Formula One has always been a sport of great thrill and courage and it takes a lot of passion and skill to stake claim to be one of the greatest racers of all time. If you are an adrenaline junkie, it is without a doubt that you follow the sport and probably have an opinion on who is the greatest F1 racer of all time.
However, what goes without saying is that a major factor in determining the number of championships each racer has lifted. Ever since the sport began in its modern format in 1950, each season one racer – the one with the most Grand Prix wins that year has lifted the Driver’s Championship. In this ranking, some of F1’s greatest racers have lifted multiple titles and underlined their dominance and class over the years.
So without further ado, here is our list of the top 5 F1 racers of all time with the most Drivers’ championships:
5. Sebastian Vettel – 4 titles
Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull have been one of Formula One's recent big success stories, with the German making his way through the junior ranks at F2 and F3, and then impressing at Scuderia Toro Rosso before putting himself in the record books with Infiniti Red Bull Racing.
It's a partnership that has taken Vettel to 39 wins, 66 podiums and an incredible four world championship titles. But all good things must come to an end and the four-time champion started a new chapter with Ferrari in 2015, but that move has not worked out for him as well as he had hoped it would.
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4. Alain Prost – 4 titles
Alain Prost was known as “The Professor” during an F1 career that saw him race for McLaren, Ferrari and Williams. The Frenchman won 3 of his world titles at McLaren(1985,1986 and 1989) and one with Williams in 1993 before he retired.
His near-obsessive single-minded focus was, however often ostracised, rather than encouraged worship, as he adopted an economizing approach to his racing.
He was a man of principle, walking away from a biblically sodden 1989 Australian Grand Prix on safety issues, risking his chance of claiming the Drivers’ title by sitting in the pits.
3. Juan Manuel Fangio – 5 titles
He won five world championships in the 1950s, not an era renowned for safety. He did it for four different teams – Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati – driving some of the most genuinely iconic racing cars in the history of the sport, and finished second twice.
And while those were different times and far fewer races were run, Fangio’s hit rate is still extraordinary: 29 pole positions, 48 front row starts, 24 victories, from 51 championship Grand Prix starts. He was 46 when he won his last title, in 1957, a testament to his colossal physical strength.
2. Michael Schumacher – 7 titles
Michael Schumacher remains an all-time great and not just because he won seven world championships, 91 races and smashed every record there was to smash. Or that he possessed the Senna-like ability to drive his car right on the limit, while being physically fit and intelligent enough to keep a good chunk of his mental firepower in reserve to manage tricky pit-wall calls.
He was also a fascinating and complex character, more complex than you might think. And more human, too. He quite often overstepped his boundaries, pissed off the wrong people but overall, he was every bit the champion he is now recognized as.
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1. Lewis Hamilton – 7 titles
Lewis Hamilton equaled the legendary Schumacher's seven world titles with victory at the Turkish Grand Prix 2020. The Briton began his career at McLaren and went on to win his maiden F1 drivers' title in 2008. Since switching to Mercedes, the Briton has won six of the past seven championships, finishing second behind former teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016.
Lewis Hamilton has been unstoppable from the get-go, since his introduction as a child prodigy. After his iconic triumph in Turkey, he had to enter quarantine as he contracted Coronavirus but is set to make his return at Abu Dhabi this weekend.
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