The mark of a ‘true great’? The 10 drivers who won titles when their teams failed to · RaceFans

As Fernando Alonso never fails to remind us, winning the drivers’ championship is all about having the best car.

So as you’d expect, most F1 drivers who won the championship did so in a car which also won the constructors’ title in the same year.

But not always: Since the constructors’ trophy was first awarded in 1958, eight years after the championship began, 10 drivers have won the title on occasions where their team did not take the crown.

It’s set to happen again this year. With six rounds remaining, Max Verstappen is on course to win the drivers’ title, but his Red Bull team lost the constructors’ championship lead to McLaren two races ago and have already fallen 41 points behind them.

Is winning the championship in a car which failed to take the teams’ title the ultimate achievement for an F1 driver? Here’s which drivers pulled off the feat in the past, and what it tells us about their performances.

Mike Hawthorn

1958 drivers’ champion with Ferrari while Vanwall won constructors’ championship

F1’s first constructors’ title went to a team whose driver did not win the world championship. Indeed, no driver ever took the title at the wheel of a Vanwall, as Tony Vandervell wound down his team following the death of Stuart Lewis-Evans, who suffered terrible burns in a crash at the season finale.

The same race saw Ferrari’s Mike Hawthorn clinch the championship by finishing second, despite having only won one race all year, at Reims in France. Stirling Moss took his fourth victory of the season that day (the first of which he’d taken in a Cooper as Vanwall missed the season-opening Argentinian Grand Prix).

Famously, Moss might have been champion had he not sportingly intervened on Hawthorn’s behalf when he was initially disqualified from second place in the Portuguese Grand Prix, urging stewards to reinstate him. Hawthorn’s steady points accumulation eventually did for Moss, whose team mate Tony Brooks also won three times. The speed of the Vanwalls ensured they claimed the title in the days when only one of a team’s cars scored constructors’ points.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Jackie Stewart

1973 drivers’ champion with Tyrrell while Lotus won constructors’ championship

While Jackie Stewart clinched his third and final…