Five Formula 1 champions who also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Elizabeth Blackstock
Fernando Alonso celebrates winning Le Mans.

Fernando Alonso has won Le Mans twice, in 2018 and 2019.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is one of motorsport’s greatest challenges, drawing drivers from all disciplines to battle for glory. That also means we’ve seen some of Formula 1’s finest talents transfer their skillset to the endurance racing realm.

However, while plenty of drivers have tried their hand at both F1 and Le Mans, only a few have been able to take victory at both. Today, we’re talking about the F1 World Champions who also took victory at Le Mans.

Five F1 World Champions who won Le Mans

Mike Hawthorn

Mike Hawthorn made history when he became the first Formula 1 driver from the United Kingdom to win the World Drivers’ Championship — an achievement that also made him the first driver in history to win both the F1 WDC as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hawthorn’s victory at Le Mans came with Jaguar in 1955, but it was a race marred by tragedy. Less than three hours into the race, Hawthorn braked sharply in front of Austin Healey driver Lance Macklin in order to reach the pit lane; when Macklin took evasive measures, he drove into the path of Mercedes-Benz driver Pierre Levegh. Levegh’s car was launched into a crowd of spectators, killing over 80 people and injuring an additional 120 more. It remains the greatest tragedy in motorsport history — and it was the only time Hawthorn won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

His F1 championship season came with Ferrari in 1958. That year was a difficult one; three drivers — Luigi Musso, Stuart Lewis-Evans, and Peter Collins — were killed throughout the year. Hawthorn was close friends with his teammate Collins, and his friend’s death shook him into an early retirement. Tragically, Hawthorn was killed in a road accident just three months later.

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Phil Hill

American racer Phil Hill is a fairly easy man to forget about. He was quiet, reserved, and often played second fiddle to the other drivers that Enzo Ferrari had signed to the Scuderia. Rather than guarantee Hill a Formula 1 seat, Ferrari insisted upon fielding Hill in countless sports car races for several years, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Hill won Le Mans three times, all with Ferrari, and all with teammate Olivier Gendebien — first in 1958, then again in 1961 and 1962. In 1958, Hill drove through horrifying conditions to become the first American-born driver to ever win the event.

At the penultimate race of the 1961 Formula 1 season, Hill also won the World Drivers’ Championship, albeit in horrible circumstances. He and his Ferrari teammate Wolfgang von Trips had been battling for the title all season long, and the Italian Grand Prix could decide the championship for one driver or the other.

Unfortunately, at the end of lap 2, Von Trips collided with Jim Clark’s Lotus and lost control. His car crashed into a fence, killing both the driver and 15 spectators. Hill won the title that day, but the tragedy of Von Trips’ death meant Ferrari abstained from entering Hill’s home race and the final event of the season, the United States Grand Prix.

Graham Hill

To call Graham Hill a Formula 1 icon would be an understatement. The British driver is the only man to ever win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — or, the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and either the Monaco Grand Prix or the Formula 1 title depending on how you personally define the Triple Crown. With five victories at the Monte Carlo track, Hill earned the nickname Mr. Monaco.

As most drivers did at the time, Hill regularly paired a full season of Formula 1 competition with some endurance racing, but it took several years for his F1 success to rub off at Le Mans. Hill took his first World Driver Championships in 1962 with BRM, then followed it with another title alongside Team Lotus in 1968.

However, endurance racing took longer for Hill to master. Hill competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times between 1958 and 1966, bringing home a best finish of second overall. He avoided the race for several years before returning in 1972 to take victory with French team Equipe Matra-Simca Shell and French co-driver Henri Pescarolo.

Jochen Rindt

Austrian racer Jochen Rindt had a short but impressive racing career characterized by his prickly attitude and bold on-track maneuvers. Though he first started in Formula 1 back in 1964, Rindt jumped between teams for several seasons before finally settling with Gold Leaf Team Lotus.

As a result, his victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans came before he had even won a Grand Prix. In 1965, Rindt paired up with American racer Masten Gregory to race a Ferrari 250LM fielded by the North American Racing Team.

Fascinatingly, both Rindt and Gregory were said to have approached the race with a negative attitude toward their car; both were simply waiting for it to break so they could collect their start money and go home. The car failed several times during the race, and at one point, Rindt had even changed back into civilian clothes, expecting to return home. The Ferrari 250LM refused to die, though, and the Rindt/Gregory duo ended up taking victory.

Rindt joined Team Lotus in Formula 1 beginning in 1969; it was not a match made in heaven. Rindt heavily criticized the unreliability of the Lotus machines, and team boss Colin Chapman had become notoriously unkind after Jim Clark’s tragic death the year previously. That first year was difficult, but once the team introduced the Lotus 72C, Rindt went on a tear. He won the first four races the 72C entered; added to his earlier season win at Monaco, he was a strong title contender.

Unfortunately, during qualifying for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix, Rindt crashed hard at the Parabolica corner. His car sandwiched between a joint in the crash barrier, and the impact forced Rindt down into the cockpit, where his seatbelts cut his throat. Rindt was pronounced dead on his way to the hospital; he remains the only driver to have posthumously won the Formula 1 World Championship.

Fernando Alonso

While the bulk of Fernando Alonso’s early racing years were dedicated to competing in Formula 1, the Spanish driver diversified as he grew older, taking on both endurance racing and the Indianapolis 500.

Alonso secured two back-to-back Formula 1 World Driver Championships in 2005 and 2006; at the time, he was F1’s youngest pole-sitter, race winner, world champion, and two-time world champion.

Alonso benefited from a 2005 rule that banned mid-race tire changes and required teams to use an engine for two races before it could be changed; his Renault was simply more reliable than the cars of the competition. The following year, Alonso won six of the first nine races of 2006 before an FIA ban on Renault’s tuned mass damper allowed Michael Schumacher to chop down the lead. Alonso took the title by finishing second at the season finale in Brazil.

While Alonso did try out endurance racing back in 1999, it took until 2018 for Alonso to secure his first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That year, Alonso joined Toyota Gazoo racing drivers Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima behind the wheel of a TS050 Hybrid LMP1; the incredibly dominant World Endurance Championship team showcased its reliability once again by securing back-to-back first-place honors in both 2018 and 2019.

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