Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton both feature in the top 10
The 11 youngest F1 champions have won 34 F1 World Championships between them
Lando Norris joined the list with victory in the 2025 World Championship
Ladbrokes takes a detailed dive into the Formula One record books, looking at the 11 youngest F1 world champions of all time.
From modern legends of the sport to racing stars of yesteryear, this list features names from a range of F1 eras, with almost half of the drivers mentioned achieving their success before the turn of the millennium.
Lando Norris not only added his name to the exclusive list of F1 winners in 2025, but also entered this top 11 of the youngest F1 drivers to win a title.
So without further ado, let's dive into the article and meet the 11 youngest F1 world champions in history.
The 11 youngest F1 world champions of all time
11 - Kimi Raikkonen (28 years, 4 days)
10 - Jim Clark (27 years, 188 days)
9 - Jacques Villeneuve (26 years, 200 days)
8 - Niki Lauda (26 years, 197 days)
7 - Lando Norris (26 years, 24 days)
6 - Michael Schumacher (25 years, 314 days)
5 - Emerson Fittipaldi (25 years, 273 days)
4 - Max Verstappen (24 years, 73 days)
3 - Fernando Alonso (24 years, 58 days)
2 - Lewis Hamilton (23 years, 300 days)
1 - Sebastian Vettel (23 years, 134 days)
The youngest F1 champions in history
11 - Kimi Raikkonen (28 years, 4 days)
Back in 2007, Kimi Raikkonen claimed his one and only Formula One World Championship by a single point, with back-to-back wins in the final two races of the season proving decisive. Raikkonen beat Lewis Hamilton - a 22-year-old rookie at the time - to become the third Finnish driver to end the year at the top of the Drivers' Standings, after Keke Rosberg (1982) and Mika Hakkinen (1998 & 1999).
Remarkably, Kimi Raikkonen remains the most recent Ferrari driver to win the F1 world title, and sneaks into 10th place in this list at 28 years old. However, at the end of the 2025 season, the Finn will be knocked out of the top 10 by one of the current favourites - with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris striving to add their name to the exclusive list of F1 world champions.
10 - Jim Clark (27 years, 188 days)
We have to look quite far back for the man in ninth place, with 27-year-old Jim Clark winning the first of his two F1 World Championship titles in 1963. The British driver beat compatriot Graham Hill to the title by a huge margin, and became Lotus' first ever Formula One champion.
Clark finished on the podium in nine of his 10 races that season, and took home the chequered flag at seven of those tracks - showing his true dominance across the year. Incredibly, every single race was won by a British driver in 1963, with Graham Hill and John Surtees charging through on the rare occasion that Clark was caught.
9 - Jacques Villeneuve (26 years, 200 days)
At almost a year younger than Clark, Jacques Villeneuve comes in at eighth for his World Championship victory in 1997, where he ended up with almost twice as many points as his Williams-Renault teammate in second. The margin is so large due to Michael Schumacher's disqualification from the final standings, which came as a result of the German allegedly causing an avoidable accident in an attempt to jeopardise Villeneuve's Championship chances.
Villeneuve came out on top regardless, and remains the only Canadian to ever lift the F1 World Championship trophy, winning his only title at the age of 26 years and 200 days.
8 - Niki Lauda (26 years, 197 days)
Pipping Villeneuve to seventh in this list by a mere three days, Niki Lauda comes in for his comfortable 1975 victory, winning the first of his three F1 World Championships at the age of 26 years and 197 days.
The Austrian is synonymous with Formula One, with one of the most famous crashes in the sport's history, but that didn't stop him from competing at the very top of the world stage. There were seven seasons between his second and his third F1 World Championship victories, which is still the longest stretch between titles in Formula One.
7 - Lando Norris (26 years, 24 days)
2025 saw a new name enter the top 10 youngest F1 World Championship winners of all time, as Lando Norris ended Max Verstappen's reign of dominance with a two-point victory over the Dutchman.
Norris was made to work for his first-ever title, watching his lead get cut more and more as the weeks rolled by, but the season's end came at the perfect time for the Brit, whose third-place finish in Abu Dhabi was enough to clinch him the world title. Norris became the first McLaren driver to win a Formula One World Championship in almost 20 years, and banished the painful memories of a second-place finish the previous year - where he was beaten by Verstappen.
6 - Michael Schumacher (25 years, 314 days)
In at six comes the seven-time Formula One world champion, with Michael Schumacher winning the first of his record haul at the age of 25 years and 314 days in 1994. The German icon beat Damon Hill by a single point to claim top spot, with his early retirement in the final race thankfully not proving decisive.
Schumacher won six of the opening seven races in the 1994 campaign, but a handful of race retirements and disqualifications throughout the course of the year made the race for the World Championship much closer than it perhaps needed to be. The iconic driver retained his title in 1995, too, before winning five consecutive F1 World Championships between 2000 and 2004.
5 - Emerson Fittipaldi (25 years, 273 days)
Into the top five now, and it's Emerson Fittipaldi who breaks in following his 1972 win whilst driving for Lotus Ford. Ignoring his three race retirements, Fittipaldi only finished lower than third once in 1972, when he came 11th at the Canadian Grand Prix - so it was a rather comfortable victory in the end.
The 25-year-old was the first Brazilian world champion in Formula One history, and also became the youngest ever winner at the time. Fittipaldi also claimed the title two years later, despite only winning three races across the whole season.
4 - Max Verstappen (24 years, 73 days)
Entering the modern day, we have the most recent addition to this list of the youngest F1 world champions of all time, with Max Verstappen's 2021 victory the first of his four consecutive Formula One World Championship titles. The Dutchman has had a stronghold on the sport in the last few years, but is looking likely to finally relinquish his crown this season.
We have Verstappen finishing third in our predictions for the 2025 World Championship Drivers' Standings, but the 24-year-old won arguably the most controversial Championship in F1 history back in 2021, overtaking Lewis Hamilton in the final lap of the final race on the Formula One calendar. Hamilton and Mercedes protested that the rules weren't applied properly after a period of the safety car, but Verstappen's fresher, faster tyres ultimately proved invaluable as he took the lead with just a few turns remaining - denying Hamilton a record-breaking eighth world title in the process.
3 - Fernando Alonso (24 years, 58 days)
The oldest F1 driver on the track in 2025, Fernando Alonso was once a bright, up-and-coming driver for Renault, winning back-to-back World Championship titles in 2005 and 2006. In '05, the 24-year-old Spaniard finished comfortably ahead of the chasing pack, ending Michael Schumacher and Ferrari's era of success.
Of the 18 races across the 2005 season, Alonso only failed to make the podium on four occasions, winning seven times and guiding Renault to the Constructors' Championship. The veteran isn't such a force these days, occupying the middle of the Drivers' Standings for Aston Martin, but his name will forever be etched into F1 history.
2 - Lewis Hamilton (23 years, 300 days)
The first 23-year-old to ever win a World Championship, Lewis Hamilton bounced back from disappointment in 2007 to clinch the title by a point in 2008, beating Felipe Massa - whose disastrous pit stop at the 2008 Singapore GP features in our memorable F1 moments series.
This victory was the start of an unforgettable career for Hamilton, with the serial winner equalling Michael Schumacher's record of seven world titles in 2020 - also entering the top 10 oldest F1 world champions of all time in the process. Now racing in the red of Ferrari, Hamilton is fading away from the untouchable champion he once was - but we're still backing him to stand on a podium before the 2025 season is out.
1 - Sebastian Vettel (23 years, 134 days)
Finally, rounding off this list of the 10 young F1 world champions of all time, Sebastian Vettel's 2010 victory takes the record, with the 23-year-old claiming the first of four consecutive World Championships by a margin of just four points.
Two wins from the final two races saw the young German over the line, fending off a late-season fight from Fernando Alonso. Vettel won 53 Grands Prix over 16 seasons in Formula One, and is safe at the top of this list for another year at least, with Oscar Piastri (24) and Lando Norris (25) the favourites to win the 2025 F1 World Championship title.
