The Youngest F1 Drivers to Win a World Championship
Mereostream looks back at the top 6 youngest f1 drivers ever to have won a Formula 1 world championship. From the German, Michael Schumacher, to the Brit, Lewis Hamilton, these racing geniuses fill the list of youngest F1 drivers.
6. Michael Schumacher
25 years, 314 days 1994
Schumacher won his first Drivers’ Championship in 1994 when he was only 25. Born in the West German town of Hürth, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schumacher started his F1 career at 12 when he obtained a kart license in Luxembourg.
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5. Emerson Fittipaldi
25 years, 303 days 1972
Emerson Fittipaldi secured the constructors’ championship for Team Lotus and became the youngest world champion in 1972. The Brazilian is renowned for having won the CART championship once, two Indianapolis 500s, and the Formula One World Championship.
4. Max Verstappen
25 years, 303 days, 2021
The youngest to ever start a Grand Prix at 17 years and 166 days, Max Verstappen surpassed Vettel as Formula 1’s youngest Grand Prix winner in the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. Still, he didn’t quite have the chance to become F1’s youngest champion.
3. Fernando Alonso
24 years, 59 days, 2005
One of F1’s most youthful debutants back in 2001, Fernando Alonso had the toughest of opponents in Michael Schumacher and Ferrari in 2005 but won over the establishment to end the German’s dominant spell.
2. Lewis Hamilton
23 years, 300 Days 2008
Lewis Hamilton delivered his first title in his sophomore F1 season after kicking off a ferocious rivalry with McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso in 2007, in which the pair were level on points behind champion Kimi Raikkonen by season’s end.
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1. Sebastian Vettel
23 years, 134 days, 2010
Sebastian Vettel entered the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 15 points shy of Fernando Alonso but emerged as the youngest-ever Formula 1 world champion with his fifth victory. The Heppenheim native went on to win the championship three more consecutive years.
