Formula 1 Champions Car By Car (every F1 World Championship Car Since 1950)

By (author) Codling, Stuart
Short description/annotation:

Formula 1 Champions Car by Car profiles all 35 of F1’s world-champion drivers together with the amazing race cars that carried them to their wins.

Description:
Meet the champions of Formula 1 and explore the cars that propelled them to victory in this comprehensive history featuring exhilarating photography.

Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsports. Its competitors are the best drivers in the racing world. Its world champions constitute an even more elite cadre, numbering only thirty-five men (to date), arguably the greatest race drivers of all time.

Each of these world-class racer-athletes depends on an unbelievably complex F1 race car developed and supported by an extensive team including designers, engineers, aerodynamicists, and more. Formula 1 Champions Car by Car examines not only the men who have captured the top prize, but as importantly, the race car that carried them to their elite status.

Written by top F1 journalist Stuart Codling, Formula 1 Champions Car by Car takes a detailed look across 75-plus years of engineering development and the cars that helped make the historic wins:

• A full history of the world champion drivers and their cars, from the return of pre-World War II greats like Alfa Romeo and Mercedes-Benz to the rise of new specialists like Ferrari, Lotus, and Cooper up through today’s top competitors like Red Bull, Williams, and McLaren
• Legendary drivers, including Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and more
• Technical specifications for each championship car
• Stunning historic and contemporary photography

Formula 1 Champions Car by Car offers a unique history of the world’s greatest motorsport, emphasizing both its world-champion drivers as well as the race cars that made their legends possible. It is a must-have for every F1 fan’s collection.

Motorbooks’ Car By Car series offers a detailed review of the greatest cars ever to compete in motorsports. A engaging profile and technical specifications accompany historic race and contemporary studio photography to present each car in a handsome book package. Explore other milestone racers in Ferrari Formula 1 Car By Car and McLaren Formula 1 Car By Car, with additional titles to come. 

Biographical note:

Stuart Codling is a respected motorsport journalist and broadcaster who covered sports car racing in the United States before joining F1 Racing, the world’s biggest-selling Formula 1 magazine, in 2001. He has appeared as an F1 expert on TV and radio, hosted for Renault F1, and contributes to F1 Racing, Autosport, Autocar, and the Red Bulletin. Codling is the author of several Motorbooks titles, including Formula 1 Drive to Survive The Unofficial Companion, Real Racers: Formula 1 Racing in the 1950s and 1960s, Art of the Formula 1 Race Car, Art of the Classic Sports Car, and The Life Monaco. Stuart lives in Farnham, Surrey, England.

Feature:

FORMULA 1 FAN BASE CONTINUES TO GROW: F1 continues to expand its fan base. Since 2021, global interest in the series has risen 5.7 percent, which makes F1 the fastest-growing motorsport globally. This growth equates to about 50 million additional fans in just four years. New F1 affiliates offer further evidence: LEGO, Mattel, PacSun, to name but a few.

Feature:

F1’S LONG HISTORY: Modern-day Formula 1 launched in 1950, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2025. 

Feature:

STORIED CARS AND DRIVERS: The roster of Champion Formula 1 cars and drivers