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If Red Bull’s Max Verstappen beats Lando Norris to win the Formula One world championship in Las Vegas on Saturday, he will become only the sixth driver to win four titles.
AFP looks back at the five others who achieved this feat:
-Juan Manuel Fangio-
Titles won: 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957
Cars: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes, Ferrari
Born in 1911, Fangio was a successful driver in Argentina, notably winning the grueling 10,000-kilometer (6,250-mile) Gran Premio del Norte in 1940, before becoming Formula One’s first superstar.
He won the title in 1951 with Alfa Romeo and went on to triumph with Maserati, Mercedes and Ferrari to become the first man to win five titles, a record that stood for 46 years. He died at the age of 84 in 1995.
In his own words:
“I learned to approach racing like a game of pool. If you hit the ball too hard, you don’t achieve anything. By handling the cue correctly, you drive with more finesse.”
-Alain Prost-
Titles won: 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993
Cars: McLaren, Williams
The Frenchman, nicknamed “the Professor” for his analytical approach to the sport, is seen by many as the dull counterpoint to the popular Ayrton Senna (three titles) in a rivalry that gripped F1 in the late 1980s, early 1980s. 1980s. 1990s.
But he was a gifted and methodical driver who won his first three titles with McLaren and a fourth with Williams. He could have had five if he hadn’t been beaten by Niki Lauda by half a point in 1984.
In his own words:
“My ideal is to take pole with the minimum effort and win the race at the slowest speed possible.”
-Michael Schumacher-
Titles won: 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
Cars: Benetton, Ferrari
The year after Prost’s last championship, Michael Schumacher took over. The German, with his undeniable verve and pace mixed with sometimes almost dangerous aggression, won twice with Benetton in the 1990s before moving to Ferrari.
From 2000 onwards, he dominated the track, winning five titles in a row, eclipsing Fangio’s record in the process. His 91 race wins was a new record until Lewis Hamilton surpassed it.
Schumacher suffered a serious brain injury in a skiing accident in 2013 and has since been cared for at the family home in Switzerland.
In his own words:
“Being a mediocre driver has never been my ambition. It’s not my style.”
-Sébastien Vettel-
Titles won: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Car: Red Bull
Six years after Schumacher’s last title, another German has arrived to firmly take control of the sport. Vettel made his F1 debut at Indianapolis shortly before his 20th birthday in 2007 with Red Bull who had taken over and renamed the Jaguar team four years earlier.
Three years later, he became the youngest champion in history, winning four times in a row and frustrating the great Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who was three times runner-up to Vettel. His 2013 title was the last won by Red Bull until Verstappen’s first in 2021.
In his own words:
“It’s true that I’m a bad loser. Why should I lie? If I was good at losing, I wouldn’t be in Formula 1.”
-Lewis Hamilton-
Titles won: 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Cars: McLaren, Mercedes
In an exclusively white sport, Lewis Hamilton broke new ground by becoming the first black driver and the first black champion. He used his position to speak out on many social issues, but kept his most notable actions on the track where he and his Mercedes team were in a class of their own.
After winning his first title with McLaren in 2008, he moved to Mercedes and won six more titles over a seven-year period. He should arguably have reached eighth when a controversial decision by the race director in Abu Dhabi allowed Verstappen to advance to victory – and the title.
In his own words:
“If you don’t have the courage to brake late, that’s your problem.”
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