F1: Ranking the greatest Formula One drivers of all time

Michael Schumacher (left), Lewis Hamilton and Nigel Mansell have all landed a spot in Telegraph Sport's top 20 Formula One drivers of all time. Photo / Getty Images

How do you even begin to work out who the greatest Formula One driver of all time is?

You can rank by numbers alone, but that does not get to the heart of the matter, with seasons now more than three times as long as in the early days. How can you compare Max Verstappen to Juan Manuel Fangio, two dominant champions but who raced 60 years apart? It is difficult but Telegraph Sport has had a go.

The criteria were that a driver had to be either a world champion, a driver who won at least seven grands prix, or someone with a winning percentage greater than 15% from a minimum of 10 race starts.

Only world championship races count. This meant 51 drivers made the cut, from Lewis Hamilton (seven world titles and 105 wins) to Tony Brooks (six wins from 38 starts).

To refine this, we used criteria such as championships, wins, win percentage, pole positions and pole percentage, alongside longevity. Finally, we used our judgment to refine the list, which is a mix of objective and subjective measures. Some drivers missed out, like champions James Hunt and Emerson Fittipaldi, while one non-champion made the cut.

So here goes, the 20 greatest drivers of all time.

20. Graham Hill

Championships: 1962, 1968

Wins: 14 (8%)

Pole positions: 13 (7.4%)

Graham Hill’s success across various forms of motorsport is as impressive as his longevity in Formula One. For 14 years, he held the record as the most experienced driver, with almost 180 grands prix in 18 seasons and two titles six years apart. Five wins on the Côte d’Azur earned him the nickname “Mr Monaco” but he was much more than that.

Ranked lower than several single world champions and one non-champion, Hill’s standing suffers because of the uncompetitive years at the end of his career, several of which were for his own team.

19. Damon Hill

Championships: 1996

Wins: 22 (19.1%)

Pole positions: 20 (17.2%)

The third Hill to become a world champion after his father Graham and an unrelated American named Phil. Damon’s time in Formula One was short and successful. Hill did not make his debut – for an uncompetitive Brabham team – until he was 31 and then, within a year, found himself driving a race-winning Williams alongside Alain Prost.

In four years at Williams, he flourished, taking 21 grands prix victories, 20 pole positions and a memorable world title in 1996, after his nemesis Michael Schumacher departed for Ferrari. Even in his last few seasons further down the grid with Arrows and Jordan, he showed flashes of true greatness.

18. Nico Rosberg

Championships: 2016

Wins: 23 (11.2%)

Pole positions: 30 (14.6%)

Nico Rosberg repeated the feat of the man one spot below him on this list to become the second son of a world champion to win a title, 20 years after Hill’s glory. Like Hill, Rosberg’s wins were accumulated in a short period, but he made the most of it, coming out with the 2016 championship.

Yes, you could argue the Mercedes was by far the best car on the grid in his peak years and that he benefited from his teammate Hamilton’s misfortune in Malaysia 2016. That is true, but the fact he went up against Hamilton for four seasons and won as often as he did is why he makes it this high. A largely underrated champion.

Nico Rosberg celebrates with Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

17. Nelson Piquet

Championships: 1981, 1983, 1987

Wins: 23 (11.3%)

Pole positions: 24 (11.8%)

While the 1980s ended with another Brazilian at the front of the pack, it started with another vying for top honours – Nelson Piquet. He missed out on a first title to Alan Jones in 1980, with two retirements in the final two races, as the Australian won both.

Piquet then corrected that with three titles in the following seven seasons for Brabham (1981, 1983) and then Williams (1987), the final year before McLaren’s domination began with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. His time at Williams was defined by a bitter and intense rivalry with Nigel Mansell and while the Briton had the edge overall, it was Piquet who won a title.

16. Mika Hakkinen

Championships: 1998, 1999

Wins: 20 (12.4%)

Pole positions: 26 (16%)

Mika Hakkinen’s career was a tale of two parts. It began with promise at Lotus and McLaren, before the Woking team delivered a championship-winning car in 1998, thanks to Adrian Newey. His early years were spent in the shadow of his junior rival Schumacher, who was winning races and titles with Benetton.

It should have been no surprise that, when he had the machinery, he delivered two consecutive world titles. This was the man, remember, who out-qualified Senna on his McLaren debut in 1993. He was not just blindingly quick over one lap and had exceptional racecraft. Watch his daring overtake of Schumacher in the 2000 Belgian Grand Prix for proof of that.

15. Fernando Alonso

Championships: 2005, 2006

Wins: 32 (7.5%)

Pole positions: 22 (5.1%)

In another world, Alonso would have won four world championships and have 60-odd grands prix to his name – and would be much higher on this list. As it is, he is stuck with two titles and 32 wins, a fair return but not on his talent. He was either in the right team at the wrong time or the wrong team at the wrong time.

He turns 45 this year and is still operating at a high level. Longevity is one thing, but surely no other driver has been as consistently quick for as long as the Spaniard. Or as motivated. Reaching the landmark of 500 grands prix is unlikely, as are his chances of adding another title or race victory.

Fernando Alonso celebrates his 100th podium in F1. Photo / Supplied

14. Sir Stirling Moss

Championships: 0 (Runner-up in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958)

Wins: 16 (24.2%)

Pole positions: 16 (24.2%)

The finest driver never to have won a world championship, his record speaks for itself. As was the case in our Greatest British Drivers list last year, Moss is the highest-ranked non-champion for that reason.

In his finest period, he finished second in the championship four times in a row, thrice to Fangio and once to Mike Hawthorn. That was followed by three third places in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Across those seven seasons, he took all his 16 victories from 51 starts, meaning he won almost a quarter of the races he started across his career. Unlucky? Perhaps, but this is hardly a bad career by anyone’s standards.

13. Sebastian Vettel

Championships: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Wins: 53 (17.7%)

Pole positions: 57 (19%)

Announced himself in Formula One while deputising for Robert Kubica in the 2007 United States Grand Prix, earning a points finish. One year later, he stood atop the podium for Toro Rosso at Monza after a calm performance in atrocious conditions. What followed at Red Bull was unprecedented success that peaked with nine wins in a row to round off his fourth and final championship.

Despite winning four titles, Vettel’s reputation and record suffered (correctly) because of what happened after his peak of 2009-2013. The regulations changed in 2014 and the German was outdone, comfortably, by new Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo. What followed was a brief renaissance at Ferrari, where he challenged Hamilton in 2017 and 2018 but fell short, largely through his own mistakes, before a mixed ending at Aston Martin.

Sebastian Vettel celebrates after finishing second in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 2015.

12. Sir Jack Brabham

Championships: 1959, 1960, 1966

Wins: 14 (11.4%)

Pole positions: 13 (10.5%)

His influence in Formula One extended beyond his exploits on the track, but his longevity, consistency and success put him up there with the best. His first two titles came for Cooper in 1959 and 1960, helped by a run of five wins in a row in the middle of the season for the second of his titles. After leaving Cooper, he set up a team in his own name alongside designer Ron Tauranac and succeeded there, too.

He won a total of seven grands prix for Brabham and with it came a third title in 1966, which included another run of four consecutive wins. There was nearly a fourth title in 1967, narrowly losing out to New Zealander Denny Hulme. Hulme was, at least, driving a Brabham.

The Australian GP trophy is named in honour of Sir Jack Brabham. Photo / Jeff Brass

11. Nigel Mansell

Championships: 1992

Wins: 31 (16.6%)

Pole positions: 32 (17.1%)

While British drivers appear frequently in this list, success in the 1980s and early 1990s was rarer. In fact, between James Hunt’s final win in 1977 and Mansell’s first in 1985, the only Briton to stand on the top step was John Watson, with four wins between 1981 and 1983. Mansell changed that dramatically.

There were near misses in 1986 and 1987 but after 21 wins to his name and no title, the prowess of the Williams FW14B helped him break his duck in style, with nine wins – eight of which were in the first 10 rounds. His bold, brave and dramatic style in the car won him fans across the sport, also winning over the tifosi in two years at Ferrari. When you consider who he was up against for much of his career, it adds further to his reputation.

Nigel Mansell racing at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix. Photo / Supplied

10. Alberto Ascari

Championships: 1952, 1953

Wins: 13 (40.6%)

Pole positions: 14 (43.8%)

Although both of Ascari’s Formula One titles were won under Formula Two regulations, the numbers behind them are remarkable. From 15 entries, Ascari, in his Ferrari 500, won 11, with the same number of pole positions and 10 fastest laps. Because of the way the scoring system worked, he scored 100% of the available points in 1952, and 95.8% the following year. He was almost unbeatable, so much so that Giuseppe Farina – the 1950 champion – barely laid a glove on him.

On these performances alone, Ascari would place higher on this list but, because of his death at Monza at the age of 36, his Formula One career is much shorter than others on this list, so we are left wondering what might have been.

9. Niki Lauda

Championships: 1975, 1977, 1984

Wins: 25 (14.6%)

Pole positions: 24 (14%)

Despite three world titles, Lauda’s most memorable season was one where he did not triumph. His horrific crash in the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring – and subsequent recovery to miss out on the title by just one point to Hunt – has endured as one of the sport’s defining moments. In the season-deciding race, Lauda pulled into the pits to retire in awful conditions at Fuji Speedway (“My life is worth more than a title”) and Hunt finished third to be crowned champion.

The success was plentiful, though, winning titles with Ferrari and McLaren – the only man to do so – and 25 grands prix across 13 seasons. While Lauda is most strongly associated with the Ferrari 312T in which he won his 1975 and 1977 titles, he ended a seven-year wait in 1984 to deny McLaren teammate Prost by half a point. A remarkable career.

Austrian Niki Lauda won three F1 championships. Photo / Photosport

8. Sir Jackie Stewart

Championships: 1969, 1971, 1973

Wins: 27 (27.3%)

Pole positions: 17 (17%)

When you think of dominance in Formula One, Stewart is probably not the first name that pops into your head. But in two of his three titles, his winning margins over the runner-up were 46.7 and 41.2%, the fifth and seventh largest margins. His golden period came with three titles across six seasons, delivering a total of 27 victories.

Stewart’s wins record of 27 stood for nearly 14 years, just shy of the time that Schumacher held the same record. Like many of his peers, his racing career was not a lengthy one – finishing in Formula One at 33 after nine seasons. Unlike many of his rivals, though, he had a say in the matter and went on to tell the tales of a more perilous time in the sport.

7. Max Verstappen

Championships: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

Wins: 71 (30%)

Pole positions: 48 (20.3%)

Despite all his recent success, Verstappen has not quite done enough to sneak into the top five. Like other drivers in this list, he racked up wins at a time when seasons were far longer than they were in the 1950s. Similarly, he achieved many of them in the best car. Verstappen is rightly rated highly because of his ability to get the best from a problematic car.

While his dominant season of 2023 (in which he won 19 of 22 grands prix) is statistically the finest season on record, the second half of 2025 was perhaps his finest period, when he dragged an underperforming Red Bull into the title battle and almost won. Like Schumacher and Senna, there is also a transgressive side that appears a little too often.

Max Verstappen won 19 of 22 F1 grands prix in 2023. Photo / Photosport

6. Alain Prost

Championships: 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993

Wins: 51 (25.6%)

Pole positions: 33 (16.4%)

Like others in this list, people will remember a defining rivalry with another great driver: in Prost’s case, Senna. It is still Formula One’s greatest battle, containing several of the sport’s most memorable and controversial moments. However, the Frenchman was more than just this rivalry. For nine seasons from 1983, he won three of his four titles and 39 races from 127 entries, at a rate of more than 30%.

Stiffer competition came with Senna’s arrival at McLaren in 1988 – the Brazilian took the title that year, yet Prost scored more points as only the best 11 results counted. Why is Prost below Senna in this list then? The difference is almost intangible, a coin toss maybe. Senna’s far superior qualifying record and his ultimate peak performance mean he edges it.

5. Ayrton Senna

Championships: 1988, 1990, 1991

Wins: 41 (25.5%)

Pole positions: 65 (40.4%)

When sifting through Senna’s numbers, one statistic stands out above the rest: that he took pole position roughly four times out of 10 across his entire 162-race Formula One career. Nobody who raced in Formula One after 1968 comes close to that; the next best is Hamilton at 27.2%. His 1988 Monaco pole lap is the finest example of his talents at wringing the neck of any car.

There was, like many in this list, an uncompromising side that showed itself in questionable actions (Japan 1990), but the good far outweighed the bad. Senna still inspires the idolisation of the modern Formula One drivers more than 30 years after his death at Imola. Part of his legend is, of course, because he died during a race. The other parts are based on his tremendous success and his formidable presence in and out of the car. While he had a reputation for being combustible and confrontational, especially compared to Prost, he was as dedicated and technically minded as anyone.

Ayrton Senna had a knack for landing pole position.

4. Jim Clark

Championships: 1963, 1965

Wins: 25 (34.7%)

Pole positions: 33 (48.8%)

What record might Clark have finished his career with had he not died in a Formula Two race at Hockenheim in 1968? Post Fangio and Ascari, nobody comes close to matching his 34.7% win percentage, the closest being Verstappen at 30.1%. Likewise, only Senna is within 5% of his pole percentage of 45.8.

Despite only competing in 73 races, he still holds the record for most grand slams (pole, win, fastest lap) with eight, two more than either Hamilton or Verstappen. Respected by his peers and rivals on and off the track, his extraordinary smoothness at the wheel was the key to his speed.

3. Lewis Hamilton

Championships: 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Wins: 105 (27.3%)

Pole positions: 104 (27.1%)

There are a few reasons why Hamilton does not sit at the top of this list. The first is that the most successful does not directly translate into the greatest. It is, though, closely correlated. Of all the staggering feats that Hamilton has achieved in Formula One, the most impressive is coming within a point of claiming the world championship in his debut year, with Alonso as a teammate. He righted that particular wrong the next season, winning in fashion as dramatic as when he lost the year before.

As impressive as the Mercedes was at the start of the turbo-hybrid era, Hamilton’s superb form barely wavered, despite internal pressure from a motivated Rosberg. It is not easy to deliver the goods for such a prolonged period of time. Few can have been better in wet weather, too. A drop-off in form post-2021 has dented his reputation, but nothing will take away from his seven titles. As with other drivers in this list, it could have been more.

Britain's Lewis Hamilton has seven titles. Photo / Photosport

2. Michael Schumacher

Championships: 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004

Wins: 91 (29.6%)

Pole positions: 68 (22.1%)

There is little to separate Schumacher and Hamilton in the final reckoning. What makes the difference is the quality of car Schumacher had in his championship-challenging years was not quite what Hamilton had beneath him. More often, Schumacher found something from a difficult car to drive. Like Hamilton, from the moment he stepped into a Formula One car he looked like a world champion in waiting.

After two titles at Benetton in 1994 and 1995, Schumacher’s most memorable years were when he took Ferrari to five consecutive double titles, having arrived at the end of 1995, a season in which they won one race. The transformation was remarkable and he played a significant role in that. The German’s raw speed was tremendous, but the application and dedication to the cause has arguably never been beaten, before or after his 19 years in the sport.

Michael Schumacher at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2006. Photo / Photosport

1. Juan Manuel Fangio

Championships: 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957

Wins: 24 (47.1%)

Pole positions: 29 (56.9%)

The biggest problem with any ranking is how difficult it is to compare eras. While Hamilton and Senna are broadly comparable, Formula One was such a different sport in the 1950s. It did not have the depth of talent it does now, but Fangio raced against many other champions and greats and came out on top more often than not. What cannot be disputed is his statistical dominance.

Looking at the numbers proportionally rather than totally, Fangio is better than anyone: he won five titles in eight seasons, took pole 56.9% of the time and won more than 47% of the races he entered. No other driver, modern or otherwise, comes close. Add in that for most of his career he was in his 40s, and that the risk of death was higher then. He won his five titles with four different teams. He still stands atop the sport, even when his records have been broken.

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