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Autosport Retro

Telling the forgotten stories and unearthing the hidden gems from years gone by.

Motorsport fans know that the best performers aren’t always rewarded with a title at season’s end. Unreliability, misfortune, bizarre scoring systems and inferior equipment can combine to deny drivers even when they are at the top of their game.

For this list, we have picked out Formula 1’s greatest all-season performances by drivers who didn’t win the championship. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the champions from those years were unworthy, it’s more about highlighting star campaigns that went unrewarded.

We’ve taken into account the machinery at their disposal, standout drives, the amount of bad luck they had and the points they gave away.

F1 pundit Karun Chandhok joins Autosport’s Stuart Codling to assess host Kevin Turner’s selection.

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About this video
Duration
50:11
Posted
Mar 25, 2026
Series
Formula 1