times world champion. Schumacher would still retains his 5 titles with Ferrari, but the 94 and 95, I think not. And after the brazilian reaches Fangio, with all the records (more than 51 victories of Prost and 75+ pole positions, circa 6 per season), he retires. Another German driver to hold several unenviable F1 records is Nico Hülkenberg, who has competed in the most races without scoring a podium and has also scored the most points without a win.

Hülkenberg graduated to Formula 1 with Williams in 2010 after claiming the GP2 title the previous year at his first attempt. Despite recording a surprise pole position in Brazil, he was generally outclassed by his more experienced teammate Rubens Barichello and was not retained by Williams for 2011. Hülkenberg returned to the grid with Force India in 2012 and very nearly won the final race of the season at Interlagos. The German led for 30 laps in the tricky wet/dry conditions before clashing with Lewis Hamilton for the lead and being handed a drive-through penalty. In 2014, when major regulation changes featured new hybrid power units in chassis with reduced downforce, Mercedes dominated the season, winning 16 of the 19 races and easily securing the Constructors' Championship.

Mercedes' policy of letting its drivers race each other enabled team mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to engage in an enthralling season-long duel for the driving title. Adding extra human interest to the drama was the fact that Hamilton and Rosberg had been friends and rivals since their karting days as teenagers. Now, as 29-year-old protagonists competing for honours at the pinnacle of motorsport, the intensity of their rivalry strained their friendship and tested their strength of character.

While the family's financial struggle was over it put extra pressure on McLaren's teenage protege to meet ever higher expectations. As well as having to respond to envious critics who claimed he should be winning all the time, given his funding, it was imperative that Lewis continually prove himself worthy of his benefactor's investment. The need to achieve undoubtedly accelerated his progress through motorsport's ranks.

After winning eight championships in six years of kart racing, he went on to win three major single seater titles, the most prestigious of which was the GP2 championship, where in 2006 he took five victories from 21 starts. But it was the young British charger's several spirited comeback performances, from the back of the pack to the podium, that particularly prompted McLaren to promote him to the Formula One team. But the Grandfather of Formula one racing is Juan Manuel Fangio—the Argentinean genius to whom all great drivers are compared.

He won five World championships, including four consecutive titles from 1954 to 1957. He won his titles with four different teams, and while he only achieved 24 wins, a number surpassed by many drivers, he accomplished this in just 51 races, a strike rate unmatched by any other driver in history. 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. 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. He made Mansell an offer he couldn't refuse, and boy was he glad he didn't. The 1992 seasons saw Mansell make the most scintillating starts to a campaign, with five straight victories in a row. He won three of the next five races, and dominated winning the championship by a huge margin over teammate Ricardo Patrese. He set his sights on America the following year, joining the IndyCar series, and won the championship.

Creating the short-list of the most-successful team bosses isn't difficult. The ones who have led a team which won both the drivers' and teams' titles are indisputably at the top of their game. Ranking them on a level playing field requires calculating the percentage of races their teams won out of the total that they competed in. The greater the percentage, the more successful the team boss, whether it is 1950 or 2019.

The results have never been revealed before and they show that F1's current era may be its most historic. If Ayrton Senna were to have lived to race again, he would have close to ten championships. Given that he was on williams which went on to be the dominant car for 3 seasons. Later could have possibly went back to Mclaren and later on possibly went on to race with Ferrari.

Add those totals to the list and I am sure the outcome would equal the best driver all time modern era. He was out poleing the best in the 80's with an inferior car who has been able to do that ever. Damon hill and my fellow Canadian would not have had those championships with williams most likely.

Who Is The Most Successful Formula 1 Driver And if the later was to happen as predicted hakkinen and schumacher would be hard pressed to have the championships they hold now. Much like Rubens Barichello, Valtteri Bottas has spent a large chunk of his F1 career driving the best car while his teammate – in this case, Lewis Hamilton – takes all the spoils. Bottas currently holds the record for the most career points without becoming World Champion. Now into his fifth season with Mercedes, Bottas has taken nine victories and twice finished runner up in the drivers' standings while Hamilton has won four consecutive championships.

Over the next four seasons with Benetton he won a further 18 races and two world championships. His first, in 1994, was somewhat tainted in that Benetton was suspected of technical irregularities and in their championship showdown race in Adelaide Schumacher collided with the car of his closest challenger, the Williams of Damon Hill. But Germany's first world champion was unquestionably worthy of the 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, then a team in disarray and without a champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979.

As punishment for his misdemeanour Schumacher's points and his second place in the championship were stricken from the record books he would thereafter begin to rewrite. Lewis Hamilton called the 2021 season the hardest ever in his 15 years at the pinnacle of motorsport. The drivers were at the top of the game, their respective Mercedes and Red Bull Racing teams were the class of the field. The intense rivalry between the 36-year-old seven-time world champion Englishman and his hard-charging 24-year-old Dutch rival was marred by frequent clashes. Responding to Verstappen's aggressive driving, Hamilton fought back in kind - setting them on a collision course seemingly destined to end in controversy – which it did. Millions of enthralled viewers witnessed one the most ferociously fought championships in F1 history.

Rosberg, who started from pole but finished out of the points with a car problem, was gracious in defeat, acknowledging that his team mate's tally of 11 wins to Rosberg's five meant Hamilton deserved to be the 2014 champion. He's actually done it all and more, rewriting almost every record in the sport, holding the wins record for 19 years and record for most World Championships for 14 years. The only driver in history to top two decades, topping the 90's at 58 points to Häkkinen's 45, going on to dominate the first half of the 2000s topping the decade once again with an impressive 57 to Räikkönen's 47. Growing up I wasn't the biggest fan of Michael, he was always winning and I supported the silver team, it was only once I grew up did I understand just how brilliant he was. Fast, strategic, reliable and adaptable he was undeniably in another league to anyone else on the grid and no matter what you think of him on track, off track he was the perfect gentleman. It was actually Ferrari and Schumacher's success that helped me appreciate the job Mercedes and Hamilton are doing currently.

His comeback from 2010 to 2012 is also included in his points tally taking his top ten finishes in the standings to an unprecedented 16 seasons , he is also the fourth most experienced driver of all time. He began go-karting at aged 14, when he discovered the sport during a family holiday. His F1 career started at McLaren in 1980 with a disappointing campaign, but it kicked into life when he signed for Renault. He took his first few wins in 1981, and finished 4th in the drivers' championship in 1982. But his career took a huge step in 1983, when he pushed Brabham's Nelson Piquet all the way and finished within two points of the title win.

Racing Point, which used to be Force India, which used to be Spyker, which used to be Midland, which used to be Jordan, becomes an Aston Martin works team in 2021, marking the company's return to F1 for the first time in 60 years. Naturally both shall be retained to drive the Mercedes-clone RP20 for a second season? Stroll – a talented driver no doubt but also the son of the team's owner and Aston Martin shareholder Lawrence – will remain, but Perez finds himself out of a drive just a week after finally taking his first F1 win. On the face of it making a step forward , Vettel arrives as a refugee from a relationship that went sour and will be looking to reclaim some of his former lustre – the 53-time race winner only stood on the podium once in 2020. Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris holds the record for the most races without a win, as well as the most retirements of any driver . But even when he wasn't crashing out, de Cesaris still failed to see the chequered flag in more than 70% of his F1 starts at a time when cars were notoriously unreliable.