5 greatest championship comebacks in F1 history

Many would assume that F1 is not a sport of comebacks, and to break it to you; it's not entirely true. There have been seasons where the competition has been incredibly close or come close in the later stages. While the dominating team often manages to win back-to-back in a row, loopholes have awarded others an advantage too.

There have been times when a points deficit looks hard to cover over the next few races. An overhaul, however, has indeed happened, shocking the world. Especially because F1 is a technical sport with the main objective being to make the car as fast as you possibly can. A team's program goes through a budget cap that upgrades their car according to a timeline, often changing the winning game from time to time.

This year Ferrari and Red Bull made two beautiful cars that are almost equally fast. The F1-75 and the RB-18 have remained unmatchable, with even their goliath rival Mercedes failing to come up with an equal car. Red Bull's pit wall, however, has been exceptionally brilliant to give their driver Max Verstappen an 80-point advantage over Charles Leclerc. It now remains to be seen whether Leclerc can surmount this gap over the next nine races.

Speaking of surmounting the gap, let's look back at some of the greatest championship comebacks that have proved the racing world wrong.

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#5 When Alain Prost's fortunes turned around in 1986 F1 season

For many F1 fans, this was the year of Nigel Mansell, who looked ready to pick up his maiden world title. French driving sensation Alain Prost was the defending world champion, winning remarkably a year ago. 1986, however, was not going to be a smooth ride for him as a battle between Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Mansell, and himself ensued.

After winning the Monaco GP, Prost did not pick up a trophy in almost seven races. He was at an 11-point deficit with just five races to go. Ultimately, Prost pushed himself to a win in Austria and the infamous Mansell tire blowout in Australia gave him another victory. Going into the Australian GP, Piquet was also a contender, and despite Mansell's retirement, he chased Prost, not making his life easy. The Frenchman, however, somehow managed to defend his title.

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#4 How Michael Schumacher dominated 2000 F1 season but still had a lot of work to do

The turn of the millennium witnessed close competition between Mika Hakkinen and Michael Schumacher. Even though the latter won the first three opening races of the season, his pathway to a world title was not exactly clear. For if there's one thing that Tifosi can rely on, it is Ferrari's unreliability.

The Canadian GP that year was Schumacher's last win before not featuring at all in the next five races thanks to DNFs and Hakkinen's wins. By that point, the German had to earn 6 points somehow in the remaining four races. Well, it was as easy as anything because Schumacher won the remaining four races, securing his title at Suzuka itself. An unfortunate Hakkinen engine failure was also to thank.

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#3 Kimi Raikkonen's exceptional 2007 F1 world title win

2007 should've been a year for Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and McLaren. It, however, wasn't to be as the team got caught up in an Alonso vs Hamilton battle which allowed Raikkonen to sneak past everyone and run away with a 1-point lead win over the two of them.

Raikkonen needed 17 points with two races to go, then a miracle struck in the form of a botched team call for Hamilton to give Raikkonen the victory in China over Alonso. Intense would be an understatement to describe the scenes next during the season finale at the Brazilian GP.

McLaren dropped into further disaster as Hamilton again suffered a mechanical issue, sending him to the back of the pack, and Alonso's tires wore out. The last two races were a turning point for the Finn then, who claimed the victory.

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#2 Who thought 2012 would be Sebastian Vettel's year in F1?

The first seven races had seven different winners in the 2012 season. This was the level of competition during Sebastian Vettel's resurgence to take victory from everyone. Fernando Alonso, however, was undoubtedly everyone's pick to win the championship. He had a 39-point lead over Vettel by the time September arrived.

Vettel's back-to-back wins in Singapore, Japan, Korea, and India, however, cut the gap down to a 13-point margin. The season finale, though, was the ultimate decider as the race at Interlagos turned out to be iconic. Vettel spun on Lap 1 and later battled through tricky conditions to take sixth place.

Alonso, however, needed a win over Jenson Button at the time to defeat Vettel. It was too late as Michael Schumacher's gift to Vettel allowed him to become the crowned champion.

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#1 Sebastian Vettel's shocking 2010 F1 title win

Here we go with another Sebastian Vettel stat. The German faced possibly his career's most competitive group in 2010, with Fernando Alonso being the main contender for the win again. And honestly, no one would have believed anyone who hailed Vettel as the world champion that year.

With 9 rounds done and dusted, the driver had just 2 wins to his name. He did not win any races till Japan, pushing him behind the likes of even Mark Webber, Jenson Button, and Lewis Hamilton. Vettel would need 31 points with six races to go if he was to become world champion.

Vettel then won in Brazil and miraculously won in Abu Dhabi too. His win, however, was a result of several factors catapulting themselves together as Alonso and teammate Webber only stood 7th and 8th respectively. The chapter concluded with Vettel picking up his maiden F1 title win at just 23 years of age.

So, can Leclerc and Ferrari also pull off something miraculous? Though the 80-point deficit is somewhat hard to conquer now, especially with Ferrari's consistent blunders, it is not impossible. A lot, however, would have to go wrong at the Red Bull camp to give their lead away, which seems highly unlikely.