Most wins in F1 without a championship: the best drivers never to win the title

Who has won the most races without a title

Stirling Moss: 16 Grand Prix wins in 1955–1961, and not a single world title. Second is David Coulthard, with 13 wins in 1995–2003, and third is Carlos Reutemann, with 12 wins in 1974–1981.

Below are the best drivers never to win the championship, ranked by wins. Three share ninth place, so the table has eleven rows. For drivers racing in 2026, the figures include the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix (11 October).

For comparison, here is the top 10 by wins among all drivers, champions included. It updates after every season.

Why Stirling Moss never became champion

Moss finished runner-up four seasons running, in 1955–1958: three times the champion was Juan Manuel Fangio, and once Mike Hawthorn, who beat him by a single point. In 1959–1961 Moss was third three times.

• 1955. Second behind Fangio, his Mercedes team-mate. The same year Moss took his first win, at the British Grand Prix.
• 1956 and 1957. Second behind Fangio again. In 1956 Moss drove for Maserati and Fangio for Ferrari; in 1957 Fangio drove for Maserati, and Moss for Vanwall from the second race of the season.
• 1958. Moss won four races to Hawthorn’s one. He also won the season finale in Morocco, but the 1958 title went to Hawthorn: 42 points to 41.

Moss took his 16 wins in 1955–1961 in cars from five makes: Mercedes, Maserati, Vanwall, Cooper and Lotus. His last championship race was the 1961 United States Grand Prix. His results season by season, set against Hawthorn’s, are on the Moss and Hawthorn comparison page, and the whole 1958 season is in the history section.

By win rate, Moss is among the best too: after the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix he is ninth among drivers with 50 or more starts, with 16 wins from 66 starts, or 24.2%. All eight drivers above him are world champions. How the win rate is counted is explained in the article “Best F1 drivers of all time”.

How close the others came to the title

Three came closest: Moss in 1958, Reutemann in 1981 and Massa in 2008 each lost to the champion by one point, with the title settled at the final race of the season. For the rest of the top 10 the gap was bigger, and the champion was often their own team-mate.

• Carlos Reutemann, 1981: second, 49 points to Nelson Piquet’s 50; it was settled at the final race, in Las Vegas.
• Felipe Massa, 2008: second, 97 points to Lewis Hamilton’s 98, even though Massa had more wins, six to five; it was settled at the final race, in Brazil.
• David Coulthard, 2001: second behind Michael Schumacher, 65 points to 123.
• Rubens Barrichello, 2002 and 2004: second both times behind his Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher, 77 points to 144 and 114 to 148.
• Valtteri Bottas, 2019 and 2020: second both times behind his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, 326 points to 413 and 223 to 347.
• Ronnie Peterson, 1971 and 1978: in 1971, second behind Jackie Stewart, 33 points to 62, without winning a race all season; in 1978, second behind his Lotus team-mate Mario Andretti, 51 to 64.
• Charles Leclerc, 2022: second behind Max Verstappen, 308 points to 454.
• Mark Webber, 2010, 2011 and 2013: third, and all three times the champion was his Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
• Gerhard Berger, 1988 and 1994: third, both times with Ferrari.
• Oscar Piastri, 2025: third, 410 points to the 423 of his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, with the same number of wins, seven each.

Webber came closest in 2010: he arrived at the final round in Abu Dhabi second in the standings, on 238 points to Fernando Alonso’s 246 and Vettel’s 231. Vettel won the race and the title. All the closest title fights are in the article “F1 champions by year”.

Which current drivers have the most wins without a title

Valtteri Bottas, who drives for Cadillac in 2026: after the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix he has 10 wins, with Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri on 9 each.

The figures in the table include the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix and change after every race. You can follow the season in the 2026 Drivers’ Championship standings.

Who on this list can still win the 2026 title

Mathematically, Kimi Antonelli, George Russell and Charles Leclerc; if one of them becomes the 2026 champion, he will drop off this list. Oscar Piastri can no longer win the 2026 title.

After the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, Antonelli leads the championship on 340 points, with Russell second on 238 and Leclerc fifth on 215. Six races remain, none of them with a Sprint, and a race win in 2026 is worth 25 points, so 150 points are left to play for. That is enough for Russell and Leclerc to overtake the leader in theory, but not for Piastri: after the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix he has 138 points, 202 behind Antonelli. How points are awarded is explained in the points article.

Which world champion won the fewest races

In a single season, one: Mike Hawthorn in 1958 and Keke Rosberg in 1982 both became champion with just one win. Over a whole career, Phil Hill and Hawthorn again have the fewest wins, three each.

In 1958 Hawthorn won only the French Grand Prix, while Moss won four races and Tony Brooks three, yet Hawthorn finished first on points. In 1982 Rosberg won once, at the Swiss Grand Prix, which was held in France, at Dijon-Prenois. The 16 races of the 1982 season had 11 different winners; Rosberg scored 44 points, and Didier Pironi and John Watson 39 each.

After the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, 18 of the 35 world champions have fewer wins than Moss. Every champion and their titles are in the article “Most F1 championships”.

How many drivers have won races but never the title

After the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, 116 drivers have won a world championship race, and 81 of them have never been champion. Ten of those 81 won only the Indianapolis 500, which was part of the championship in 1950–1960. Without them, that leaves 71 drivers who won a Grand Prix but never the title.

After the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, 34 drivers without a title have exactly one win, or 25 if you leave out the Indianapolis 500. The newest race winner is Kimi Antonelli: he won for the first time at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix, and all eight of his wins came that season. Records for wins, poles and starts across all drivers are on the Records page.