Top 25 Formula 1 drivers of all-time
By Asher Fair
Top Formula 1 drivers of all-time: #15 – Jack Brabham
Following the dominant era of Juan Manuel Fangio in the sport’s early years, Jack Brabham effectively took over as Formula 1’s next top driver.
While Mike Hawthorn was the first to win a world championship in the post-Fangio era in 1958, Brabham won the titles in 1959 and 1960 to become just the third driver to win multiple titles, and he won it again in 1966 to become only the second to win three.
Brabham and Fangio remained the only drivers to win more than two titles until Jackie Stewart came along and won them in every odd year from 1969 to 1973 to cement his own legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greats.
But for as legendary of a career as he had, Brabham’s win total wasn’t nearly what some others were. He won just 14 races over his 16-year career, and 11 of those wins came in his three championship seasons.
He did get his first career victory in the sport’s crown jewel, the Monaco Grand Prix, to open up the 1959 season, which propelled him to the first of his three championship runs. However, he never ended up winning that particular race again.
While this doesn’t necessarily help or hurt him in these rankings considering there were fewer races per season in Brabham’s day, his wins per championship tally is interesting to note. It is the lowest for any driver in Formula 1 history who won more than four races and at least one title.
He won just 4.67 races for each title he won, excluding his 16 victories in non-championship Formula 1 competition. Only three multi-time champions won fewer races than Brabham. All of them won either 13 or 14 races, and all of them won two titles.
Who is next closest to him on this list? Fangio at 4.80. So again, he is in good company.
The only two who are lower are three-time race winners Hawthorn and Phil Hill, who won one title apiece and competed in 45 and 48 races, respectively.