Ranked - Top 10 F1 championship seasons

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg colliding 2016 Spanish GP — Photo: © LAT Images

F1 2021

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Ranked - Top 10 F1 championship seasons

As F1 prepares for a potential title battle, these are the seasons it must live up to

Will Gray

Saturday 24 April 2021 12:44

8. 2007 – Raikkonen vs Hamilton vs Alonso

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Just one single point separated the top three drivers at the end of this dramatic 17-race season. Lewis Hamilton narrowly missed out on winning the title in his debut year as Kimi Raikkonen snatched it for Ferrari in the final round.

Raikkonen had moved to Ferrari from McLaren, who brought in reigning champion Fernando Alonso from Renault alongside Hamilton.

That partnership quickly turned sour, as the young rookie out-gunned his more experienced team-mate by taking podiums in his first nine races, winning in Canada and the USA.

In Hungary, the Alonso-Hamilton fallout reached its peak, with Alonso holding Hamilton up in the pits during qualifying, denying the rookie a chance of setting a final flying lap.

Even with the highly controversial 'Spygate' debacle between Ferrari and McLaren, the title battle was so close that attention soon turned back to the on-track action.

After throwing away a podium in China by finding the pitlane gravel, Hamilton led Alonso by four points heading into the final race in Brazil, with Raikkonen three further back after a late-season charge.

But the balance tipped to the Ferrari driver when Hamilton dropped to the back of the pack with a gearbox problem. He recovered to 7th but Raikkonen won the race and the title.

7. 1994 – Schumacher v Hill

This was supposed to be Ayrton Senna’s big year with Williams but after his untimely death at Imola, the sport was left with a giant void.

Instead, it was future legend Michael Schumacher who stepped up and fought his way to his maiden title in a season filled with drama and controversy.

New regulations had stripped the Williams of its electronic advancements, bringing Schumacher’s Benetton into the mix. The German won six of the first seven races but was then disqualified twice.

He was subsequently banned for two races and Damon Hill, who had stepped in at Williams, fought back to win twice with Schumacher out the picture.

It came to the crunch, literally, in the final race in Adelaide, when the pair famously collided handing Schumacher the title by a single point.

6. 2010 – Vettel v Alonso v Webber

In a season where Red Bull was the class of the field on a single lap, with 15 poles in 19 races, poor reliability and souring team-mate relations threatened either driver’s chances of taking the title until Sebastian Vettel made a last-gasp grab.

Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all took turns up front while Michael Schumacher returned from retirement with newcomers Mercedes, but the team did not make the grade after taking over from previous constructors' champions Brawn GP.

Three wins in four races put Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso above Mark Webber for the penultimate race, but when Red Bull ran in first and second, it chose not to switch to benefit Webber and Vettel took the win.

That left Alonso eight points clear of Webber with Vettel 13 points off the top but at the final race in Abu Dhabi, Vettel won from pole while a tactical blunder from Ferrari left Alonso in seventh and unable to overtake Vitaly Petrov.

With Webber down in eighth, it was a shock win for Vettel who become F1’s youngest title winner.