\n<\/p>\n
Jenson Button \u2013 2009<\/b><\/p>\n
A British Williams protege, Button entered F1 aged only 20 in 2000.<\/p>\n
However, a unenvied ability to seemingly jump into the wrong car in the wrong team at the wrong time seemed to stunt his ability to show the world his ability to full effect.<\/p>\n
That was until he jumped into the right car at exactly the right time, just as Honda left a whole factory in the lurch, and team boss Ross Brawn steered the independent Brawn GP with few resources to the title before the advancing Red Bulls.<\/p>\n
Jim Clark \u2013 1963, 1965<\/b><\/p>\n
Often cited as one of the greatest alongside Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, Lotus driver Clark died at 32 in a crash during a Formula 2 race in 1968.<\/p>\n
He had achieved more races wins and pole positions than any other driver at the time of his death.<\/p>\n
Thanks to an upbringing on the Scottish borders rallying and hill climbing, his innate feel of his cars and ability to adapt to changing conditions, such as weather and tyres, saw him considered the ultimate adaptive driver \u2013 years before that accolade was so often credited to Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton 2008, 2014-15, 2017-2020<\/b><\/p>\n
Hamilton shares the most titles ever won with Schumacher at seven.<\/p>\n
His dominance on the track and in the garage, along with a superb racing instinct and scientific ability to sense tyre wear, means he boasts the most race wins in history, along with topping many other significant stats in the sport.<\/p>\n
Even if the 40-year-old never wins another race in F1, his status is assured.<\/p>\n
Mike Hawthorn – 1958<\/b><\/p>\n
A bow-tie wearing gent with a shock of blond hair, Hawthorn became Britain’s first world champion eight years into Formula 1’s existence.<\/p>\n
He clinched the title at the Moroccan Grand Prix for Ferrari, doing a Lando Norris by driving conservatively, after a season-long battle with fellow Briton Stirling Moss, who actually won more races than Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
Hawthorn was killed a few months later in a car crash on the A3 near Guilford.<\/p>\n
Graham Hill \u2013 1962, 1968<\/b><\/p>\n
Hill was another gent from an age when drivers risked everything in cars for which safety features were a virtually non-existent consideration.<\/p>\n
A famously pencil-moustachioed Hill won his titles for BRM in 1962 and Lotus in 1968, beating fellow Britons Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart respectively.<\/p>\n
A few years later his entrepreneurial spirit saw him set up his own team, before he was killed in a plane crash in 1975 returning from a testing session in France.<\/p>\n
But his name and legacy would return to the F1 grid\u2026<\/p>\n
Damon Hill – 1996<\/b><\/p>\n
The son of Graham, he was propelled to team leader by the 1994 death of legendary three-time champion Ayrton Senna three races into his Williams career.<\/p>\n
Hill appeared less steely than his contemporaries, such as an emerging Michael Schumacher, and perhaps not as ruthless.<\/p>\n
But a Adrian Newey-designed rocket ship from Williams saw him overcome a development phase Schumacher at Ferrari and a rough diamond debutant in team-mate Jacques Villeneuve.<\/p>\n
James Hunt \u2013 1976<\/b><\/p>\n
The antithesis of laser-focused, but loved all the more for it, Hunt lived his whole life flat-out, dying after a heart attack at 45 in 1993, at the time working as a BBC F1 pundit.<\/p>\n
Rising to prominence with the aristocratic Hesketh Racing, Hunt’s ability behind the wheel shone through his personal indulgences just enough for him to win his first and only title with McLaren.<\/p>\n
Victory was perhaps aided by a horrifying mid-season crash for Ferrari’s Niki Lauda, which kept the Austrian out for several races, but Hunt’s victory was nevertheless heroically received.<\/p>\n
Nigel Mansell \u2013 1992<\/b><\/p>\n
A British champion who arguably should have won more than one title, Mansell’s gung-ho approach saw him create as many memories, such as from fainting while pushing a car to the finish or watching his title hopes explode into shards of rubber, as did his wins.<\/p>\n
His 1992 title ushered in a period on dominance for Williams just as cars were beginning to become technical masterpieces over the grunting monsters of the eras before them.<\/p>\n
The first Silverstone super-hero, who captured the British imagination like no other before him.<\/p>\n
Jackie Stewart \u2013 1969, 1971, 1973<\/b><\/p>\n
In an era of high technological achievements, such as the moon landing and Concorde, three-time champion Stewart was the blueprint for the modern sportsperson.<\/p>\n
Laser-focused, and at every marketing function going, wearing the right watch and the right sponsor jacket, Stewart won the title for the Tyrrell team three times, the first time driving a Matra.<\/p>\n
He campaigned for safety like no other driver and still often graces the paddock today, at the age of 86.<\/p>\n
John Surtees \u2013 1964<\/b><\/p>\n
There were plenty of British title winners in the sixties in what was a very British sport, but the softly spoken Surtees stood out as an international talent.<\/p>\n
A multiple world champion on motorbikes as well, Enzo Ferrari recognised his ability, with Surtees winning the Scuderia’s fifth F1 drivers’ title and as the second Briton to do so after Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
There hasn’t been a British Ferrari title winner since. No pressure, Lewis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n