The 9 most dominant F1 world champions

Alberto Ascari (1952)

It took only three years for Formula 1 to get its first experience of a dominant champion. Following two final race deciders in 1950 and 1951, Alberto Ascari, at the wheel of Ferrari 500 which was perfectly suited to that year's regulations, won six races in a row to steam roll the competition in the eight-race championship. The great Italian’s season began with a retirement at the Indy 500, but from then on, he was utterly unbeatable. He lapped the entire field at the Belgian and French Grands Prix, and won races with a margin of more than a minute on two other occasions. Dominant is the only word for it.

Juan Manuel Fangio (1955)

The great Argentine racer was known for his imperious driving ability that was simply a class above almost all of his contemporaries. So it’s not exactly a surprise that the great Argentine racer was a dominant force for four consecutive years from 1954-1957. But it was the 1955 season that was, according to his points margin at least, his most dominant. Of the six races he entered in the seven-race season, Fangio took four victories and scored almost double the points of his nearest rival, Stirling Moss.

Jim Clark (1963)

There’s a reason Jim Clark is considered by so many historians of motorsport to be the very best driver that ever lived, and we’re pretty sure that reputation would live on regardless of his two world championship wins. Of course, the fact he was so good meant it was inevitable that, even as he wrestled with often hugely unreliable Lotus machinery, he still ended up with two drivers’ titles. And in both cases, they were hugely dominant campaigns. Back in those days, due to poor reliability, only a drivers’ best six scores were counted towards their championship total. In 1963, Clark took seven wins to guarantee himself the title. What says dominance like winning more races than is necessary?

Jackie Stewart (1971)

Another hugely successful Scot, and a man that single-handedly changed the face of F1 forever. While Jackie Stewart wasn’t perhaps known for his prodigious talent and speed in the same way Jim Clark was, he was still an immensely fast driver with a feel for the car that would see him finish races far more often than many of his competitors. The 1971 season was arguably Stewart’s most dominant. Driving in a class of his own, he took six wins, and one further second place, while the five races he didn’t win were shared between five other drivers. This gave him a huge margin in the championship, which he won with three races to spare with almost double the points of his closest rival, Ronnie Peterson. Stewart’s dominance was underlined by the performance of his hugely talented team mate Francois Cevert, who himself was only able to muster a single win.

Nigel Mansell (1992)

Throughout the first 40 years of Formula 1 history, championships would be decided with one or maybe very rarely two races to spare. In fact, up until 1992, the earliest an F1 would championship had been won was with three races to spare (refer to Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart above). So when Nigel Mansell began the ’92 season with five consecutive victories in the hugely superior Williams FW14B, it was more of a case of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ he would win the championship. With a further second place in Monaco during that oh so famous duel with Ayrton Senna, a retirement in Canada, and three more wins, Mansell wrapped up the title in Hungary, with five races still to run. In total, Mansell racked up nine wins during the season, and a late run of reliability troubles was ultimately inconsequential, only stopping the Brit from completing what would have been one of the most dominant championship-winning seasons of all time.

Michael Schumacher (2002)

It would be another ten years before we saw Mansell’s record-breaking season bettered. It took a few years for the Michael Schumacher-Ferrari combination to click, but when it did it ushered in a period of dominance never before seen in F1. He took nine wins in 2000 and 2001, but it wasn’t until the 2002 season that we saw the peak of Ferrari’s dominance. The fact Schumacher won the first race of the year driving the previous years’ F2001 says everything you need to know about the gulf between Ferrari and the rest. He proceeded to finish on the podium in every single race, with 11 wins, five second places and one third, accruing 144 points, 67 ahead of his team mate Rubens Barichello. The championship was over with six races to go, but that wasn’t even Schumacher’s most successful season. In 2004, the great German took 13 victories, but the updated scoring system (which gave 8 points for second place instead of 6 in 2002) meant the championship appeared closer on paper.

Sebastian Vettel (2013)

Following Ferrari’s five-year period of dominance, it wasn’t until 2010 that we would see another team run away from the rest of the field. This time it was the rise of Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel. The young German had already broken all kinds of records because of his age, but in 2013 he won 13 races, matching Schumacher’s tally from 2002. But this was by no means a cut and dried championship win, even at the half-way stage when Vettel retired at the British Grand Prix. What happened next, though, was perhaps the most incredible run of races F1 has ever seen. He won in Germany, took third in Hungary, and then went on to demolish the rest of the grid with a run of nine straight victories. It was, quite frankly, ridiculous, but the context of his team mate Mark Webber finishing up almost 200 points behind in the championship tells you everything you need to know.

Lewis Hamilton (2020)

As Red Bull met its demise at the dawn of the hybrid era, many may have been hoping that the sport may open up again following a run of nine races with the same winner. However, just as Red Bull had done in 2010, Mercedes stepped in to pick up the mantle and became just as dominant, if not more so. The Silver Arrows were practically unbeatable, and it was only due to in-fighting between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg (and Valtteri Bottas to some extent) that we had a championship battle at all. However, that changed in 2020, when Hamilton hit a new level as F1 was rocked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bottas drove well to win the opening race of the season, but from then on Hamilton was virtually unbeatable as he claimed 11 wins and bagged the championship with three races to spare. He won the title with a margin of more than 100 points, even after contracting Covid himself and missing the Sakhir Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen (2022)

This season isn’t even finished yet, but there’s a very strong chance it could become a record-breaking year for Max Verstappen. After an awful start that saw him struggle with reliability issues, it looked as though it would be Charles Leclerc in the hot seat for the title. Since then, Verstappen has been operating on his very own level, and became the 2022 F1 world champion in Suzuka with four races to spare. So far, he’s taken 12 victories, but looks set to break the record of 13 wins in a season currently shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. But beyond the number of wins, it’s the manner of his performances that have highlighted the dominance of the Verstappen-Red Bull partnership. He started tenth in Hungary, and last in Spa, but on both occasions, he obliterated the field to win by huge margins. Verstappen’s 2022 season has no doubt been one of the best driver performances of all time.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.