Biggest F1 Upsets in All of History
Formula 1 is meant to be predictable. Shouldn’t the best drivers and the fastest cars win? Even the most seasoned fans are left speechless by the humorous curveballs that motorsports have a way of throwing.
Sometimes the weather turns everything upside down, sometimes it’s a last-lap drama that rewrites history, and sometimes it’s a midfield team punching way above their weight. These incidents serve as a reminder of the primary reason we watch racing.
These are 14 of the most significant upsets that rocked Formula 1.
Olivier Panis, Monaco 1996
The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix was absolute chaos, and French driver Olivier Panis somehow emerged from the wreckage as the winner. Starting from 14th on the grid in his Ligier, Panis had no business being anywhere near the podium, let alone winning.
But Monaco in the rain was a great equalizer, and one by one, the favorites eliminated themselves—Michael Schumacher crashed on the opening lap, Damon Hill’s engine exploded, and Jean Alesi’s suspension gave up on lap 59 of 75. Only three cars finished the race (Panis, David Coulthard, and Johnny Herbert), and Panis was leading when the checkered flag fell.
It was his first and only F1 victory, and it remains Ligier’s last win before the team became Prost GP.
Pastor Maldonado, Spain 2012
Pastor Maldonado wasn’t exactly known for keeping his car in one piece, but at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, he drove the race of his life. The Venezuelan qualified on pole for Williams and then did something almost unthinkable—he actually converted it into a win, holding off Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari by three seconds.
Bookmakers had given him 100-to-1 odds despite starting first, which tells you how unexpected this was. For Williams, it was their first victory since 2004 and remains their last win to this day.
Maldonado left F1 in 2015 without another podium to his name, making this one shining moment even more remarkable.
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Sebastian Vettel, Italy 2008
Before Sebastian Vettel became a four-time world champion, he was a 21-year-old kid driving for Toro Rosso, essentially Red Bull’s B-team that had previously been the struggling Minardi outfit. Neither Vettel nor the team had ever stood on a podium before the very wet 2008 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
But Vettel dominated the weekend in the rain, taking pole position and then controlling the race from start to finish while the usual frontrunners floundered behind him. The car used a Ferrari engine, making it the first win for a Ferrari-powered car that wasn’t Ferrari since 2003.
He crossed the line ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica, earning himself a promotion to Red Bull’s main team where he’d go on to dominate the early 2010s.
Pierre Gasly, Italy 2020
Twelve years after Vettel’s Monza upset, Pierre Gasly repeated the feat for the same team—now rebranded as AlphaTauri. Gasly qualified tenth and was running mid-pack when Kevin Magnussen’s car broke down on lap 18, triggering a safety car.
Crucially, the race was red-flagged on lap 26 when Charles Leclerc crashed heavily at Parabolica, reshuffling the grid and giving Gasly clean air to lead after the restart. He then held off a charging Carlos Sainz to take his first and only career victory.
The win was a massive outlier in AlphaTauri’s season, which otherwise produced just five more points outside of this race.
Giancarlo Fisichella, Brazil 2003
The 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix might be the most confusing race in F1 history, and Giancarlo Fisichella somehow came out on top. Heavy rain turned Interlagos into a river, and the race was red-flagged on lap 55 when Fernando Alonso crashed into debris on the main straight.
Officials initially declared Kimi Räikkönen the winner, but after reviewing the timing screens, they realized the classification had to revert to lap 53—two laps before the red flag. That meant Fisichella, driving for the mid-tier Jordan team, was actually the winner.
It took five days for the result to be officially confirmed after officials found a timing error, and by then Fisichella had already left Brazil thinking he’d finished second.
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Damon Hill, Hungary 1997
Damon Hill was the reigning world champion in 1996, winning half the season’s races for Williams. Then Williams unceremoniously dropped him, forcing Hill to drive for the backmarker Arrows Yamaha team in 1997, a ride essentially paid for by his pay-driver teammate.
By the time the Hungarian Grand Prix rolled around, Hill’s best finish was sixth place, and his Yamaha-powered Arrows was hopelessly uncompetitive. But at the narrow Hungaroring, his car showed uncharacteristic pace, and he qualified an astonishing third.
He took the lead and drove brilliantly until three laps from the end when his hydraulic pump failed, sticking him in third gear. Hill nursed the wounded car home to finish second, coming within seconds of giving Arrows their first-ever victory—a win that never came in the team’s entire history.
Brawn GP, 2009 Season
The Brawn GP story reads like a Hollywood script. Honda pulled out of F1 at the end of 2008, leaving their drivers jobless and their team in limbo.
Ross Brawn led a management buyout, creating Brawn GP on a shoestring budget with cars that nearly didn’t make it to the first race. When the sparsely-sponsored BGP 001 with its Mercedes engine rolled out, nobody expected much.
But Brawn had nailed the new regulations, exploiting a double diffuser loophole that gave them a significant advantage. Jenson Button won six of the first seven races, eventually claiming both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
The team was sold to Mercedes at season’s end, but Brawn’s single season remains one of motorsport’s greatest underdog stories.
Jenson Button, Canada 2011
The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix lasted four hours and four minutes—the longest race in F1 history—and somehow Jenson Button won it after being dead last with 30 laps to go. Button collided with teammate Lewis Hamilton on lap seven, earned a drive-through penalty for speeding behind the safety car, hit Fernando Alonso and got a puncture, and made six pit stops total.
The race was red-flagged for two hours due to torrential rain. When it restarted on lap 40, Button was running 21st.
Then Button carved through the field with a series of brilliant passes and caught race leader Sebastian Vettel with five laps remaining. On the final lap, Vettel slid wide under pressure, and Button swept past to take the most improbable victory of his career.
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Peter Gethin, Italy 1971
The 1971 Italian Grand Prix at Monza produced the closest finish in F1 history, and Peter Gethin won it from 11th on the grid. With no chicanes slowing the circuit back then, the race became pure high-speed slipstreaming with eight different leaders and 25 lead changes.
Gethin, driving a BRM, quietly worked his way into contention while the favorites battled each other. On the final lap, four drivers approached the finish line in a photo finish.
Gethin somehow got there first, beating Ronnie Peterson by 0.01 seconds—the top five covered by just 0.61 seconds. It was Gethin’s only F1 victory, and at an average speed of 150.75 mph, it remained the fastest race for 32 years until the 2003 Italian Grand Prix.
Kimi Räikkönen, Brazil 2007
Kimi Räikkönen entered the 2007 season finale seven points behind Lewis Hamilton and three behind Fernando Alonso, and nobody gave him much of a chance. Hamilton started second and needed just a fifth-place finish to become champion, while Räikkönen had to win and hope for the best.
On lap one, Räikkönen passed Hamilton, who then suffered a mysterious gearbox problem on lap eight that dropped him to 18th. Hamilton recovered to seventh, but Räikkönen won the race and the championship by a single point over both Hamilton and Alonso.
It was the first three-way title fight in a final race since 1986, and Ferrari executed their strategy perfectly while McLaren’s internal tensions and Hamilton’s mechanical issues opened the door.
Max Verstappen, Abu Dhabi 2021
The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be debated for decades. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton entered the race tied on points, and Hamilton dominated for 53 of 58 laps.
Then Nicholas Latifi crashed with five laps remaining, bringing out the safety car. Race director Michael Masi made the controversial decision to let only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen unlap themselves, then restarted the race for one final lap.
Verstappen, on fresh soft tires, passed Hamilton’s worn hard tires at Turn 5 and took his first championship. Mercedes protested, and the FIA later confirmed human error had occurred in the safety car procedure, with Masi subsequently replaced.
The result, however, stood.
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Sebastian Vettel, Abu Dhabi 2010
Sebastian Vettel wasn’t even the favorite entering the 2010 Abu Dhabi season finale. Fernando Alonso led the championship by 15 points, with Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber seven points ahead of him.
Vettel needed to win and hope both rivals struggled. Ferrari made a disastrous strategy call, pitting Alonso early, and the Spaniard got stuck behind Vitaly Petrov’s slower Renault for the remainder of the race.
Vettel won brilliantly and became F1’s youngest world champion at 23 years and 134 days, claiming his first title in the only race that season where he led the championship standings. That record still stands today.
Keke Rosberg, 1982 Season
Keke Rosberg won the 1982 championship with only one victory—the Swiss Grand Prix, held at Dijon in France—making him one of the most unlikely champions in F1 history. That chaotic 16-race season produced 11 different winners, and the Finnish driver’s naturally aspirated Williams had no business competing against the turbocharged powerhouses that dominated the era.
But his consistency in scoring points while others crashed or broke down gave him the title. No other driver dominated that season, and Rosberg’s steady accumulation of finishes was enough.
He was the first Finnish F1 champion and became the first since 1958 to win a title with only one victory.
James Hunt, 1976 Season
Legends surround James Hunt’s 1976 championship. Without a guaranteed car, he joined McLaren at the beginning of the season and faced the defending champion, Niki Lauda, who was in control until his terrible crash at the Nürburgring.
The title fight continued after Lauda’s near-fatal accident and his incredible 40-day recovery. Hunt needed third place to win the championship after Lauda pulled out of the final race in Japan after just two laps because of the hazardous wet conditions.
Hunt, the underdog who defeated one of Formula One’s titans, fought his way to third place and won the championship by a single point (69 to 68) despite the dangerous conditions.
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Racing’s Beautiful Chaos
These upsets demonstrate that having the fastest car or the largest budget isn’t the only factor in Formula 1. The sport is incredibly captivating because of the ways that rain, mechanical malfunctions, daring strategy calls, and sheer willpower can level the playing field.
Less than 110 different drivers have ever won a Grand Prix, despite more than 1,100 races being held since 1950. From Verstappen’s thrilling final lap in Abu Dhabi to Panis surviving Monaco’s carnage, these incidents have left us with some of the sport’s most memorable tales.
The next time someone tells you that Formula One is predictable, remind them that anything can happen on any Sunday, which is why we continue to watch.
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