Top 5 Worst Title Defenses in Formula 1 History

 Top 5 Worst Title Defenses in Formula 1 History

By: Brian Cotnoir

Probably the toughest title in racing to win is the Formula 1 Championship.  Although in recent decades we’ve seen drivers like Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton manage to win the title in Consecutive seasons, more often than not a driver will not always be able to defend their driver’s title.   While many champions in Formula 1 remained competitive despite not winning a title, others had had disastrous results after winning the title; whether it was a poorly designed car, turmoil within the team, a new team, or a lack of motivation.  For these 5 drivers their season defending the “1” was anything but successful.

5.) Nelson Piquet Sr., 1988

Nelson Piquet won his 3^rd Drivers Championship (and his first with the Williams team) in 1987.  Throughout his time at Williams he found himself at odds ends with his teammate Nigel Mansell and team management.   Piquet was quite arrogant about himself at this time.  He had won 2 championships with the Brabham team, while Mansell had yet to win a title, and Piquet felt he rightfully deserved #1 driver status.

Piquet left Williams after winning the championship and joined the Lotus team.  At Lotus, Piquet made sure that he had #1 driver status with the team in his contract, and although I cannot find any evidence, I’ve also heard rumors that he had it put in his teammate Satoru Nakajima’s contract that he was not allowed to pass Piquet on track, unless Piquet had suffered a mechanical issue. Despite having the same Honda V-6 spec engines at the McLaren team, Piquet was not a factor in that year’s championship.   It didn’t help that McLaren had won 15-of-16 races that season, but the best finish Piquet could muster was a 3^rd place finish (3X).  Piquet only scored 22 points with Lotus in 1988, and finished 6^th in the final drivers’ standings.

4.)  Graham Hill, 1969

Racing Legend Graham Hill won his 2^nd drivers’ title in 1968 driving for the Lotus Team.  That 1968 season was not a runaway dominant season for hill, it was a season marred by tragedy and inconstancy.   Hill’s teammate at Lotus, Jim Clark died during an F2 race in Germany.   Hill’s closest competitor to the championship was Jackie Stewart who missed 2 races that season, so Hill by default of starting every race scored more points.

In 1969, Hill looked to drive his Lotus 49B (the same car he drove to the 1968 title) to another championship.   He finished 2^nd at the opening round in South Africa, and won at that years Monaco Grand Prix.  Hill dominated on the streets of Monte Carlo, but unknown to anyone at the time that would be Hill’s last victory in Formula 1.  Hill would finish outside of the points in 3-out-of-the-next-5 rounds and retiring from the races in Canada in America, Hill decided to forgo the final race in Mexico.  Hill finished 7^th in the final standings that year after only managing to score 19 points that season.

3.)  Mario Andretti, 1979

Mario Andretti is the greatest American F1 driver, and one of the best drivers the world has ever seen.  In 1978, Andretti had a nearly perfect season.   Behind the wheel of the mighty Lotus 78 & Lotus 79, Andretti won 6 races on the season, but tragically his teammate and closest title rival that season, Ronnie Peterson died from injuries following a 1^st lap wreck at the Italian Grand Prix.

The following season, Andretti got off to a slow start in the Lotus 79 he had just won the championship the year before in.  He did finish 3^rd at that years Spanish Grand Prix, but that would be his only highlight.  Andretti would end up retiring from 7 consecutive races, making a title defense impossible!  In all Andretti retired from 9-of-the-15 races in 1979, and the following season was even worst.  Andretti’s 1979 season stats were one podium, five points finishes, and he finished 12^th in the final drivers’ standings after only scoring 14 points.

2.)  Damon Hill, 1997

Like father-like-son, Damon Hill followed in the footsteps of his famous father winning the F1 drivers title in 1996.   Despite winning the championship for Williams he was dropped by the team at the end of the season, and wound up signing with the back marker Arrows team.

Hill’s time at Arrows got off to a bad start.  That year the team debuted with unproven engines from Yamaha.  Hill had to retire from the season opener in Australia on the parade lap after his engine failed.  Hill went through a spell of several consecutive race retirements before scoring his first points of the season when he finished 6^th at the British Grand Prix.   At the Hungaroring it looked like Hill’s luck was about to turn around when he was winning that years Hungarian Grand Prix, unfortunately he suffered a hydraulic failure in the closing laps and was passed by his former teammate, Jacques Villeneuve.   Hill would limp home in 2^nd place; his best finish of the season. 

At seasons end the defending champion had only managed to score 7 points (90 points less than his previous season).   Hill finished 12^th in the final standings with the Arrows team, and would leave after that season to join the Jordan F1 team.

1.) Jody Scheckter, 1980

After successful seasons with the Tyrrell and Walter Wolf Racing teams, Jody Scheckter made the switch to the mighty Ferrari team.  In his debut season with the team Scheckter won the F1 drivers’ championship, beating his teammate Gilles Villeneuve.  Scheckter became the first (and so far only) South African driver to win the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship.   Just one season later and Scheckter would sufferer the most abysmal title defense in racing history.

Scheckter retired from the first three rounds of the season, before scoring his first points at Long Beach with a 5^th place finish at the US Grand Prix West.   That would be Scheckter’s only points finish of the season.   The rest of his season was marred with mid-pack finishes, and he even failed to qualify for the Canadian Grand Prix.   At seasons end the defending champion only managed to score 2 points and finished 19^th in the Final Drivers’ standings.   After that disastrous season Scheckter retired from Formula One.