Ferrari, McLaren, Williams… what are the ten F1 teams with the greatest longevity?

Ferrari: the elder of F1 (75 seasons)

The team with the prancing horse was born long before it became an automobile manufacturer. It was on May 21, 1950 that Ferrari took part in its very first Grand Prix, in Monaco for the second race of the very first Formula 1 championship in history.

In total, Ferrari has competed in 1073 Grand Prix races, scored 9,654 points, won 243 victories, and has been on the podium 806 times. Not to mention the 15 drivers’ titles and 16 constructors’ championships won by the team since its creation. Their first world champion was Alberto Ascari in 1952, and their latest was secured by Kimi Räikkönen in 2007.

Its statistics make Ferrari the most titled of all teams in the history of F1, as well as the most victorious and the oldest in the category with its 74 candles that will be blown out in 2024. The Italian team is one of the only teams, along with McLaren, Williams, and Haas, that have not been bought or born as the result of a takeover.

McLaren: Ferrari’s historical rival (59 seasons)

The team, now British, was born from the will of the New Zealander driver Bruce McLaren in 1966 and will compete in its very first Grand Prix on May 22, 1966, also in Monaco. It will celebrate its 58th anniversary this year.

The founder of the brand won a victory, at the wheel of his own car during the 1968 season, at the Belgian Grand Prix, in Spa-Francorchamps, before his compatriot Danny Hulme achieved two more successes in the year at the Italian Grand Prix, in Monza and in Canada, in Mont-Tremblant.

Bruce McLaren died on June 2, 1970, at the age of 32, on the Goodwood circuit in England. He didn’t see any of the eight constructor titles of his team, the third most successful team, or any of the 12 driver championships, from Emerson Fittipaldi in 1974 to Lewis Hamilton in 2008.

The founder was not able to witness during his lifetime the struggles against Ferrari for the different championships. The clashes James Hunt against Niki Lauda in 1976, Alain Prost against Ayrton Senna in 1990, Mika Häkkinen against Michael Schumacher from 1998 to 2000, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton against Kimi Räikkönen in 2007 and Lewis Hamilton against Felipe Massa in 2008 have made this rivalry between the two teams, part of F1 history.

Williams: the passion of a man and a family (48 seasons)

Two Williams teams participated in the F1 championship. The first one was born in 1966, founded by Sir Frank Williams, but it wasn’t until 1975 that it bore the name of its founder, in the premier category of motor sport.

At the end of the year, the Briton accepts the support of the Austro-Canadian billionaire Walter Wolf. The team is named Wolf-Williams in 1976, but Sir Frank is shown the door by Wolf before the latter takes complete control of the team.

Williams therefore starts from scratch in 1977 and founds Williams Grand Prix Engineering with the support of Patrick Head. This team, despite being bought out in 2020 by Dorilton Capital, has not changed its identity and now has 745 Grand Prix in F1, the first on May 8, 1977 at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez. It will celebrate its 57th anniversary this year.

However, the team based in Grove is not only linked to Frank, but to his whole family. In 1986, following an accident at the Paul Ricard circuit, the team’s founder would be forever paralyzed. That same year, during the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, Nigel Mansell triumphed at home behind the wheel of a Williams-Honda. While Frank was still recovering, it was his wife Virginie, nicknamed Ginny, who raised the famous British trophy. From 2014 to 2020, their daughter Claire would be the team’s director until the family’s departure on September 6, 2020, during the Italian Grand Prix.

Williams saw Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, and Jacques Villeneuve win the title within its team. The team also won nine constructor championships, making it the second team with the most championships behind Ferrari.

Lotus: the fifth most successful team with its seven constructor championships (37 seasons)

In 1952, Colin Chapman created the company Lotus Engineering and the very first single-seater, the Lotus Mk6, was born. The team entered F1 in 1958 under the name Team Lotus and sported the characteristic bottle green color of British teams like Cooper, Vanwall, or Aston Martin.

This team wins its first two driver and constructor titles thanks to the legendary Jim Clark. The Briton was considered, at his time, as the best driver in history, his death in 1968, during a F2 race in Hockenheim will be a tragedy for the world of F1. But this same year, his on-track rival and nevertheless friend, Graham Hill won a new driver championship and the team’s third constructor title.

Jochen Rindt in 1970, Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972, and Mario Andretti in 1978 allowed Lotus to win a total of six driver titles, to which the seven constructor championships must be added.

But in 1994, after 36 years in F1, Lotus left the championship after being placed in judicial liquidation. The name Lotus returned to F1 from 2010 to 2012, with the controversial Tony Fernandez, then with the purchase of the Renault team from 2012 to 2015. Only the black and gold cars will win Grand Prix with the successes of Kimi Räikkönen in 2012 in Abu Dhabi and in 2013 in Australia.

Brabham: from the founding by Jack to Ecclestone’s presidency (31 seasons)

After winning two consecutive titles in 1959 and 1960 with Cooper, Jack Brabbham left the team to create his own racing team which will bear his name. This is how Brabbham Racing Organisation took part in its very first F1 Grand Prix on August 5, 1962, at the Nürburgring circuit.

The Australian driver won his third world championship in 1966 and the team secured its very first constructor’s title. Jack Brabham managed to become world champion within his own racing team, and to this day, he remains the only one to have achieved this. The team defended its titles the following year with Denny Hulme.

In 1972, Bernie Ecclestone bought Jack’s team. The team had to wait until 1981 and 1983 to see Nelson Piquet win the team’s last drivers’ titles, but Brabham will be remembered for its BT46B, introduced in 1978 at the Swedish Grand Prix, with its famous rear fan, designed by Gordon Murray. Niki Lauda easily won this race, and this improvement was later banned by the FIA.

The big moneyman of F1 sells the team to Alfa Romeo in 1988, the team does not participate in the championship this year, before the Italian manufacturer sells it to Joachim Luhti, a Swiss businessman. The team eventually disappears after the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 16, 1992.

Tyrrell: Stewart’s titles, Cevert’s death and F1 on four wheels (29 seasons)

The name Tyrrell entered F1 in 1968 with the support of the manufacturer Matra. This partnership allowed Sir Jackie Stewart to win the title the following year. The split between Tyrrell and the French manufacturer took place the next year, after Matra asked Tyrrell to abandon its V8 Ford-Cosworth engines for V12 Matra engines.

The British team becomes independent in 1970 with the launch of the Tyrrell 001. Stewart wins two more world titles in 1971 and 1973 with his team, but decides to leave F1 after the fatal accident of his teammate François Cevert on October 6, 1973.

Cevert was nicknamed “the little prince”, he won the United States Grand Prix in 1971 at Watkins Glen and was seen as the future world champion, a worthy successor to Stewart. But in qualifying, on the same track where he won two years earlier, his Tyrrell crashed into the safety barriers and he was killed instantly, at the age of 29.

The team never won the title again, despite some innovations at the car level such as their Tyrrell P34, better known as the “six-wheeled F1”. But this concept did not achieve the expected success. The team continued its decline and participated in its 430th and final Grand Prix in 1998 in Japan, after 28 years and 49 days in F1. It was then bought by British American Racing (BAR), which became Honda from 2005 to 2008, then Brawn GP in 2009 and finally Mercedes since 2010.

BRM: The only titles in 1962 (26 seasons)

British Racing Motors joined Formula 1 from the second edition of the world championship in 1951. But it only participated in a few Grand Prix. It was not until 1958 that one of these cars took part in every Formula 1 weekend.

BRM is on top of the world in 1962 thanks to Graham Hill, who won his first world title. The British, father of the world champion in 1996 Damon Hill, is a legend in the history of motor racing as the only driver to date to have won the triple crown races with the Monaco Grand Prix, five times, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1972 and the 500 Miles of Indianapolis in 1966.

This golden parenthesis was the only one in BRM’s history. The team takes part in its last Grand Prix on March 5, 1977 in South Africa.

Ligier: the other French team from the 70s (21 seasons)

When we think of a French team in F1, the name Renault quickly comes to mind. But in the 1970s, Guy Ligier launched his own racing team which arrived in F1 on January 25, 1976, during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Ligier had French drivers in its team for many years. While the team never had Alain Prost in one of its cars, it did work with drivers such as Jacques Laffite, Patrick Depailler, Didier Pironi, and Olivier Panis, all of whom won Grand Prix races with the blue cars. The native of Oullins is the last French driver to have triumphed in Monaco, in 1996. This also happens to be Ligier’s last victory in F1.

The team races its very last race on October 13, 1996, in Japan. Before being bought the following year and becoming Prost Grand Prix, after 20 years and 267 days spent in the premier category of motorsport.

Minardi: the beginner team for young drivers (21 seasons)

The Scuderia Minardi joined F1 in 1985, after having participated in several promotion category championships. From its first race on April 7, 1985, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, this small Italian team lacked budget and could only field one car at the start.

The team did not experience the joy of victory or the podium, however, it was appreciated by the public in the 90s and 2000s for its underdog status, but also for having launched the careers of young drivers, such as Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, or Giancarlo Fisichella, all three Grand Prix winners.

In 2006, the Red Bull group bought the team to make it the Austrian giant’s B team, with the aim of training young drivers, as Minardi used to do. At the time of the sale, Minardi remained based in Faenza thanks to a clause signed in the contract. This is how Toro Rosso was born.

Red Bull: the rise of the Austrian bull (20 seasons)

In 2005, the beverage brand bought the Jaguar team for a symbolic pound. On March 6 of that same year, Red Bull participated in its first Grand Prix in Australia. The team achieved its very first podium in its second season in F1, on May 28, 2006, at the Monaco Grand Prix, with David Coulthard finishing in third place.

The Austrian team had to wait until 2009 to compete for the title, helped by the new technical regulations. Red Bull secured their first victory, as well as their first one-two finish in history, in China, with Sebastian Vettel winning and Mark Webber finishing second.

The team then won four consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ titles from 2010 to 2013, with the German driver, before being crowned again with Max Verstappen winning three drivers’ championships since 2021, as well as the two drivers’ titles in 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Red Bull will enter its 20th season in F1.

The teams with the longest history in F1