Car and driver numbers in F1 - a short history

The last five years have seen drivers displaying their personal, permanent numbers with Hamilton's 44, Vettel's 5 and Jules Bianchi's 17 being some of the most recognised.

But over the years numbers have been handed out to teams and drivers in a variety of different ways - some great, others a complete mess. Let's look back at the way cars have been numbered over the years and the weird systems tried out over the last 79 years.

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Writing / Illustration / Animation / Editing / Narration:
Stuart Taylor

Music: Telegrams - 'Chess Moves'

sharecode: chainbearsharef1

[berserk]

I was so annoyed that I couldn’t pick no. 17 in the game but now I know why I don’t mind

RIP Jules Bianchi

[zakwanfarhat]

8:07 Of course Maldonado choose 13 because he bring bad luck to others

[forzaelite]

I'm taking 69, no questions asked.

[RegitYouTuber]

I mean in all seriousness your editing is top class, and I have every faith it will continue to be so in the season review

[twirlypenpsn]

Interesting trivia involving 17: drivers picking their numbers for 2014 were handled one by one based on the 2013 standings. As such, by the time they got to Jules Bianchi, all three of his choices were selected (7 - Kimi, 27 - Gutierrez, 77 - Bottas). He then picked 17, and the rest is sadly history.

[GreatCdn]

The '74-'95 system would have been extremely simple, had they made one tweak :
- Skip 1/2 as permanent numbers .. each team would be given a permanent number starting with 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 etc ...
- the championship-winning team would have then run 1/2, and F1 would have simply skipped that team's permanent numbers for the year.
- if they don't win the title a second time, they revert back to their old permanent number, and the next champions get 1/2.

Boom, that simple!

[PraxZimmerman]

Announcer: And it looks like number 38 has left the track entirely in favor of running over school children at the bus stop
ChainBear: Absolutely genius

[martinfuchs]

Have you mixed up Afghanistan and Azerbaijan or was that a joke?

[ddcddc_]

Vettel: takes # 38 and spins all season
Chain bear: he lost the championship, but those spins were beautiful. Truly a piece of art. Loved it.

[Mister-Mayor]

Number 15 is reservee for Foot Lettuce

[Claggyt]

Very good video. I loved it when Kimi was asked what number he wanted as his personal brand number when that numbering system came in and he chose the number 7 simply because that was the number already on his car. He just wasn't bothered about coming up with anything different.

[flynthvanmultijack]

One anagram of XVII (17) is "vixi", wich means "I have lived", with the implication "I am dead". Thus, 17 is considered an unlucky number.

17 was Jule Bianchi's Number...

[rev]

Here after Bearman is using your favourite number 38. I hope is receiving your undying support.

[grendelum]

I’ll throw my undying loyalty behind whoever chooses *42* !!

[MRamuel]

But Baku is in Azerbaijan not Afghanistan?

[dyingearth]

Poor Charles Leclerc. He wanted #7. When drivers first gets to get their number, Kimi had wanted 6, but knew Nico Rosberg wanted it because it was both his father Keke and his wife's lucky number, so he pick #7. 4 years after Nico retired, Nicholas Latifi picked up #6.

[stormysamreen]

The fact that Maldonaldo specifically chose the number 13 explains a lot....

[zakwanfarhat]

Max Verstappen used number 38 back in FP1 at Suzuka and Interlagos 2014

[stevenrose]

I did actually wonder why Ferrari was always 27 and 28 when I was growing up. I remember cheering them on and actually have had an affinity for the number 27 ever since

[quizmandan]

I've spent years trying to work out why teams back then had the same numbers every season. Thanks for another great video!