F1 Single GP Winners

[Amon]

Inspired by the whole debate about single GP winner Maldonado in another thread I was wondering how the other single GP winners are rated. Hard work, lucky strike, finally all things came together at the right moment and deservingly so? And would they have been capable of (much) more?
Take the poll, you can take up to 5 drivers. Some explanation would be nice of course.

Here some of the stats and info on them, can be helpful. Striking that a lot of them had their careers cut short.

Luigi Fagioli (Italy, 1950-1951)
7 GP's - 6 podiums - 0 poles - 0 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 3 (1950)
His win was a shared one with Fangio, with 53 years oldest GP winner ever

Piero Taruffi (Italy, 1950-1952; 1954-1956)
18 GP's - 5 podiums - 0 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 3 (1952)
Ferrari's first single GP winner, with 6 drivers Ferrari has most single GP winners

Luigi Musso (Italy, 1953-1958)
24 GP's - 7 podiums - 0 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 3 (1957)
His win was a shared one with Fangio, died due to an accident French GP 1958

Jo Bonnier (Sweden, 1956-1971)
104 GP's - 1 podium - 1 pole - 0 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 8 (1959)
First Swedish driver to win an F1 race, died after retirement in 1972 during 24H Le Mans

Giancarlo Baghetti (Italy, 1961-1967)
21 GP's - 1 podium - 0 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 9 (1961)
Still the last driver winning his first F1 race, never scoring a podium afterwards

Innes Ireland (UK, 1959-1966)
50 GP's - 4 podiums - 0 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 4 (1960)
Only single GP winner winning with Climax engine

Lorenzo Bandini (Italy, 1961-1967)
42 GP's - 8 podiums - 1 pole - 2 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 4 (1964)
Died during Monaco GP 1967

Richie Ginther (USA, 1960-1966)
52 GP's - 14 podiums - 0 poles - 3 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 3 (1963)
His win was the very first for a Honda car and engine

Ludovico Scarfiotti (Italy, 1963-1964, 1966-1968)
10 GP's - 1 podium - 0 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 10 (1966)
First single GP winner winning home race, died in 1968 accident coast race

Peter Gethin (UK, 1970-1974)
30 GP's - 1 podium - 0 poles - 0 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 9 (1971)
The race he won had 8 different race leaders, he only led 3 laps passing race leader Peterson again in the last lap

François Cevert (France, 1970-1973)
46 GP's - 13 podiums - 0 poles - 2 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 3 (1971)
died during qualifying USA GP 1973 (race he won 2 years earlier), it prompted teammate Jackie Stewart to withdraw from what would have been his 100th GP and retire from F1 with 99 GP's

Jean-Pierre Beltoise (France, 1967-1974)
85 GP's - 8 podiums - 0 poles - 4 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 5 (1969)
Supposed to make his debut in the GP he won 5 years later but couldn't qualify his Matra

Carlos Pace (Brazil, 1972-1977)
72 GP's - 6 podiums - 1 pole - 5 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 6 (1975)
Second single GP winner winning home race, died in 1977 plane accident

Jochen Mass (Germany, 1973-1980, 1982)
105 GP's - 8 podiums - 0 poles - 2 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 6 (1977)
Sadly remembered for being involved in an incident during qualifying Belgian GP 1982 leading to Gilles Villeneuve's death, currently 69 years the oldest single GP winner alive

Vittorio Brambilla (Italy, 1974-1980)
74 GP's - 1 podium - 1 pole - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 11 (1975)
The race he won was due to bad weather cut short and only half points were awarded, he crashed his car on the last lap going over the finish line in reverse!

Gunnar Nilsson (Sweden, 1976-1977)
31 GP's - 4 podiums - 0 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 8 (1977)
Was diagnosed with cancer forcing him to retire, died in 1978 of the disease

Alessandro Nannini (Italy, 1986-1990)
76 GP's - 9 podiums - 0 poles - 2 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 6 (1989)
Inherited the win after Senna being disqualified from the race result, forced to retire from F1 in 1990 after helicopter crash

Jean Alesi (France, 1989-2001)
201 GP's - 32 podiums - 2 poles - 4 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 4 (1996, 1997)
Single GP winner with most podiums

Olivier Panis (France, 1994-1999, 2001-2004)
158 GP's - 5 podiums - 0 poles - 0 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 8 (1995)
Only 3 cars finished the race he won, it was Ligier's last win ever and the first for Mugen Honda

Jarno Trulli (Italy, 1997-2011)
252 GP's - 11 podiums - 4 poles - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 6 (2004)
Single GP winner with most GP's and poles

Robert Kubica (Poland, 2006-2010)
76 GP's - 12 podiums - 1 pole - 1 fastest lap
Best result WDC: 4 (2008)
The race he won was the first and only for BMW Sauber, to this date the only Polish driver in F1, F1 career cut short due to a rally accident before the 2011 season started

Heikki Kovalainen (Finland, 2007-2013)
111 GP's - 4 podiums - 1 pole - 2 fastest laps
Best result WDC: 7 (2007, 2008)
Inherited the lead and won after leader Massa retired with 3 laps to go

[Amon]

My choices are:

Kubica: I don't know if I need to explain. I think he had everything to become a world champion 1 day. He could have been a Ferrari driver if not for the rally accident.
Alesi: well he surely wasn't without mistakes but you can't watch beyond that amount of podiums. Had he chosen for Williams instead of Ferrari I'm sure he would have been a multiple winner and WDC.
Panis: his amount of podiums is quite low but I remember in Prost's first season the guy was absolutely on fire until he crashed and broke his legs. When he came back he seemed to have lost that fire...
Nannini: ok his single win was after a disqualification but I believe there was another instance he could have won (Hungary 1990) but while chasing leader Boutsen Senna passed him and they collided ending the race for Nannini. Also Ferrari took an interest in him.
Fagioli: ok never saw him race as that was way before my time. However given he was pretty succesful in the 1930s and finishing every F1 race he finished on the podium I wonder how succesful he would have been if F1 had started in the 1930s? He might have been multiple WDC. The Alfa Romeo was a great car but still at that age ...

[mikeyg123]

Went with Kubica, Alesi, and Musso. For me the others don't really stand up above the pack. Kubica would have gone on to win more and Alesi would have won 4/5 with better reliability. Musso is one of my favorite drivers from the 50s so I'm perhaps a little biased there.

Fagioli I didn't count as he won multiple grand prix's before the F1 era. Otherwise he would stand above the others.

I'm slightly surprised at votes for Panis. He clearly showed he wasn't at Trulli's level (who has 0 votes) and was no better than Brundle in 95 even though Brundle had to keep giving up his car for Suzuki.

[Fountoukos13]

I chose Cevert, Pace, Nilsson, Alesi and Kubica.

Cevert was going to become No1 at Tyrrell as Stewart was retiring. The same with Pace at Brabham and possibly Nilsson at Lotus. That means that all 3 would go on to challenge for the championship in the seasons to come but unfortunately they died.

Alesi was at the wrong team at the wrong time despite that he was uberconsistant going on to claim 32 podiums and being best of the rest behind the drivers in championship winning cars.

Kubica could actually have already challenged for the title in 2008 but BMW decided to go for 2009... and there was a chance he could have challenged in 2012 with the Lotus car.

The rest some could have won some more races like Bandini, Ginther and Musso.
Others are lucky to have a win like Gethin, Kovalainen and Brambilla.

* Fagioli had won another 9GPs before WW2 and was 2nd in the championship in 1935.
* Nannini could have achieved more if not for his helicopter accident but just not as much as these guys.

[tootsie323]

Too many on there I simply have not seen first-hand. I plumped for just one choice on that basis: Jean Alesi. Was so thrilled after he finally picked up a GP win!

[j man]

Not many votes for Gunnar Nilsson? He was before my time but everything I've read about him says he was destined for great things before he was sadly struck down by cancer. I guess with only two years of F1 to judge him by (more like one and a half as his form declined dramatically in the latter part of 1977 as the disease took hold) we never had the chance to see his full potential.

[red_baron]

Maldonado.

[theferret]

Maldonado.

The top post states that this is meant to be rating all 1 race winners EXCEPT Maldonado!

Though I realise you were being tongue in cheek anyway .

[mcdo]

The best I saw in my lifetime was Robert Kubica. From what I can gather from all I've read/heard on the history of F1, the best before my lifetime was probably Francois Cevert.

[nixxxon]

-Luigi Fagioli - Great pre war driver, he died in accident in 1952 although he was already 54. He has the extemely impressive stat of 6 podiums out of 7 races in F1. Got close to become champion in the first ever season (1950)
-François Cevert - Very promising driver, career ended way too early.
-Jose Carlos Pace - Only had a decent car one year, fast driver, he did well against his highly rated team mate Reutemann, he died too unfortunately.
-Jean Alesi - Always at the wrong place at the wrong time.
-Robert Kubica - Great driver, probably future WDC, never got a really top car, had his career ended way too early too.

[Balibari]

Most of those drivers can be divided into one of three groups:

1 those who were clearly good enough to win more but circumstances denied them the opportunity
2 those who were brilliant but too flawed to win consistently
3 those who were very talented but also rather lucky

I seem to have gone mainly for the first group, so Fagioli, Kubica and Pace were the first to come to mind. Surely Fagioli stands alone in this respect, given his pre world championship accomplishments and incredible record in the 2 or 3 season of the WDC in which he competed before dying.

[Amon]

I wonder who voted for Heikki?

[POBRatings]

Amon, such an interesting post and good reads on drivers backgrounds.

I'd pick Cevert, Pace and Kubica as the best: all very promising and fast but careers stopped short.

Scarfiotti was very talented and could have gone further but crashed fatally in a hillclimb. It was Ferrari's team manager favouring Scarfiotti and planning for him to start first at le Mans 1966, at the expense of Surtees that caused John S to walk out of the team before the race. Scarfiotti was a nephew of Fiat's Agnelli.

Musso was good, about as fast as Hawthorn and Collins in his last season 1958, when he crashed fatally at Reims.

[Amon]

Amon, such an interesting post and good reads on drivers backgrounds.

I'd pick Cevert, Pace and Kubica as the best: all very promising and fast but careers stopped short.

Scarfiotti was very talented and could have gone further but crashed fatally in a hillclimb. It was Ferrari's team manager favouring Scarfiotti and planning for him to start first at le Mans 1966, at the expense of Surtees that caused John S to walk out of the team before the race. Scarfiotti was a nephew of Fiat's Agnelli.

Musso was good, about as fast as Hawthorn and Collins in his last season 1958, when he crashed fatally at Reims.

Always nice to see you post, Patrick I know you like to discuss these kind of matters.
I'm curious how you would rate the French drivers: Alesi, Panis and Beltoise?

[mac_d]

I only know the careers of the last 3 first hand.

Kubica takes it from those 3 hands down.


Is their sufficient evidence to suggest Kubica would have won the GP he did if Hamilton hadn't taken out Kimi at the pit exit? I can't recall, I'm just curious.

[Fiki]

How is Piero Taruffi perceived?

I suppose I'm not the only F1 fan to own a copy of his book 'The Technique of Motor Racing'? I had to read it in French, but it is excellent.

[Battle Far]

Cevert - As fast as Stewart, groomed to takeover, would have been a WDC and was a concert standard pianist too

Alesi - Fast, feisty and foolish, who can forget his liberty taking with Senna

Kubica - Potential WDC, had had his big accident, knew how to race just fast enough to win

[Fountoukos13]

I only know the careers of the last 3 first hand.

Kubica takes it from those 3 hands down.


Is their sufficient evidence to suggest Kubica would have won the GP he did if Hamilton hadn't taken out Kimi at the pit exit? I can't recall, I'm just curious.

At the moment of the accident Kubica was side by side alongside Raikkonen. Also the BMW had shown great pace at Canada so it was definitely a possibility.

[hittheapex]

All on this list are fine drivers, but if I had to pick five:

Fagioli-Just look at his performances when he was over 50 years old next to such as Fangio, Farina and Ascari. One of the best drivers never to win a title in my opinion.

Musso-POB took the words out of my mouth. Racing in the same space as Collins and Hawthorn is high praise indeed.

Scarfiotti-Taken far too early after a very promising start.

Ginther-Overshadowed by such as Andretti and Gurney but a regular podium visitor and was capable of great days. Chasing Moss at Monaco in 1961, both lapped three seconds faster than they had in qualifying.

Cevert-An endorsement by JYS is good enough for me*



*Although he did endorse Fred Goodwin in his book as well!

[quere]

I'm curious how you would rate the French drivers: Alesi, Panis and Beltoise?

I wonder if I may be permitted to rather rudely burst through the door and say a few things about Jean-Pierre Beltoise?

He was a driver in whom I always have always had some interest. Such a determined fellow and as tough as old boots. I think he was immensely talented, but rather like Johnny Herbert, we never really saw how good he might have become because a dreadful accident had blunted his potential before he had made a start on his F1 career.

As a young man he'd been a very successful motorbike racer, with an impressive 11 French titles to his name. He only turned to motor racing at the somewhat advanced age of 26(!) in a 1 litre René Bonnet sports car powered by a Renault engine. A year later, in July 1964, he suffered his life changing accident at the 12 hours of Reims sports car race. It was a high speed crash in which the car caught fire and poor Jean-Pierre was lucky to get away with his life. He was left with a permanent limp and, more crucially, a weak left arm.

Despite this, and not fully recovered, he won the French F3 Championship in 1965 and was soon picked up by Matra for their F2 team. He got into F1 in 1968 in the Tyrrell team driving their Matra-Cosworth (in Jackie Stewart's absence) and led the race for a while! My reading of his subsequent career is that he was always a strong contender if he had a decent car but that fate so often denied him the wins...... until Monaco 1972!

A really game fellow in my view and he remains for me, along with the aforementioned Herbert, a driver who would probably have been right there and a multiple GP winner but for the debilitating injuries he carried every time he raced in F1. Salut, Jean-Pierre!

[Amon]

I'm curious how you would rate the French drivers: Alesi, Panis and Beltoise?

I wonder if I may be permitted to rather rudely burst through the door and say a few things about Jean-Pierre Beltoise?

He was a driver in whom I always have always had some interest. Such a determined fellow and as tough as old boots. I think he was immensely talented, but rather like Johnny Herbert, we never really saw how good he might have become because a dreadful accident had blunted his potential before he had made a start on his F1 career.

As a young man he'd been a very successful motorbike racer, with an impressive 11 French titles to his name. He only turned to motor racing at the somewhat advanced age of 26(!) in a 1 litre René Bonnet sports car powered by a Renault engine. A year later, in July 1964, he suffered his life changing accident at the 12 hours of Reims sports car race. It was a high speed crash in which the car caught fire and poor Jean-Pierre was lucky to get away with his life. He was left with a permanent limp and, more crucially, a weak left arm.

Despite this, and not fully recovered, he won the French F3 Championship in 1965 and was soon picked up by Matra for their F2 team. He got into F1 in 1968 in the Tyrrell team driving their Matra-Cosworth (in Jackie Stewart's absence) and led the race for a while! My reading of his subsequent career is that he was always a strong contender if he had a decent car but that fate so often denied him the wins...... until Monaco 1972!

A really game fellow in my view and he remains for me, along with the aforementioned Herbert, a driver who would probably have been right there and a multiple GP winner but for the debilitating injuries he carried every time he raced in F1. Salut, Jean-Pierre!

Thx chap that was very enlightning to read! I always had a soft spot for Herbert too. I knew he was never going to be WDC (because of a leg breaking accident which he didn't give enough time to heal) and the only time he had a car capable of wins Benetton put all their support behind Schumacher and Herbert could barely even test the car. I was very happy that he was still able to win 2 races even if it was after Hill and Schumacher retired. That 4th place in WDC, could have been 3d if not for the retirement last race I found an astonishing achievement.

[Vettel Fan]

Hard to pick the best as I have only seen 3 of them actually race

[POBRatings]

Amon asked about opinions on Beltoise, Alesi and Panis.

Quere puts the case for Beltiose so well. Clearest proof of Beltoise's talent: 1972 Monaco in the rain, beating everyone and making no mistakes. I felt priveliged to have seen his great 2nd place at Kyalami in 1974, driving the BRM P201. He was outstanding, precise, accurate and never tired even though it was hot and dry as usual. He showed fight all the way through in what was never the fastest car.

Alesi has always been popular, very talented, great car control, but imo he'd never have made a WDC; perhaps too emotional, I dont know, but imo never as fast as he seemed from his season-opening lead and battle against Senna at Phoenix in 1990, when the Tyrrell was probably the fastest car on the best tyres that day.

Panis seemed like Boutsen, and excellent team player, good at hard work developing the cars and reliable in the races. Difficult to assess Panis in his Ligier years, his team-mates were new and changing and in 1995 Brundle did not race full-time. Panis's best season seems to have been 1996 with Diniz as team-mate, who imo was quite good. Pleased that Panis scored that win at Monaco,. His last years with the Prost team he had Trulli as team-mate, which must have been tough.

late edit: apologies for many spelling/typos; my tyres had gone over the cliff.

[mcdo]

Panis seemed like Boutsen, and excellent team player, good at hard work developing the cars and reliable in the races. Difficult to assess panis in his Ligier years, his team-mates were new and changing and in 1995 BRundle did not race full-time panis's best season seems to have been 196 with Diniz as team-mate, who imo was quite good. Pleased that panis scored that win at Monaco,. His last years with the Prost team he had Trulli as team-mate, which must have been tough.

Shame about his accident in 1997, it seemed to halt his momentum and he never really got into that rhythm again