F1’s Best Rivalries
The Greatest Rivalries in Formula 1 History
Formula 1 is set up for intense rivalries!
Whether a drawn out battle across two different teams or team-mates at one another’s throats, impulsive decisions made at 200 mph easily boil over into full blown conflict.
Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso: one of F1’s greatest rivalries!
In this article, we rank the best driver rivalries across the sport’s history, based on the intensity of the driver relations and the entertainment of on-track action.
Honourable Mentions
Niki Lauda and James Hunt’s battle across 1976 made Hollywood with the film ‘Rush’, but the drivers were in fact rather fond of each other, and limited on-track flashpoints between the two detracts from the rivalry itself.
Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet hated one another whilst at Williams, and they fought for the title in both 1986 and 1987.
However, aside from Mansell’s famous overtake at the 1987 British Grand Prix, their on-track conflict was limited in its intensity. Mansell dominated the sport in the early 90s and perhaps if anything was fortunate not to have any serious rivals in that period.
Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill’s 1994 season is full of controversy and driver conflict, but is edged out such is the quality of this list.
Finally, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen’s 2021 season was full of team rivalry and dramatic incidents, with the title changing hands on the last lap of the season.
This story may yet have a further chapter, and as it falls further into the history books it’s likely to make its way further up this list in the future.
4. Michael Schumacher & Mika Hakkinen
There was always going to be a Schumacher entry to this list, and who better than the driver the German revered the most?
Enter Mika Hakkinen, the Finn who had to wait seven years from his debut to get his hands on leading machinery.
The 1998 McLaren was the best in the field, allowing Hakkinen to claim a first World title.
But Schumacher, hungry to claim Ferrari’s first driver’s title since 1979, pushed him all the way to the final round in Suzuka.
1999 promised more of the same, but Schumacher broke his leg in a crash at Silverstone and missed six races.
Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine took on Hakkinen as the Ferrari increased in pace over the season, and fell just two points short - there’s no doubt that Schumacher could have done better.
2000 was the pinnacle of the Schumacher - Hakkinen battle.
The McLaren and Ferrari were closely matched.
Hakkinen was unfazed by Schumacher’s ruthlessness, the German not afraid to block drivers in a dangerous way that would be looked on far less favourably in current day races.
The Belgium Grand prix was a microcosm of the season’s rivalry.
Schumacher aggressively defended against Hakkinen, who eventually found his way past with a sensational move around the other side of back marker Ricardo Zonta.
And so to Japan once more, with the victor to become a three-time champion.
Hakkinen took the lead from Schumacher at the start, but a tense strategic battle was won by Ferrari and catapulted the German into a lead he wouldn’t lose.
Schumacher would go on to dominate 2001, and Hakkinen would walk away from F1 at the end of the season.
The battles may have been full of tension and entertainment, but unlike most intense rivalries, both Schumacher and Hakkinen maintained a high level of respect for one another throughout.
3. Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso
The controversy of F1 2007 was epitomised by two of the greatest drivers in history going head to head as team-mates.
Nobody expected rookie McLaren driver Hamilton to challenge Alonso, who arrived on the back of consecutive drivers titles with Renault.
Hamilton immediately showed that he meant business, making a stunning overtake around the outside of Alonso at the race start in Australia.
Tensions began to simmer in Monaco, where Hamilton was put on another strategy so as not to challenge Alonso.
Such was Hamilton’s consistency that he led the championship for the vast majority of the season. Alonso, expecting a supportive, promising rookie team-mate, now had a real challenge on his hands.
There was plenty going on behind the scenes too, including ‘Spygate’, where a McLaren mechanic obtained confidential documents on the Ferrari design from team personnel.
Everything boiled over in Hungary.
Alonso, incensed by Hamilton’s refusal to let him past during qualifying, remained in the pit box for an additional 10 seconds.
This was carefully calculated, so that Hamilton was then unable to refuel and complete another lap.
The McLaren was the fastest car of the season but the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were not far behind.
With Hamilton and Alonso taking points off each other, Raikkonen was able to sneak in and steal the title by a single point.
For Alonso, team relations had become untenable and he left McLaren after just one season.
15 years on, both drivers appear to have a great deal of respect for one another.
However, comments made by Alonso following a crash between the two at Belgium - where he suggested that Hamilton ‘only knows how to win races from the front’ - suggest that Alonso maintains bitterness for how 2007 played out.
Considering that Hamilton is a seven-time world champion, and Alonso still remains on two titles, perhaps it’s no surprise that the Spaniard has envy of F1’s most successful driver of all time.
Hamilton and Alonso - better friends now than they were then
2. Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg
Two aspiring young drivers, who used to travel around the karting scene together, realised their dream of racing in F1 as team-mates.
Hamilton joined Rosberg at Mercedes in 2013, where they were able to challenge for victories but were inferior to the dominant Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel.
In 2014, however, the Mercedes was a class above the rest of the field.
Hamilton and Rosberg soon realised the title was a fight between the two.
Hamilton was clearly the quicker driver - albeit not by much - over the course of the season, and Rosberg knew it.
But more reliability woes for Hamilton meant Rosberg was ahead for much of the season.
A truly thrilling battle under the lights in Bahrain was a sign of things to come.
Rosberg was determined to gain a psychological edge, leading to robust on track action.
The first sign of tension arose in Monaco. Rosberg, on provisional pole, braked too late and went down an escape road, preventing Hamilton from completing his lap.
Rosberg was cleared of any suspected foul play, but the framework for this explosive rivalry had now been truly set.
On track conflict would follow, with the drivers making contact in Belgium, damaging both cars. Hamilton would retire whilst Rosberg would finish 2nd behind Daniel Ricciardo.
Eventually Hamilton would come through in 2014, capitalising on his momentum to dominate in 2015.
A fresh approach from Rosberg, though, would pay dividends in 2016 as he won the first four races of the season.
Hamilton would have to start taking risks to catch up, and it all went wrong 5th time out in Spain, where the two would collide in dramatic fashion and allow Max Verstappen to win on his debut for Red Bull.
A further clash on the last lap in Austria, where Rosberg effectively drove into Hamilton, made matters even worse.
By this point the relationship had deteriorated to the point where the team-mates were not on speaking terms.
Entering the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Rosberg only needed to finish 3rd or higher to guarantee the title.
Hamilton led away with Rosberg in 2nd, but as the race reached its conclusion, defied team orders to maintain speed and backed up his team-mate into Vettel and Verstappen in the hope they could pass the German and allow Hamilton to clinch a third successive title.
It wasn’t to be for Hamilton, as Rosberg managed to keep Vettel and Verstappen behind and claim the most bitterly fought world title of the 21st century.
Rosberg, clearly exhausted by the mental pressure of fighting the relentless Hamilton and feeling he had nothing left to prove, promptly retired, allowing Hamilton to reach the next four world titles.
1. Ayrton Senna & Alain Prost
It’s hard to imagine another rivalry having all the ingredients to surpass the gladiatorial battle which defined late 80s and early 90s Formula 1.
An enigmatic Brazilian against a quiet, professional Frenchman seemed like the ideal combination for McLaren when Aryton Senna joined Prost in 1988.
Relations between the two drivers remained civil and professional throughout their first season, in which Senna edged Prost as the legendary MP4/4 car took 15 wins from 16 races.
In 1989, all hell broke loose.
Prost felt that Senna was favoured by the team and its engine supplier, Honda.
He also claimed that Senna broke team orders in San Marino, where the drivers had agreed that whoever led into the first corner would win the race.
Prost had led from lights out, but then the race was restarted following an incident. Naturally, Prost felt this meant he should be unchallenged at the restart; Senna felt otherwise.
Arriving at Japan, the penultimate race of the season, Prost was leading the 1989 title race and Senna had to win.
Senna trailed Prost but made a daring lunge at the chicane.
Prost opted not to budge and the two drivers collided.
Prost was out on the spot but Senna was able to restart via an escape road, pit for a new front wing, and go on to win.
Senna was later disqualified by FIA president Jean Marie Balestre for using the escape road, handing fellow Frenchman Prost the world title to the disbelief of Senna and McLaren and bringing accusations of bias that almost cost Senna his super licence.
By this point Prost had already decided to leave for Ferrari in 1990, and thus began another ferocious fight for the title.
Japan was the climactic occasion for the 1990 season once more, only this time, it was Senna that held a lead and Prost that needed to win.
Senna was incensed by a decision to have pole position on the dirty side of the grid for the race start, giving 2nd placed Prost an advantage.
Then the inevitable happened. Prost took the lead from the start and Senna barely lifted off at the first corner, collecting his rival at 130 mph.
Both drivers were out and with it, Senna was a three time champion.
Senna would clearly stop at nothing to seek revenge.
Prost commented that ‘Ayrton has a small problem, he thinks he can't kill himself, because he believes in God and I think it is pretty dangerous for other drivers’.
Tensions cooled somewhat over 1991 as Prost was unable to challenge in an uncompetitive Ferrari, before taking a year out and taking the 1993 title in a superior Williams.
The rivals seemed to have made up after Prost’s retirement at the end of 1993, but sadly one side of this great rivalry will remain untold by the protagonists.
Senna died in the 3rd race of the 1994 season.
Prost was one of the coffin bearers and became a Trustee of the Instituto Ayrton Senna, which has helped millions of disadvantaged children from Brazil seek an education and further opportunities.
