Pedro Oliveira
One of the most prestigious aspects that characterize Formula 1 as the world’s most popular and elite motorsports’ competition is the presence of the teams, which carry with them the honor and efficiency of the brand defended by their drivers on the track through every circuit contested.
Thanks to their presence in motorsports, their own brands have become much more popular and successful simply because they belong to Formula 1, where the innovation of the engines, in conjunction with the chassis of the car, and the skill of the driver will be the key to being crowned world champion.
On this occasion, we present the five F1 teams with the most world championships in the history of the top category of motorsport since its inception in 1950.
5. Lotus
The fifth position of the F1 teams with the most world championships goes to one of the most classic car manufacturers in Europe and Formula 1: Lotus. This team joined the competition during the Monaco Grand Prix in 1958, and got its first world championship only 5 years later with Jim Clarke, who also won the Driver’s Championship, after winning 7 out of the 10 Grand Prix contested.
The British team would be one of the most dominant during the 60s and early 70s, achieving between both decades a total of 7 Constructors’ Championships and 6 Drivers’s Championships. However, in 1973, Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson were in second and third place respectively to secure the world title for their team (Jackie Stewart, with Tyrrell, was proclaimed the World Champion).
Jim Clark (twice), Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Fittipaldi, and Mario Andretti were the drivers in charge of bringing honors to the team, winning at least one Drivers’ Championship each. Lotus stopped racing after failing to achieve success from the late 1970s until its last season in 1994, where the team’s debts forced it to be handed over to a third party to manage.
It would reappear in 2010 under the pseudonym “Team Lotus” and would undergo through several changes until it became what we know today: BWT Alpine F1 Team.
4. Mercedes-AMG
Mercedes-AMG is one of the franchises with the most complicated history in Formula 1 and the fourth on our list of F1 teams with the most world championships. Although Mercedes joined F1 as a team in 1954 and won the championship both in its debut and in 1955 with the Argentinean legend Juan Manuel Fangio, the team would abandon all activity in automotive tournaments after the tragedy of Le Mans.
The German team would return in 1994 in charge of engines and internal mechanics of the cars: they worked for numerous teams such as Sauber, McLaren, Brawn, and several others. While working for other teams they won: the Drivers’ Championships in 1998 and 1999 (Mika Häkkinen), in 2008 (Lewis Hamilton), and 2009 (Jensen Button); and in 1998 and 2008, McLaren and Brawn won the Constructors’ Championship with Mercedes engines.
The team started to compete as an independent team in 2014, and since then it has dominated the Formula 1 scene: they achieved 8 consecutive Constructors’ Championships and 9 Drivers’ Championships (2 for Juan Manuel Fangio, 6 for Lewis Hamilton, and 1 for Nico Rosberg), placing them in the fourth place of the F1 teams with the most world championships.
3. McLaren
The second oldest continuing franchise since its beginning (1966), McLaren is perhaps the second most successful team in the history of the sport without including all its titles in total. But in terms of direct world championships the team is in third place with 8 titles (the same as Mercedes), the last one was achieved in 1998 by Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard (third place overall).
The most recent success of the English brand came in 2008, when Lewis Hamilton won his first Formula 1 World Championship representing McLaren, but the Constructors’ Championship went to Ferrari in that edition.
McLaren’s most successful period would come in the late 80s and early 90s, winning four consecutive championships: Ayrton Senna would win in 1988, 1990, and 1991; while Alain Prost would take the title in 1989, his third with McLaren after also winning in the 1983 and 1984 editions.
2. Williams
Despite having the most complicated and least successful present of all the teams in this ranking, at the time, Williams was the team to beat for several years in Formula 1: the team achieved 9 Constructors’ Championships, and it is quite true to say that it was the most successful team on the racing scene during the 80s (4 world titles and 3 driver’s titles) and the 90s (5 world titles and 4 driver’s titles).
Beginning its history on the tracks for the 1977 season, great names wore the uniform of the English team, starting with the first driver to bring glory to the team in 1980: the Australian Alan Jones.
In 1981, they won the Constructors’ Championship thanks to the positions of Jones and his teammate Carlos Reutemann. Keke Rosberg would be proclaimed champion driver wearing the Williams uniform in 1982, but Ferrari would end the season as the winner of the Constructors’ Championship. They would regain the throne among teams in 1986 thanks to the performances of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, who would win the title as drivers in 1987 and help Williams to defend its title in the same year consecutively.
Mansell would also win his world title as a driver with Williams, in 1992, securing the team’s fifth world title by that time, and would win all the others until 1997 (1995 being the only exception, with Michael Schumacher and Benetton winning). Alain Prost (1993), Damon Hill (1994 the Constructors’, 1996 the Drivers’ and the Constructors’) and finally, in 1997 with Jacques Villeneuve, who is the last to win the championship for both the franchise and any driver representing it. At this point, Williams became the team with the most championships up to that time.
1. Ferrari
The most classic and recognized team worldwide, the Italian motor racing giant was one of the founding fathers of the competition and is at the top of our list of F1 teams with the most world championships. Indeed, it is the oldest team, as it has participated in all the editions of Formula 1 since its beginning.
For the same reason, Ferrari is also the franchise with the most world championships, having tied Williams’ record in 1999, and surpassing it by far from the 2000s onwards, finishing with a total of 15 world titles as a team.
Ferrari has 16 world championships. In the 1950s they won at the hands of Alberto Ascari (2 times), Juan Manuel Fangio, and Mike Hawthorn. In the 1960s, Phil Hill (1961) and John Surtees (1964) would bring the trophies home (plus their first two world championships as a team). And, in the 1970s, they would be successful again, winning 4 Constructors’ and 3 Drivers’ Championships at the hands of Nicki Lauda (1975 and 1977), and Jody Scheckter (1979).
The 80s and 90s were the most difficult times in the 20th century for the Italians, winning only 3 world titles as a team in 20 years (1982 thanks to the performances of Didier Pironi and Patrick Tambay, 1983 thanks to the latter and René Arnoux, and in 1999 with Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher), but none individually.
Fortunately, Schumacher would go on to become one of the best drivers in history, winning 5 collective and individual world championships for Ferrari from 2000 to 2005 and placing the Italian company at the top of motorsport history. The last driver to win a world champion title for the team was Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. And the last two titles after the Schumacher era that saw Ferrari established as a world champion team were in 2007 and 2008 thanks to the combination of Kimi and Brazilian Felipe Massa.
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