The Best British F1 Drivers of All Time
Last updated: May 7, 2024 by Leon Marshal
Formula 1 began life with the British Grand Prix in 1950. Since that start, the Brits have been at the forefront of F1 racing.
With a number of British drivers having competed at the top end of the sport and won Drivers’ Championships, we were spoilt for choice when it came to evaluating just which ones were the greatest ever. British fans love to place a bet and back a British driver. Here are the best ever British Formula One drivers.
10. John Surtees
When it comes to motor racing, John Surtees was a real all-rounder. Born in Surrey back 1934, Surtees began his career racing motorcycles and he won three World Championships in the 350cc category and four in the 500cc division, between 1956 and 1960. It was in 1960, that the then 26-year-old Surtees made the switch to Formula 1. Driving for Team Lotus, he made an immediate impact, finishing second in only his second Grand Prix and then picking up pole position in his third.
In 1963, Surtees made the move to Ferrari, finishing fourth in the Drivers’ Championship for the second successive season and winning his first Grand Prix in Germany. That set up his greatest triumph in 1964, when while still with Ferrari, he won his sole Drivers’ Championship. Despite having to retire from four of the ten races, two wins, three second places and a third placed finish at Brands Hatch, were enough to see him finish a point ahead of Graham Hill. Surtees would remain with Ferrari until 1966, finishing second in the Drivers’ Championship in his final season. After spells with Honda and the Owen Racing Organisation, the former world champion former his own F1 team. Team Surtees competed in Formula One between 1970 and 1978, with Surtees taking on a joint owner/driver across the first three seasons.
9. Jenson Button
Jenson Button was a Formula One prodigy that great things were expected of. He eventually achieved them, but it was far from a straightforward journey. With a background in karting in Formula Three, Button became the youngest driver to start an F1 race in 2000, when Williams gave him an opportunity, aged just 20-years and 53-days. The youngster made the most of the chance, finishing eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, as he finished amongst the points on six occasions. After year-long spells with Benetton and Renault, Button then spent three seasons at BAR, where he placed third in the World Championship in 2004.
Button moved on to Honda and when they folded in 2008, his career was at a major crossroads, from which he went in the right direction. Ross Brawn bought out the Honda team and formed Brawn GP. Incredibly, considering that he was racing for a team in their debut season, Button would win the 2009 Drivers’ Championship. He started the season winning six of the first seven races and though he would not win another Grand Prix for the rest of that year, he placed often enough to stay ahead, beating second-placed Sebastian Vettel by eleven points. Button moved on to McLaren the following year, where he would see out an F1 career that came to an end in 2017.
8. James Hunt
If this was a list of the most charismatic British F1 drivers, then James Hunt would be number one. Nicknamed ‘Hunt the Shunt’, due to his often reckless racing style, his exciting driving and movie-star good looks made him a favourite for Formula One fans. Hunt began his F1 career with Hesketh in 1973 and quickly made an impact, taking the podium in just his fourth start at the Dutch Grand Prix and then finishing second at the USA Grand Prix. He won his first F1 race in 1975, again in the Netherlands, before moving on to McLaren.
It was at McLaren in his debut season in 1976, that he would win his sole Drivers’ Championship. Hunt’s epic battle with Niki Lauda would be immortalised in the film Rush. Lauda was leading the race, but after he suffered life-threatening injuries from a crash at the German Grand Prix, he missed the next two races and Hunt was able to make up ground. The Austrian was still ahead at the final Grand Prix in Japan, but retired, enabling Hunt to pip him by a single point with a third place finish. In total, Hunt won six F1 races that season and ten in total, throughout his career. After two more years at McLaren, Hunt had a final season at Wolf, before retiring from driving in 1979.
7. Stirling Moss
Stirling Moss is often described as the greatest ever Formula One driver to have never won the Drivers’ Championship. Born in London in 1929, his F1 career started in 1951. After a number of years in which Moss showed promise, but significant results were elusive, a move to Daimler Benz in 1955 ignited his career. It would be the first of four consecutive seasons in which Moss finished second in the Drivers’ Championship. The closest that he would come was in 1958, which was the final year of that sequence, when Mike Hawthorn pipped him by just a single point.
The irony was that Moss had spoken up for Hawthorn when his rival faced a penalty at the Portuguese Grand Prix. That show of sportsmanship ultimately cost him the world championship, but of course, elevated his standing amongst the British public. Between 1959 and 1961, Moss would finish third in three consecutive Drivers’ Championships. His career ended in 1962, when a crash in the Glover Trophy at Goodwood put him in a coma for a month and paralysed the left-side of his body for six months. Moss’ career ended with him having won 16 Grand Prix races, which was the most by any Englishman until Nigel Mansell broke that record in 1991.
6. Damon Hill
Having a father that had won the Drivers’ Championship was no doubt an advantage when it came to opening doors for Damon Hill, but it also created a good deal of pressure on him. Hill was in no hurry to follow in his famous father Graham Hill’s footsteps, starting his racing career on motorbikes and only entering F1 in his thirties. He was dealt a difficult start in F1 when Brabham folded after Hill’s debut season in 1992, but then received a major boost when he was promoted from a Williams test driver to a team member, when Nigel Mansell departed for IndyCar.
Hill would win three Grand Prix races in 1993 to finish third. The following year Hill was involved in an exciting battle against Michael Schumacher, in which the German beat him to the Drivers’ Championship by a single point. Hill finished second again in 1995, before going one better in 1996. Winning eight races to finish above Jacques Villeneuve, Hill emulated his father by claiming the Drivers’ Championship. Yet his joy was to be short-lived, when Williams made the controversial decision to replace Hill with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Hill moved to Arrows in 1997 and then spent two years at Jordan, but would only add one Grand Prix victory, to his total of 22 triumphs.
5. Graham Hill
Before Damon Hill, there was Graham Hill and the latter won the Drivers’ Championship on two occasions. Incredibly one of the greatest British F1 drivers of all time, did not pass their driving test until they were 24-years-old. A year later Hill in 1954, he became involved in motor sports, progressing to Formula One in 1958. Starting off with Team Lotus and then moving on to Owen Racing, Hill was not particularly competitive on the circuit in his first four years. He made a sudden breakthrough in 1962, when he beat Jim Clark to win the Drivers’ Championship, winning Grand Prix races in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and South Africa.
Hill then finished as the runner-up for each of the next three years, before finishing fifth and seventh. It was in 1968, when back at Lotus, that Hill won his second world championship, with victories at Spain, Monaco and Mexico. Monaco was a particular favourite Grand Prix of Hill. Dubbed ‘Mr Monaco’, he won at the circuit a total of five times (1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969). He is also famed for being the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport, which comprises of the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the F1 World Drivers’ Championship. Tragically, Hill died in an aeroplane crash in 1975, when piloting a plane containing members of his own F1 team, Embassy Hill.
4. Jim Clark
Another two-time world champion was Jim Clark. The Scot was born in 1936 and his path in motor racing began as a young man, when he joined a local rally club. In 1960, he made his F1 debut as part of Team Lotus, where he would spend his entire driving career. His first season saw him on the podium at Portugal with a third place finish, which was a feat that he repeated in his sophomore year in the Netherlands and in France. Clark took a step forward in 1962, when he finished second in the Drivers’ Championship with three Grand Prix wins. He would dominate the 1963 season, winning seven of the ten races, to become the F1 world champion for the first time.
After a third place finish in 1964, Clark claimed his second Drivers’ Championship in 1965. He won the first six races that he competed in, before reliability issues kicked in, that would blight his future years at Lotus. Clark finished sixth in 1966 and third in 1967, when his four wins were undercut by a number of retirements. In 1968, when Clark was still considered to be at the pinnacle of F1 driving, he had his last race, winning the first Grand Prix of the season in South Africa. A crash in a Formula Two race in Hockenheimring, Germany, saw a legend of the sport lose his life, aged just 32-years-old.
3. Nigel Mansell
Nigel Mansell enjoyed 31 Grand Prix wins during a career when he was up against a golden era of F1 driving talent, such as Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna. Starting off in kart racing, Mansell graduated to Formula One in 1980, with Lotus. His first major success came a year later when he finished third at the Belgian Grand Prix. A move to Williams in 1985 saw Mansell make a major step forward in his career, winning his first race at the European Grand Prix, before winning the next race at South Africa. Mansell finished second in the Drivers’ Championship over the next two years, winning five races in 1986 and six in 1987.
A move to Ferrari came in 1989, where Mansell would only win two races across the next two seasons, before returning to Williams in 1991. Once again, he would finish second, as his five wins were somewhat cancelled out by an equal number of retirements. It was in 1992 when everything would come together and Mansell could finally triumph. Winning nine of the 16 races, he won the Drivers’ Championship by a 52-point margin over his Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese. Having reached the pinnacle of F1, Mansell made the move to the US and won the Indy Car National Championship in his debut season. He returned to Williams in 1994 and won his last Grand Prix in Australia, before a brief spell at McLaren and his retirement.
2. Jackie Stewart
Until usurped by Lewis Hamilton, the Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart was the only Brit to have won three World Drivers’ Championships. A top talent in shooting during his youth, Stewart became a test driver in 1961. He would starting competing in F1 in 1965, with the Owen Racing Organisation, hitting the ground running with three second placed finishes and a win at the Italian Grand Prix, which helped him to finish third in the Drivers’ Championship. In 1968 he moved to Matra International and after a second place finish in his debut season, he won his first world championship in 1969, winning six races.
Ken Tyrell ran Matra and set up his own team in 1970, taking Stewart with him. This set up a period of dominance in the sport for Stewart. He won the 1971 Drivers’ Championship with six victories. After finishing second in 1972, he triumphed once again in 1973, pipping Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson to the title, despite their Lotus 72 being faster than his. Tired of the demands of motor racing, Stewart retired at the top. His record of 27 Grand Prix wins stood for 14-years, before being beaten by Alain Prost in 1987.
1. Lewis Hamilton
A great as the rest of this list of the best ever British F1 drivers were, no one is greater than Lewis Hamilton. With seven Drivers’ Championships, he is the most successful Brit by a long way and within the sport as a whole, only Michael Schumacher has won as many world titles. Hamilton holds the record for the most F1 wins with 103, the most pole positions with 104 and the most podium finishes with 197. Joining the McLaren Young Driver Programme in 1998, aged 13-years-old, Hamilton became an F1 driver for McLaren in 2007. He was the only black Formula One driver to ever race at the time and remains so.
That first season saw Hamilton win four races and have eight further podium finishes, to finish second in the Drivers’ Championship. The second year in 2008, he won it, despite recording less points. A move to Mercedes in 2013 sparked a period of dominance, with one the fastest F1 cars of all time. Hamilton would win the Drivers’ Championship in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2021 he finished second, after an intense battle with Max Verstappen. His victory in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that year, remains his most recent in Formula One, as he finished sixth in 2022 and third in 2023. Still driving for Mercedes at the age of 39, Hamilton is already established at the greatest British F1 driver of all time and appears still hungry to achieve more in the sport.