The runner-up position goes to German race car driver Michael Schumacher. A seven-time Formula One World Champion, Michael Schumacher is regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in history, and the most successful of the modern era. He was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year twice, and holds many F1 records, including most championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, and most races won in a single season. In 2002, Michael Schumacher became the only driver in F1 history to finish in the top three in every race of a season, and broke the record for most consecutive podium finishes.
According to the official Formula One website, Michael Schumacher is "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen." Sadly, in December 2013, Michael Schumacher suffered a serious head injury while skiing. Doctors put him in a medically induced coma, telling the world's media that he suffered a traumatic brain injury. Michael Schumacher is now paralyzed and in a wheelchair, bringing a sad end to his illustrious driving career. Brazilian race car legend Ayrton Senna da Silva won three Formula One world championships before he was killed on the track while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
During his career, Senna was one of the most dominant and successful Formula One drivers of the modern era. He is considered by many racing enthusiasts as the greatest driver of all time. Sadly, he is the most recent driver to have been killed in a Formula One World Championship event.
Ayrton Senna made his Formula One debut in 1984, and won six Grand Prix races in his first three seasons as a driver. In 1988, he won all but one of the 16 Grand Prix and accomplished his first World Championship. His rivalry with Alain Prost during this period dominated global motorsport. From 1989 until 2006, Senna held the record for most pole positions, and he is the third most successful driver of all time in terms of race wins.
A legend in his native England, Nigel Mansell won both the Formula One World Championship in 1992 and the CART Indy Car World Series in 1993. He was the reigning F1 champion when he moved to CART, becoming the first person to win the CART title in his debut season, and making him the only person to hold both titles simultaneously. Equally impressive is the fact that Nigel Mansell's career in Formula One racing lasted 15 seasons, with his final two full seasons spent in the CART series. Mansell is seventh overall on the Formula One race winners list, and held the record for the most number of poles set in a single season, which was broken in 2011. Since his retirement, Nigel Mansell has been named one of the top five Formula One drivers of all time. In 2008, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network named him one of their top drivers ever.
He has also been ranked number nine among the 50 greatest race car drivers of all time by the Times of London newspaper. In 2005, Nigel Mansell came out of retirement to race in the Grand Prix Masters series, and he won the championship. He was inducted to the International Motorsport Hall of Fame later that year. Foyt is one of the best American race car drivers of all time—distinguished by the fact that he raced in several different genres of motorsport. He also raced stock cars in NASCAR, and holds the USAC career wins record with 159 victories, and the American championship racing career wins record with 67 first place trophies.
Additionally, Super Tex is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 , the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A.J. Foyt also won the International Race of Champions all-star racing series in 1976 and 1977. In NASCAR, he won the 1964 Firecracker 400 and the 1972 Daytona 500. This incredible run was punctuated by the fact that Super Tex survived three serious crashes during his career that left him with lifelong injuries.
Lewis Hamilton, in full Lewis Carl Hamilton, , British race-car driver who was one of the most successful Formula One Grand Prix racing drivers of all time. He owns the F1 record for career race victories and is tied with Michael Schumacher for the most drivers' championships . In 2008 he became the first Black driver to win the F1 world drivers' championship.
A pure NASCAR driver, Richard Petty, nicknamed "The King," raced in the Grand National era of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He won the NASCAR Championship a record seven times , and won a record 200 races during his career. Richard Petty also won the Daytona 500 a record seven times, and won a record 10 consecutive races in the 1967 season. Statistically, Richard Petty is the most accomplished driver in the history of NASCAR, and he remains one of the most respected figures in motorsport.
His other accomplishments included winning a record number of pole positions and over 700 Top 10 finishes in his 1,184 starts, including 513 consecutive starts from 1971 to 1989. Richard Petty was a member of the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2010. Statistically, German Michael Schumacher is the greatest F1 driver, with seven world championships, including most constructers titles, race victories, pole positions, points scored and biggest title winning margins. He has won the most races in a single season—and remains the only F1 driver to have a full season of podium finishes in 2002. 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 .
A four-time Formula One Champion, Prost has the second most F1 titles of all time. And, from 1987 until 2001, he held the record for most Grand Prix victories in history. However, Prost also enjoyed a number of classic rivalries with other drivers during the 1980s and 1990s, notably with Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell. In 1986, during the last race of the season, he beat Mansell to the Formula One championship. An instinctive driver, Prost was known for his smooth, relaxed style behind the wheel. Nicknamed "The Professor" for his intellectual approach to racing, in 1999 Prost received the World Sports Awards of the Century in the motorsport category.
France's Alain Prost (No. 6) won a grand total of four championships in his career, tied for the third most ever. But from 1988 to 1991, he would claim only a single title, thanks largely to the otherworldly skills of Ayrton Senna (No. 1), his one-time McLaren teammate. Senna won more than 40 percent of the races he entered during that span, peaking with one of the highest Elo ratings ever in 1989. Senna was so dominant that Prost ended up leaving McLaren for Ferrari in 1990; the rivalry would continue off and on for the next few seasons until Prost retired after his 1993 championship. Prost was a once-in-a-generation driving talent, but he had the misfortune to race against Senna, a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
The coolest character on the grid has always been Räikkönen's title, but he did also win the 2007 world drivers' championship by a single point over Hamilton and Alonso in one of the closest seasons of racing in Formula 1's history. Although he hasn't tasted title success since, he remains an F1 driver with Alfa Romeo and with a career stretching across 335 races – the most of any Formula 1 driver. Kimi has won 21 grands prix in his career, the last coming in the 2019 Italian Grand Prix during his final season at Ferrari. Here, you will find the Formula 1 records for most championships race wins, pole positions, race entries for both teams and individuals. If you want to know more about the youngest drivers to win championships, races, points and podiums, read our article here.
Born in 17 April 1954 in Padua, Italy Patrese raced in F1 from 1977 to 1993. After two seasons at Ferrari, Patrese was partnered with Nigel Mandell at Williams in 1991. The Ferrari team back then was a team that was expected to contest for both the drivers' and constructors' championships. Back to back wins in Mexico and Portugal gave Patrese his most competitive ever F1 season but the Italian never managed to threaten Mansell. Williams completely dominated the 1992 season and Patrese continued to deliver in his role of second driver, even moving out of the way for Mansell while leading comfortably at that year's French Grand Prix.
At the end of the year, Patrese took only one win at the Japanese Grand Prix and had eight other podium finishes, meanwhile Mansell recorded nine wins en-route to dominating the championship. An underrated driver in our view, Jeff Gordon deserves inclusion on this list for both his wins and style. A passionate, no holds barred racer, Jeff Gordon is one of the premier NASCAR drivers of all time with 88 wins, four championship titles, and three Daytona 500 cups to his name. Many critics claim he needs a fifth NASCAR title to enter the conversation as one of the best drivers in history. However, Gordon likely would have more championships to his name if it weren't for constantly changing rules and gimmicky racing formats meant to draw in larger television audiences.
Nevertheless, Jeff Gordon has been one of the most entertaining NASCAR drivers throughout his career and has a flare and competitiveness for racing that is all his own. And, as with any sport, fans of race cars love to discuss who is the greatest driver of all time. Whether Formula One or NASCAR, fans of racing hotly debate the merits of various drivers—their championships, rivalries and the trophies that got away. Here at Goliath, we're passionate about race car driving too and have some opinions of our own on who is the greatest driver in history. Over the next four seasons with Benetton he won a further 18 races and two world championships. His first, in 1994, was somewhat tainted in that Benetton was suspected of technical irregularities and in their championship showdown race in Adelaide Schumacher collided with the car of his closest challenger, the Williams of Damon Hill.
But Germany's first world champion was unquestionably worthy of the 1995 driving title, following which he moved to Ferrari, then a team in disarray and without a champion since Jody Scheckter in 1979. As punishment for his misdemeanour Schumacher's points and his second place in the championship were stricken from the record books he would thereafter begin to rewrite. He attended the last race of his career in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix and finished in 14th place. He won 91 races in total in his successful career which includes most of the major championships with the fastest laps and highest pole positions along with 72 Grand Prix victories. While the family's financial struggle was over it put extra pressure on McLaren's teenage protege to meet ever higher expectations. As well as having to respond to envious critics who claimed he should be winning all the time, given his funding, it was imperative that Lewis continually prove himself worthy of his benefactor's investment.
The need to achieve undoubtedly accelerated his progress through motorsport's ranks. After winning eight championships in six years of kart racing, he went on to win three major single seater titles, the most prestigious of which was the GP2 championship, where in 2006 he took five victories from 21 starts. But it was the young British charger's several spirited comeback performances, from the back of the pack to the podium, that particularly prompted McLaren to promote him to the Formula One team. Clark set 33 pole positions and won 25 of the 72 GP starts he made, and can claim numerous records to this day – in 1963, for example, he led 71 per cent of all laps raced that season. As well as his versatility, Clark was revered for his incredible silkiness behind the wheel, and his extraordinary mechanical sympathy. "Jim Clark was everything I aspired to be, as a racing driver and as a man," his great friend Sir Jackie Stewart said.
Peugeot broke the Audi dominance one year later, before the German manufacturer returned to the front with a different car. Kristensen's last victory arrived in 2013 with the R18 e-tron quattro. He not only holds the record for the most Le Mans wins but also the most victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring, with six. Quite a career for arguably one of the world's greatest ever racing drivers. In the following seasons, though he continued to be one of the most aggressive drivers and a race winner, Hamilton failed to regain his championship form. His McLaren was not always a world-beater but in 2011 Hamilton blamed distractions in his private life for a loss of focus that he vowed to regain.
In 2012, with his private life running smoothly, he drove hard and well and finished fourth in the standings with four wins. Before that campaign was over he announced he was leaving McLaren, the team that had been so much a part of his racing life for so long, and would in 2013 replace the retiring Michael Schumacher at Mercedes. In his new environment he was a regular frontrunner, securing several poles and podiums and finished a respectable fourth in the 2013 championship. After finishing second overall in 1998, Schumacher's 1999 season was interrupted by a broken leg incurred in a crash at the British Grand Prix.
From then on there was no stopping 'Schumi' - who in 2000 became Ferrari's first champion in 21 years, then went on to win the driving title for the next four years in succession. In 2002 he won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races. In 2003 he broke Fangio's record by winning his sixth driving title. In 2004 he won 13 of the 18 races to win his seventh championship by a by a massive margin. But the Grandfather of Formula one racing is Juan Manuel Fangio—the Argentinean genius to whom all great drivers are compared.
He won five World championships, including four consecutive titles from 1954 to 1957. He won his titles with four different teams, and while he only achieved 24 wins, a number surpassed by many drivers, he accomplished this in just 51 races, a strike rate unmatched by any other driver in history. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, it was common for racing drivers to compete in many different championships, from Le Mans and sports cars to F1 and F2.
He made 57 starts in F1 from 1968 to 1976 for a number of small teams, scoring 12 points and one podium at the 1970 Monaco GP. Button's fellow Brit, Lewis Hamilton, is one of the most recognisable F1 drivers to those outside the racing world. Hamilton made his F1 debut at age 22, and has seen an extremely successful career ever since. He's also had many connections to other celebrities such as Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls, has a wax replica of him at Madame Tussauds and was also spotted last year with the likes of Kendall Jenner and Pharrell Williams. In subsequent seasons with McLaren, Hamilton continued to be one of the top drivers on the F1 circuit, winning two races in 2009, three in 2010, three in 2011, and four in 2012. In September 2012 Hamilton decided to leave McLaren to join the Mercedes-Benz F1 team.
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". On a wet to drying track wheel-to-wheel battles raged throughout the field, beginning with Hamilton pushing aside his polesitting Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg on the opening lap. He made a 46 years unbeaten record by winning the most World Championship of Drivers starting from 1951 and then 4 consecutive times from 1954 to 1957. With 24 wins, 29 highest pole positions, 35 podiums, 245 career points, and 23 fastest laps, he decorated his career with the greatest possible success. As of the 2021 season, out of the 770 drivers who started a Grand Prix, there have been 34 F1 World Drivers' Champions. The first F1 World Drivers' Champion was Giuseppe Farina in the 1950 championship and the current title holder is Max Verstappen in the 2021 season.
The title has been won by drivers from the United Kingdom 20 times between 10 drivers, more than any other nation, followed by Brazil, Finland and Germany with three drivers each. The Scuderia Ferrari team have the highest number of drivers' titles per squad with 15 between 9 competitors, followed by McLaren with 12 titles between 7 drivers. The Drivers' Championship has been won in the final race of the season 30 times in the 72 seasons it has been awarded. Schumacher holds the record of earning the championship with most Grands Prix left to run in a season with six when he won the 2002 title at that year's French Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher is a retired German racing driver who raced in Formula One for Jordan Grand Prix.
He is considered to be the most successful driver in the history of the sport and he holds the records for the most World Championship titles. Born in 25 February 1944 at Paris, France, the Frenchman had 47 races to his name. Cevert was active from the year 1970 to 1973 and partenered Jackie Stewart at Tyrell. The Frenchman finished second in France and Germany, both times behind leader Stewart. Then, in the season-ending United States Grand Prix at the newly extended Watkins Glen race course, the Frenchman earned his first and only Grand Prix win. From there on, Leading up to the final race of the 1973 season, Cevert had finished second six times, three times behind Stewart.
But with Stewart having already clinched his third world championship, Cevert unfortunately died during Saturday morning qualifying while battling for pole position with Ronnie Peterson. In the 1950s, El Maestro won five world championships with four different teams and won 24 of the 52 races he participated. In Argentina, he was considered a national hero, and a museum was opened in his name. Widely considered one of the greatest drivers in Formula One history, Sebastian Vettel holds a number of records, including most podium finishes and most consecutive race wins.
Sebastian has a unique habit of naming his cars as he feels it is important to share a close relationship with the cars that he drives. Hamilton progressed to car racing, and in 2003 he captured the British Formula Renault race series championship by winning 10 of the 15 races he entered. The following year he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries championship.
He won the championship in 2005, and in 2006 he joined a team competing in GP2 —a race series designed to help drivers prepare for F1—and won the GP2 title in his one season in the series. From his outstanding win in 1985 to the emotional victory in 1992, Nigel Mansell managed to garner a total of 32 wins during his run. With his net worth estimated at $90M, Nigel Mansell did indeed have a successful racing career. Young Fernando Alonso had a passion for racing from an early age as his father built a go-kart. Since then, the young driver dreamed of real racing cars and big victories. It is worth noting that Alonso gained the greatest popularity by winning two world championships with Renault.
