Who has won the F1 title for McLaren? Every driver champion

This weekend McLaren‘s  Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri could be crowned F1 champion.

Although the team took its first constructors’ title in 26 years last season, it would be the McLaren’s first drivers’ champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

It’s an astoundingly barren run for a team steeped in grand prix success, with many of its previous drivers passing into F1 legend with championship glory.

We run through every McLaren F1 champion below.

Emerson Fittipaldi – 1974

Though McLaren was a race-winning outfit before ‘Emmo’ joined, claiming F1 grands prix and Can-Am title, it had never won the world championship.

That changed when the 1972 champ rocked up, with sponsors Marlboro and Texaco in tow.

An iconic livery was born and the Brazilian clinched the ’74 title at the wheel of the Gordon Coppuck-designed Marlboro-McLaren M23 in a classic showdown with Clay Regazzoni at Watkins Glen.

This was the start of McLaren’s F1 championship dynasty.

James Hunt – 1976

Two years later and McLaren had another drivers’ title, this time from James Hunt.

The firebrand Brit couldn’t have been any more different to the methodical Fittipaldi, but then why did he need to be?

Playboy Hunt did things his own way, and swashbuckled his way to the ’76 to win from Niki Lauda by one point at a monsooned Fuji.

It’s often cited as the greatest F1 title battle of all time, having been dramatised in the film Rush.

Niki Lauda – 1984

The uncompromising Austrian felt his thirst for competition had been quenched following his first 1979 retirement after two world titles with Ferrari, but he made a sensational comeback with McLaren three years later.

This culminated in a third championship for Lauda in 1984 driving the revolutionary carbon-fibre McLaren MP4/2 with the TAG Porsche turbo engine.

Alain Prost – 1985,1986 and 1989

Lauda had secured the title by half a point from team-mate Alain Prost in 1984, but the following year it was the Frenchman’s turn.

Prost ultimately won out by some distance from Ferrari Michele Alboreto in 1985, however the following season was a much tougher prospect.

Most thought 1986 was the Williams team’s to lose, but constant infighting between double champ Nelson Piquet and new British star Nigel Mansell allowed Prost to sneak in and snatch the title in Adelaide after the Grove cars both suffered tyre issues.

Prost took his final McLaren title in massively controversial circumstances. Leading team-mate Senna at the 1989 season finale in Suzuka, Prost appeared to turn in to the Brazilian when he attempted an overtake at the final chicane.

The Frenchman was out while Senna continued, winning the race and the title, until he was disqualified for apparently cutting said chicane.

Prost was handed the championship, but this wasn’t the last we heard of it…

Ayrton Senna – 1988, 1990 and 1991

McLaren’s most celebrated champion, and thought by many to be the greatest F1 driver of all time to boot.

Senna’s three title wins were all very different. 1988 was a battle royale with team-mate Alain Prost, with neither giving an inch.

The Brazilian clinched title No1 after a breathtaking performance in Suzuka, fluffing his start before fighting back from 14th to overtake Prost and win the championship.

1990 was a different proposition. Prost, feeling pushed out of McLaren, had signed for Ferrari. He dragged its undercooked 641 car into a title fight with Senna, but found himself nerfed off by his old team-mate at the first corner in Suzuka as apparent retribution for the previous year’s clash, confirming the Brazilian as champion.

Senna clinched his final title in 1991 in the V12 MP4/6, the only F1 machine to win a title with such an engine.

The Brazilian and his ‘overweight’ Macca weren’t as fast a combination and Nigel Mansell with the William-Renault FW14, but better reliability saw him through.

Mika Häkkinen – 1998 and 1999

The second Flying Finn – after Keke Robserg – was said to be the only driver Michael Schumacher feared.

On his day Häkkinen was almost unstoppable and combined with the McLaren MP4/13 and 14 to take back-to-back titles.

His first came in 1998 in a classic battle with Michael Schumacher, who was pushing the less competitive Ferrari F300 into contention.

Häkkinen won out at Suzuka ‘98 after Schumacher stalled on the grid then suffered a puncture, but 1999 was a more unusual affair.

After Schumacher was ruled out mid-season following a leg-breaking accident at Silverstone, his unfacied team-mate Eddie Irvine emerged as an unlikely challenger to Häkkinen.

The ’99 title should have been a relatively open goal for the Finn. However, the sometimes-mentally fragile Häkkinen contrived to make things difficult with some off-colour performances, as a well as a couple of collisions with team-mate David Coulthard and reliability issues making things worse.

Irvine’s challenge wilted with some poor drives in the season run-in though, and Häkkinen became a double champion.

Lewis Hamilton – 2008

F1’s most successful driver is also McLaren’s last world champion, being crowned after in one of the most exciting finales in grand prix history.

In 2007, Hamilton had stunned the F1 world by almost taking the championship in his debut season, only for a nightmare final two races saw Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkónen come back from a 17-point deficit to snatch the title.

One year on and Hamilton was involved in another thriller, this time with the Scuderia’s other driver Felipe Massa. The Brit was overtaken by Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel with three laps to go, putting him out of championship contention.

It looked like the title would go to Massa however, at the last corner on the last lap, with rain falling under blackened skies, Hamilton managed to wriggle past the slowing Timo Glock.

The Brit secured the title by a single point from Massa, who fought back the tears on the podium after winning the race.

It was an all-time great championship showdown, and the last time a McLaren driver was crowned.