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The 2025 F1 Championship title has gone down to the wire with Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri still in contention for it. McLaren star Norris leads the championship with 408 points going into the season finale at Abu Dhabi, with Verstappen trailing him by 12 points and Piastri further 4 points behind the Red Bull driver.
F1 has had multiple seasons where a title fight has gone down to the wire with three or more drivers in contention for it. This includes the very first F1 season in 1950, where Farina won the title, to the 2010 season, where four drivers were fighting for the title at the finale.
Let's have a look at all the seasons with 3 or more title contenders and look at which driver position in the standings going into the finale had the most wins.
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#1 Juan Manuel Fangio, Luigi Fagioli, Giuseppe Farina battle for the inaugural F1 season: Farina in P3 won
Alfa Romeo drivers Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, and Luigi Fagioli went into the season finale at Monza in contention for the inaugural F1 season title. Fangio led the championship going into the finale with a two-point gap to Fagioli, and Farina four points behind Fangio.
These were the days when the race winner was awarded 8 points for a win, along with 1 point for the fastest lap. Fangio retired from the race after a mechanical failure, Fagioli finished P3, and Farina won the race, as well as the title.
#2 Juan Manuel Fangio, Peter Collins, and Jean Behra in 1956: Fangio won from P1
Juan Manuel Fangio went into the finale at Monza with 27 points, with Peter Collins and Jean Behra on 22 points each. Fangio retired on Lap 19 after a steering wheel failure. Sir Sterling Moss won the race, but Fangio’s teammate Collins was instructed by the team to hand the car over to the Italian. Behra retired from the race on Lap 23.
The two Ferrari drivers entered P2, and they shared the points; Fangio was crowned the champion following Collin's sacrifice.
#3 Jack Brabham, Sir Stirling Moss, and Tony Brooks in 1959: Brabham won from P1
Jack Brabham went into the F1 season finale in the US with the lead of the championship with 27 points. Tony Brooks was 4 points behind Cooper's climax driver, with Sir Sterling Moss 1.5 points behind his Cooper teammate.
Moss suffered a gearbox failure on Lap 5 and was out of contention. Brabham led most of the race until the last lap when his car ran out of fuel. Brooks passed him to take P3, but the Cooper driver pushed his car to the finish line to take the championship victory.
#4 John Surtees, Graham Hill, and Jim Clark in 1964: Surtees won from P2
Graham Hill led the championship going into the title decider in Mexico with John Surtees trailing him by five points. Jim Clark trailed Hill by nine points, but was in with an outside shot at the title.
Hill retired from the race after a collision with Lorenzo Bandini. Jim Clark was on course to win the race when an oil leak made him stop on the final lap. Surtees, who was running P3 then, passed teammate Bandini on the final lap to take P2, scored 6 points, and won the title by one point.
#5 Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, and Denny Hulme in 1968: Hill won from P1
Graham Hill went into the F1 championship decider on 39 points, leading Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme by 3 and 6 points respectively. Both Stewart and Hulme faced problems during the race, with the latter retiring and the former finishing a lap down. Hill won the race and the title with Lotus.
#6 Emerson Fittipaldi, Clay Regazzoni, and Jody Scheckter in 1974: The McLaren driver won from P1
Emerson Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni went into the finale at Watkins Glen equal on points, with Scheckter seven points behind the duo. Neither Regazzoni nor Scheckter finished in the points, and a P4 was enough for the Brazilian to bring home McLaren's first F1 title.
#7 Nelson Piquet, Carlos Reutemann, and Jacques Laffite in 1981: Piquet won from P2
Carlos Reutemann went into the finale one point ahead of Brabham’s Piquet and Laffite six points behind his Williams teammate. F1 Championship Leader Reutemann started on pole but fell backwards throughout the race. Nelson Piquet finished P5 and scored two points to win the title by one point. Laffite needed to win the race for the title, but only finished P6
#8 Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, René Arnoux in 1983 - Piquet wins again from P2
Prost went into the season finale in South Africa with a lead in the championship with 57 points, and Piquet was a couple of points behind him. Ferrari driver Arnoux was in with an outside chance, 8 points behind Prost. Both Prost and Arnoux retired from the race, with Piquet finishing in P3, scoring 4 points and winning the title by two points.
#9 Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, and Nelson Piquet: Prost won from P2
Mansell led the championship by six points to Alain Prost in P2 and seven points to his Williams teammate Piquet in P3, going into the championship decided at Adelaide. Mansell was running P3, which is what he needed to win the title, irrespective of where his rivals finished. With 19 laps to go, Mansell’s tires exploded, and Williams pitted Piquet as a precaution after the mishap. This gave Prost the race lead, and he went on to win and take the championship.
#10 Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and Kimi Raikkonen in 2007: Raikkonen wins from P3
Lewis Hamilton joined the F1 grid in 2007 and was in the lead of the championship going into the season finale at Brazil with 107 points. Two-time F1 champion and Hamilton's teammate, Fernando Alonso, was on 103 points, and Kimi Raikkonen was in P3 with 100 points. This was when 10 points were awarded for a win.
Hamilton faced gearbox issues on Lap 7 and finished the race in P8. His teammate Alonso finished on the podium, and Kimi Raikkonen won the race. As a result, the Iceman beat the McLaren duo by just one point to the title.
#11 Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, and Lewis Hamilton in 2010: Vettel won from P3
Going into the season finale for the 2010 season, four drivers had a mathematical chance of winning the championship, with 25 points being awarded for a win. Fernando Alonso on 246, Mark Webber on 242, Sebastian Vettel on 231, and Lewis Hamilton on 222 points.
Mark Webber had an anonymous race after an ill-timed pitstop following a minor contact with the barrier. Lewis Hamilton finished P2, and Sebastian Vettel won the race to take the title. Fernando Alonso needed to finish P4, but was stuck behind the Renaults of Kubica and Petrov, who pitted early under the safety car and got the track position.
Which position has the most title triumphs in three-way or more F1 championship deciders
Drivers from the lead of the F1 championship have won the title 4 times out of 11, tied with drivers who started the final race in P2. Drivers who were P3 going into the way title decider won three times, making it a close call on percentages between the three positions. Below is a table revealing the percentage of each position's title triumph.
