Successful Formula One Countries, Part One: Great Britain

Welcome to a three part-series which provides detail on Formula One's most successful countries (in terms of number of championships). This opening article on Great Britain is the first of three, the second article will be on the country of Brazil and that will be published on Aug. 3. The third and final part of the series will be focusing on Germany and the article will be published on Aug. 5.

History

The country of Great Britain has been deeply involved in Formula One since the start of the world championship in 1950.

In the very first Formula One world championship race, which was held at Silverstone in 1950, Reg Parnell (who?) scored a podium, becoming the youngest man to do so at the time. Since then there has been at least one British driver competing in the Formula One World Championship.

Formula One is important to many people in Britain. Although several people are unhappy with the British Grand Prix moving to Donington Park, they are happy that Britain is still holding a Formula One event.

Did you know that there is a housing estate in Towcester, England, where all the streets are named after former F1 greats? Imagine buying a house on Coulthard Close or Clark Crescent!

Drivers

There have been eight British F1 world champions who have captured a total of 12 championships.

The first British driver to win a World Championship was Mike Hawthorn in 1958. Amazingly, he won only one race that season, but was very consistent with podiums (maybe Lewis and Kimi should take a leaf out of his book). 

Another interesting fact is that in 1958, it was a British 1-2-3-4-5 in the final world championship standings.

British drivers then went on to dominate the sport from 1962-1965.

Graham Hill won the title in 1962 and then again in '68.

Then in 1963, one of the greatest ever took his maiden title: Jim Clark. He finished on the podium in every race apart from one, the opening round in the streets of Monte Carlo. His stats from the '63 season are truly amazing. He finished on the podium 90 percent of the time and won 70 percent of the races.

Graham Hill and John Surtees won the other three races, which meant that a British Driver had won at all races that season. Surtees took the title in 1964.

Did you know that John Surtees clinched the title in a blue Ferrari. That's right. Blue. It was because Enzo Ferrari had had an argument with the Italian Automobile Club so he entered the last two races in Mexico and America as a privateer.

We now move into the 1970s. In total contrast to the 1960s, Britain only really had one competitive driver, and that was Jackie Stewart.

Stewart had a great rookie season, finishing third in the final championship standings. He took one win.

He then was uncompetitive for a few years but then won the WDC in 1969. He won his home race and helped win the constructors title for Matra, which was their first and only championship.

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