Ranking the Top 10 Most Dominant Seasons in F1

Teams that dominate the season usually wins the Constructor’s Championship. At times one team doesn’t need entire domination to win the Championship, doing a little better helps at times, but most of the teams prefer to dominate or rule over other teams to gain this position. Over the years we’ve seen teams like Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes dominating the other F1 teams to take home the ultimate prize. But how bad were the domination? How dominant were they actually?

In today’s list we’ll talk about such 10 seasons where a team has entirely dominated the season with absolutely ferocity. So what are we waiting for? It’s light out and away we go.

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#10. Red Bull (2011)

• 12 wins out of 19 races.

• Winning Percentage – 63.16%

Starting with number 10 on the list we have Red Bull from 2011. The 2011 season was Red Bull’s second on the trot on championship winning. With the Renault powered, Adrian Newey designed chassis, Red Bull managed to rake in 12 wins out of the 19 rounds. The season opener proved to be an obvious warning of what was to come for the rest of the season, Vettel put his Red Bull on pole by over 8 tenths of a second. Clocking up 12 wins between them (Webber 1 and Vettel 11), Red Bull proved to be an unstoppable force yet again after 2010.

#9. Red Bull (2013)

• 13 wins out of 19 races.

• Winning Percentage – 68.42%

Up next in the 9th place we have Red Bull again, but this time it’s about 2013. 2010 to 2013 were the years Red Bull were totally an unstoppable force, Vettel being in peak of his career the team from Austria put down onslaught against the other teams by having 13 wins out of 19. Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber together gave the Milton Keynes based team a whopping 24 podiums and this marked the last year of back to back Red Bull dominance in F1. Red Bull didn’t win a single Constructor’s Championship ever since and couldn’t make enough mark in the line ups.

#8. Williams (1996)

• 12 wins out of 16 races.

• Winning Percentage – 75%

Talking about the next one in the line we have Williams from 1996. Another championship partly seized by the designs of Adrian Newey, 1996 saw Damon Hill and the Williams team crush the opposition, winning 12 out of 16 races. At the end of the season Hill raked in 97 points and his teammate scored 78 points in just his first year as the driver. Schumacher, the reigning champion and Hill’s main rival, had moved to the uncompetitive Ferrari and the Williams team had no real challenge from the rest of the field. Hill led his team mate to victory 5 times and scored 8 wins in total, whilst Jacques Villeneuve in the other McLaren won 4 races and a total number of 21 podium places altogether.

#7. McLaren (1984)

• 12 wins out of 16 races.

• Winning Percentage – 75%

In the 7th place we have McLaren from 1984. Much like 1988, the Formula 1 season of 1984 quickly became a straight fight between the two McLaren drivers raging up against each other. Much like 1988, one of them was Alain Prost. However, this time it was the Austrian Niki Lauda in the other McLaren instead of Ayrton Senna, and the team were powered by Porsche Engines. After an early season challenge from Brabham-BMW, the MP4/2’s combination of consistent speed and reliability allowed the McLaren drivers to pull way ahead over others. After 16 races, Niki Lauda won 5, whilst his teammate Alain Prost outpaced him to win 7 races. The Austrian Niki who won his third and final championship by just half a point over Prost to mark the end of McLaren dominance, yet again.

#6. Ferrari (2004)

• 15 wins out of 18 races.

• Winning Percentage- 83.33%

Coming down at 6th place we have the Maranello based team Ferrari. The Reds have been different level of dominators when Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were together in the Scuderia. This year was the Schumacher’s last championship in the sport, and 2004 was another show of Ferrari dominance. Winning 12 out of the first 13 rounds, Schumacher led Ferrari to 13 victories in total, whilst Barrichello won a further 2. A scene of complete domination, 2004 marked Ferrari’s 5th straight Constructors’ championship, with their usual rivals McLaren and Williams being utterly outclassed. So great was Ferrari’s victory, that 2005 saw the introduction of a new points system. The FIA designed a new points system to prevent Ferrari dominating once more, this is what the critics and some parts of fans has to say.

#5. Mercedes (2014)

• 16 wins out of 19 races.

• Winning Percentage – 84.21%

Next in at 5th place we have the domination from Mercedes. This was the year from where Mercedes started dominating the sport like never before. The German automobile giants have taken the grip of the sport so bad that they’re still the force to dominate the Formula 1. Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton just moved into Mercedes from McLaren a year before by replacing Legendary Michael Schumacher and joined another German Nico Rosberg to give the other teams nightmares. The duo Lewis and Nico won a whopping 16 races out of total 19 (Lewis won 11, Nico won 5) and was way ahead of any other teams in terms of points. A staggering number of 31 podiums together saw Mercedes blowing away Red Bull’s dominance just a year before.

#4. Mercedes (2015)

• 16 wins out of 19 races.

• Winning Percentage – 84.21%

Up at 4th place we have Mercedes, yet again. This was the second year that the Silverstone based team has been reigning on the top of F1. From leaving their rival teams way behind to winning races one after another, the German automobile giants have wrecked havoc in 2015. Raking up 16 wins out of the total 19 races ( Hamilton won 10 races, while Rosberg won 6), the total points achieved by Mercedes was staggering 703. The three races that Mercedes didn’t win were won by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who won back to back Championships from 2010 to 2013. They left the dominant Ferrari miles behind who only had 428 and finished second. Mercedes wrapped up the season with 32 podiums places, one more than what it got in 2014.

#3. Ferrari (2002)

• 15 wins out of 17 races.

• Winning Percentage – 88.24%

Up next in a podium place we have the Italian giants Ferrari. The Maranello based team were a beast in the 2000s and this was one hell of a proof. One of the most one-sided seasons in Formula 1, the year 2002 saw Michael Schumacher take his 5th title of his eventual 7 world titles. The German’s third in a row for the all conquering Ferrari team, Schumacher was able win 11 races and hence placing in the top three in every single race. On the rare occasion Schumacher wasn’t on the top place, his teammate Brazilian Rubens Barrichello usually took his place. Barrichello won 4 races and helped Ferrari to accumulate more points than all the other teams put together. The Scuderia’s stranglehold was only broken on two occasions: once by the McLaren of David Coulthard and by Ralf Schumacher’s Williams BMW.

#2. Mercedes (2016)

• 19 wins out of 21 races.

• Winning Percentage – 90.47%

In the runner’s up place it is Mercedes again. The German giants took themselves in into the list for the third time and what a way to do this. In 2014, 2015 and then again in 2016. This year was the strongest for the Silverstone based team as no other team could touch them, yet again. The silver arrows of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton blazed past the Red Bulls and Ferraris and dominated the season like never before. They took in 19 race wins out of the total 21. Lewis Hamilton won 10 races and Nico Rosberg won 9. The other two races were won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. A staggering number of 33 podiums saw the Silver Arrows rake up a whopping 768 points and what a fight the F1 World has witnessed between Hamilton and Rosberg in which the German edged the Briton with a 5 point lead to take the World Championship home.

#1. McLaren (1988)

• 15 wins out of 16 races.

• Winning percentage- 93.75%

Now, finally we’re into the pole position of this list. The final one and it’s none other than McLaren in 1988. Talking about the most dominant season in the history of Formula One, 1988 saw the Honda powered McLaren MP4/4 win a crushing 15 out of 16 races. This is the highest ever without a doubt. This McLaren team had brilliant Ayrton Senna and magical Alain Prost battling in their Marlboro emblazoned cars has now become the stuff of Formula One legend. At the end of the season, Senna edged out Prost – with the Frenchman winning 7 races and the Brazilian winning 8 – and with them the championship. And about the race they didn’t win? Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger won the race in Monza after Senna crashed lapping a back marker and Prost retired after engine failure. Breaking this record would need an F1 team to win almost every race they take part in from now on, this seems almost impossible due to the new rules set up by the FIA.

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