Who are the F1 drivers with remarkable stats, awe-inspiring race results and mega drives? So let us assume if someone was to ask you as to which drivers’ dominance has actually lifted the standing or nature of the sport itself? Don’t we all have our favourites? For sure, we shall continue to have them. But then stats tell a success story better than how raw emotions ever could or will. Wouldn’t you agree? Let us, therefore, without batting an eyelid delve into moving and uplifting success stories of two remarkable talents; F1 drivers with most championships. Should, hopefully speaking, be a fun read, this one!
Michael Schumacher
7 world titles and not just 91 race wins but 155 podiums
There are drivers. There are great drivers. But icons, only a few, whose sublime race craft and sheer talent has afforded them headlines around the world and powerfully so. Michael Schumacher, the greatest gift of Northrhine Westphalia, Germany to the tectonic world of F1 racing is that. Just that. When the famous Hürth-born racing driver arrived in Formula 1, circa 1991, at the Belgian Grand Prix (which was won by Ayrton Senna back then), there was hardly a doubt about “Schumi’s race craft”.
With his light eyes, cool demeanour and this very indomitable vibe about him, you felt Schumacher wasn’t here to just win races; he wanted to dominate them. He always intended to destroy the small talks and the bickering that so often envelopes not just F1’s talents but the pitfalls.
Here was a driver, who looked the part of a world champion very early on in his career whilst being in the very same frame of timeless marvels of Grand Prix racing such as the great Senna. And then, post his Jordan-Ford and Benetton-Ford days, arrived the massive career jump in the form of a Ferrari seat.
Few have dominated the sport with the Maranello-based outfit with as much gravitas and soulfulness as the great Michael Schumacher. And yet, few have won without often deliberately crashing into their rivals. But hey, let us pause for a moment.
Michael Schumacher during his glorious Ferrari years not only became a synonym of speed or another name of sheer domination, he annihilated his competition. Such was his charisma, speed, and that priceless quality of getting the best out of the car.
After winning successive drivers’ championships with Mild Seven Benetton Ford in 1994 and 1995, respectively, the way this brave German carved a niche at Ferrari from the onset of 2000 is something that should be taught as an understudy in pure domination. From 2000 until the completion of 2004, there was, literally speaking, no other bloke ruling the tarmac or asphalt other than Michael Schumacher.
And today, we all pray for Schumacher’s speedy and overall recovery from the ill fated and unfortunate events that transpired in 2013 in the French Alps in that bizarre skiing incident.
Keep fighting, Michael. F1 prays for you every single day as do its countless fans who see in you an immortal of the sport; amongst the best there has ever been or will ever be!
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Sir Lewis Hamilton
7 world titles and not just 105 wins but 202 podiums
Statistically speaking, Sir Lewis Hamilton is the most successful driver in Formula 1 and that too, of all time. Or in other words, across any period of time. He has blazed a trail for countless others to follow. In a sport where greatness is a phrase often thrown around a bit casually, the Stevenage, UK-born does really epitomise greatness. His phenomenal race craft notwithstanding, Hamilton’s conduct on and off the tarmac has earned him plaudits from around the world and longstanding respect from a vast legion of Motorsport fanatics for whom the great Briton personifies greatness.
And why won’t that be, one asks?
From 2017 until 2020, he won four consecutive world titles with Mercedes prior to which, he had already claimed the drivers’ championship with the famed Silver Arrows outfit in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Even before he arrived at the famed Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team, a strategic career move which in later years one would find out to be a splendid decision, Hamilton was on the track, to win the track. The 2008 World Championship saw one of the fiercest contests ever between a McLaren and Ferrari driver, one wherein Lewis ensured that there would be no ‘red letter day’ for the Brazilian talent behind the force that Ferrari had been all season long.
That Lewis Hamilton, not knighted back then, but surely a tireless knight of the sport today, won the 2008 Drivers’ title by 1 single point goes to show his dominance and ability to lift his craft under pressure; the racing ace had claimed his then title by 1 point. Let that sink in. Even if that meant that the popular Brazilian driver Felipe Massa had a dagger-through-the-heart moment in losing what he had always felt was his crown for the taking.
But all of that said, the great of the sport is with Ferrari now. The Silvery touch now long behind him, Sir Lewis Hamilton is contesting with the bloodshot red passion. So far, 2025 has unfurled a P4 as his best result; a grid position that he would earn on more than just one occasion, his latest fourth-place finish coming at the Owen Wilson-land aka Texas during the recent US Grand Prix. Just a few days ago, Hamilton, a reputed and classy multiple world champion would stake his claim on another hard fought fourth position and in so doing usurped Charles Leclerc.
The big question, however, that remains is whether the 2020 World Champion- yes, he’s yet to actually lift another title since 2020 being his last- can claim a podium in 2025? Who wouldn’t want that, right Mr. Toto Wolff and Fred Vasseur?
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