World Champions

The very first F1 World Champion. Won the inaugural championship at 44 years old.

First of five titles. Won championships with four different constructors — a record that stood for decades.

Back-to-back champion in 1952 and 1953. Tragically died testing a Ferrari at Monza in 1955.

Defended his title. One of only two drivers to win consecutive championships in the 1950s.

Won with two different teams in the same season — started with Maserati, finished with Mercedes.

Dominated alongside Stirling Moss. The Le Mans disaster that year cast a shadow over the sport.

Fourth title, third consecutive. Won despite losing his Lancia to teammate Peter Collins at Monza.

His fifth and final title at age 46. Still owns the best win percentage (46.5%) in F1 history.

First British World Champion. Won by just one point over Stirling Moss — who never won the title.

First rear-engined car to win the championship — a turning point in F1 design history.

Defended his title. Would go on to win a third in 1966 with his own constructor.

First and only American F1 World Champion. Won his title on the day his teammate Wolfgang von Trips was killed at Monza.

"Mr. Monaco" — won at Monte Carlo five times. First of two championships, the second coming in 1968 after Jim Clark's death.

Dominated 1963 — won 7 of 10 races. Many consider him the greatest natural talent F1 has ever seen.

The only man to win World Championships on both two wheels (500cc motorcycle) and four wheels.

Also won the Indy 500 the same year. Killed at Hockenheim during an F2 race in April 1968.

Only driver to win a championship in a car bearing his own name. Won the title at age 40.

Quiet, consistent champion who beat his own boss Jack Brabham to the title. Known for toughness and no fuss.

Won his second title the year after his teammate Jim Clark was killed. Kept Lotus together through grief.

First of three titles. A fierce campaigner for driver safety in an era when death was a regular part of the sport.

Second title. Retired from F1 in 1973 after his third championship and teammate François Cevert's death.

At 25, the youngest World Champion at the time. First Brazilian to win the title.

Third and final title. Retired immediately after. His 27 wins stood as a record for many years.

Second title with a different team. Left McLaren for his brother's Fittipaldi team — a move that ended his title chances.

First title. Made Ferrari competitive again after years in the wilderness. The Nürburgring disaster was one year away.

One of F1's greatest title battles. Beat Lauda by one point after the Austrian's near-fatal crash at the Nürburgring.

Returned from near-death at the Nürburgring to win the title the following year. Sheer willpower.

The last American to win the F1 championship. Dominated with the ground-effect Lotus 79. Teammate Ronnie Peterson died at Monza.

Last driver to win the championship for Ferrari until Schumacher in 2000. Won the title with consistency, not speed.

Williams' first World Champion. Hard-charging Australian who brought a new toughness to the sport.

First of three titles. Beat Carlos Reutemann by one point in a controversial finale.

Won the championship with only one race win. The most scattered points table in F1 history — 11 different race winners.

Pipped Alain Prost by two points on the final race. The last turbo Brabham championship.

Third title — the thinnest winning margin ever. Beat teammate Alain Prost by just half a point.

First of four titles. "The Professor" — clinical, calculating, relentlessly fast. The defining rival of Senna's career.

Won on the final lap of the final race when Nigel Mansell's tyre exploded at 200mph in Australia.

Third and final title. Won it as his teammate Mansell crashed in Japan, eliminating himself from contention.

McLaren won 15 of 16 races. Senna described his qualifying lap at Monaco 1988 as a transcendent experience.

Won after colliding with Senna at Suzuka. The feud between them became the defining rivalry in motorsport history.

Deliberately drove into Prost at Suzuka to clinch the title. Later admitted it — a confession that shocked many.

Third and final title. Died at San Marino GP in 1994, aged 34. The most beloved figure in F1 history.

Dominated with the revolutionary FW14B — won 9 races. Then quit Williams and went to IndyCar, which he also won.

Fourth and final title. Retired immediately after. Senna was already signed to replace him at Williams for 1994.

First title. The year Senna died at Imola. Schumacher won controversially after colliding with Damon Hill in the finale.

Second title. Dominant but controversial — his career at this stage was shadowed by on-track incidents.

Son of 2× champion Graham Hill. Won the title he was denied in 1994. Sacked by Williams the same day he won it.

Son of Gilles Villeneuve. Won after Schumacher tried to drive into him — and was excluded from the championship for it.

Came back from a life-threatening crash in 1995 to win back-to-back titles. Known as "The Flying Finn."

Defended while Schumacher was sidelined with a broken leg. Their Spa 1999 pass at 200mph is one of F1's greatest overtakes.

Third title, first with Ferrari. Ended the Prancing Horse's 21-year championship drought.

Clinched with four races remaining. Ferrari was untouchable — the most dominant team in F1 history at this point.

Clinched with 6 races left. Finished every race on the podium. The most dominant season in F1 history statistically.

Closer battle — Räikkönen and Montoya pushed him hard. Won his sixth title, surpassing Fangio's record of five.

Seventh and final title. Won 13 of 18 races. Still the record — matched by Hamilton in 2020, never beaten.

At 24, the youngest champion at the time. Finally broke Schumacher's iron grip on the championship.

Defended against a resurgent Schumacher. Moved to McLaren for 2007 — and found himself racing a rookie called Lewis Hamilton.

Won by one point. Hamilton and Alonso imploded — Räikkönen was the cool one who kept his head and took the title.

First Black F1 World Champion. Overtook Timo Glock on the final corner of the final lap. One of the greatest finales in history.

The Brawn GP fairytale. A team that barely existed in March dominated the season. The greatest underdog story in F1 history.

Youngest champion in history at 23 years and 134 days. Beat Alonso on the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

Dominated. Won 11 races. His finger-pointing celebration became one of the most recognizable gestures in the sport.

Beat Alonso by 3 points. Seven different winners in the first seven races. Only secured the title with the final race.

Fourth consecutive title. Won the last 9 races of the season. The end of the Renault V8 era.

Second title — the hybrid era begins. Mercedes' dominance starts here. Pipped Rosberg by 67 points despite DNFs.

Third title. Mercedes so dominant it became controversial. Won with three races to spare.

Won the title — then retired five days later. The only champion to retire immediately after winning. His father Keke was 1982 champion.

Fourth title, equalling Prost and Vettel. Battled Vettel's Ferrari in one of the most competitive seasons of the hybrid era.

Fifth title. Ferrari gifted it with strategic errors and Vettel's incidents. Hamilton was simply more consistent.

Sixth title — one behind Schumacher's record. Mercedes won their sixth consecutive Constructors' Championship.

Seventh title — matches Schumacher's all-time record. Won in a pandemic-shortened season. Knighted in 2021.

First title. Won in the most controversial season finale in history — the Abu Dhabi safety car restart that ended Hamilton's eighth title bid.

Second title. Won 15 of 22 races — statistically one of the most dominant campaigns in modern F1.

Third title. Won 19 of 22 races — the most dominant season in F1 history, breaking every record.

Fourth title — joins the elite company of Prost, Vettel, and Fangio with four or more championships.

The reigning champion. Broke Verstappen's grip on the title. Uses #1 for the 2026 season.