Ranking EVERY One-Time Formula 1 Winner!

In the past 74 years, there have been 872 Formula 1 drivers. Of those 872, 115 have won a race, and of those 115, 34 have won a race just once. Considering that there are six drivers who individually have more wins than all of these drivers combined, you may be wondering why they couldn’t win more. Indeed, some of these drivers certainly should have, but fate said otherwise, and others were simply in the right place at the right time. When it comes to ranking these drivers, I won’t be giving a broad assessment of their overall abilities as a driver, because that of course would entail committing the cardinal sin of directly comparing drivers from the 1950s with drivers still racing today. Instead, I shall be ranking each win on its own merit, how each driver performed on the day against what challenges they faced, what circumstances transpired to get them to the top step of the podium, and a bit of vibes. So, time to give some glory to Formula 1’s one-hit wonders.

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Music:

Doorway - Slenderbeats
Walking in the Sky - Nico Staf
In the Atmosphere - Bad Snacks
Good Job! - R.LUM.R

DISCLAIMER: Special mention to all the original sources of certain clips used in my videos. Please do check out their content for the full videos.

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. There are certain scenes from the Formula 1 calendar where race footage is used. All those rights are property of FOM. Other photos and news elements are used solely for the purpose of assisting the original content and to illuminate a more in depth story.

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction
1:07 34-31
6:57 30-21
17:27 20-11
31:59 10-1

#F1 #Formula1 #F1ranking

[katashworth]

Pastor’s win means so much to me, it was less than 6 months after my dad died. He was the one who not only got me into F1, but as a Williams fan. I’m not ashamed to say I cried throughout the podium ceremony and then had my Williams flag flying out of the living room window.

[KimiSupremacy]

Kubica has to be the biggest "what if" in Formula 1 history. Incredibly fast in raw pace, and a hard working achiever. That might be one of the only Polish talents to come for a very long time, unfortunately. If he never had his crash he absolutely would be a world champion, what he deserves, much more than just one win. I've gotta feel sorry for him, man.

[baronthorsteinn]

Fun fact: the BBC's Grand Prix season guide for 1993 had a feature on one-hit wonders. "So dominant were Prost, Piquet, Senna and Mansell in the 1980s that there were no one-hit wonders in this decade", or words to that effect... they forgot Nannini, presumably because he wasn't the first over the finish line and that race is more remembered for That Senna-Prost Crash, You Know The One I Mean (because this video mentioned it).

More interestingly from that article: "Michael Schumacher is currently a member of the one-hit wonder club, but probably not for much longer..."

[NicotineRosberg]

I love how Peter Brook is subjective on what he wants to pronounce correctly

[SiVlog]

My favourite is Piece Gasly. It felt so satisfying on a human level to see him go from 18 months of hell, both personal and professional, including being comprehensively beaten by Max Verstappen at Red Bull, demoted back to Toro Rosso, saw his best friend, Anthoine Hubert, killed at Spa, his house was broken into and was generally getting better and better as a race driver with his performances with the rebranded Alpha Tauri in 2020 before he won at Monza that year.

I'm gradually learning French, but even before I become (somewhat) fluent, I still get choked up with the French language commentary as he completed the last lap, holding off Carlos Sainz to become the first French driver to win a Grand Prix since Olivier Panis at Monaco in 1996.

"LA VICTOIRE POUR PIERRE GASLY, VICTOIRE POUR PIERRE GASLY, VICTOIRE ALPHA TAURI, 24 ANS 3 MOIS ET 19 JOURS. PIERRE GASLY, LA NOUVELLE VICTIORE LA FORMULE UN, LA FRANCE!"

[AntenaDoF]

0:17 "Prost is the winner of the Michael Schumacher Grand Prix! Look at that mighty trophy, absolutely superb!"

[sayagubernurtololgabisaker]

Maldonado's win is very phenomenal.
Hell, even Williams's paddock is on fire after celebrating that 💀💀

[Bezza]

Fun fact - Maldonado's Spanish win happened on same day as the moment.

[davidtoback]

Always enjoy your videos. As a young lad I thought Alessandro Nannini was the epitome of Italian cool. You forgot the part where they found his right forearm, sowed it back on, and he went on to win a bunch of DTM races.

[domformula]

Nannini didn’t lose his arm, it was re-attached via microsurgery and he actually tested F1 machinery for Benetton in the mid 90s. Similar to Kubica however, he simply couldn’t do what he used to with it and so never returned.

[olliebeck]

Panis once told me that after the race, his car wouldn’t start - that's how low on fuel it was. He also said he couldn’t enjoy the last few laps because he constantly thought the car was going to stop. His engineer kept telling him to pit, but he went for broke. A life-changing call from Olivier.

[RobJaskula]

I always think it's WILD that Alesi only won one Grand Prix. He was up near the front every week for YEARS. As a kid I figured he was one of the elite drivers.

[DerGeraet]

Nice to know that Fangio won 2 races in a list of one-time race-winners, the true GOAT in my books (unbiased Argentine opinion). Nice video as always and great research on the stories and careers of everyone!

[LeonardoAldana]

Just think that if Lord Maldonado hadn't won in Spain, Williams would have 20 years without winning, their previous win being in the 2004 Brazil GP

[TheFatSandwhich]

Underrated channel dropping absolute quality content once again

[akis_mikon]

No disrespect to Lord Pastor, but from all those cases, i can't ignore the victories of Kubica and Gasly. Both very special and emotional occasions for their reason's each...

Another great video, Peter ❤

[lukakralj]

I am sensing a theme. So many of them died racing.

[eri]

Ocon is my favorite. People don’t give him enough respect for how difficult it was to make zero mistakes defending against Vettel for 70 laps.

[Umar-gwfy]

I think the next time you do a video like this you should have the drivers name in one of the corners so we know who it is for the whole time as it’ll be clearer

[nicksurface]

In fact I don't think Alesi did anything special that day in Canada. He drove better on many of his near misses, such as Nurburgring later that year. He should have won Monaco 96 too. And Monza 94, 95 and 97.