Ending the F1 GOAT debate!

The F1 GOAT debate has been a topic that is inevitable in F1 communities. We tried to give you some arguments in a previous post and after hearing your feedback we decided to give it another go and we believe now we have everything to end this debate once and for all.. or at least give it our best shot!

*Last data included is from 2025 Brazilian GP!

*Sprint Races points are not included in the data!

Who is the Formula 1 Greatest of All Time?

Step 1 of the process is as always to recalculate every F1 race since 1950 with a modern points system. In this case we used 2024 points system but we excluded awarding Fastest Lap point - because in eras when fastest lap wasn't awarded drivers were not even going for it. So this evens the field a bit more and is basically 2025 F1 points system.

Step 2 was a bit more tedious and it was to somehow adjust the length of the F1 seasons to account for season that had 7 races and season now with 24 races. This was a bit challenging but I think we got it right.

Check our Interactive F1 Charts and Analysis!

First we got the number of races for each season - then we decided that we will use 24 races as the base number of races and try to add value to seasons with less races by multiplying their points by a factor of difference to even them with the base season of 24 races.

This would mean that a win in 2024 season (with 24 races in season) would be worth the same = 25 points, but a win in a season with only 8 races would be worth x3 because 24/8=3. So that would be 75 points for a win in a season with 8 races.

Normalizing F1 points across different F1 Seasons

I know there are other factors and maybe x3 in this case is too big of a multiplier to adjust for but I think it is close enough - considering that also in the early Formula 1 years DNFs were a lot more common occasion and the whole sport was a lot riskier place than today.

Anyway, please enjoy the interactive bar chart race below where we accumulate the points for each driver, and then scroll even further as we will try to end the debate by calculating average points per race with this new system!

Feel free to move the bar at the bottom and add/remove countries by clicking on the Legend in the bottom!

Only 6 F1 Drivers have been on the top with this adjusted system:

• Nino Farina - less then a year

• Alberto Ascari - 2 years

• Juan Manual Fangio - 37 years

• Alain Prost - 13 years

• Michael Schumacher - 19 years

• Lewis Hamilton - 3 years and counting

F1 Greatest of all times!

Fun Fact: Lewis Hamilton overtook Michael Schumacher when he lost to Max Verstappen in 2021!

Now if we want to adjust a bit more to account for longevity of drivers careers we can divide the total points won with this system, by the number of seasons the Top 40 drivers on the list competed in - and the results get shaken a little bit.

Here are the results of that calculation:

F1 Driver	Total Points	Total Seasons	Points per Season
Lewis Hamilton*	6389	19	336
Max Verstappen*	3571	11	325
Alain Prost	3770	13	290
Michael Schumacher	5509	19	289
Juan Manuel Fangio	2602	9	289
Ayrton Senna	2828	11	257
Jackie Stewart	2286	9	254
Sebastian Vettel	4051	17	238
Jim Clark	2064	9	229
Damon Hill	1616	8	202
Nico Rosberg	2172	11	197
Fernando Alonso*	4054	22	184
Denny Hulme	1908	10	191
Kimi Raikkonen	3610	19	190
Nelson Piquet	2613	14	187
Mika Hakkinen	2025	11	184
Charles Leclerc*	1693	10	169
David Coulthard	2471	15	165
Carlos Reutemann	1804	11	164
Valtteri Bottas	2118	13	163
Niki Lauda	2073	13	159
Stirling Moss	1750	11	159
Emerson Fittipaldi	1711	11	156
Jody Scheckter	1394	9	155
Bruce McLaren	1858	12	155
Nigel Mansell	2275	15	152
Gerhard Berger	2111	14	151
Felipe Massa	2192	15	146
Mark Webber	1746	12	146
Jack Brabham	2287	16	143
Ralf Schumacher	1554	11	141
Rubens Barrichello	2672	19	141
Graham Hill	2500	18	139
Jenson Button	2427	18	135
Sergio Perez	1805	14	129
Jean Alesi	1524	13	117
John Surtees	1635	14	117
Daniel Ricciardo	1573	14	112
Jacques Laffite	1447	13	111
Riccardo Patrese	1691	17	99

• Drivers with * are driving in 2025 season and will have final results on the table at the end of the season - so far their data includes 2025 Belgian GP.

If you want to support us and in return get raw F1 Data and analysis to dive deep - check our Patreon page!

On the other hand here are only the results for the drivers competing in the 2025 season (total points adjusted as mentioned above)!

Lewis Hamilton	6388
Fernando Alonso	4054
Max Verstappen	3571
Charles Leclerc	1692
Carlos Sainz	1367
Lando Norris	1327
George Russell	959
Nico Hülkenberg	706
Oscar Piastri	683
Esteban Ocon	539
Pierre Gasly	513
Lance Stroll	367
Alexander Albon	367
Yuki Tsunoda	111
Kimi Antonelli	98
Oliver Bearman	45
Liam Lawson	42
Isack Hadjar	42
Gabrial Bortoleto	19
Franco Colapinto	5

In another analysis we used a bit different model - first step is the same and we recalculate every race with the 2025 F1 points system but in the second step where we account for the number of races per season, instead of multiplying by factor, we calculate average points per race and the results are quite interesting to say at least.

The truth is something in between both articles!

See that article here!

If you wanna see which country wins most points per driver - Check this Article!

Are you F1 Driver material? - Test your reflexes!