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". Without a doubt, Fernando Alonso is the most successful F1 driver in history to get his start in the series as a teenager.
He kicked off his career for Minardi at the 2001 season-opening Australian Grand Prix. He finished 12th in his first start and scored his first top 10 at Hockenheim in his 12th career start. His first win came in Hungary in 2003, in career start No. 30. Alonso won 32 races in his career and championships in 2005 and 2006. 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. 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. In a season packed with close racing, controversy, and tight championship battles, it is easy to pay attention to just the winners and losers. But the season has so much more than just the championship battle between an all-time great and a future great driver.
There were break-out performances, stunning qualifying laps, talented rookies looking to make their mark, and the return of a two-time world champion who still has unfinished business in the sport. And that's exactly what he did in 1975, with his first world championship. With an incredible Ferrari 312, he took the title with an impressive five wins. Lauda had another incredible start to the season with six wins and nine podiums in 10 races. But during the German Grand Prix, Lauda suffered life-threatening injuries that looked almost certain to end his life, let alone his racing career.
In terms of career wins and total career points, Lewis Hamilton is the best Formula 1 driver to have ever graced a circuit. The Britain racer has taken wins in 30 different countries, won a race in every season he's competed in, and is currently tied on world championships with Michael Schumacher. He is the Italian steed with speed from the stable of the Prancing Horse. Antonio Giovinazzi flies the flag for Italy as the motorsport mad nation champs at the bit for its next F1 star.
The pilota from Puglia can punch his way through the pack and pull off a plucky pass. He showcased this natural racing acumen during a blistering 2016 GP2 campaign where he finished a close runner-up to teammate Pierre Gasly. Giovinazzi concedes he went from hero to zero after two races as a stand-in for Sauber in 2017 when a brilliantly composed F1 debut in Melbourne was followed by two shunts in Shanghai. But a stint as Ferrari reserve gave him time to re-group and reflect ahead of his first full season in 2019, paired alongside Kimi Raikkonen at Alfa Romeo. Transitioned to Ferrari so smoothly after leaving McLaren and beat his highly-rated team-mate in a superb debut season. Stood on the podium four times, including taking P2 behind Verstappen at Monaco, and confirmed himself a driver with the potential to challenge for the world championship if given the machinery to do so.
The only driver to finish every single race of the season, with only two finishes outside the points. Before he went into karting, Hamilton raced remote controlled cars, beating adults to championships when he was just a kid. He carried that success into karting and – where some successful young drivers are hit with a dose of reality when they reach the highest levels of sport, Hamilton continued to dominate. We won't go into recent event surrounding one of Haas's new signings for 2020 for many reasons, but it's safe to say that all eyes will be on the only American team in F1 in 2021.
Long-standing drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both depart the team – Magnussen to IMSA and Grosjean to an uncertain future. It will be an interesting transition for the team, as Grosjean had been a Haas F1 driver for its entire history, leaving a slightly insecure Renault seat to join in 2016. Magnussen followed in 2017 and they have been together ever since.
Jumping into their shoes are new F2 champion Mick Schumacher (son of a certain seven-time champion whose name isn't Hamilton) and Russian Nikita Mazepin. Again we won't go into Mazepin's recent actions off the track, but if he does race for Haas he will be on his best behaviour. It will be interesting to see how he copes in F1, and the atmosphere at Haas has hardly seemed like the calmest to step into over the last few years. Naturally both shall be retained to drive the Mercedes-clone RP20 for a second season?
Jaime Alguersuari became the youngest driver in F1 history when he replaced Sebastien Bourdais at Toro Rosso for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, the 10th race of the season. Alguersuari held down the Toro Rosso seat through the 2011 season with a best finish of seventh place in 46 career F1 starts. He raced in Formula E in 2014 and retired from racing in 2015 to pursue a music career in Spain.
Daniil Kvyat finished ninth in the season-opening 2014 Australian Grand Prix to kick off his F1 career. He went on to replace four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull the following season. Though winless through 93 career races heading into 2020, Kvyat became the highest-finishing Russian driver in F1 when he scored a second-place finish at Hungary in 2015. Learning his craft on Finnish roads of ice and snow, he was born to be a Grand Prix racer. Bottas explains that if you can drive on the frozen roads of his homeland then you can drive anywhere.
Then there's the Finnish mentality –reserved, diligent and calm the fast lane of F1 does not faze him. Making his F1 debut with Williams in 2013, Bottas soon became part of the family. Points and podiums followed with the reliable racer even amassing the most points without a win, a record he resented but that showcased his ability.
The fact the Finn was such a points machine saw him suddenly promoted to the most coveted seat in F1 – Nico Rosberg's vacant championship-winning seat at Mercedes. It is talent that has brought him this far and he will need to show more of the same as he acclimatises to F1, if he is to one day follow in his father's footsteps and claim a race seat with the Scuderia. Nikita Mazepin might be bringing a healthy chunk of budget with him to the Haas team, but do not be fooled into thinking he has not also got the driving chops to go with it. And after taking his time to find his feet in his first season of F2 in 2019, he came into his own in 2020, notching up six podiums – including two victories – on his way to fifth in the standings. UK fans search for Formula 1's 33 championship-winning drivers an enormous 9.5 million times a year — that's 18 every minute, or one search every three seconds. By contrast, South African fans search for an F1 title winner just once a minute on average.
When Hamilton made the switch from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013, he arrived with number 10. Since 2014, drivers have been allowed to choose their own number in the premier class of motorsport. For the now seven-time world champion, that number has a special meaning. "When I started racing when I was eight, the license plate on my father's car - he had a red Cavalier - was F44." So Hamilton started using the number 44 as well. The years that followed were relatively anonymous for Hamilton, but his career stepped up a gear when the regulations changed in 2014.
Mercedes mastered the turbo-hybrid regs, and no other team has won a championship throughout this period in history. Hamilton seemingly always had the better of his teammate Nico Rosberg, until their rivalry erupted in 2016. Rosberg took the title at the final race, before retiring from the sport altogether. He was quickly fast-tracked to the senior Red Bull Racing team, finishing runner-up to Brawn GP's Jenson Button in 2009. But Red Bull dominated come the turn of the decade, and Vettel pushed the team to four consecutive championships.
Seb had an infamously difficult relationship with teammate Mark Webber, but Vettel's results spoke for themselves. His first drivers' championship came in a sensational 1963 season. He won seven of the ten races that year, a win record that wouldn't be matched until Alain Prost took seven wins in 1984. His next championship came in an almost equally dominant 1965 season, in which he won six of the opening seven races. The only race he didn't win was the Monaco Grand Prix, because he decided to win the Indianapolis 500 instead. Lewis Hamilton is one of the all-time great Formula 1 drivers.
Seven world championships, 103 wins, a knighthood, and he was within a single lap of claiming his eighth world title. He's done all this while being an activist and vocal supporter of equal rights and the LGBTQ community. As reigning world champion, Max Verstappen has the right to choose #1 for the 2022 Formula 1 season. Immediately after winning the championship in the finale in Abu Dhabi, the Red Bull driver already announced that he will change his usual #33. The reigning Formula One World Drivers' Champion can elect to use their allocated permanent number or car number 1 during the year following their title. The first driver to exercise that right under the new regulations was Sebastian Vettel in 2014.
Max Verstappen is set to run the number in 2022 after winning his first world title in 2021. Once Formula 1 drivers enter the sport, they cannot change their numbers, although there is an exception to this rule. If a driver wins the Drivers' Championship, they can race with number 1 on their cars in the following season.
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 . Max Verstappen, who turns 23 on Sept. 30, already has five full F1 seasons and 102 starts to his credit.
He's won eight Grands Prix and has finished on the podium 31 times since the start of his F1 career in 2015. He won in Spain in 2016 in his 24th career start and first for Red Bull Racing to become the series' youngest winner at 18 years, 227 days. Max is the son of former F1 racer Jos Verstappen, who was winless with two podiums in 107 starts between 1994 and 2003. That opportunity led to a full-time seat the following year with Force India, where his wheel-to-wheel duels with highly rated teammate Sergio Perez quickly marked him out as a rising star. Ocon bided his time, though, and after a year on the side lines as Mercedes' reserve driver, he found his way back into a race seat with Renault in 2020.
Robert Kubica is a well known and respected figure around the F1 paddock. With 97 F1 starts to his name, he looked to have a long and successful career ahead of him before his 2011 Rallying accident. He made a remarkable comeback, racing with Williams for the 2019 season before joining the Alfa Romeo team as a reserve driver. The Mercedes' reserve driver pairing are also available to McLaren, as part of an agreement between the two teams. Vandoorne has experience with McLaren, having raced with the team full-time for two seasons in 2017 and 2018.
With the F1 season now underway, questions have arisen about who teams have on standby if one of their full-time drivers becomes unwell. 'Reserve Drivers', to give them their official titles, are kept on speed dial or often at the circuit during a race weekend. They are specially trained to jump into the car at short notice and participate in the race if needed.
Juan Manuel Fangio, reigned the first decade of F1 racing, having won the world championship five times in the year 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957. This record stood unbeaten for 47 years till it was beaten by Michael Schumacher. Fangio also holds the record of reserving the highest winning percentage (46.15) in F1, winning 24 races out of the 52 races that he entered into. In Formula One racing up to 4 drivers can be used by teams in a season.
Following are some of the charismatic and fastest drivers of all times in the history of F1 racing. Prost moved to Ferrari the next year, but both drivers remained the main protagonists. It once again came down to the penultimate race in Japan where, yet again, the rivals collided. That meant Prost couldn't mathematically win the championship, and Senna was crowned with his second title.
He followed it up with a consecutive championship for McLaren, the third of his career. These experiences shaped his early career and eventually led him to take a seat with Minardi in 2001. After a year bringing up the rear of the pack, Alonso went on to join Renault and in 2005, he made history. Breaking Michael Schumacher's streak of five world championships in a row, Alonso became the youngest driver to ever win the championship.
The next year, he became the youngest to score back-to-back championships. From the first lap in Bahrain to the final lap in Abu Dhabi, Carlos Sainz proved that he is every bit as capable as LeClerc in the Ferrari. His season started slowly, but the results started coming as he acclimated to his new team. Four podium finishes, including a second place in Monaco and a third place in the season finale at Abu Dhabi, propelled the Spanish ace to fifth place in the world championship. With Verstappen only off the podium six times in 2020 and Albon only on it twice Red Bull took the decision to pounce on Perez, who had an extraordinary second half of the 2020 season.
While Lando Norris will be sad to see his good friend Carlos Sainz Jr. depart, he will be delighted to see a man who has seemed like his big brother at times join. When not on track Daniel Ricciardo and Norris have gained reputations as light-hearted kids looking to have some fun. Whether McLaren can build on two seasons of progress will be seen, but in signing Ricciardo they have a race-winner in the team with a proven track record at pushing teams up the grid. Ricciardo's switch to Renault may not have yielded the returns he hoped, but he has no doubt managed to push the team forward up the grid. Lewis first joined the team in 2013 and has since taken six F1 titles at the wheel of a Silver Arrow, with his first coming while he was at McLaren in 2008.
Hamilton will now be gunning for his eighth world championship which, if he wins, will make him the most successful F1 driver in history in terms of titles. He is at present tied with Michael Schumacher's seven title triumphs. The championship introduced this concept in 2014 to increase the recognition of the drivers on the track for the fans.
In previous years, the starting numbers were handed out based on the final ranking in the previous world championship standings. Once Formula 1 drivers have chosen their numbers, they cannot change them, except if they win the World Championship. If they win it, they are allowed to race with the number 1 in the following season.
