10 Best Formula 1 Drivers That Never Won A Title

Formula One's past few seasons hasn't seen a close title race, as Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are simply too dominant for others to challenge. We're really hoping that Red Bull can mount a season-long duel with the German team, so fans could be drawn back to the sport and regain its unpredictability.

In the years before, however, some drivers found themselves on the brink of being world champions, and came close to within a whisker of the coveted gold. Whether it is lack of luck, talent or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we run down the best Formula One drivers that we think should have deserved a title.

10 Stirling Moss

Moss (collierautoedia) — via collierautomedia

Starting off with arguably the greatest driver never to win the championship, Stirling Moss finished runner-up three times to the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio, and looked on his way to claim the 1958 championship if not for a great act of sportsmanship from the Brit.

Moss (motorsportmagazine) — via motorsportmagazine

He missed out on the title by a single point in 1958 to Mike Hawthorn, and continued on for three more years before an accident ended his career. He won 16 races in 66 starts, and finished no lower than third in the championship during his F1 tenure.

9 Juan Pablo Montoya

Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya competed in multiple disciplines of motorsport, and enjoyed successes in each category he has partaken. He owns two legs of the coveted Triple Crown of Motorsport, and only a win at Le Mans is needed to complete the crown.

In his six years in Formula One, he came close to winning the title in 2003, after a title decider in Japan saw him compete against Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, in which the German master came out on top. For Montoya, he finished his F1 career with 7 race wins, 13 pole positions and 30 podium finishes in just 95 career starts.

8 Mark Webber

A nine-time grand prix winner, Australian Mark Webber came close to winning the title in 2010 when he dueled with his own teammate, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso of Ferrari. This was ultimately the so-called Multi-21 saga, in which an inter-team battle decided who is Red Bull's number 1 driver.

Webber retired at the end of the 2013 season and finished 3rd in the standings, with 42 podium finishes in 215 career starts, and embarked on a career with Porsche in the World Endurance Championship.

7 Jacky Ickx

One of the fastest drivers in Formula One in the 1970s, the Belgian Jacky Ickx finished runner-up two times. In 1969, he was 26 points behind Sir Jackie Stewart, then came to within 5 points in 1970 against Jochen Rindt.

In his 116-race long F1 career, Ickx managed to win 8 times, with 13 pole positions as a driver for the likes of the Ferrari, Brabham, McLaren and Ligier racing teams.

6 Ronnie Peterson

Nicknamed the "Super Swede", Swedish racing driver Ronnie Peterson is Sweden's most successful Formula One driver. In nine seasons, he garnered 10 victories and 14 pole positions in 123 career starts.

peterson (motorsportmagazine) — via motorsportmagazine

The closest he came to a championship, however, was his final season in F1, where he was trailing his teammate Mario Andretti by 12 points for the 1978 championship when he suffered a huge crash in the Italian Grand Prix, in which he attained severe injuries to his legs and later passed away in the hospital.

5 Gilles Villeneuve

Gilles was the father of the 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, and was widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers who had their career cut short due to fatal accidents.

In his short six-year career driving for Ferrari, Gilles Villeneuve won 6 races in 67 starts, and finished as runner-up in 1979 to his teammate Jody Scheckter. He was killed in an accident at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, where he collided with a slow-moving March car driven by Jochen Mass during qualifying.

4 Felipe Massa

One of the most heartbreaking moments in Formula One in recent memory came in the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, where Felipe Massa won the race and was a champion for 30 seconds, before Lewis Hamilton took a decisive overtaking move on Timo Glock in the final lap of the race to earn enough points to win him the title.

Massa retired from F1 racing in 2017 after winning 11 races and 41 podium finishes in his 15-year career. He drove for the Sauber, Ferrari and Williams teams during his Formula One tenure.

3 David Coulthard

Despite having 13 victories in 15 seasons in Formula One, Scotsman David Coulthard did not quite have that X-Factor to mount a serious challenge to winning the drivers' championship.

His best efforts came in the 2001 season, where he finished runner-up to Michael Schumacher. It looked like he was ready to be McLaren's number one driver after Mika Hakkinen took a sabbatical the following season, but he was quickly outshone by the young Kimi Raikkonen.

2 Carlos Reutemann

There are drivers who could qualify well and fade later on in the race, and there are others who fare much better in the race than in qualifying. In Carlos Reutemann's case, the latter would ultimately hurt him from achieving the ultimate goal of winning a drivers' title.

reutemann (scuderiafans) — via scuderiafans

The Argentinian driver came closest to the title in 1981, when he held a one-point lead from Nelson Piquet going into the final race at Las Vegas. However, Reutemann became a non-factor in the race even though he started from pole, and was lapped by his teammate Alan Jones. Nelson Piquet on the other hand, finished fifth to steal the title by a solitary point over Reutemann.

1 Rubens Barrichello

Last but not the least, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello was one of the most experienced drivers in Formula One when he retired at the end of 2011, where he had 322 career starts.

He was victorious 11 times, but ultimately was known to be the number 2 driver for Ferrari as Michael Schumacher swept the 2000 to 2004 championships, where Barrichello finished runner-up two times in 2002 and 2004.

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