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How many British drivers have won a Grand Prix in F1?

How many British drivers have won a Grand Prix in F1?

10 May - 17:00

Olly Darcy

Editor

After Lando Norris' win at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, there have now been many British winners of a Grand Prix in Formula 1 history. All of these victories spread across the history of F1, stretching from Miami this year to the 1953 French Grand Prix. GPblog explains how many British drivers have won a Grand Prix in F1 over the many decades, and who they are.

The United Kingdom is the most successful nation in F1 history with 309 Grand Prix wins, 130 more wins than Germany who are next. Those 309 victories are spread across 21 drivers. Here is a list of all the British Grand Prix winners in F1 history.

British Grand Prix winners:

All these drivers, ten of them being World Champions, have won across the decades of F1, which is explained below:

1950s

Formula 1 was founded in 1950, and over the decade, four British drivers claimed their first wins in the premier class of motorsport. The first-ever British winner was the great Mike Hawthorn, earning his first victory at the 1953 French Grand Prix. That was also where his last victory in F1 came from, winning in 1958, the same year he took home the world title, the first-ever British driver to do so. The 1950s was also the decade where Stirling Moss won his first race, the first of 16 victories, winning the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree. Peter Collins and Tony Brooks were the other drivers to earn wins in the 50s, winning at the 1956 Belgian Grand Prix and the 1957 British Grand Prix, respectively.

1960s

Moss continued with his wins into the new decade as five more drivers joined him with their first victories. Innes Ireland was the first new Brit to win in the 60s, taking victory at the 1961 United States Grand Prix, the only win of his career. Graham Hill took the next victory for a British driver at the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix. The father of Damon Hill won the World Championship that year, as well as in 1968, and he is still the only driver in motorsport history to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport, winning the Monaco Grand Prix, The Indianapolis 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in an illustrious career. Another successful driver in F1 took his first victory in 1962 as well, and that was Jim Clark. Winning at the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix, Clark won 24 more times, which led him to two world titles in 1963 and 1965. Winning the World Championship in between those years in 1964 was yet another British driver, which was John Surtees. Surtees' first victory came at the 1963 German Grand Prix, and he is the only driver in history to win a World Championship on both four wheels and two wheels, also being a seven-time motorcycle World Champion. The last of the winners in the 1960s was Jackie Stewart, the three-time world champion. One of those championships came in 1969, but his first race victory was four years prior at the 1965 Italian Grand Prix, one of 27 victories in his career.

1970s

Stewart was the only one of the 60s winners to continue winning in the 1970s, which was where his other two titles came from in 1971 and 1973. The 70s introduced three new British winners in the world of F1, with Peter Gethin being the first in 1971 at the Italian Grand Prix, his only victory in the premier class of motorsport. John Watson was another British winner in the 70s, taking his maiden victory at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix and winning four more in his career. However, in between those two, there was another driver who earned his first-ever win, also winning a world title in 1976. That was James Hunt. As we know, the battle between Hunt and Niki Lauda for the 1976 World Championship is the stuff of legend, and Hunt came away with the glory. A year before his world title, he earned his first victory, coming at the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix, and another nine wins were added to his tally before retirement in 1979.

1980s

Watson continued with his wins into the next decade, but the 1980s only saw one new British winner throughout the decade. However, this name remains one of the biggest names in British F1 history. It is, of course, Nigel Mansell. Mansell's F1 career spread from 1980-1992, and then 1994-1995. Over that time, he won 31 races, the first being at Brands Hatch at the 1985 European Grand Prix. Mansell continued to have a stellar career in the pinnacle of motorsport, and that was highlighted by winning a fantastic world title in 1992.

1990s

As mentioned, Mansell was victorious in 1992 with his world title. He was also joined by four more new winners in the 1990s, the first being Damon Hill, another British World Champion. Hill's maiden victory came in 1993 at the Hungarian Grand Prix, one of his 22 wins across a seven-year career, highlighted by his title triumph in 1996. Johnny Herbert and David Coulthard were the next two winners in 1995, winning at the British and Portuguese Grands Prix, respectively. Both drivers had F1 careers in the double digits, with Herbert driving for 11 years from 1989-2000, and Coulthard for 14 years from 1994-2008. Eddie Irvine was the final British driver to win in the 90s. The 1999 Australian Grand Prix was the first of his career, and he won three more times in Formula 1.

2000s

Coulthard continued with the wins in the 2000s, with two more drivers adding to the tally of British race winners in F1 history this decade. Jenson Button was the first to do so in his 17-year career in F1. After starting in 2000, it took Button six years to take his maiden victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix with Honda, winning 14 more times over the years, and he will also be known for his fantastic world title glory in 2009 for Brawn GP. Then, after Button, there was a driver who earned just a few F1 victories in his career, 103 of them in total. It is the most successful driver in Formula 1 history, the great Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time World Champion started his career in 2007, with victory at the Canadian Grand Prix being the first of many. He missed out on his first world title by a singular point in his debut season to Kimi Raikkonen, but he righted that by taking the title in 2008. He added titles in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 to cement himself as one of the greats of the sport.

2010s

Hamilton and Button continued earning wins throughout the 2010s and became teammates for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons at McLaren, but there were no new British winners in F1 in this decade. Button earned his final F1 victory at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, and Hamilton dominated the decade by earning five of his seven world titles during this immensely successful period.

2020s

Now we are in the present decade, and it's been another decade imprinted by Hamilton. His seventh and final world title for the time being came in 2020, and his final victory came at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021, arguably one of the greatest seasons in F1 history, where the battle between the Brit and Max Verstappen went down to the final race in Abu Dhabi, a race that had its controversies, but Verstappen won to take the title. The 20s have also seen two new British winners in F1 history, the first being George Russell. The Brit joined Hamilton at Mercedes in 2022, and although the German team were not the powerhouse they once were, Russell still tasted race victory for the first time at the Brazilian Grand Prix, becoming the 20th British race winner in F1 history. The 21st and, so far, final British driver to win an F1 Grand Prix is now Lando Norris. It took the Brit 110 Grands Prix to cross the line in first place after starting his F1 career in 2019, but he changed his fortune around by taking victory at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, becoming the newest Brit to take a Formula 1 Grand Prix victory.

And who knows how many more will come?