The greatest F1 campaigns with no wins
Sometimes the best individual seasons in F1 go without much reward
Picking out the best Formula 1 campaigns by drivers is hard enough when you are looking at frontrunners, but it’s even tougher when looking further down the grid. There are so many hidden or forgotten gems.
Following our lists on the greatest F1 title-winning seasons and best performances by drivers who didn’t take the title, we had a reader suggestion to look at the finest efforts by racers who didn’t take a victory in a given year. So we have.
As usual, we’ve looked at the performances of the drivers involved given their machinery, highlights and errors, the opposition, plus how people assessed them at the time. We were going to do our usual top 10, but decided to spread the joy a little more…
For our other lists on great F1 seasons:
12. Elio de Angelis - 1984
De Angelis was 'best of the rest' behind dominant McLaren duo Lauda and Prost
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Position: 3rd
- Podiums: 4
- Team-mate position: 10th (Nigel Mansell)
- Poles: 1
“On paper, de Angelis has had a good season,” said Autocourse at the end of 1984. “But there is the feeling that he still could make more of his outstanding natural ability.”
The annual pointed to the Italian’s consistency as the reason for his third place in the points, rather than speed. That might be true, but the tone was perhaps a little harsh.
After all, de Angelis comprehensively beat future world champion Mansell (10th in the championship and ninth in Autocourse’s rankings to de Angelis’s fifth). He avoided serious mistakes and scored points (then only awarded to the top six) in 11 of the 16 races.
De Angelis also took the Lotus-Renault 97T to pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix opener – nearly a second faster than Mansell – and led the early stages of the German GP before turbo problems struck.
In a season dominated by McLaren as others struggled to combine pace and reliability, de Angelis’s ability to get the car home should be appreciated. He rarely looked like being first across the line but outscored race winners Michele Alboreto, Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg.
PLUS: Remembering Elio de Angelis
11. John Surtees - 1962
Two podiums for the future world champion while his team-mate failed to score a point
Photo by: David Phipps
- Position: 4th
- Podiums: 2
- Team-mate position: Roy Salvadori (0 points)
- Poles: 1
Surtees was key in bringing Eric Broadley and Lola into F1 – and proved himself as a leader in just his third F1 season.
He comfortably outpaced experienced Reg Parnell Racing/Yeoman team-mate Roy Salvadori, though the older driver suffered appalling reliability. It’s probably also fair to say that the Lola Mk4, though decent, was not a match for Colin Chapman’s new monocoque Lotus 25.
Surtees showed he could cut it at the front of F1 in 1962. After taking pole for the Dutch GP, with a time some questioned, he was second only to Jim Clark’s Lotus at the British GP and missed out on an epic German GP victory at a wet Nurburgring by just 2.5 seconds after a race-long battle with Graham Hill and Dan Gurney.
Although engine problems put him out of the final three rounds of the season, Surtees still finished fourth in the standings and had done enough to move to Ferrari for 1963.
“Surtees must be ranked as one of the world’s very fastest drivers, and the Lola is ample proof of his abilities as a tester/development engineer,” reckoned Autocourse.
Surtees did take his first F1 win in 1962: he drove the Lola to victory in the non-championship International 2000 Guineas at Mallory Park…
10. Mika Hakkinen - 1994
Hakkinen impressed in his first full season at McLaren
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Position: 4th
- Podiums: 6
- Team-mate position: 7th (Martin Brundle)
- Best qualifying: 2nd
McLaren was in a transitional period in 1994. It had lost Ayrton Senna to Williams and was still looking for the right engine partner following Honda’s withdrawal at the end of 1992. This was its year with Peugeot power before starting a long-term relationship with Mercedes.
Hakkinen had been the team’s test driver in 1993 before stepping up to a race seat to replace the disappointing Michael Andretti. He was joined by Brundle and would outqualify the experienced Briton every time out.
Hakkinen was third at the tragic San Marino GP before a string of retirements, usually engine related, hit hard. When Hakkinen finished, he was usually on the podium, albeit not a match for Michael Schumacher’s Benetton or Damon Hill’s Williams.
Considering how hard he tried, there weren’t too many errors. Start shunts were perhaps his weakness: Hakkinen nudged Senna into a spin at the start in Aida, and was involved in unfortunate early incidents at Monaco (where he had qualified a brilliant second) and Hockenheim, the latter resulting in a one-race suspension. But his crash out of fourth at the Australian GP finale, while running behind Brundle, was due to a brake disc rotor failure.
Hakkinen had shown flashes of his potential before but his 1994 campaign was the surest sign yet that he was a member of F1’s elite. Autocourse ranked him fourth overall, which is where he finished in the championship, and said: “Many people within F1 believe that Hakkinen is probably the man best qualified to give Schumacher a genuine run for his money. Sadly, McLaren’s MP4/9 was not the machine for the job.”
PLUS: Top 10 McLaren F1 drivers
9. John Watson - 1977
Watson could be considered unlucky to not win in 1977
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Position: 13th
- Podiums: 1
- Team-mate position: 11th (Hans Stuck)
- Poles: 1
Statistically, this appears one of our weaker entries, particularly as Watson was beaten in the driver standings by team-mate Stuck, but Wattie was one of the frontrunners in 1977. He took pole at Monaco, set two fastest laps and could or should have won three times.
The Alfa Romeo-powered BT45B was an improvement over its predecessor and Watson led the 1977 Argentinian opener after James Hunt’s McLaren failed, only for his gearbox and rear suspension to fall apart.
Watson had to step up when highly rated team-mate Carlos Pace was killed in an aircraft accident three rounds into the season. His Monaco pole was impressive, but he lost out to Jody Scheckter’s Wolf at the start and then overdrove trying to recover, retiring with gearbox problems.
Next time out in Belgium Watson qualified second to Mario Andretti’s ground effect Lotus 78, jumped into the lead at the wet start and then got fired off by the American on the opening lap.
At the French GP Watson overcame Hunt and withstood Andretti’s challenge for much of the race. Victory looked his until a mystery fuel-system splutter allowed the Lotus through on the final lap.
A similar thing happened at the British GP, Watson holding off eventual winner Hunt until the gremlins struck. An off-track excursion early at Monza terminally damaged the engine mounts but, otherwise, Watson was rarely the architect of his own misfortune in 1977.
8. Chris Amon - 1968
Amon failed to win a grand prix in his career, but was still highly regarded
Photo by: Motorsport Images
- Position: 10th
- Podiums: 1
- Team-mate position: 4th (Jacky Ickx)
- Poles: 3
This spot almost went to Jochen Rindt. Amazingly, two 1968 drivers could have made this list and Autocourse ranked Rindt second, with Amon fourth. But we think Amon, who scored three poles to Rindt’s two and led three races to the zero of Rindt, deserves to be here.
Perhaps more than any other, this season contributed to the legend of Amon’s misfortune. After finishing a distant fourth in South Africa, the Ferrari team leader took pole in Spain and was more than 20s ahead when his fuel pump packed up.
Ferrari skipped Monaco and Amon took pole again – by 3.7s! – on his return at Spa, his 312 now having sprouted wings. He ran second to John Surtees’s Honda early on before a stone pierced his oil radiator.
Amon beat Rindt to pole at Zandvoort but Firestone tyres were not the ones to have in the wet on race day and he finished sixth – though team-mate Jacky Ickx was fourth.
There were no more poles in 1968 but Amon was a close second to Jo Siffert at the British GP and arguably his worst bit of ill fortune was still to come. Amid a run of five consecutive retirements, Amon matched Rindt’s pole time at Mosport and then grabbed the lead early on.
Once Jo Siffert’s challenge faded, Amon dominated and was nearly a minute clear of Denny Hulme with 18 of the 90 laps to go. Then the transmission failed and Amon was denied once again.
In terms of mistakes, Amon spun off in the wet German GP while chasing Hill for second and did likewise while in the lead pack at the dry Italian GP.
Ickx did win a race – a wet French GP – that year and ended up with more points, but that doesn’t really reflect the reality of Amon’s performances. He should have won at least two races and been in the championship fight with Hill, Jackie Stewart and Hulme.
7. Riccardo Patrese - 1989
Patrese was ranked as the fourth best driver in 1989, behind F1's then 'big three' of Senna, Prost and Mansell
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
- Position: 3rd
- Podiums: 6
- Team-mate position: 5th (Thierry Boutsen)
- Poles: 1
Patrese’s best season was arguably 1991, when he won twice and outpaced Williams team-mate Mansell early on. But his impressive 1989 campaign as part of the new Williams-Renault combination, for which he did much of the early development work, should not be forgotten.
He qualified on the front row for the Brazilian GP opener and led initially, only to suffer a sheared camshaft pulley. Patrese then had more engine trouble while running fourth at Imola.
Things really got going from round four in Mexico. Patrese finished second, then did the same in a race of attrition in Phoenix despite starting 14th. He made it three runner-up spots in a row in a wet race in Montreal and had been ahead of team-mate Boutsen, the eventual winner, when undertray mountings failed and he lost downforce.
Patrese was third next time out in France and later, after Williams replaced the FW12C with the FW13, added podiums in Japan and Australia, the finale another wet race won by Boutsen. This time Patrese never looked like beating his team-mate, which prevents him climbing higher on this list; Boutsen won twice even though Patrese beat him 12-4 in qualifying.
Patrese’s best chance of victory probably came in Hungary. He took pole and led for 52 of the 77 laps, withstanding pressure from Senna’s McLaren. A punctured radiator dashed his hopes, though whether he would have been able to hold off a charging Mansell is open to question.
Patrese made few errors in 1989 and most of his retirements were due to car issues. His British GP crash was caused by a radiator bursting, while he was taken out of a wet Belgian GP by an apologetic Alboreto.
“My overall form has been better than ever before,” reckoned Patrese – and most seemed to agree. Autocourse ranked him fourth, behind Mansell, Senna and Alain Prost.
6. Ralf Schumacher - 1999
Ralf Schumacher could have taken his maiden grand prix victory at the Nurburgring in 1999
Photo by: Sutton Images
- Position: 6th
- Podiums: 3
- Team-mate position: 19th (Alex Zanardi)
- Best qualifying: 4th
Was this Ralf Schumacher’s best season in F1? He won races for Williams in 2001, 2002 and 2003 – and was fourth in the championship in two of those seasons – but there’s a feeling he maximised his machinery better in 1999.
The Supertec-engined FW21 was not one of the team’s best; Indycar star Alessandro Zanardi failed to score a single point in it. And yet Ralf was sixth in the table on 35 points and might have taken a win with a bit more luck.
Schumacher qualified a fine fourth for the European GP and battled the McLarens of Hakkinen and David Coulthard, plus Heinz-Harald Frentzen’s Jordan, in the early going. He remained in the mix as rain arrived and, as his quickest rivals either hit trouble or went off, Schumacher moved ahead: after 49 of the 66 laps he was 18.5s clear.
But a right-rear puncture sent him off the road and then to the pits, from which he finished fourth.
Another opportunity came at Monza. It was a rare occasion Zanardi outqualified him (Schumacher winning 11-5 overall), but Ralf was quicker in the race – once he’d got robust early on to hold his position despite a power deficit.
On lap 18, Zanardi waved his team-mate by, at which point eventual winner Frentzen was 4.4s ahead. Ralf reduced that to 2.7s before the pitstop sequence, during which he lost time. Schumacher chipped away at the gap once more and finished just 3.3s behind, setting his first fastest lap in F1 along the way.
It wasn’t a perfect season. Ralf dropped it while overtaking Pedro Diniz in the Austrian GP and spun off in Malaysia, but it was an impressive first campaign with Williams.
Autocourse ranked him third, though brother Michael was excluded from the top 10 after his time out due to his Silverstone injuries.
5. Ronnie Peterson - 1971
Peterson certainly enjoyed a breakout year in 1971
Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images
- Position: 2nd
- Podiums: 5
- Best qualifying: 5th
Peterson is one of only two drivers to have finished second in the world championship without winning a round, the other being Giuseppe Farina in 1952. What makes the Swede’s 1971 season even more remarkable is that it was only his second F1 campaign and he’d not scored a point in 1970.
Considering his reputation as a rapid racer who would later pick up more than his fair share of bad luck, Peterson’s consistency in 1971 was impressive. He finished all but two of the 11 rounds and was second four times, though a succession of drivers in other Marches make team-mate comparisons tricky.
The March 711 was not particularly quick – Peterson never qualified it better than fifth and didn’t set a fastest lap – but it was reliable during a campaign in which some others, most notably Ferrari, struggled to get to the end of races without problems.
Peterson was largely error free and put in some star turns, including finishing second at Monaco and thrashing everyone bar Stewart in the wet at Mosport.
PLUS: Ronnie Peterson's greatest drives
Indeed, it is Stewart’s dominant season that gets Peterson onto this list by keeping the March man winless. Three of Peterson’s runner-up spots were behind the Tyrrell star, while the other came in a slipstreaming epic at Monza, where Peterson lost out to Peter Gethin’s BRM by just 0.01s. No one on this list got closer to a victory!
Autocourse placed him fifth in its driver rankings and said that Peterson was “fully capable of becoming world champion driver within the next three years”.
An honourable mention here goes to 1975, when Autocourse ranked Peterson third for his fine efforts in the ageing Lotus 72.
4. Kimi Raikkonen - 2006
Raikkonen won the 2007 title with Ferrari, but the McLaren years were arguably his best
Photo by: Vladimir Rys / Bongarts / Getty Images
- Position: 5th
- Podiums: 6
- Team-mate position: 8th (Juan Pablo Montoya) and 11th (Pedro de la Rosa)
- Poles: 3
Raikkonen was a powerhouse in Michelin-shod McLarens. Only unreliability and a relentless campaign from Fernando Alonso had denied the Finn the crown in 2005 and Raikkonen was one of the stars the following year.
The MP4-21 was not a match for Ferrari and Renault in 2006 as F1 moved from V10 to V8 power and engine supplier Mercedes struggled, but Raikkonen was consistently impressive, outpacing team-mates Montoya and then de la Rosa.
Raikkonen scored six podiums, including finishing third after starting 22nd in Bahrain. His impressive race pace regularly shone through and his drive to fourth at the Nurburgring was one of the standout performances of the season.
His best chances to win probably came at Monaco. Raikkonen overcame Mark Webber early on and chased Alonso. The positions remained the same after the first round of pitstops but McLaren had given Raikkonen more fuel – if he could stay close to the Renault he might be able to go long and overcome Alonso at the second stops. But then Webber’s Williams caused a safety car period after an exhaust failure caused a fire.
Alonso and Raikkonen therefore dived into the pits together and left in the same order. To rub salt into the wounds, the McLaren’s bodywork caught fire and Raikkonen retired.
Raikkonen also reckoned he could have won in the dramatic Chinese GP, but a throttle problem put him out.
He was involved in several incidents in 2006, though most weren’t his fault, including getting hit in the back by Montoya at the US GP. Raikkonen’s major gaffe came in Hungary, where he led in the wet early on and was running second when he clattered into the back of Vitantonio Liuzzi’s Toro Rosso as he came up to lap the Italian.
Raikkonen also took three poles and beat Honda driver and Hungarian GP winner Jenson Button to fifth in the points, best of the rest behind the Renault and Ferrari pairings.
3. Gilles Villeneuve - 1980
Villeneuve was simply dealt a bad hand with the 312T5
Photo by: Ercole Colombo
- Position: 12th
- Podiums: 0
- Team-mate position: 19th (Jody Scheckter)
- Best qualifying: 3rd
It’s rare for someone so far down the championship table to be ranked third in the Autocourse rankings, Villeneuve slotting in behind title protagonists Alan Jones and Piquet. But that’s how impressive he was with the 312T5, which was so uncompetitive that reigning world champion Scheckter scored just two points all season.
Indeed, the 1980 Ferrari 312T5 made it onto our ‘Worst follow-ups to title-winning F1 cars’ list, which gives some idea as to how poor it was – arguably the seventh-fastest car that season. In terms of raw speed, it was further away from the season’s pacesetter than all the other cars on this list.
As well as outqualifying Scheckter 13-1, Villeneuve pulled out some superb race performances. He started sixth and finished fifth at Monaco, where he was the fastest in the damp closing stages. He took another battling fifth place after starting 22nd in Canada, the race for which Scheckter failed to qualify.
PLUS: Gilles Villeneuve's greatest races
There were more points in Belgium and Germany – and when Villeneuve finished he was normally in the top eight. Aside from a fifth at Long Beach, Scheckter’s best result was eighth.
Villeneuve had plenty of lairy moments, including an off that put him out of the Watkins Glen finale, but that was indicative of how hard he was pushing and most of his race retirements were due to mechanical failures.
“He carried his car into places where it really ought not to have been,” reckoned Autocourse. “The tragedy was that such obvious natural ability was frittered away at a time when the contribution of the car continued to count for so much.
“Villeneuve’s best results were two fifth places – a pathetic reward for a driver who simply never gave up. Not once.”
2. Fernando Alonso - 2014
It is little surprise that Alonso has many candidates for this list
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
- Position: 6th
- Podiums: 2
- Team-mate position: 12th (Kimi Raikkonen)
- Best qualifying: 4th
Alonso has several candidates for this list, including 2004, 2009 and maybe even 2023, but we’ve gone for his final year at Ferrari. The F14 T was not a good car for F1’s new turbo-hybrid era, with what Autosport described as “the weakest engine package in the field”. It was probably only the fourth-fastest car, well behind the pacesetting Mercedes.
Having hauled good-but-not-great Ferraris into title contention in 2010 and 2012, Alonso consistently dragged decent points out of the F14 T. He obliterated Raikkonen, finishing sixth in the table with 161 points to his team-mate’s score of 55 for 12th. He also won the qualifying battle 16-3.
There were no major errors to speak of and Alonso finished 17 of the 19 races, all of them in the points. And the closest Alonso came to victory was in the brilliant Hungarian GP.
Alonso started fifth on a wet-but-drying track and immediately jumped to fourth. He lost ground during the first stops, as cars further back came in before he could during a safety car period, but was soon making progress and he stayed out as others pitted during a second safety car period.
As strategies diverged, Alonso was leading in the closing stages on ageing soft tyres, chased by Lewis Hamilton – recovering from starting last and an early off. Hamilton was also on a long medium-tyre run and Alonso was able to keep the Mercedes back, but the problem was a charging Daniel Ricciardo on fresher softs.
He caught the duo and, with just four laps to go, the Red Bull made it into second. Alonso was now vulnerable and, at the start of lap 68 of 70, Ricciardo dived down the inside into the first corner to secure a famous victory.
Alonso nevertheless held off both Mercedes drivers for second and finished nearly half a minute clear of Raikkonen. Indeed, in the 16 races both Ferraris finished, the 2007 world champion was ahead only once.
Any criticism of Alonso was mainly off-track as the relationship with the team broke down and he left to join McLaren for 2015.
“It’s hard to imagine any other driver scoring as many points in similar circumstances,” said Autosport at season’s end. “He extracted performances from a poor Ferrari, flattering the machinery.”
1. Jenson Button - 2004
The first 10 podiums of Button's F1 career came in 2004, but he was forced to wait a little longer for that maiden win
Photo by: Lyndon McNeil
- Position: 3rd
- Podiums: 10
- Team-mate position: 8th (Takuma Sato)
- Poles: 1
In terms of results, it’s almost impossible to have as good a season as Button had in 2004 and not win. He and the BAR 006 were consistently impressive and finished on the podium in more than half the races. But it coincided with one of F1’s greatest drivers getting his hands on one of motorsport’s legendary cars.
Michael Schumacher and the Bridgestone-shod F2004 produced by the Ferrari design team led by Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne took eight poles and 13 wins from the 18 rounds. Rubens Barrichello added four poles and two victories.
That didn’t leave a lot for anyone else. An inspired Jarno Trulli took pole and won in Monaco for Renault, finishing with Button tied to his gearbox.
At Spa, Button started 12th and then lost his nosecone in a first-corner fracas. After a subsequent safety car period for another multi-car shunt, Button was 11th as racing resumed. He quickly started making progress, helped by others hitting trouble, and was running in the top five when his right-rear tyre blew and he crashed out.
The other non-Ferrari win came in the Brazilian finale. Button briefly got ahead of eventual victor Montoya’s Williams on the damp opening lap but already knew he was in trouble: his Honda engine soon expired. It was just his third retirement of the year, none due to driver error.
Previously, Button had taken a brilliant pole at Imola and led five races, most notably at Monza when both Ferraris suffered early delays. Their recoveries to finish 1-2, pushing Button back to third and setting fastest laps a second clear of everyone else, underlined the mountain everyone else had to climb in 2004.
Remove the F2004 from the season and Button’s near-perfect campaign would have netted seven wins. He comfortably beat the similarly winless-but-impressive Alonso to third in the standings, was ranked second by Autocourse, and was so highly regarded he was the subject of a battle between BAR and Williams for his services…
Button's long-awaited maiden victory would come two seasons later at Budapest in 2006
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
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