No matter who wins the 2018 Formula 1 championship, that driver will become the third driver to win five Formula 1 championships.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Valtteri Bottas and Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen were mathematically eliminated from 2018 Formula 1 championship contention following the 17th race of the 21-race season, the Japanese Grand Prix.
Bottas and Raikkonen currently sit in third and fourth place in the driver standings with 207 points and 196 points, respectively, meaning that only two drivers are still mathematically eligible to win this season’s championship.
These two drivers are Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Both of these drivers are four-time Formula 1 champions, meaning that regardless of which one wins this season’s championship, the driver who does so will become just the third driver in Formula 1 history to win five championships.
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Hamilton, 33, earned his first career Formula 1 championship when he drove for McLaren in the 2008 season. Vettel, 31, then won four championships in a row from the 2010 season through the 2013 season when he drove for Red Bull Racing.
Since then, Hamilton has responded by winning the championships in the 2014 season, the 2015 season and the 2017 season. He is in the driver’s seat as far as winning the 2018 championship is concerned, as he leads Vettel by 67 points (331 to 264) with just four races remaining on the schedule and a maximum of 100 points on the table for each driver.
Whichever one of these two drivers wins his fifth career Formula 1 championship this year will join Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher on the short list of drivers who have won five Formula 1 championships.
Fangio became the first driver to do so when he did so back in the 1957 season, which was his seventh and final season competing as a full-time Formula 1 driver. He won the championships in the 1951 season, the 1954 season, the 1955 season, the 1956 season and the 1957 season.
Schumacher become the second driver to do so when he did so back in the 2002 season, which was his 11th season competing as a full-time Formula 1 driver. He won the championships in the 1994 season, the 1995 season, the 2000 season, the 2001 season and the 2002 season.
Schumacher, however, did not stop at five championships. He also won the championships in the 2003 season and the 2004 season to become the first six-time Formula 1 champion and then the first seven-time Formula 1 champion.
After Hamilton and Vettel, it may be several years, perhaps even decades, before a driver even comes relatively close to winning five championships, much less approaching Schumacher’s all-time record of seven titles. No other active drivers who are under the age of 37 have won even one championship.
Will Lewis Hamilton clinch his fifth career Formula 1 championship this season or will Sebastian Vettel rally to secure his? Will both drivers end up becoming five-time champions before they retire? Will either one or both of them end up tying or perhaps even passing Schumacher’s record of seven titles?
Tune in to the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, October 21 to see whether or not Hamilton can mathematically eliminate Vettel from championship contention and secure his fifth career title. That race is set to be broadcast live from Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas beginning at 2:10 p.m. ET on ABC.