Why Max Verstappen is so low in my all-time top 10 of F1 champions

Dutchman sealed fourth consecutive title in Las Vegas but still has work to do to make his way up my grid of Formula One greats

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Max Verstappen is a four-time world champion. But where will that rank him in the all-time list?
As ever with these rankings, they are entirely subjective and inherently flawed. How do you compare drivers across generations and different types of machinery? How would Lewis Hamilton have fared in the years when it was common for drivers to die while racing? How would Juan Manuel Fangio have fitted into a modern-day car? How do you balance the charisma of Ayrton Senna with the remorselessness of Michael Schumacher? You cannot. But it does make for an interesting discussion…
For clarity, we have included drivers only from the start of the F1 world championship in 1950, so no Tazio Nuvolari or Rudolf Caracciola.
One of the most inspirational figures in Formula One history as well as one of its greatest characters. Lauda, who died in 2019, won the world title three times before going on to become an entrepreneur who founded and ran three airlines. The Austrian was also instrumental in Hamilton’s shock move to Mercedes from McLaren in 2013, in his role as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-Benz motorsport. Lauda’s second and third world titles were all the more remarkable for the fact that they came after he survived a near-fatal accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix, which left him permanently disfigured.
Stewart won the world title three times in an era when many of his contemporaries met with death or horrific injury because of inadequate safety standards. Today’s drivers owe much to the bravery he exhibited on and off the track. Among other changes, Stewart helped to introduce larger run-off areas, better barriers, a dedicated medical unit, full-face helmets and seatbelts. Still campaigns for dyslexia, with which he was diagnosed aged 41, and dementia awareness, a condition with which his wife, Lady Helen, suffers, while continuing to work in the paddock at the age of 85.
Verstappen’s maiden title in 2021 was wildly controversial, but that was hardly his fault. Went toe-to-toe with Hamilton that year and did not back down one inch. In contrast, 2022 and 2023 were cakewalks, but he showed his consistency and increased maturity. The 2024 season has proved the Dutchman’s brilliance beyond doubt. Capitalised on his early-season speed advantage before producing mature, consistent drives in the second part of the year with a difficult car – thoroughly outclassing team-mate Sergio Pérez in the process. And as for that win in Brazil. Class. For some, Verstappen will always be tainted by the uncompromising way in which he races. But others, such as Senna and Schumacher, were the same and they always make these lists. Moving to another team and building another title-winning team around him would bump him up a few spots.
Famously never won a world title, but in a way that only adds to the Moss legend. No one disputes his brilliance behind the wheel. Or his sportsmanship. Moss’s gesture to intercede on rival Mike Hawthorn’s behalf in Portugal in 1958 was an act of largesse that ultimately ended up costing him that year’s championship. Defined an era. And what a character, too. Undeterred by a three-storey fall down a lift shaft in 2010, he continued to speak his mind until his death in 2020.
The Frenchman was, if anything, underrated. The most successful driver from an era which included Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna. Prost’s speed was one thing, but his brain was another. Nicknamed “The Professor”, much of his best work was done before the race weekend. And once there, he was super smooth. He now laments the fact that his rivalry with Senna is what he will be forever remembered for, but it was the greatest rivalry of all time.
Moss rated Fangio as the greatest of all time and the statistics certainly back him up. The Argentine still holds records for the highest percentage of races won and pole positions achieved, and was 46 when he won the last of his five world titles in 1957.
Perhaps the most controversial figure on this list – and that includes Schumacher. The Senna name has achieved almost mythical status in Formula One thanks to his exploits on the track, the intensity with which he raced, the charisma he exhibited, and the way he died, tragically, at Imola in 1994. The Brazilian was capable of the extraordinary, his qualifying lap at Monaco in 1988, his drive in the wet at Donington in 1993 for example, as well as the outright dangerous.
Although he became a villain in many eyes for the unedifying antics with Damon Hill in 1994 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997, Schumacher was an extraordinary driver. And it was not only in superior machinery either. The German’s ability to drive around a car’s problems, his fierce work ethic, his ability to build a team around him, his consistency behind the wheel, his genius in the wet, were all factors. Schumacher was the complete package, albeit flawed by his win-at-all-costs nature. Until Hamilton came along, most people thought his record of seven world titles and 91 race wins would never be surpassed.
Again, relying on the testimony of others here, but when those who raced with and against the Scot all line up to tell you he was the greatest, you have to listen. In an era of Stewart, Graham Hill, John Surtees and Sir Jack Brabham, the silky-smooth Clark was the undisputed champion. Won two world titles with Colin Chapman and Lotus before losing his life in a tragic Formula 2 accident at Hockenheim in 1968. Also won the Indianapolis 500 in 1965 with Lotus, becoming the first non-American winner of the race in 49 years.
It has become fashionable of late to criticise Hamilton and call him a has-been or a never-was; someone who relied on superior machinery to win his seven world titles. How quickly we forget. Hamilton was a prodigy all the way through karting and junior formulae, and hit the ground running in F1, too, pushing his double world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso all the way in his maiden season in 2007 before winning the title one year later. That season, Hamilton produced one of the great wet-weather drives at Silverstone. He has shown a tendency to lose focus when things are not going his way. But the underlying talent has always been there. Already statistically the greatest, if Hamilton goes to Ferrari and wins the eighth world title which he was denied in 2021, in his forties, even his biggest detractors would have to doff their caps.
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