We have used supertimes for some of this analysis. These are calculated by converting the cars\u2019 fastest lap times over a race weekend (normally set in qualifying) to a percentage, with the outright fastest lap of the weekend expressed as 100%. We have then used the gaps between the cars in the relevant seasons.<\/p>\n
10. Lotus 18
\n ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stirling-moss-lotus-18-climax-1.jpg\")
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The 18 made Lotus an F1 frontrunner for the first time<\/p>\n
Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n
Years: 1960-61
Wins: 4
Poles: 5<\/p>\n
How close could Stirling Moss have got to the 1960 title in Rob Walker\u2019s Lotus 18 had it not been for his crash at Spa? Given the accident, which put Moss out for three races, was caused by a wheel falling off, it\u2019s perhaps a moot point when it comes to placing the car in this list.<\/p>\n
But the pace of the first mid-engined GP Lotus pushed Cooper to develop the T53 and Moss scored wins either side of his accident, at Monaco and Riverside. The 2.5-litre car was also good enough for F1 rookie John Surtees to take a pole (one of four for the 18 in 1960) and a second, while fellow up-and-comer Jim Clark also took his first world championship podium in an 18.<\/p>\n
Like all the British cars, the 18 was underpowered when the switch to 1500cc engines arrived in 1961. Moss won the Monaco GP in Walker\u2019s version and then the German GP in uprated 18\/21 spec against the otherwise dominant Ferraris, but those successes were arguably more down to driving virtuosity than car performance.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Moss reckoned the 18 was faster than the T53 but trickier to drive, and it made Lotus an F1 frontrunner for the first time.<\/p>\n
Read Also:<\/p>\n
9. Ferrari SF71H
\n ![\"Vettel's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/sebastian-vettel-ferrari-sf-71-1.jpg\")
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Vettel’s crash out of the lead at the German GP was a key moment in the season, but really the tide was already turning against Ferrari<\/p>\n
Photo by: Hasan Bratic \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n
Year: 2018
Wins: 6
Poles: 6<\/p>\n
The 2018 season should have been a story of Ferrari\u2019s Sebastian Vettel<\/a> building up a points lead, then defending it from a resurgent Mercedes<\/a> and Lewis Hamilton<\/a>. The SF71H\u2019s 0.118% supertimes deficit and tally of six wins probably does it an injustice; Vettel just wasn\u2019t as good as Hamilton when it came to the crunch.<\/p>\n Even before the W09 really came on strong, Hamilton was in the championship lead. Vettel topped the table after winning the British GP at the campaign\u2019s halfway mark but threw away victory in Germany by going off in a rain-affected race that Hamilton won from 14th on the grid. Rain in qualifying at the Hungaroring then allowed Mercedes to annex the front row on a weekend the SF71H looked faster, Hamilton duly racking up another victory.<\/p>\n Vettel beat Hamilton at Spa and Ferrari qualified 1-2 at Monza. But Kimi Raikkonen<\/a> defended the lead from his team-mate on the opening lap and a rattled Vettel spun under attack from Hamilton at the second chicane. The Mercedes driver then beat Raikkonen, kicking off a winning spree that comfortably took Hamilton to his fifth crown as Ferrari\u2019s late updates failed to hit the mark.<\/p>\n Despite a troubled campaign for Mercedes number two Valtteri Bottas<\/a>, Ferrari was comfortably beaten to both titles. The SF71H wasn\u2019t a dominator, but it deserved better.<\/p>\n 8. McLaren MP4-15 McLaren’s MP4-15 was a very good car, but just not good enough to beat the Ferrari in 2000<\/p>\n Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Year: 2000 The battle in 2000 between Ferrari and McLaren, Michael Schumacher<\/a> and Mika Hakkinen<\/a>, was epic. The F1-2000 scored 10 wins and 10 poles to the MP4-15\u2019s tallies of seven and seven, while the McLaren had 12 fastest laps to the Ferrari\u2019s five. The Italian car was just 0.008% faster on supertimes.<\/p>\n Aside from non-scores for McLaren across the first two races, both cars were pretty reliable, too, and the teams took it in turns to have purple patches as no one else got a look in. Ferrari scored 170 points to McLaren\u2019s 152 (after a 10-point penalty for missing seals on Hakkinen\u2019s car in Austria), while Williams was third on just 36.<\/p>\n Both titles probably went the right way but such was the quality of the fight \u2013 epitomised by the intensity of the Schuey vs Hakkinen battle at Suzuka \u2013 that the MP4-15 deserves a place on this list. Rarely has a loser been so good.<\/p>\n 7. McLaren MP4-20 McLaren duo Raikkonen and Montoya produced stunning performances in the MP4-20, but couldn’t match the relentless consistency of Alonso in the Renault<\/p>\n Photo by: Michael Cooper \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Year: 2005 A fan favourite, the MP4-20 is hard to place on this list. In terms of raw performance, it is the second-fastest car here, with a supertimes advantage of 0.292%. But it was also the architect of its own downfall, with unreliability harming McLaren and lead driver Kimi Raikkonen in their battle with Renault and Fernando Alonso<\/a>.<\/p>\n It took a while for McLaren to get the best out of the MP4-20 in the one season of F1\u2019s one-set-of-tyres-per-race rule, with Raikkonen hitting his stride from round four at Imola.<\/p>\n There, he led early on before a driveshaft failure. Engine problems handed Raikkonen 10-place grid penalties for the French (won by Alonso, with Kimi second), British (won by Juan Pablo Montoya\u2019s McLaren, with Raikkonen third) and Italian (Montoya, with Kimi behind the two Renaults in fourth) GPs. Hydraulics failure also put Raikkonen out while leading the German GP. Montoya also suffered drama.<\/p>\n In between times, there was some dominant performances from the MP4-20, which pioneered seamless shift technology: Raikkonen won in Spain by nearly half a minute; he led every lap at Monaco; Montoya headed a 1-2 in Brazil. There was also Raikkonen\u2019s stunning victory from 17th on the grid (after another penalty!) at Suzuka. But McLaren simply made his job too difficult.<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n For his part, Alonso was his relentless self, racking up points whenever he couldn\u2019t win. It was his pressure that forced an error from Raikkonen at the Nurburgring that flat-spotted a tyre and ultimately led to the dramatic suspension failure on the last lap. It should also be noted that, with the drivers\u2019 title sewn up and everything \u2018turned up to 11\u2019, Alonso beat the McLarens in the Chinese GP finale to secure the constructors\u2019 crown.<\/p>\n 6. Ferrari 312B3-74 The 312B3-74 had the biggest performance advantage over its rivals out of any car on this list<\/p>\n Photo by: Bernard Cahier \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n Year: 1974-75 In terms of squandering a pace advantage, the 312B3-74 tops this list. It took 10 poles from 15 races and had a 0.716% edge over the field. To put that into perspective, that\u2019s bigger than the spread covering the top four teams in 2025!<\/p>\n The original 312B\u2019s performance in 1970 \u2013 when it won four times and took five poles \u2013 made it a candidate here. But most of its successes came after Lotus star Jochen Rindt\u2019s death at Monza and it was soon surpassed by the early Tyrrells, so it\u2019s the heavily changed version that gets the nod.<\/p>\n Ferrari\u2019s answer to an appalling 1973 F1 season was to quit sportscar racing and completely revise its grand prix car \u2013 and sign Niki Lauda. The Austrian took nine poles but unreliability \u2013 not to mention a puncture followed by a bizarre pitlane delay at Brands Hatch \u2013 hampered his 1974 challenge and limited him to fourth in the standings.<\/p>\n Instead, Clay Regazzoni \u2013 who only took one win but picked up points in 11 races \u2013 went to the Watkins Glen finale with a chance of the crown. Fourth for Emerson Fittipaldi was enough for the Brazilian to take his second title and McLaren somehow pipped Ferrari to the constructors\u2019 title as well.<\/p>\n Ferrari\u2019s own website still claims that \u201ca big chance had been lost\u201d and we\u2019re inclined to agree, though it did set the scene for a title double with the 312T in 1975, after the 312B3 had contested the first two rounds.<\/p>\n 5. Red Bull RB5 Red Bull’s RB5 didn’t win a title, but it did set up a line of four consecutive championship doubles that followed<\/p>\n Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Year: 2009 This could be the most significant car of our 10 because it set the design trend for the subsequent Adrian Newey-penned Red Bull\u2019s that would take championship doubles for the next four years.<\/p>\n Given the early domination shown by the Brawn BGP 001, complete with controversial double diffuser, it\u2019s perhaps a surprise that the RB5 comes out on top in the supertimes by 0.112%. That\u2019s how quick the car was, even though it was not designed around the downforce-boosting diffuser trick that Red Bull had to crowbar in retrospectively.<\/p>\n Red Bull and lead driver Vettel were new to winning \u2013 the German\u2019s victory in China that year being the team\u2019s first \u2013 so mistakes were made and Vettel couldn\u2019t match eventual champion Jenson Button<\/a>\u2019s finishing record. Nevertheless, Vettel won two of the final three GPs to take his 2009 tally to four, despite a resurgent McLaren also becoming a challenger.<\/p>\n Red Bull was the only team (aside from sister squad Toro Rosso) to use a pullrod rear suspension, but it was retained for Newey\u2019s subsequent successful racers and adopted by some rivals.<\/p>\n Quite where to place the RB5 might depend on how you feel about whether the double diffuser should have been allowed or not. Given it was, we think a spot in the middle of this list is fair.<\/p>\n 4. Williams FW17 A quick car but unreliability, errors and a strong Benetton\/Schumacher opposition left it trailing<\/p>\n Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Year: 1995 It\u2019s hard to imagine a car taking 12 poles from 17 races not coming close to winning a title, but that\u2019s what the FW17 managed in 1995. Benetton\u2019s Michael Schumacher scored almost as many points as Williams duo Damon Hill<\/a> and David Coulthard<\/a> combined, with Benetton also taking its one and only constructors\u2019 crown with the B195.<\/p>\n Despite being briefly hampered by a change to the construction of Goodyear\u2019s front tyres, the FW17 was 0.185% faster on supertimes. But Benetton under Ross Brawn proved more agile when it came to strategy in F1\u2019s refuelling era, while Hill and rookie Coulthard couldn\u2019t match Schumacher\u2019s brilliance across the campaign.<\/p>\n Aside from being outgunned strategically, Williams also suffered with both reliability and driver errors. Four of Hill\u2019s seven retirements were driver-related, though twice he was pitched out of the lead by car issues.<\/p>\n Coulthard\u2019s problems \u2013 he had eight retirements \u2013 included gearbox and electrical gremlins, but he also suffered two big embarrassments, spinning on the parade lap from pole at Monza (before a wheel bearing let him down at the restart) and crashing coming into the pits at the Adelaide finale.<\/p>\n Hill won that race \u2013 by a record-matching two laps (!) \u2013 and the FW18 that dominated 1996 had a clear lineage to its predecessor. It\u2019s not hard to imagine a Benetton-run, Schumacher-driven FW17 clearing up.<\/p>\n 3. BRM P261 With a different scoring system, BRM would have beaten Lotus to the 1965 title<\/p>\n Photo by: Sutton Images<\/p>\n Years: 1964-66 Using the 2025 scoring system, BRM would have beaten Lotus to the 1965 constructors\u2019 crown thanks to Graham Hill and star rookie Jackie Stewart. But it\u2019s difficult to argue the P261 was the best performer of the season given Clark won six of the 10 rounds for Lotus.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the Tony Rudd design was the closest challenger to Colin Chapman\u2019s Lotus 25 and 33 models across 1964-65. Helped by Lotus unreliability, Hill went to the 1964 finale with a chance of the crown and could have taken the title but for a controversial clash with Lorenzo Bandini\u2019s Ferrari. As it was, Hill only lost to Ferrari\u2019s John Surtees thanks to the \u2018best six results count\u2019 system by one point, having scored one more than his rival overall.<\/p>\n In two-litre form the P261 was good enough to beat Clark to the Tasman crown in early 1966, Stewart leading Hill in a 1-2 as they won six of the eight races in the \u2018winter world championship\u2019 in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n While teams (including BRM) struggled to make the most of the new three-litre F1 rules in 1966, the P261 remained competitive with the bigger version of its V8 and Stewart scored the car\u2019s sixth world championship success at the Monaco GP, completing the P261\u2019s hat-trick around the principality.<\/p>\n 2. Ferrari 375 A switch to smaller-diameter wheels at the Spanish GP title showdown denied Ferrari<\/p>\n Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Year: 1951 The 375 should have been the first Ferrari to win a world championship but was undone by one of motorsport\u2019s great gaffes.<\/p>\n Aurelio Lampredi had gradually developed bigger and bigger versions of his unsupercharged V12, which was more frugal than the supercharged 1.5-litre straight-eight that powered the pacesetting Alfa Romeo 158\/159 and so required fewer fuel stops. Having finally made the winning breakthrough at the 1951 British GP with Jose Froilan Gonzalez, Ferrari got on a roll.<\/p>\n Lead driver Alberto Ascari won both the German and Italian GPs, setting up a Spanish showdown with Alfa\u2019s Juan Manuel Fangio for the drivers\u2019 crown. But a switch to smaller-diameter wheels proved catastrophic for the tyres and poleman Ascari\u2019s hopes vanished amid shredded rubber.<\/p>\n Once the world championship moved to F2 machinery for 1952 (and Ascari had taken a 375 to the Indianapolis 500), the car remained the benchmark in non-championship Formula 1\/Libre events for BRM and Tony Vandervell to measure the progress of their nascent GP projects\u2026<\/p>\n Read Also:<\/p>\n 1. McLaren MP4-22 Bitter rivalry on the track and spygate off it denied the MP4-22 even though it scored the most points and was the fastest car<\/p>\n Photo by: Steven Tee \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n Year: 2007 This has to be number one because it wasn\u2019t on-track results that denied the MP4-22 a championship. A simple look at the points totals of Hamilton and Alonso shows that McLaren scored more than Ferrari in 2007. Except it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Thanks to the qualifying nonsense between Hamilton and Alonso in Hungary \u2013 which ended with the Spaniard being slow out of the pitlane for the final runs, delaying the Briton enough not to get a lap in \u2013 McLaren was stripped of the points that it scored that weekend: 15.<\/p>\n That became moot when McLaren was thrown out of the constructors\u2019 championship altogether (and fined $100million) due to the \u2018spygate\u2019 scandal following the passing over of sensitive Ferrari documents to chief designer Mike Coughlan. But the fact remains that the MP4-22 scored 218 points in the drivers\u2019 contest to Ferrari\u2019s 204.<\/p>\n McLaren adapted well with the switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres and both teams pushed on with rapid development. They took all 17 wins and poles between them, 9-8 to Ferrari in each case, but with the McLaren proving 0.205% faster on supertimes.<\/p>\n Not only was the MP4-22 denied the constructors\u2019 crown by factors outside its control, it provided Hamilton with the tools to put in the greatest rookie campaign in F1 history. A pitlane faux pas in China, gearbox glitch in the Brazilian GP finale and Felipe Massa<\/a> moving aside for his Ferrari team-mate at Interlagos was just enough for Raikkonen to snatch the drivers\u2019 laurels by a single point.<\/p>\n Hamilton came up one point short from winning the drivers’ title in his rookie season<\/p>\n Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n We want to hear from you!<\/p>\n Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.<\/p>\n
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Wins: 7
Poles: 7<\/p>\n
\n ![\"McLaren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/kimi-raikkonen-mclaren-mercede-1.jpg\")
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Wins: 10
Poles: 7<\/p>\n
\n ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/clay-regazzoni-niki-lauda-ferr.jpg\")
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Wins: 3
Poles: 10<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Red](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/djm0909fe16.jpg\")
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Wins: 6
Poles: 5<\/p>\n
\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/david-coulthard-williams-fw17--1.jpg\")
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Wins: 5
Poles: 12<\/p>\n
\n ![\"With](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/graham-hill-brm-p261-1.jpg\")
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Wins: 6
Poles: 5<\/p>\n
\n ![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/alberto-ascari-ferrari-375-1.jpg\")
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Wins: 3
Poles: 3<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Bitter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f1-hungarian-gp-2007-lewis-hamilton-mclaren-mp4-22-leads-team-mate-fernando-alonso-mclaren.jpg\")
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Wins: 8
Poles: 8<\/p>\n![\"Hamilton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/lewis-hamilton-mclaren-mp4-22--1.jpg\")
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