F1 Championships - Mismatched Success Quiz

Answer: Ferrari

Mike Hawthorn won his first and only F1 championship title while driving for Scuderia Ferrari - perhaps the most famous name in F1 motor racing. He produced remarkably consistent results across the whole season, as he won just one race but finished second five times; Stirling Moss on the other hand had four victories but just one second place to go with a string of retirements. The points system also awarded an extra point to the driver who recorded the fastest lap in each of the year's eleven grands prix and only counted each driver's six best results. After all the (somewhat complicated) calculations were complete, Hawthorn emerged the winner by a single point.

Overall, Vanwall recorded a total of six victories (thanks to Moss and his team-mate Tony Brooks) and took the constructors' title (then called the 'International Cup for F1 Manufacturers') from Ferrari by the grand margin of eight points. Both teams' successes were sadly overshadowed though - Vanwall's Stuart Lewis Evans was killed at the final race of the season, while Ferrari lost both Luigi Musso at the French Grand Prix and Peter Collins at the German Grand Prix. Hawthorn retired from motor racing at the end of his successful but tragic season - only to be killed in a road accident just three months later.

Cooper, BRM and Maserati finished in third to fifth places respectively.

Answer: Stewart's team-mate, François Cevert, was killed in practice

As was often the case in the earlier years of F1 racing, the 1973 season ended in tragedy when the promising young French driver, François Cevert, was killed during the Saturday practice session ahead of the US Grand Prix. Cevert's accident occurred at the difficult right-left uphill corner combination known as the 'Esses' - his car drifted too far to the left, hit a bump and crashed into the barriers on the opposite side of the track. Cevert was killed instantly by the massive injuries he suffered. The whole Tyrrell team then withdrew from the race, leaving the path clear for Lotus to win the race and claim the International Cup for F1 Manufacturers. The Lotus drivers, Emerson Fittipaldi and Ronnie Peterson, finished second and third in the drivers' championship respectively.

Various F1 history books often record the constructors' champions of 1973 as 'John Player Special' rather than Lotus. This alternative name came from the team's main sponsor - the tobacco company, John Player. This partnership was responsible for the iconic black and gold livery run on the Lotus cars between 1972 and 1986.

Answer: James Hunt and Niki Lauda

James Hunt was the McLaren driver who won the 1976 F1 World Drivers' Championship, while Niki Lauda was the defending champion and Ferrari driver who came within a single point of retaining his title. This might seem like a fairly common outcome for a F1 season, but actually it followed a miraculous recovery by Lauda - who had nearly been killed at the Nürburgring when he crashed his Ferrari during the wet race and suffered serious burns. Up until that point Lauda had a 26 point lead over Hunt in the championship - but by the last race of the season this had been reduced to just three points as Hunt recorded four victories while Lauda missed two races due to his injuries. The final race was the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji and was held in appalling weather conditions. Lauda retired from the race for safety reasons, while Hunt finished third and nabbed the drivers' title in the process.

The 2013 film 'Rush' was directed by Ron Howard and told the story of Hunt and Lauda's rivalry (and friendship) during the 1976 F1 season. Hunt (who died in 1993 at the age of 45) was portrayed by Chris Hemsworth while Daniel Brühl played Lauda. The real Niki Lauda also made a brief cameo appearance at the end of the film.

Fittipaldi, Mass, Andretti and Peterson all competed in F1 in 1976, but finished outside the top five in the championship.

Answer: Héctor Rebaque, 10th

Nelson Piquet won the 1981 F1 World Drivers' Championship by a single point from the Williams driver Carlos Reutemann, with the defending champion, Alan Jones, just a further three points behind. All three drivers recorded multiple wins during the season, but poor old Héctor Rebaque only troubled the scorers on four occasions during the season (with a best result of 4th place), recorded nine retirements and even failed to qualify for the Belgian Grand Prix. Ultimately, the disparity between the performances of their two drivers cost Brabham the opportunity to truly contest the constructors' championship and Williams were able to retain the title they had won for the first time the previous year.

Mexican Héctor Rebaque's F1 career lasted for five seasons from 1977 to 1981. After his less than spectacular season with Brabham in 1981 he left F1 to compete in the American CART series. He took his only win at the Road America 200 race in 1982 (which was also the only win by a non-US driver that year) but left the sport at the end of the season citing the dangerous nature of oval racing.

Laffite, Prost and Watson raced for Ligier, Renault and McLaren respectively.

Answer: Mario Andretti

The 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held in the car park of the Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas - a suitably glamorous location for F1 (if you discount the 'car park' bit of that statement). However, it marked the end of a tragic season for F1 in general and for Ferrari in particular. Their lead driver, Gilles Villeneuve, had been killed in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix and his team-mate Didier Pironi suffered a career-ending accident during qualifying for the German Grand Prix. The Italian driver Ricardo Paletti was also killed at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix. Patrick Tambay and the 1978 world champion Mario Andretti were the team's replacement drivers, but only Andretti competed at Caesars Palace as Tambay was unfit to start the race.

The 1982 F1 World Drivers' Championship was won by the Williams driver Keke Rosberg. He became the first Finn to be a F1 world champion, despite winning only one race all season (although nobody won more than two). Williams finished fourth in what turned out to be a tightly contested constructors' championship.

The incorrect options were all former F1 champions at that time (Fittipaldi in 1972 and 1974, Hunt in 1976 and Scheckter in 1979).

Answer: First drivers' championship won by a turbocharged engine

F1 in the 1980s was dominated by turbocharged engines - well, until they were banned in 1989 as a result of power levels (and therefore top speeds) getting somewhat out of control. In 1983, Piquet made the perfect start to the season by winning the opening race in Brazil, but then went 11 races without a win before he snatched the title by overturning a 14 point deficit to Renault's Alain Prost with two wins and a third place in the final three races. The two Ferrari drivers, René Arnoux and Patrick Tambay, finished third and fourth in the drivers' championship respectively.

Brabham might have had a better chance of winning their first constructors' title since 1967 if they had been able to provide Piquet's team-mate, Riccardo Patrese, with a reliable car. Poor old Patrese suffered a total of 10 retirements in 15 races - eight of which were caused by a litany of technical problems including three engine failures, turbo failure, brake failure, gearbox failure, exhaust failure and a water leak. He did get some consolation for his disastrous season though when he won the final race at Kyalami in South Africa.

A six-wheeled car did win a race in 1976, but never propelled a driver to a whole championship's worth of good results; the first rear-engined car to win the championship did so in 1958; and Nelson Piquet suffered a total of four retirements during the 1983 season.

Answer: Alain Prost

Mansell, Piquet and Prost were the three drivers who fought for the 1986 championship at the Australian Grand Prix, but it was the defending champion Alain Prost who emerged triumphant. This was one of the iconic races in F1 history as first McLaren's Keke Rosberg pulled over on the side of the track after mistaking a puncture for an engine failure, then Nigel Mansell retired from third place (a position which would have won him the title) when his Williams suffered a spectacular tyre blowout at over 180mph. Williams then called Mansell's team-mate Piquet in from a championship winning position for a precautionary tyre change, which just left Prost to take victory in both the race and the drivers' championship.

Prost's victory was particularly notable as it marked the first time in 26 years that a driver had successfully defended his F1 World Drivers' Championship title. The last man to achieve that had been Jack Brabham in 1960.

Answer: Michael Schumacher

Describing Michael Schumacher's first world championship victory as controversial might be a bit of an understatement. His problems started at the British Grand Prix when he was penalised for illegally overtaking Hill on the parade lap and then black-flagged (excluded from the race) for failing to take the required five second stop-and-go penalty. He was then disqualified and banned for two races for ignoring the black flag. His second disqualification came at the Belgian Grand Prix when his car failed its post-race scrutineering tests.

Schumacher and Hill then went into the final race of the year in Australia separated by a single point (in Schumacher's favour). The crash between them on lap 35 left Schumacher's car broken at the side of the road, Hill's irreparably damaged in the pits and Schumacher with the first of his seven world titles. Many experts and commentators accused Schumacher of hitting Hill deliberately - however, the stewards judged it to be a racing incident.

All three incorrect options drove for Benetton during the 1994 season.

Answer: No

Ferrari won six races (four by Eddie Irvine and two by Michael Schumacher) while McLaren managed to win seven (five by the world champion Mika Hakkinen and two by his team-mate David Coulthard). McLaren's problem was the reliability of their car - between them their two drivers had eight retirements due to mechanical problems - and they subsequently lost the constructors' championship by just four points. This was despite the fact that Michael Schumacher missed seven races as a result of the broken leg he sustained in an accident at the British Grand Prix weekend.

Hakkinen's chief rival for the title was Ferrari's number two driver, Eddie Irvine, who hadn't won a race prior to the 1999 season (and never won another one afterwards). However, it was a closer battle than many people might have predicted and the image of Hakkinen crying in the woods at the side of the track in Monza (after he spun off mid-race) illustrated the pressure of the situation. In the end the championship remained open right through to the last race of the season in Japan and Hakkinen clinched it by just two points.

Answer: Heikki Kovalainen and Kimi Raikkonen

Hamilton and Massa both had Finnish team-mates in 2008 - with Raikkonen (the defending world champion) alongside Massa at Ferrari and Kovalainen in the second McLaren. With only one point separating Hamilton and Massa, it was the relative performance of their team-mates that decided the constructors' title and Raikkonen comfortably out-performed his younger compatriot. Kovalainen managed a win and two further podium finishes, while Raikkonen stood on the podium a total of nine times (including two victories).

The 2008 season is remembered for the thrilling final race where Massa took victory in front of his home crowd and for a few moments looked to have won the title as well, before Hamilton rallied to grab the fifth place he needed to snatch it from him. Unfortunately it is also remembered for Nelson Piquet Jr's deliberate crash at the first Singapore Grand Prix - a scandal later dubbed 'Crashgate'.

The incorrect options all competed in F1 in 2008, but only Alonso and Kubica recorded any wins.