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In F1, arguably the most important thing needed to win a title is the fastest car. Drivers play a key role in achieving success and taking the car to the limit but one cannot discount the fact that the bigger importance will more often than not go to the car.
Something like this can be seen clear as day as Max Verstappen could not win even a single title from 2015 to 2020 but has dominated the sport ever since he got his hands on a car that could challenge at the front.
On the contrary, Lewis Hamilton dominated the sport from 2014 to 2020 but has since then struggled to win a title again. The Brit hasn't won a single race since 2021.
In F1, if one is going to win a title, one needs either the best car on the grid or the one that's not too far off it. However, there have been a few cases where a driver in the slower car could have won the title.
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In this feature, we'll take a look at three such cases.
#1 Fernando Alonso (2012 F1 season)
Fernando Alonso is arguably the most recent example of a driver who almost clinched a title in a car that was not the best on the grid. The 2012 F1 season was a strange one. How strange! Well, the season had seven different winners in the first seven races.
The form guide was all over the place and it was just hard for any team to gain any kind of momentum. This was arguably a season where consistency was going to get rewarded more than anything else. This is what Alonso banked on.
He won the races where other teams had a few weekends and for every other race, he continued to drag the best possible result from the car. The Spaniard took over the lead with these tactics but in the later stages of the season, Sebastian Vettel finally got on top of the Red Bull and just rattled off consecutive wins to set the car amongst the pigeons.
In the end, the last race of the season saw Vettel survive a first-lap scare, make his way through the field, and seal the title.
#2 Michael Schumacher (1997 F1 season)
Arguably one of the greatest seasons put together by a driver who ended with one of the biggest brain fade moments in the history of the sport.
Michael Schumacher had no business fighting for the title in that Ferrari, which was just not in the league of the Williams. Yet, the German somehow stood his ground and made the most of the mistakes of Jacques Villeneuve.
Going into the last race of the season, the two drivers were separated by one point in favor of Schumacher. It all came down to the last race and the driver who was ahead at the end of the race would win.
In the race, Schumacher tried to defend an aggressive late lunge from Villeneuve but it became clear that the German drove into the side of the Canadian and was trying to damage his car.
The move led to Schumacher retiring from the race and Villeneuve winning the F1 title. For his actions, the German was disqualified from the season as well.
#3 Alain Prost (1990 F1 season)
The 1990 season saw another title battle come down to the last race of the season and ending in a contentious fashion. The fact that Alain Prost was able to drag his Ferrari to the last race of the season and be in title contention was a miracle. The Italian team was going up against the marauding McLaren that had dominated the sport for a long time. The British team also had Ayrton Senna in the car.
The 1989 season had already ended with controversy and it made the 1990 season even more contentious. Both drivers were in no mood to give an inch and when it came to the race in Japan, Prost had to win to stay in contention for the title. The start of the race was Ayrton Senna crashing, with Prost and ending the race of both drivers at that very moment.
It was a miracle that Prost was able to take Ferrari to a title-winning position at the time but the crash ended the chance of him securing the title.
