There have been 35 F1 Drivers World Champions across the 76 seasons of F1 competition, with the prevailing attitudes, opportunities, and commercial realities across that period seeing vastly different approaches from drivers to racing outside of Formula One.
It will perhaps be a surprise to many that of those 35 world-class racers, Max Verstappen became, this weekend at the Nurburgring the 28th to start at least one 24 Hour race. He’s only the second F1 World Champion to contest the Nurburgring 24 Hours after Niki Lauda raced and won in 1973.
Between them, they have scored eight overall wins at Le Mans, two Le Mans class wins, two Spa wins, and a single victory apiece at Daytona and Nurburgring.
- Guiseppe Farina: Le Mans 1953, Spa 1936/53 (Winner 1953)
- Juan Manuel Fangio: Le Mans 1950/51/53/55, Spa 1953
- Alberto Ascari: Le Mans 1952/53, Spa 1953
- Mike Hawthorn: Le Mans 1953/55/56/57/58 (Winner 1955) Spa 1953 (Winner)
- Jack Brabham: Le Mans 1957/ 58/ 70, Daytona 1970
- Phil Hill: Le Mans 1953/1955-67 (Winner 1958/61/62), Daytona 1962/64/66/67 (winner 1964)
- Graham Hill: Le Mans 1958-66/72 (Winner 1972)
- Jim Clark: Le Mans 1959-62
- John Surtees: Le Mans 1963-65/67
- Denny Hulme: Le Mans 1961/66/67 (Class winner 1961), Daytona 1966/67
- Jackie Stewart: Le Mans 1965
- Jochen Rindt: Le Mans 1964-67 (Winner 1965)
- Emerson Fittipaldi: Daytona 1985
- Niki Lauda: Spa 1971, Nurburgring 1973 (Winner)
- James Hunt: Spa 1973
- Mario Andretti: Le Mans 1966/67/82/83/88/95/96/97/2000 (Class winner 1995) Daytona 1966/67/68/70/84/89/91/93
- Jody Scheckter: Spa 1973
- Alan Jones: Le Mans 1984/87
- Nelson Piquet: Le Mans 1996/97
- Keke Rosberg: Le Mans 1991
- Nigel Mansell: Le Mans 2010
- Michael Schumacher: Le Mans 1991
- Damon Hill: Le Mans 1989
- Jacques Villeneuve: Le Mans 2007/08, Spa 2009
- Fernando Alonso: Le Mans 2018/9 (Winner 2018/19), Daytona 2018/19 (Winner 2019)
- Jenson Button: Le Mans 2018/23-25, Spa 1999
- Max Verstappen: Nurburgring 2026
- Lando Norris: Daytona 2018
Which leaves just seven F1 World Champions who have never raced over 24 Hours: Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Vettel and Nico Rosberg.
Whilst Sebastian Vettel has expressed some interest in a run at Le Mans in recent times it seems unlikely at present that the others on the list will add to the total!
