Jack Brabham - 1959, 1960, 1966 Jack Brabham Share Jack Brabham's three world championships were the product of both his engineering expertise and driving skill. His first two titles, in rear-engined Coopers he helped develop, confirmed the obsolescence of front-engined Formula One cars. His third title, in a Brabham, made him the only driver to become champion in a car of his own make. For his lifetime achievements, which also included nurturing the talents of other notable drivers and pioneering the business side of the sport, he became the first Formula One driver to receive a knighthood. John Arthur 'Jack' Brabham, was born on April 2, 1926, in Hurstville, an Australian town near Sydney where his father was a greengrocer. From an early age Jack was far less interested in fruit and vegetables than in the Brabham shop's delivery vehicles. He learned to drive them long before he was eligible for a licence and by his early teens he was equally adept at keeping them roadworthy. His mechanical aptitude led him to a technical college where he studied practical engineering.

Not academically-inclined, he left school at 15 and went to work in an engineering shop, then a garage. At 18 he joined the Royal Australian Air Force in Adelaide, where he wanted to learn to fly but was instead trained to fill a wartime shortage of flight mechanics. Upon his discharge, in 1946, an uncle in the construction business built him a workshop in Sydney, where Jack opened his own engineering establishment. In 1951 he married Betty, who became the mother of their three sons, Geoffrey, Gary and David, all of whom would race, though not nearly as successfully as their father. Jack's introduction to motorsport came through a friend who raced midgets on dirt track ovals. Jack helped him build a new car and when his friend decided to stop driving Jack took over and became a regular winner. In self-prepared midgets he won four successive Australian championships and was the 1953 hillclimb champion in a British-built Cooper-Bristol. Two years later his growing ambition to expand his motorsport horizons brought Jack to England.

A meeting with John and Charles Cooper, constructors of his successful Australian car, led to a friendship and partnership that would propel the tiny Cooper Car Company and 'Black Jack' Brabham into the forefront of Formula One history. With Brabham providing the inspiration (he helped persuade the Coopers to take the rear-engine route into Formula One racing) and the perspiration (he built up his first chassis in Cooper's workshop) the tiny British cars with the engines in the back sped to the front in an era previously dominated by big, front-engined Italian and German roadsters. In the Brabham-led team's first full championship season of 1958 the debut win for a Cooper came courtesy of Stirling Moss, who drove Rob Walker's private entry to victory in Argentina. In 1959 Moss won twice, but Brabham's victories in Monaco and Britain together with his consistently high placings resulted in the Australian winning a drivers’ title that some thought owed more to stealth than skill, an opinion at least partly based on Brabham's low-key presence.

Always a man of few words - his nickname 'Black Jack' referred to both his dark hair and his propensity for maintaining a shadowy silence - he avoided small talk and was undemonstrative in the extreme. But behind the wheel he was anything but shy and retiring. He put his head down and drove exceedingly forcefully, opposite-locking his car dirt-track style, and was not averse to deliberately showering gravel in the face of a too closely following pursuer. His aversion for the limelight became more of a problem in 1960, when he completely dominated the nine-race series, winning consecutively in Holland, Belgium, France, Britain and Portugal, en route to his second successive championship. Following an unproductive 1961 season, when the Ferraris were all powerful, Brabham left Cooper to form Motor Racing Developments, in partnership with the talented Australian designer Ron Tauranac. The MRD Brabhams were quickly successful in several categories of racing, particularly Formula Two where for several years they dominated, affording the opportunity for many drivers to advance their careers.

The Brabham Formula One car, which first appeared late in 1962, became steadily more competitive as the team leader personally perfected the chassis set-up and fine-tuned the Climax engines. In 1964 Brabham had the satisfaction of seeing his team mate Dan Gurney win in France and Mexico. For 1966, when the new 3-litre formula came into effect, Brabham persuaded an Australian company Repco (a manufacturer of automotive components) to produce a Formula One engine from a venerable Oldsmobile V8 design. Equally ancient was Brabham himself, or so it seemed to the media and his much younger rivals who used to kid him about his age. Prior to the 1966 Dutch Grand Prix, his first race after his 40th birthday, 'Geriatric Jack' Brabham hobbled onto the starting grid at Zandvoort, wearing a long false beard and leaning on a cane. Sportingly, several of his laughing opponents helped him into the cockpit of his Brabham-Repco, which happened to be on pole position.

Tossing aside his beard and cane Brabham proceeded to win that race, a feat he also accomplished in France, in Britain and in Germany - on the notoriously difficult and dangerous Nurburgring - a victory he felt was the most satisfying of his career. Thus in 1966 Brabham became the first (and still only) driver, to win the championship in a car of his own make. Brabham also established the precedent for Formula One drivers to become pilots of their own planes. Though such transport at the time was exotic, Brabham's tastes remained simple. Distrustful of foreign fare, he flew his own steaks to the races. His passengers over the years included a succession of his Brabham team mates – Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Denny Hulme, Jochen Rindt, Jacky Ickx – all of whom benefited from his tutelage and made their mark in Formula One racing. Jack Brabham, whose final victory came in the 1970 South African Grand Prix when he was 44, chose that season to retire as a driver.

The Brabham team was sold to Bernie Ecclestone and Jack returned home to Australia, where he busied himself running a farm, a car dealership and an aviation company, and helped his sons with their racing careers. His contribution to British motorsport was officially recognised in 1985 and he became Sir Jack Brabham. He passed away peacefully at his home in May 2014, aged 88. Text - Gerald Donaldson Former F1 World Champion Sir Jack Brabham Dead At Age 88 Former F1 World Champion Sir Jack Brabham Dead At Age 88 Go to permalink Three-time Formula One World Champion Sir Jack Brabham has died, according to Australian media reports . He remains the only person ever to win an F1 championship in his own car. Brabham was 88. Among his other feats, he was also the first person to win an F1 championship with an engine behind the driver, which he did in 1959 with the Cooper T51 . Oh, and he was also the first race car driver to be knighted after World War II. Advertisement All that, from a guy who began his racing career in midget cars on Australian dirt tracks.

Sir Jack Brabham is survived by his three sons, Geoff, Gary, and David, and their respective families. Geoff and David have both won at Le Mans. Gary won the 1991 12 Hours of Sebring. Advertisement UPDATE: A statement from Sir Jack Brabham's family is below: Banbury, Oxfordshire (UK) – Monday 19 May 2014: Sir Jack Brabham AO, OBE, triple Formula 1 World Champion, has died at the age of 88. Sir Jack passed away peacefully at his Gold Coast, Australia, home on Monday morning. Formula 1 World Champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966 and double Constructors' Champion (1966 and 1967), Sir Jack was one of the most accomplished drivers and team owners in the history of the sport. The first driver to be knighted for services to motorsport, 'Black Jack' rose from racing midgets on dirt ovals in Australia to dominate global motorsport. His first two titles in the Cooper Climax marked the end for front-engined Formula 1 cars.

The third made him the only driver in history to win a World Championship in a car of his own manufacture, the Brabham BT19 – a feat unlikely to ever be repeated. Acclaimed as a brilliant engineer, technological innovations brought about by the Brabham team helped to shape the sport today. Through his partnership with Ron Tauranac, over 500 Brabham racecars were built from the team's British Surrey base in the 1960s alone, while the Brabham name continued in F1 for 30 years.Although Jack scored his final win in the 1970 South African Grand Prix, the legacy has continued with all three of his sons achieving their own global success, while third generation drivers Matthew and Sam are building their own notable racing careers. On behalf of the family, Jack's youngest son David said: "It's a very sad day for all of us. My father passed away peacefully at home at the age of 88 this morning.

He lived an incredible life, achieving more than anyone would ever dream of and he will continue to live on through the astounding legacy he leaves behind." Sir Jack is survived by his wife, Lady Margaret, sons Geoff, Gary and David and their families. Photos via Getty Images Chris Amon obituary: 1943-2016 - F1 - Autosport Share this article on Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ Email Chris Amon, widely regarded as the best driver never to win a world championship grand prix, has died at the age of 73. The New Zealander, who finished on the grand prix podium 11 times for the Ferrari, March and Matra teams, also won the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours sharing a Ford GT40 with compatriot Bruce McLaren. ARCHIVE: Chris Amon picks his greatest race Born of sheep-farming stock, Amon started his racing career in an Austin A40 and tested a Maserati 250F at the age of 17 - remarkably young for the era.

Driving Bruce McLaren's 1959 United States Grand Prix-winning Cooper-Climax T51, he then caught the attention of teams during the 1962-63 Tasman Series, essentially a winter F1 season in Australia and New Zealand. This resulted in Reg Parnell bringing him to Europe to race for his team. Amon's first race in Europe was in the Goodwood Easter Monday meeting in 1963, finishing fifth in the Glover Trophy F1 race driving a Parnell-run Lola-Climax Mk4. While only 10 cars contested the race, the field was high quality with Innes Ireland winning from McLaren and Amon one place ahead of Jack Brabham. After taking sixth in the Aintree 200 later that April, he was set to make his world championship debut in the Monaco Grand Prix, only for team-mate Maurice Trintignant to take over his car before the start. Amon did make his debut in the Belgian Grand Prix at the age of only 19, retiring early on with an oil fire.

Throughout '63 and '64, Amon continued to impress for Parnell's team, taking a best finish of fifth driving a Lotus-BRM in the '64 Dutch Grand Prix. The '65 and '66 seasons were patchy F1 wise, with only occasional appearances - although he did win the Solitude Grand Prix Formula 2 race driving a Lola T60. But he did deliver the greatest achievement of his career, winning Le Mans in the controversial finish in which McLaren took victory in a formation finish with the sister machine of Ken Miles/Denny Hulme. During '65 and '66, he was also successful in Can-Am and won races for McLaren. After the Le Mans win, he met with Enzo Ferrari to agree a deal for the '67 season, which meant parting company with McLaren. "I was in a difficult situation," said Amon in John Julian's '1967: Chris Amon, Scuderia Ferrari and a year of living dangerously'.

"Bruce wanted me to stay at McLaren but driving for Ferrari was also a boyhood ambition of mine." His pace in the Ferrari 330 P4 early in 1967, winning both the Daytona 24 Hours and the Monza 1000kms, earned him a place alongside sportscar team-mate Lorenzo Bandini in the F1 team. When Bandini was killed during Amon's first F1 outing for Ferrari at the Monaco GP, the 24-year-old became Ferrari's team leader. He took a quartet of third places, finishing fifth in the championship and could have won the United States Grand Prix but for a lack of oil leading to engine bearing trouble. The following year, Amon had the pace that should have allowed him to battle with Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart for the 1968 world championship. Amon and the Ferrari 312 were a potent combination, the first of three poles coming at the Spanish GP. Amon then dominated the race, only for fuel pump failure to put him out - with a similar problem costing him a possible win in Canada.

He also led at Spa but retired with a holed radiator during a season in which results criminally under-represented his performance, with second place in the British GP at Brands Hatch behind Jo Siffert, another race Amon could have won but in which he struggled with tyre wear and the lack of engine torque, his sole podium. Such poor reliability meant Amon could not capitalise on his pace he ended up well behind new team-mate and rising star Jacky Ickx in the points table. But Amon's class was underlined in the Tasman series. He battled Jim Clark's Lotus during 1968 in Ferrari's 246T, winning two races, then took the 1969 crown against the likes of future world champion Jochen Rindt. Unreliability was again the story in 1969, with Amon leading in Spain before retiring with an engine failure, which played a part in his decision to leave Ferrari during the year ahead of a move to the new March Engineering team for 1970. With Ferrari hitting form in '70 and March struggling, it was a characteristically ill-timed move.

Although Amon did finally win an F1 race - the International Trophy at Silverstone - the world championship season was a difficult one. Amon did briefly lead at Spa, finishing second behind Pedro Rodriguez's BRM by just 1.1s in the difficult March 701, with further podiums in the French and Canadian GPs helping him to eighth in the championship, but he did not gel well with team owners Max Mosley and Robin Herd and headed to Matra in 1971. The Matra move wasn't without its troubles, but again Amon should have won races, as shown by his success in another non-championship event, the 1971 Argentinian GP. A leading role in the epic 1971 Italian GP lead battle ended when he inadvertently pulled off his whole visor instead of a strip, and finished sixth having started from pole. He was driving away from the field in the 1972 French GP when he suffered a puncture. Amon regarded his recovery to third - lapping two seconds faster than winner Stewart - as his finest drive.

After leaving Matra at the end of 1972, his world championship grand prix career was effectively over even though he raced in F1 for another three years. In 1973, he was persuaded to drive for the Tecno team, but other than sixth place in the Belgian GP results were poor, while a late season run for Tyrrell in the final two races of the season led to nothing. There was one success that year, as he won the Nurburgring 6 Hours sharing a works BMW with Hans-Joachim Stuck. Amon's decisions outside of the cockpit were sometimes unfortunate and a sequence of unsuccessful moves followed. Perhaps the worst was the decision to build his own car - the Amon AF101 - which retired from the 1974 Spanish GP and failed to qualify on two other occasions. He did manage to impress during his final F1 campaign in 1976, driving for the underfunded Ensign operation after late-season appearances the year before, but a poor finishing record meant that one fifth place was all he had to show for his efforts.

After parting company with Ensign before the end of the season, he entered the Canadian GP for the Wolf-Williams team, but a heavy accident in qualifying prevented him racing. Amon started the 1977 Can-Am season with Wolf, but decided to retire after one race. His seat was taken by Gilles Villeneuve, who Amon later recommended to Enzo Ferrari. After retiring, Amon returned to his family farm in New Zealand, though he retained connections to the sport. He helped redesign the Taupo circuit, supported Toyota's TRS single-seater championship, and was an occasional star at historic events. Amon's family released a statement saying: "Chris battled cancer in recent years but retained not only a close interest in Formula 1 - and his very wide range of favourite topics - but also his wonderful sense of humour complete with infectious chuckle." McLaren chairman Ron Dennis added: "Chris started 96 grands prix but won not one of them - and it is safe to say that he was the greatest racing driver never to have won a race at the very highest level. "He nearly won a fair few, but it always seemed that his luck would run out before he saw the chequered flag.

"I have not met Chris for many years but, even so, I have extremely fond memories of him and I would describe him as one of the most likeable men I have met in my long racing career. "A true gentleman and one of the fastest racing drivers there ever was: the one and only Christopher Arthur Amon." Brabham | Formula 1 Formula 1 Store A Racing Dynasty - Brabham F1 Triple Formula 1 World Champion Sir Jack Brabham is not only heralded as one of the greatest racing drivers of the sport’s golden ages. He is also renowned for creating one of the most iconic F1 teams in history. Founded in 1961 by Sir Jack and designer Ron Tauranac, Motor Racing Developments – better known as Brabham – won a total of four Drivers’ and two Constructors’ Formula 1 World Championships.

Its 30-year reign produced 35 Grand Prix victories and 120 podiums, partnered with engine manufacturers Coventry-Climax, Repco, Cosworth, Alfa Romeo and BMW, while attracting notable drivers such as Dan Gurney, Denny Hulme, Jochen Rindt, Jacky Ickx, Graham Hill, Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. Brabham was the world’s largest manufacturer of over 500 single-seater racing cars from its Surbiton workshop in the 1960s, its customer cars achieving numerous Formula 1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 accolades, as well as competing at the Indianapolis 500 and in Formula 5000. From its first full season in 1962, it wasn’t long before Brabham became a force in Formula 1 and Sir Jack claimed the team’s first victory at the non-championship 1963 Solitude Grand Prix, Germany, in the Brabham BT3 Coventry-Climax.

While Gurney earned the first World Championship race victories at the French and Mexican Grands Prix in 1964, the team recorded two thirds and one fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship from ’63 to ’65. In 1966, Sir Jack became the first and only driver in history to win the Formula 1 World Championship in a car bearing his own name – a feat unlikely to ever be repeated. Under his ownership, the team took both of its Constructors’ titles and a further Drivers’ crown, Denny Hulme continuing the Brabham Repco’s domination in 1967, with Sir Jack coming second. Remaining a dominant force right up until 1970, Sir Jack took his last team victory at the South African Grand Prix before retiring and selling his team share to Tauranac. Taken over by Bernie Ecclestone in 1972, Brabham won two further World Championships with Nelson Piquet, including the first with a turbo charged car - the Brabham BT52 BMW - in 1983.

Following a consecutive switch of owners after Eccelstone’s sale of the team in 1988, Middlebridge Group Limited gained control in 1990 and the Brabham brand went full circle, as Jack’s youngest son David made his F1 debut. But with the then under-funded outfit struggling to keep pace with its rivals, he was afforded a single season before the team ceased competition in 1992. Building on Sir Jack’s early pioneering influence, the marque became renowned for its engineering excellence and went on to introduce innovations such as in-race refuelling, hydropneumatic suspension and carbon-carbon brakes, which are still used in F1 today. ... Back The Greatest Formula One Drivers Of All Time The Greatest Formula One Drivers Of All Time Go to permalink Formula One is the top series in motorsports, with the greatest drivers in the world. Who then, is the greatest of the great? Jalopnik readers think they know. Who Is The Greatest Formula One Driver? Who Is The Greatest Formula One Driver? Who Is The Greatest Formula One Driver?

Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more Welcome back to Answers of the Day — our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy! Advertisement Advertisement For decades, Formula One has been the highest form of motorsports, attracting the highest caliber of drivers. Narrowing down the very best to just ten is no easy task. First we had to rule out the great drivers from before Formula One established itself in 1950. Few would argue that Tazio Nuvolari, who once won a race even after his steering wheel broke off his car, would be on this list. He's just not an F1 driver as we think of them today. Many drivers could well have been the greatest if they had not been killed before they had a chance to shine. The young and extremely talented German Stefan Bellof was set to steal a victory from both Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at Monaco in 1984 before the race was called early.

Bellof crashed and died the next year. Sponsored Some drivers are certainly among the best in history, but they never did amazingly well in Formula One. The great Mario Andretti is the only driver to win the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the F1 World Championship, but he won that F1 title with a car that was miles better than the rest of the field. He floundered in F1 after that year. Other drivers have been simply fantastic and deserve recognition; it is just that they have been outclassed by true legends. We should not forget such great drivers as Graham Hill, the only driver to win the Indy 500, the F1 World Championship, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Nor should we fail to mention John Surtees, the only driver to win world championships in both cars and motorcycles. Advertisement If we have left off your favorite driver, or if you don't see your personal hero at the top of the list, scream and yell at us in Kinja below and try and justify yourself.

Photo Credit: Getty Images 10.) James Hunt James Hunt was pretty much the most drugged-out sex fiend to ever grace a racetrack, let alone win a Formula One world championship. He slept with 33 airline stewardesses in 14 days . His racing overalls said "sex — the breakfast of champions." Suggested By: Bill Caswell , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 9.) Jack Brabham Triple-world champion Jack Brabham is the only driver to win a world championship in a car that he'd designed. He may well be the smartest F1 driver ever, and he is also the most influential driver in the design of F1 cars. Suggested By: burningdinosaurs , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 8.) Stirling Moss The greatest driver never to win a championship. He has more skill behind the wheel than many who have claimed a driver's title. He is also indestructible and loved by the ladies .

Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 6.) Niki Lauda He nearly burned to death in his 1976 crash at the Nürburgring. Six weeks and two races later, "the Rat" was back racing, competing for his third world championship. He later retired, un-retired, and won that third title. He earned the name "King Rat." Suggested By: gometz , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 5.) Jackie Stewart The Flying Scot has claimed some of F1 greatest victories, not least of which being the '68 race at the Nürburgring, where he won by the largest margin in F1 to date (4 minutes and 3 seconds) and he did it in the rain and fog. Advertisement More than his skill behind the wheel, Jackie Stewart campaigned tirelessly for better safety in F1, facing resistance from his fellow drivers, the team owners, the race organizers, and just about everyone involved in the sport.

Suggested By: Oxus , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 4.) Michael Schumacher When teams call their drivers over the radio, the drivers are always wheezing out a few words, exhausted. When Michael Schumacher answered the radio, it was like having a normal conversation. He'd be beating everyone else, he'd be on the limit at every corner ad he'd be able to give detailed advice on the setup and design of his car. He is the winningest F1 driver of all time, with seven world championships. He's also a complete asshole behind the wheel. Suggested By: p.culligan.jr , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 3.) Ayrton Senna Senna was perhaps the most innately talented driver in F1 history. His connection to racing verged on spiritual. He was cut down in his prime, the last driver to die in a Formula One race.

Suggested By: F50F60 , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 2.) Jim Clark Like Senna, Clark's car control was on another level compared to everyone else around him. He drove smoother and cleaner and faster than the rest of the field, every time. We remember him, though, as one of the greatest men to drive in F1. Eric Dymock in Jim Clark: Tribute to a Champion gives an anecdote of how Clark was as a person. Advertisement [1965] was [Jackie] Stewart's first drive at Spa and Clark was well aware of what his new friend was facing after his own distressing experiences. Clark was leading comfortably, and backed off to conserve his car. Stewart caught up in the BRM, until Clark could see its orange nosecone in his mirrors. He told Graham Gauld: "I could see this speck in my mirrors on the straight and I suddenly thought it's pouring with rain, it's Spa, it's an awful place.

If Jackie can see me, he'll maybe think he can catch me." With typical gallantry Clark speeded up to stretch the gap, worried that the less experience Stewart might risk driving too fast in pursuit. The evidence is in Clark's times. Between laps 19 and 25 he calmly cut 10 seconds off every lap, in order to race ahead. Courtliness in motor racing had not yet perished in 1965. Suggested By: HopkinsonF1 , Photo Credit: Getty Images Formula One is recognized as the highest class of motorsports, and accordingly it gets the highest… Read more Read more 1.) Juan Manuel Fangio Until Schumacher, Fangio had the most world championships of any driver, winning five titles with four different teams, and often beating drivers half his age. He won 41% of all the races he ever entered, a percentage that will never likely be beaten. He did this all in the most grueling conditions any of these drivers faced, where less than half the cars that started most races ever finished and his fellow drivers were killed regularly on the track. He is the most respected driver in F1 history. May that always be the case.

Consecutive wins in F1 | Motor Sport Magazine Consecutive wins in F1 Click here to buy the lead image. After his victory in Bahrain, Nico Rosberg joined an illustrious list of seven other drivers who have won five or more consecutive Grands Prix. Some of the all-time greats didn’t manage to achieve this. This bodes well for the resurgent German’s title hopes in 2016, as each of the previous nine to have five or more consecutive wins has won the World Championship in the season where the streak ended. Here are those drivers, in order of wins… Nine Sebastian Vettel – 2013 Vettel wrapped up his fourth consecutive title with Red Bull in style in 2013. But early season controversy took the shine off his success: team orders in Malaysia should have seen him follow home team-mate Mark Webber in the infamous ‘Multi-21’ incident.

Sebastian apologised in the aftermath, but by the time the circus arrived in China he’d changed his tune, saying: “The bottom line is I was racing, I was faster, I passed him, I won.” Booed on the podium at several races afterwards, he entered the summer break with four victories in the first nine races. After the break? No one else had a chance. Vettel and Red Bull dominated proceedings winning each of the final nine events. Even wrapping up the title in India with three races to spare didn’t slow his progress as he cemented his place in the history books. Seven Alberto Ascari – 1952/53 Seven or nine? Technicalities determine how you view Ascari’s success in the early 1950s. Piero Taruffi took the opening win in ‘52, a race skipped by Alberto as he was qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. Upon his return to Europe Ascari dominated an almost perfect season, securing pole in all but the British GP, setting fastest laps in every event and winning all remaining races.

Officially he won the title by 12 points over Guiseppe Farina, on a best scores basis, but his actual tally was a huge 26.5 better than his closest challenger. Ascari’s dominance continued in ‘53. He won the season-opening Argentine GP as well as races at Zandvoort and Spa in June. The Indy 500 was a part of the World Championship at this time, despite generally being ignored by racers from Europe. Whether you tally Ascari’s streak at seven or nine depends on whether you include the stateside event. Either way the run definitively ended at the exhilarating French GP at Reims in July. As a young Mike Hawthorn took victory for Ferrari. The Italian won all seven races he entered in ’52 and five in ’53, taking victory in every single World Championship Grand Prix in the 12 months from June ’52-53. That is why he is considered one of the best of all-time, Juan-Manuel Fangio said: “Alberto was fast – terribly fast.

He was a driver of supreme skill.” And Luigi Villoresi : “He had the clarity and presence of mind of Varzi, together with the fighting spirit of Nuvolari. There was no one better…” Seven Michael Schumacher – 2004 The Schumacher/ Ferrari juggernaut showed no signs of slowing in 2004 as the German secured his fifth consecutive title and seventh overall. The reigning champion dominated the season winning 13 of the 18 races in the newly expanded calendar. He took seven victories from the Nürburgring in May to Hungary in August and wrapped up the championship with four races to spare in Belgium: “I would have preferred to take the title with a win but it was not possible,” he says in Christopher Hilton’s Michael Schumacher. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello took two wins at Shanghai and Monza (where Michael spun, rejoined in 15th but hauled himself up to second) before Schumacher was back on the top step in Japan. The season consisted of 1,122 laps with Michael leading 683 – 60.8% of the total.

Six Michael Schumacher – 2000/01 The dominance of Michael at Ferrari was only just beginning in 2000. Pushed hard by double world champion Mika Häkkinen , it took a late-season surge to secure Ferrari’s first title since 1979. The run started at Monza, an emotional weekend where Schumacher equalled Ayrton Senna’s 41 Grand Prix victories. At the post-race press conference Schumacher broke into tears. He later said, “I was thinking of Ayrton, a driver I really admired, and I had those memories of Imola in 1994 and it was all too much for me.” At Suzuka his victory over Häkkinen secured the title and he finished with a win at Sepang. The momentum continued into 2001, with a comfortable victory in Melbourne and again at Sepang, now an early season event. He had the ’01 title wrapped up with four races left to run, broke the records for points scored during a career and in an individual season, surpassed Alain Prost’s 51 career wins and was the first back-to-back Ferrari champion since Ascari.

The incredible run had begun. Five Jack Brabham – 1960 Brabham and Cooper clinched the 1959 title at the final race at Sebring, with Jack famously pushing his car over the line to finish fourth and secure the championship. In 1960 Cooper won with Bruce McLaren first time out, before the Australian took five straight from the Dutch to the Portuguese Grands Prix, securing back-to-back titles in that race. One of the five was the tragic Belgian GP , back at Spa after a year’s absence. Brabham laid an early marker down on Friday, lapping at an average of 137 m.p.h., seven seconds faster than 1958. Things took a turn for the worse on Saturday, as Moss and Michael Taylor escaped serious crashes with injuries, but Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey were both killed after being thrown out of their cars in separate incidents during the race. Jack later recalled in The Jack Brabham Story: “that Belgian GP weekend was best forgotten.” Brabham might have won more, but the British teams boycotted the next round at Monza as organisers announced the combined road and banking circuit would be used.

Five Jim Clark – 1965 The man to beat in the 1.5-litre era, 1965 was Clark’s greatest year. His level of domination exceeded Formula 1, with the Scot winning the Indy 500 in May, the Tasman Cup , the French and British Formula 2 championships, two non-championship Grands Prix, two British Saloon Car Championship class wins, and of course the F1 World Championship. In fact he took six of the first seven races, Graham Hill winning at Monte Carlo, which Clark had missed to compete at Indy. The Lotus 38 was the first rear-engined winner at Indy and Clark the first non-American winner in 49 years. AJ Foyt started on pole but Clark led the first lap, and quickly pulled away, leading 190 of the race’s 200 laps. He is the only driver to date to win the Indy 500 and the F1 World Championship in the same year, a feat unlikely to be repeated. Sadly Clark’s incredible season would see him win his second and final title in Formula 1.

An underpowered Lotus in ’66 and reliability problems in ’67 led to success for Brabham, and that awful day at Hockenheim in ’68 robbed the world of one of its greatest talents. Five Nigel Mansell – 1992 McLaren had ruled the roost, with four straight titles leading up to ‘92, but with a reliable FW14B Williams were unstoppable. Mansell won the season’s first five races and eight of the first ten. Victory in his home British Grand Prix caused a track invasion, with DSJ writing: “Mansell had driven a searing race, stamping his real authority on his number one position at Williams-Renault,” as he became the most successful British driver in F1. The title was wrapped up with five races left to run, giving Britain its first world champion since James Hunt and ‘Our Nige’ redemption for that tyre failure in Adelaide ‘86 . It should have been a golden time for Williams and Mansell, but Prost, sitting out 1992 after being sacked by Ferrari and paid not to drive, quickly signed with the team for 1993.

His contract blocked Senna who had offered to drive for free; such was his determination to get into the best car, a knock-on of which meant a retraction of the substantial offer made to Mansell. The new World Champion raced in CART in 1993 , and became the only driver to hold both Formula 1 and CART titles at the same time, as the F1 championship had not yet been decided when he lifted the latter crown. Five Michael Schumacher – 2004 The same year that Michael won seven races, and his record seventh title, the German also won five straight to open the season. The only blip in what could have been 13 consecutive victories was Jarno Trulli’s only win in F1 at Monte Carlo. Schumacher was leading, albeit as he hadn’t yet made a pit stop, when a safety car came out. Behind this there was a bizarre incident between Schumacher and the lap-down Juan-Pablo Montoya. In the tunnel Michael braked heavily, Montoya failed to notice and ran into the leader, turning him into the barriers and causing his retirement. Five

Question: Who was the only driver to win a F1 World Championship in a car of his own design?
Answer: Jack Brabham