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Most F1 Championships : Which Formula 1 Driver Have the Most World Titles?

Samriddhi Jaiswal
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Most F1 Championships: Which Drivers Have the Most World Titles?

The first-ever Formula 1 race was held in 1950 with the first Grand Prix of the championship being held at the Silverstone Circuit.

Ever since then, the sport has been pushing the teams and drivers to get the best out of themselves and become the champions of the world and some have successfully achieved to do so.

There are some historic teams that have dominated the sport ever since its inauguration such as Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. They have broken multiple records consistently and set new ones with invariably fast cars and the fastest drivers.

Every season the teams battle for a constructors championship while the drivers in the cockpit strive to get the best out of themselves by pushing the cars to the limit and making their own records.

To make this game harder, fairer and in accordance with the demands of the world, the governing body of the sport, the FIA even changes regulations for engines from time to time.

Whoever cracks open a solution for those new technical regulations wins the race, championships and everything in it to top the grid.

In recent times, this honour was held by Mercedes as Formula 1 had entered the turbo-hybrid era and the engineers of the Silver Arrows knew exactly what to do with it and ended up designing the fastest car for eight seasons in a row.

As much as F1 is about fast cars and engineering that goes behind the challengers, it is also about the talents of the drivers. But what is the number of championships that the drivers have?

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Most F1 drivers’ championships

From 1950 to date, the highest number of championship titles held by a single driver is seven and there are only two drivers in the history of Formula 1 to have achieved that feat.

Seven Formula 1 world championship titles

Michael Schumacher was the first one to have broken the championship title record of 5 titles set by Juan Manuel Fangio in the 50s.

The German legend broke the record in the early 2000s when he scored 5 back to back titles with Ferrari and went on to become one of the greatest F1 drivers.

Then in 2007, Hamilton made his debut in the sport and had all eyes on him. The Briton went on to score his first title in 2008 and then dominated the sport from 2014 onwards.

In the 2020 season, Hamilton equalled the record set by Schumacher by claiming his 7th title. Although, that’s not the end of the Mercedes star’s career, as he is still looking to grab his 8th title which will be record-breaking.

Five Formula 1 world championship titles

There is only one driver to have achieved that feat and that is Juan Manuel Fangio. He used to be the oldest driver in several Grand Prix that he participated in as he had started his career in the late 30s.

The Argentinian racer won his first-ever title in 1951 driving an Alfa Romeo and went on with the rest of his 4 championship titles with Maserati, Mercedes and Ferrari.

DriverChampionship SeasonTeam
Juan Manuel Fangio1951Alfa Romeo
Juan Manuel Fangio1954Maserati/ Mercedes
Juan Manuel Fangio1955Mercedes
Juan Manuel Fangio1956Ferrari
Juan Manuel Fangio1957Maserati

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Four world championship titles

In the entire history of F1, only two drivers have won four championship titles or let’s say came close to equalling Fangio’s record.

At first, Alain Prost won the title in the late 80s while battling against his archnemesis Ayrton Senna. The rivalry between Prost and Senna is considered one of the most frivolous rivalries in F1 history.

Fans have even drawn parallels between the Senna-Prost rivalry and Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry that was prevalent during the 2014 to 2016 season.

The other driver to have achieved those many titles is Sebastian Vettel. The German driver dominated the early 2010s with the Red Bull F1 team by scoring 4 consecutive titles.

DriverChampionship SeasonConstructors
Alain Prost1985McLaren
Alain Prost1986McLaren
Alain Prost1989McLaren
Alain Prost1993Williams
Sebastian Vettel2010Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel2011Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel2012Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel2013Red Bull

Three world championship titles

There have been 5 drivers in total who have scored at least 3 titles in their Formula 1 careers. One of the biggest names in that list is the Brazillian legend, Ayrton Senna.

Senna passed away in a tragic accident at the San Marino GP in 1994. Many believe that had he not met his tragic fate the 3-time champion would have won the 1994 season and might have even become a hurdle in Schumacher’s way to championship titles.

Another huge name on the list is Niki Lauda. He is known for his rivalry with the popular British driver of the 70s James Hunt. In his fight for the championship against Hunt, Lauda prevailed twice.

Nelson Piquet is one of the other huge names. He recently came under the spotlight after he made racial and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton.

He is also known to be the father of Kelly Piquet, the current girlfriend of 2-time world champion Max Verstappen.
<table

DriverChampionship SeasonConstructors
Jack Brabham1959Cooper
Jack Brabham1960Cooper
Jack Brabham1966Brabham
Jackie Stewart1969Matra
Jackie Stewart1971Tyrell
Jackie Stewart1973Tyrell
Niki Lauda1975Ferrari
Niki Lauda1977Ferrari
Niki Lauda1984McLaren
Nelson Piquet1981Parmalat
Nelson Piquet1983Fila
Nelson Piquet1987Williams
Ayrton Senna1988McLaren
Ayrton Senna1990McLaren
Ayrton Senna1991McLaren

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Two world championship titles

There have been a total of seven drivers who have at least two championship titles in their Formula 1 racing career.

Interestingly, two of those drivers are still active in the sport namely, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen.

Alonso who is set to race with the Aston Martin F1 team in the 2023 season hopes to clinch more titles at the age of 41 year old. He scored his two consecutive titles in the 2005 and 2006 seasons with Renault.

Verstappen, meanwhile, clinched his first title in the 2021 season in a controversial finale that led to many criticisms. He succeeded in defeating Hamilton and ending his years of dominance in the sport.

In 2022, he beat Ferrari Charles Leclerc to the championship title as the Scuderia could not manage to get the best out of their cars and strategies.

DriverChampionship SeasonConstructors
Alberto Ascari1952Ferrari
Alberto Ascari1953Ferrari
Graham Hill1962BRM
Graham Hill1968Lotus
Jim Clark1963Lotus
Jim Clark1965Lotus
Emerson Fittipaldi1972Lotus
Emerson Fittipaldi1974McLaren
Mika Hakkinen1998McLaren
Mika Hakkinen1999McLaren
Fernando Alonso2005Renault
Fernando Alonso2006Renault
Max Verstappen2021Red Bull
Max Verstappen2022Red Bull

One world championship title

There are seventeen drivers who have won at least one championship title in their career. One of them is the driver who won the championship title in the inaugural championship season of Formula 1 in 1950, Giuseppe Farina.

DriverChampionship SeasonConstructors
Giuseppe Farina1950Alfa Romeo
Mike Hawthorn1958Ferrari
Phil Hill1961Ferrari
John Surtees1964Ferrari
Denny Hulme1967Brabham
Jochen Rindt1970Lotus
James Hunt1976McLaren
Mario Andretti1978Lotus
Jody Scheckter1979Ferrari
Alan Jones1980Williams
Keke Rosberg1982Williams
Nigel Mansell1992Williams
Damon Hill1996Williams
Jacques Villeneuve1997Williams
Kimi Raikkonen2007Ferrari
Jenson Button2009Brawn GP
Nico Rosberg2016Mercedes

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About the author

Samriddhi Jaiswal

Samriddhi Jaiswal

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Samriddhi Jaiswal is an F1 editor and writer at The SportsRush. She started her career as a business journalist but soon found her calling in lights out here we go! Samriddhi has been a Ferrari fan even when her interaction with F1 was occasional. Her first real experience with the thrilling sport came when Charles Leclerc clinched his iconic victory in Spa and Monza and painted the track red. Now, a Tifosi, Samriddhi is a hardcore fan of the prancing horse and can relate to the chaos within the Italian camp and also admires Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Off the track, she finds her home in books and musical instruments.

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