Fernando Alonso hinted that the F1 2026 season may be his last in Formula 1, but he may yet carry on if next season’s Aston Martin is not as competitive as he would like.
September 25 marks 20 years since the Spanish driver became Formula 1’s youngest-ever World Champion after a podium at Interlagos. Should he secure an elusive third title next season, it would mark by far the longest gap between a driver’s first and last crown.
What has Fernando Alonso said about his F1 future?
The double World Champion recently offered an update about what his future holds, and while he is delaying a decision until next season, he is doing so with the team’s competitiveness very much in mind after the sport’s huge regulation reset.
“I have thought about it,” Alonso told Aston Martin’s official website of his retirement plans, “but I will leave the decision for next year, and also how the team is in that moment and what they need from me.
“If things go well, I think it’s a very good moment to stop because I’ve been chasing a competitive car and a competitive racing for many, many years, and if I have that, I think it’s a very good way to close my career.
After a pause, he added: “Let’s say that if we are competitive, there is more chance that I stop. If we are not competitive, it will be very hard to give up without trying again.”
If the history of Formula 1 has shown us anything, it is that drivers and teams tend to win World Championships in clusters or short bursts; prolonged periods of dominance have proved difficult to maintain.
There are some multiple World Champions who won their titles consecutively like Alonso himself (2005 and 2006), Mika Hakkinen (1998 and 1999), Sebastian Vettel (2010-2013) and Max Verstappen (2021-24*), with others earning theirs closely together like Emerson Fittipaldi (two titles in three seasons) and Ayrton Senna (three titles in four seasons).
Others have had to wait longer to achieve their title tallies, however, as we will see below.
The largest gaps between first and last World Championships in F1 history
1: Lewis Hamilton – 12 years*
First title: 2008
Most recent title: 2020*
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 7 (2008, 2014-15, 2017-20)
Title-winning teams: McLaren (2008), Mercedes (2014-15, 2017-20)
Total race wins: 105*
Lewis Hamilton will still very much hope to be at the front of the field for the future in order to add to his record-equalling tally of seven Drivers’ titles.
Having won his maiden title with McLaren in 2008 after a final-corner overtake on Timo Glock in the rain at Interlagos, Hamilton went through several tougher years by his standards before a high-profile move to Mercedes for 2013.
After one victory in the 2013 season, Mercedes capitalised on the sport’s regulation changes for 2014 to establish itself as the dominant force in Formula 1, with Hamilton duelling against teammate Nico Rosberg to win the 2014 and ’15 crowns.
Rosberg won the 2016 World Championship and swiftly retired, and with chassis changes for 2017, Hamilton fended off challenges from Ferrari and others to win another four titles in a row, capped off by the all-conquering W11 in 2020.
He lost out on the 2021 crown to Max Verstappen in controversial circumstances in Abu Dhabi, and any further World Championships in future for the Briton will mean a leap of up to at least 18 years, given the 2025 crown is already out of reach.
2: Michael Schumacher – 10 years
First title: 1994
Last title: 2004
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 7 (1994-95, 2000-04)
Title-winning teams: Benetton (1994-95), Ferrari (2000-04)
Total race wins: 91
In truth, both Hamilton and Michael Schumacher would have made this list anyway with seven World Championships requiring seven seasons in which to win them, but the German managed his seven triumphs in 10 seasons.
Back-to-back titles with Benetton were followed by a move to Ferrari, with a cohesive team steadily being put in place through the Scuderia’s leaner years that meant, by the time 2000 came around, it was the start of a title-winning dynasty.
The only driver in Formula 1 history to win five World Championships in a row, Schumacher enjoyed undisputed number one status at Ferrari at a time the team was at its most dominant. In 2002, Schumacher claimed 84.7 per cent of the points available as he finished every race on the podium.
The 2003 campaign was much harder-fought, before Ferrari brought another world-beater to the track in the F2004 – with Schumacher taking 13 wins in 18 races to round of his final title-winning campaign.
He would lose his crown to Alonso in 2005 as rule changes bit the Scuderia, and was the Spaniard’s nearest challenger in a gripping 2006 campaign.
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3: Niki Lauda – 9 years
First title: 1975
Last title: 1984
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 3 (1975, 1977, 1984)
Title-winning teams: Ferrari (1975, 1977), McLaren (1984)
Total race wins: 25
Niki Lauda became Ferrari’s first World Champion in 11 years when he took his first title in 1975, and after surviving a horrific crash at the Nurburgring a year later, the fact he was even racing at all was something of a miracle in itself.
Withdrawing from the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix on safety grounds in wet conditions, he was pipped to the 1976 title by James Hunt by one point, but his relentless consistency the following year saw the Austrian take the World Championship in 1977.
He took two wins that year, but his 10 podiums helped give him the points he needed to become a multiple World Champion.
Retiring from Formula 1 for the first time in 1979, he would return in 1982 with McLaren after a two-season absence.
He did not feature in the title battle for the first two years after his return, with unreliability causing 15 retirements in that time, along with McLaren’s transition from Ford to Porsche engines.
With a quick teammate to contend with in 1984, Lauda and Alain Prost dominated the season, winning 12 of the 16 races as they fought for glory.
It would be the Austrian who would win his third and final title by just half a point from his younger colleague, though it would be the Frenchman who would take up the reins with McLaren the following years…
4: Alain Prost – 8 years
First title: 1985
Last title: 1993
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 4 (1985-86, 1989, 1993)
Title-winning teams: McLaren (1985-86, 1989), Williams (1993)
Total race wins: 51
On all bar one occasion that Alain Prost crossed the line in 1985, he finished on the podium. The one time he didn’t, he finished fourth.
That relentless consistency carried over into the following year, with the Frenchman a podium regular as he racked up enough points to win a second Drivers’ title in a row.
His rivalry with Ayrton Senna at McLaren was one for the ages, and after the Brazilian took glory in 1988 (despite Prost scoring more points over the course of the season), a controversial collision at Suzuka in 1989 saw Senna disqualified after rejoining the track incorrectly, and Prost earning a third title as their battle came to a head.
A reverse of his 1989 title-winning clash happened at Suzuka the year after, with Prost – now at Ferrari – involved in a collision at the first corner that would see both drivers out of the race, and Senna winning his second title in the process.
After retiring at the end of 1991, Prost was tempted back to Formula 1 with Williams in 1993, following its all-conquering 1992 campaign with Nigel Mansell.
Seven wins in the first nine races were enough to give Prost the advantage he needed to earn a fourth and final title come the end of 1993, at which time he drew his glittering career to a close.
5: Jack Brabham – 7 years
First title: 1959
Last title: 1966
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 3 (1959-60, 1966)
Title-winning teams: Cooper (1959-60), Brabham (1966)
Total race wins: 14
Jack Brabham took back-to-back titles in 1959 and 1960 after forming a formidable partnership with Cooper, the latter season bringing about a rare double of winning both the Formula 1 and Formula 2 titles in the same year.
After one more year with Cooper in 1961, Brabham took a big step in bringing his own team into Formula 1, which would carry on in the sport for several decades afterwards.
For Brabham himself, however, he had to contend with the dominance of Jim Clark and Team Lotus, along with the combination of John Surtees and Ferrari – with the Australian bringing home his first podium in 1963, though he was a regular points scorer in his own machinery.
It wasn’t until the 1966 season where Brabham would earn a victory with his own team, where the switch from Climax to Repco as F1 reverted to three-litre engines, along with the Ron Tauranac-designed BT19 chassis, bringing the double World Champion four wins in a row and another podium in Mexico, which was more than enough for him to be a comfortable winner of his third World Championship.
To this day, he remains the most recent driver to win a Drivers’ title after their 40th birthday, and is the only driver to have won a World Championship in a car bearing his own name.
=6: Juan Manuel Fangio – 6 years
First title: 1951
Last title: 1957
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 5 (1951, 1954-57)
Title-winning teams: Alfa Romeo (1951), Maserati (1954, 1957), Daimler Benz [Mercedes] (1954-55), Ferrari (1956)
Total race wins: 24
There should be a disclaimer to come with Juan Manuel Fangio’s place on this list, because he took all five of his World Championships in only a seven-season period in Formula 1.
The Argentine great was unafraid of moving between teams in order to get himself the best machinery possible, even raced a Maserati before swapping to Mercedes in 1954 to give himself the best chance of success, which he duly achieved.
Having finished second in the inaugural world championship behind Nino Farina in 1950, he took his first World Championship with three wins and two further second places with Alfa Romeo the following year.
After a year away from Formula 1 in which he dominated multiple races driving a Ferrari in South America, Fangio returned to Formula 1 with Maserati.
Another runner-up placing was followed by a winning start to 1954 with Maserati, but with Mercedes bringing what would become its all-conquering W196 to the track partway through the season, Fangio switched to the German marque and secured his second World Championship, quickly followed by a third as he and Mercedes dominated.
Switches – and more titles – followed first with Ferrari in 1956, and rounding off his title tally by the end of 1957 with Maserati once again.
Aged 46 at the time of his final World Championship, he remains the oldest driver to ever win the Drivers’ title.
=6: Graham Hill – 6 years
First title: 1962
Last title: 1968
Overall Drivers’ Championships: 2 (1962, 1968)
Title-winning teams: BRM (1962), Team Lotus (1968)
Total race wins: 14
Graham Hill, while dubbed ‘Mr Monaco’ for his incredible five victories around the streets of the Principality, took a while for his Formula 1 career to yield much success.
Plagued by unreliability in initial spells at Team Lotus and BRM, Hill’s 1962 season with BRM was where everything fell into place for driver and team, winning four races on his way to a first World Championship.
Despite succeeding in other categories – being the first and only driver to date to win the Triple Crown of the Monaco Grand Prix, 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500 – he had to bide his time for another Formula 1 title.
The runner-up in the next three seasons, Hill’s competitiveness gradually fell away with BRM before a move back to Lotus as he searched for an elusive second crown.
As Hill teamed up with the Lotus 49 in 1968, he would race to World Championship glory six years after his first title, taking wins in Spain, Monaco (of course) and Mexico as he finally became a double World Champion.
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