As Fernando Alonso by no means fails to remind us, successful the drivers’ championship is all about having the most effective automobile.
In order you’d count on, most F1 drivers who gained the championship did so in a automobile which additionally gained the constructors’ title in the identical 12 months.
However not at all times: Because the constructors’ trophy was first awarded in 1958, eight years after the championship started, 10 drivers have gained the title on events the place their crew didn’t take the crown.
It’s set to occur once more this 12 months. With six rounds remaining, Max Verstappen is on the right track to win the drivers’ title, however his Pink Bull crew misplaced the constructors’ championship result in McLaren two races in the past and have already fallen 41 factors behind them.
Is successful the championship in a automobile which did not take the groups’ title the last word achievement for an F1 driver? Right here’s which drivers pulled off the feat up to now, and what it tells us about their performances.
Mike Hawthorn
1958 drivers’ champion with Ferrari whereas Vanwall gained constructors’ championship
F1’s first constructors’ title went to a crew whose driver didn’t win the world championship. Certainly, no driver ever took the title on the wheel of a Vanwall, as Tony Vandervell wound down his crew following the dying of Stuart Lewis-Evans, who suffered horrible burns in a crash on the season finale.
The identical race noticed Ferrari’s Mike Hawthorn clinch the championship by ending second, regardless of having solely gained one race all 12 months, at Reims in France. Stirling Moss took his fourth victory of the season that day (the primary of which he’d taken in a Cooper as Vanwall missed the season-opening Argentinian Grand Prix).
Famously, Moss may need been champion had he not sportingly intervened on Hawthorn’s behalf when he was initially disqualified from second place within the Portuguese Grand Prix, urging stewards to reinstate him. Hawthorn’s regular factors accumulation finally did for Moss, whose crew mate Tony Brooks additionally gained 3 times. The velocity of the Vanwalls ensured they claimed the title within the days when solely one in every of a crew’s vehicles scored constructors’ factors.
Advert | Turn into a RaceFans supporter and
Jackie Stewart
1973 drivers’ champion with Tyrrell whereas Lotus gained constructors’ championship
Whereas Jackie Stewart clinched his third and ultimate title inside 5 years, 1972 title winner Emerson Fittipaldi grew annoyed by the risk from crew mate Ronnie Peterson. The Lotus drivers pinched sufficient factors off one another over the season that Stewart clinched the title with two rounds to spare.
A tragic finale ended Tyrrell’s hopes of repeating its sole constructors’ championship win. Francois Cevert was killed in a crash throughout apply, and Stewart withdrew from what was going to be his ultimate race. The crew had arrived on the finale only one level behind Lotus, and Stewart’s determination to not race, with crew boss Ken Tyrrell’s blessing, ensured the title went to their rivals.
James Hunt
1976 drivers’ champion with McLaren whereas Ferrari gained constructors’ championship
James Hunt’s probabilities of successful the world championship seemed to be over when he was disqualified following his victory within the British Grand Prix. He had already been stripped of one other win earlier within the 12 months in Spain, although that was subsequently reinstated.
Niki Lauda was handed victory at Manufacturers Hatch which meant he headed to the Nurburgring with twice as many factors as his nearest rival, Jody Scheckter. However a horrible crash early within the race nearly value Lauda his life and compelled him out of the cockpit.
Whereas Lauda extremely hurried again after lacking simply two additional races, Hunt emerged as his closest rival, successful in Canada and the USA to arrange a final-round decider in Japan. There, in dire situations, Lauda opted to withdraw, whereas Hunt clinched the title by one level with third place. Ferrari had already taken the groups’ title.
Nelson Piquet
1981 drivers’ champion with Brabham whereas Williams gained constructors’ championship
1983 drivers’ champion with Brabham whereas Ferrari gained constructors’ championship
Nelson Piquet is the one driver to win the drivers’ title in years when his crew didn’t win the constructors’ championship on a couple of event.
His 1981 win was a traditional instance of a driver in a ‘one-car crew’ beating two top-drawer rivals who took factors off one another with an arguably superior automobile. Whereas reigning champion Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann fell out spectacularly at Williams, Piquet scored 50 of Brabham’s 61 factors utilizing their efficient BT49C. He ended the season as champion, each Williams drivers inside 4 factors of him.
Piquet’s crew mate that 12 months, Hector Rebaque, by no means positioned larger than fourth and ended the season tenth within the championship. Riccardo Patrese changed him the next 12 months and was nonetheless there when Piquet took his second title in 1983, this time whereas Ferrari gained the championship. Although he was a much more succesful crew mate, he suffered dire unreliability, solely selecting up a single win on the finale as Piquet clinched the title.
Advert | Turn into a RaceFans supporter and
Keke Rosberg
1982 drivers’ champion with Williams whereas Ferrari gained constructors’ championship
Ferrari gained the constructors’ championship in back-to-back seasons from 1982-83 whereas its drivers have been unable to clinch the crown. Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay have been unable to maintain Piquet from the silverware in 1983, however the previous season the crew was blighted by tragedy.
First Gilles Villeneuve was killed in a crash throughout qualifying at Zolder. The late driver’s crew mate Didier Pironi took the championship lead, however was significantly injured in one other crash at Hockenheim.
That opened the door for Keke Rosberg. His first and solely win of the 12 months, at Dijon, propelled him into the championship lead, although when the season ended he was solely 5 factors forward of the absent Pironi.
Alain Prost
1986 drivers’ champion with McLaren whereas Williams gained constructors’ championship
Piquet moved to Williams in 1986 however regardless of successful on his debut was unimpressed by the crew’s refusal to ascertain him as their clear ‘primary’. Workforce mate Nigel Mansell took the subsequent 4 wins for the crew and claimed the lead of the championship.
However the pair couldn’t shake Alain Prost within the McLaren, who by the latter phases of the season didn’t have to fret about his retiring crew mate Rosberg. On the finale, Mansell suffered a tyre explosion, Piquet pitted as a precaution and Prost, who had been pressured to make an additional pit cease earlier within the race, astonishingly bagged the title.
Michael Schumacher
1994 drivers’ champion with Benetton whereas Williams gained constructors’ championship
The tragic 1994 season stays one in every of Formulation 1’s nice ‘what-ifs’: How would the title struggle between Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna performed out had the Brazilian star not died in a crash on the third spherical? Schumacher pipped Senna’s crew mate Hill to the title by a single level following a sequence of controversies, disqualifications and a contentious final-round collision.
Regardless of being thrown into disarray by Senna’s dying, and having to re-engineer an ill-handling automobile, Williams clinched the groups’ title because of factors gathered by Hill, David Coulthard and the returning Mansell, who gained the finale in Adelaide. Schumacher’s unique selection of crew mate, JJ Lehto, was injured in pre-season testing, and was changed by Jos Verstappen and Johnny Herbert at completely different phases.
Advert | Turn into a RaceFans supporter and
Mika Hakkinen
1999 drivers’ champion with McLaren whereas Ferrari gained constructors’ championship
5 years later, one other ‘what-if’ state of affairs: Mika Hakkinen arrived at Silverstone eight factors forward of Schumacher, who then broke his proper leg in a crash and missed a lot of the remainder of the season.
Hakkinen then proceeded to make laborious work of beating Schumacher’s crew mate Eddie Irvine, who was gifted wins first by Mika Salo in Germany after which Schumacher when he returned in Malaysia. Lastly, Hakkinen prevailed with victory in Japan.
McLaren misplaced the constructors’ title to Ferrari partly by squandering factors and partly because of the FIA’s controversial determination to reinstate the disqualified F399s after Irvine and Schumacher’s one-two within the penultimate race at Sepang. The crew initially accepted its bargeboards didn’t conform to the technical laws, however many predicted the FIA would discover a approach to deem them authorized and preserve the championship struggle alive. Certain sufficient, the Court docket of Attraction dominated the half had not been measured accurately, leading to a 22-point swing which proved decisive. Ferrari gained their first championship in 16 years by 4 factors.
Lewis Hamilton
2008 drivers’ champion with McLaren whereas Ferrari gained constructors’ championship
McLaren missed out on one other championship in a 12 months its driver was topped 9 years later, when Lewis Hamilton clinched his first title in dramatic model. The ultimate rating line mirrored the state of affairs neatly: Hamilton pipped Felipe Massa to the title by a single level, whereas the Ferrari driver’s crew mate Kimi Raikkonen got here third. Heikki Kovalainen, who joined McLaren that 12 months, was solely seventh.
Nevertheless Kovalainen wasn’t solely in charge for McLaren’s factors shortfall. Hamilton missed a number of scoring alternatives, notably in Canada the place he crashed into Raikkonen within the pits, and with a scruffy efficiency in France.
Max Verstappen
2021 drivers’ champion with Pink Bull whereas Mercedes gained constructors’ championship
If Verstappen does turn out to be the second driver in F1 historical past to twice win the title in a 12 months his crew doesn’t, the circumstances will hopefully be much less controversial than the infamous conclusion to the 2021 championship.
An low season tweak to F1’s flooring laws gave Mercedes extra complications than Pink Bull and the 2 groups have been carefully matched on efficiency for a lot of the 2021 season. Whereas Verstappen’s new crew mate Sergio Perez helped him to the title, and produced arguably his greatest year-long efficiency for the crew since becoming a member of them, it wasn’t sufficient to cease Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas securing Mercedes’ eighth championship in a row.
Advert | Turn into a RaceFans supporter and
The mark of a ‘true nice’?
A number of of those drivers can justifiably declare to have gained their titles by wringing the most effective out of a automobile which was not clearly the most effective over a full season, and benefiting from better-equipped rivals failing to do the identical. Stewart in 1973 and Prost in 1986 stand out as significantly conspicuous examples of this. So too does Verstappen in 2021, the farcical finish to the season however – therefore why we named him our driver of the 12 months on that event.
However on different events it’s honest to argue the champion’s crew was a one-driver operation. This was true of Piquet with Rebaque in 1981 and Schumacher, partly by dint of getting so many crew mates, in 1994. Then there are outlier circumstances strongly influenced by uncommon circumstances, comparable to Hunt and Rosberg.
It’s too simplistic, due to this fact, to say each occasion of a driver successful the world championship when their crew did not proves they have been a ‘true nice’. However it could possibly point out a few of F1’s most spectacular title-winning performances.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a day by day e mail with all our newest tales – and nothing else. No advertising, no adverts. Join right here:
