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WHICH WAS THE WORST TITLE DEFENCE? Five Drivers Who Gave Up Their Titles a Bit TOO Easily

Aidan Millward

30,832 views

It's one thing to win the championship, it's another to retain that title with a successful defence. But it's interesting to note that Jim Clark, Niki Lauda, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart never did that. And we like them!

It can be for a number of reasons: It can be because the rules changed, it could be because you switched teams, it could be that your team got it wrong or it could just be the other teams managed to overhaul you in the break. Either way, some titles were defended so weakly, they've become part of racing folklore.

And it can hurt a driver's reputation. He's a Newey Merchant, he's a car merchant, he only won because X, Y and Z... Etc. But who else falls on to this list of badly defending a world championship? Let's have a look.

Enjoy! And remember to like and subscribe for more!

0:00 Intro and Stat Attack
4:24 Alberto Ascari 1954
6:29 Graham Hill 1969
9:19 Mario Andretti 1979
12:23 Nelson Piquet 1984
14:23 Damon Hill 1997
16:34 Honorable Mentions
17:24 Sebastian Vettel 2014
20:03 Closing

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20 Comments

@AidanMillward Creator 5 months ago Pinned

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@jessiemaclean6967 5 months ago

Honestly the worst title defence in Motorsport is a shared honour between everyone who ever won an F2/GP2/F3000 title. The lazy fucks don't even show up the season after

@catz8449 5 months ago

I would probably personally classify a poor title defence as a title defence where the driver had the machinery to defend his title, but failed to do so. If you win the championship and then have a car that isn't even close to competitive the next season, it's out of your hands.

@nitroxinfinity 5 months ago

Future video idea; Best title defences without winning the championship.

@kevinprior3549 5 months ago

I think Damon Hill did well in 1997 considering the car he had. And showed us why he's world champion like at Silverstone, Hungary, Austria, & Jerez.

@Hammerhead547 5 months ago

ARROWS promised Damon Hil the moon and the stars but gave him a generic offbrand moonpie instead.

@JCCyC 5 months ago

Video suggestion: every driver who never won a title but got to the last race with a chance to win. (Regazzoni, Irvine, Laffite, Reutemann, Massa...)

@futbolista24 5 months ago

Even if it ultimately ended with a successful title defense (and thus is disqualified from this listing), Mika's campaign in 1999 was an absolute shocker and I would definitely rank it as one of the worst I've ever seen considering the circumstances. That championship should have been a formality (or an intra-team affair between the two McLaren drivers) after Michael broke his leg, but we somehow got a title fight that went down to the final race of the season.

@dpause10 5 months ago

I think Vettel's 2014 season deserves its own video. His fall from absolute dominance in 2013 to getting schooled by Ricciardo in 2014 was pretty shocking. But I have often wondered how outside circumstances affected his performance. Recall that at the end of 2013, his close friend Michael Schumacher had his terrible, life-changing skiing accident and then within a matter of weeks, he also became a father for the first time. The shift in perception about Vettel's personality from his championship-winning years to his later career at Ferrari is well-documented, but I suspect it can be traced to those 2 life events. After all he seems like a fairly sensitive, smart guy who ponders about a lot of life's questions.

@benfisher6631 5 months ago

“Let my wife know I won’t be dancing for two weeks”

Priceless as always from Graham

@BigLeek-ig3sb 5 months ago

Hills 1997 title defence didn't exist but Hills 1997 Arrows performance is highly under rated, we don't typically get to see front running drivers go to the back like that and he showed that he was in fact above a typical driver of the time

@ibex485 5 months ago

14.8% of drivers having won a race... I'm genuinely surprised it's that high. Very interesting, thanks.

@MrSaywutnow 5 months ago (edited)

Niki Lauda's performance in 1985 after winning the 1984 championship always struck me as odd.
Lauda's teammate would win the '85 championship, yet Lauda ended up retiring 11 times, 9 of them due to mechanical failures.
It's a real head scratcher.
I can only conclude that the McLaren was a bit fragile that year (who am I kidding, all the cars were fragile), and Prost was simply better at nursing it.

@caphowdy666 5 months ago

For me the definition of "poor" title defence would always come down to driving rather than things out of their control such as changing team or a poorly designed car/reliability.
Damon is a perfect example. He had no choice in leaving Williams (and I know there are still the vocal crowd who will call him an undeserving champion, just as the Norris haters do now) and his options were incredibly limited. The McLaren offer was unrealistic because Ron never actually wanted him, so he made an offer that he knew Damon would not accept. Outside McLaren, there was no other seats available that could have even remotely challenged for the title, even Jordan were nowhere near close to doing that. From a purely driving perspective, some could argue that 97 was actually his best year as a driver, overcoming what was an utter dog of a car. The difference between his performances in the Arrows and the 99 Jordan or even the 95 Williams, are night and day.
Let's also remember that Williams were notorious for the attitude of "No driver is bigger than the team", which is why Mansell bailed after winning in 92. Williams really did not want to give him any kind of decent deal deserving of a champion, and signing Prost was just another slap in the face. Ironically though, they kinda changed that attitude with JV, but that was probably because they knew 98 was going to be a tough year.

@D3Vlicious 5 months ago

Then there's Nico Rosberg, who decided not to defend his title at all.

@Holden308 5 months ago

Fun Fact: 3 reigning World Drivers' Champions have all failed to qualify for a World Championship race in the year of a title defence.

* 1958 World Champ Juan Manuel Fangio failed to qualify for the 1959 Indianapolis 500
* 1979 World Champ Jody Sheckter failed to qualify for the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix.
* 1981 World Champ Nelson Piquet failed to qualify for the 1982 Detroit Grand Prix.

From 1950 until 1960, despite it running to a completely different set of rules, the Indianapolis 500 was considered a round of the Formula One World Championship.

@ChrisHopkinsBass 5 months ago

In Damon's defence he was shafted by Sirs Frank and Patrick

@PuncakeLena 5 months ago

I still think the 1980 Sheckter defense was the worst, but this was fun to watch

I would watch a Lotus 80 video, I don't know anything about that thing

@alexlazebat839 4 months ago

hakkinen was close to winning a third usa 2000 where mika broke down and schumacher domination started

@WagnerianoItaliano 5 months ago

Ascari made a bold choice signing for Lancia, sadly for him (and for Lancia as well) there were too many teething issues, and then he lost his life in a testing crash. Graham Hill began his decline in 69, but his season wasn't anything terrible, still won for the last time in his beloved Montecarlo. Andretti and Lotus quickly found out that the era of long running cars like the 72 and the McLaren M23 was definitely over, even for a powerhouse like the 79. Too bad the 80 was a failure; to me, it's one of the most beautiful F1 cars ever. Piquet in 84 won two races, not a terrible title defence, despite a temperamental and unreliable Brabham outmatched by the MP4/2, and Damon Hill made a much bigger gamble than Ascari, a gamble than almost gave him an amazing upset win. Almost, but the podium in Hungary was the very last for Arrows. Schekter in 1980, however, despite the T5 evident shortcomings, was unquestionably cooked and, in hindsight, should have walked away as champion in 79. Vettel 2014 probably the 2nd worse ever. Steamrolled by a dark horse team mate with no previous experience in a top team. Raikkonen 2008 not a great showing either.