When F1 Driver and Team Champions don’t match

Ferrari (1976, ’82, ’83, ’99 and ’08)

Five of Ferrari’s record 16 Constructors’ Championships have been won without its drivers clinching that year’s individual crown — including its last, achieved 17 years ago. But the first occurrence, in 1976, is surely the most infamous.

James Hunt, who will be the focal point of 1970s F1 celebrations at the 83^rd Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport next year, splashed to the Drivers’ Championship in a soaking finale at Fuji, edging Niki Lauda by a single point after the Austrian pulled out in protest at racing in such dire conditions.

It was of little consolation at the time, but Ferrari still claimed the second Constructors’ Title of a mid-’70s hat-trick with its iconic 312T2, finishing nine points clear of Hunt’s McLaren team. In the wake of Lauda’s terrible Nürburgring accident, his awe-inspiring recovery and moral bravery in refusing to race at Fuji, no wonder the team achievement is overlooked.

Three of the four other occasions when Ferrari claimed the Teams’ crown but not the Drivers’ fell in the 21 years between Jody Scheckter’s Championship in 1979 and Michael Schumacher’s landmark first in red in 2000.

Terrible tragedy marked the 1982 Title, because either Gilles Villeneuve or Didier Pironi should also have been the Drivers’ Champion that year. Instead, one was killed, the other suffered career-ending leg injuries. Again, tough to celebrate that one.

The following year, René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay accrued a score to lift Ferrari ten points clear in the Teams’ standings. Brabham-BMW, for whom Drivers’ Champion Piquet was driving for, wasn’t even runner-up. It finished third behind Renault.

Ferrari’s next Constructors’ crown landed 16 years later, in 1999, when Schumacher was sidelined for a chunk of the season after breaking his leg at Silverstone, and team-mate Eddie Irvine led an unlikely (and only just unsuccessful) bid to end the team’s Drivers’ Championship drought.

And the final Ferrari example to date is 2008 — a season back in the news of late. How McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton snatched the title away from Felipe Massa at the final corner in Brazil, unknowingly in the wake of what became known as ‘Crashgate’, is a bone of contention that is now being argued about in London’s crown court…

Williams (1981, 1986 and 1994)

Aside from Ferrari, Williams is the only other team to have won multiple Constructors’ Titles without crowning a Drivers’ Champion in the same year.

In 1981, the British team’s three-year-old FW07 (in C spec) was far and away the best car on the grid, finishing what was then a massive 33 points clear of Brabham’s BT49C. Only Carlos Reutemann’s ‘disappearing act’ at the season finale at Caesars Palace opened the door for Piquet to sneak his first Drivers’ Title, by one point after a less than glorious fifth place finish. Reutemann mumbled about a gearbox problem after finishing a lap down and out of the points, having started from pole position.

The shoe was on the other foot for Piquet in 1986, when he and Nigel Mansell famously took points off each other as team-mates at Williams. The FW11 was an outstanding 45 points ahead of McLaren’s MP4-2C — but Alain Prost cannily ended up as World Champion after a thrilling Australian Grand Prix following Mansell’s devastating tyre blowout.

The third occasion for Williams was, like 1982, in the context of a season disrupted by tragedy and controversy. Again, there was little to celebrate when the FW16 comfortably outscored Benetton’s B194 following the death of Ayrton Senna and Schumacher’s ‘professional foul’ on Damon Hill in Adelaide to claim a chequered first World Title in 1994.

Vanwall (1958)

The inaugural example of these F1 title anomalies occurred first time out. Although the Drivers’ World Championship was established 75 years ago in 1950, the Constructors’ Championship was only founded in 1958.

Britain toasted its first World Champion that year, as Mike Hawthorn beat Stirling Moss by a single point, albeit in a Ferrari and despite only winning once to Stirling’s four Grand Prix victories. Moss and Tony Brooks — three times a winner that year — scored enough to carry their Vanwall team clear of Ferrari to win the new Constructors’ Cup.

But again, it was a hollow victory following the death of young Stuart Lewis-Evans, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a fiery crash at the Casablanca finale. It marked the beginning of the end for F1’s first Constructors’ World Champion.

Lotus (1973)

One of Lotus’ seven Constructors’ Titles was achieved without a Champion driver. In 1973, Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson foreshadowed Mansell and Piquet at Williams in 1986 by racing each other hard, taking points off each other and allowing Jackie Stewart to come between them to win for Tyrrell.

Colin Chapman’s refusal to invoke team orders against Peterson in Fittipaldi’s favour at Monza, having agreed to do so before the Italian Grand Prix, triggered the 1972 Champion to quit Lotus and move for 1974 to McLaren, with whom he won a second Drivers’ Title for himself and the first of the team’s ten Constructors’ crowns.

Mercedes (2021)

This is the most controversial example of our dozen — by far. Mercedes completed its record run of eight consecutive Constructors’ Titles in 2021, but at the scandalous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winner-takes-all finale, Lewis Hamilton was shuffled out of his eighth Drivers’ Title by an FIA race director’s decision to play fast and loose with his own regulations.

A late accident for Nicholas Latifi’s Williams triggered a safety car intervention. On well-worn tyres, Hamilton was left in a scenario where he couldn’t pit and rejoin with his lead intact, whereas Max Verstappen was able to take on fresh soft tyres and rejoin still second, albeit with five lapped cars between the Red Bull and Mercedes.

Instead of stopping the race, which would have allowed the whole field to reset on fresh tyres for an exciting shoot-out to the flag, race director Michael Masi chose to allow the five lapped cars to unlap themselves — but not the other lapped cars running further down the field.

He then signalled that the race would restart with just one lap to go, with Hamilton left helpless to defend against a fresh-tyred Verstappen. Thus, the Dutchman easily took the lead and claimed a first World Championship — as the F1 world imploded in exasperation at the injustice of it all.

No wonder Mercedes proved a no-show at the FIA Awards the following week, where they were expected to pick up their winning Constructors’ trophy.

McLaren (2024)

The 12^th and final example occurred last year thanks to a season during which form swung wildly. Verstappen looked set to canter to his fourth consecutive Drivers’ Title by winning seven times in the first ten races — but then didn’t win for another five months as McLaren suddenly clicked into gear following mid-season technical upgrades.

The chances of Lando Norris catching Verstappen were always long and the Dutchman duly made sure of his latest Championship. But in the Constructors’ standings the failure of Sergio Pérez to keep Red Bull’s score ticking over at a decent lick left the team vulnerable. McLaren thus claimed its first Constructors’ World Championship since way back in 1998 and has since added a tenth title in 2025.

The difference this time is that either Norris or Oscar Piastri appear on course to complete the set — unless Verstappen can pull off the biggest and most remarkable comeback ever seen. It’s a long shot, but we can’t yet count out a 13^th entry to our list of driver/team Championship anomalies.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.