Five one-hit wonder F1 drivers we still can’t believe won a Grand Prix

Over F1’s 75-year history, there have been a few race winners who have come as complete shocks. Here are five such examples.

Ignoring the spate of inclusions of the Indy 500 on the F1 calendar in the early days of the championship, there have been just 25 winners of a solitary Grand Prix. Here are some of the more surprising one-hit wonders from that list, winners who could never match the enormity of their own success again.

5. Jean-Pierre Beltoise – 1972 Monaco Grand Prix

An average but experienced motorcycle racer through the 1960S, Beltoise moved into car racing in the mid-1960s.

Fortunate to survive a massive crash in an endurance race at Reims in which he suffered an arm injury which would restrict movement for the rest of his life, he returned to Formula 3 race at the same venue the following year and moved up to Formula 2 for 1967.

Driving for Matra, Beltoise proved adept – finishing third overall in his first year before winning the championship the following season.

Having also had his chance to step up to F1 with an increasing number of appearances for Matra in the late 1960s and became a full works driver for the team in 1970.

While decent, scoring two podiums in 1970, his form paled in comparison to his teammate – the notoriously unlucky Chris Amon – in 1971.

While racing for Matra’s sportscar team, he was also involved in the accident in which Ignazio Giunti died during the 1000 km Buenos Aires, and his international racing license was suspended, although he was allowed to compete while on appeal.

Moving to Marlboro-BRM for 1972, he headed to Monaco off the back of two retirements in South Africa and Spain. The Monte Carlo circuit had been extensively modified for the first time since the F1 championship began in 1950.

Beltoise duly qualified his BRM in fourth place and, in soaking wet conditions, outdragged the leading trio to take the lead.

From there, Beltoise was untouchable and simply pulled clear of everyone – he came home 40 seconds clear of second-placed Jackie Ickx and a lap ahead of third-placed Emerson Fittipaldi.

It was Beltoise’s one and only win in a Grand Prix, although he did win a non-championship event at Brands Hatch the same season. There were no further F1 podiums, but there was one further great success for him as he won in class at the 1976 Le Mans 24 Hours alongside Henri Pescarolo.

Beltoise died in 2015, having suffered two strokes.

4. Peter Gethin, 1971 Italian Grand Prix

English driver Peter Gethin belongs on this list as, not only did the podium remain out of reach for the entirety of his F1 career aside from his win, but even points were beyond him – he scored a grand total of 11 career points, nine of which came as a result of his win at Monza in 1971.

Brought into the McLaren F1 line-up in 1970 following the death of Bruce McLaren, Gethin never appeared to have the pace of his teammates Denny Hulme or Andrea de Adamich until the Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth.

But back towards the back he went for the United States Grand Prix, finishing 14th and last, some eight laps down on the leader. Despite his lack of competitiveness, Gethin was kept on alongside Hulme for 1971 and, while Hulme showed occasionally competitive outings, Gethin was anonymous.

This resulted in him switching to BRM for Austria, where he became a teammate of Helmut Marko. Finishing 10th on his first finish for Yardley BRM, he qualified 11th for Monza, just ahead of Marko.

Chris Amon, driving for Matra, took pole position with a record-breaking lap of 156 mph average speed, and a similar record was set on race day as Gethin crossed the line to win with the highest average speed for a Grand Prix (150.74 mph) until the 2003 Italian Grand Prix.

The race had been one of non-stop slipstreaming, with the top four breaking away – Gethin being joined by Ronnie Peterson, Francois Cevert, and Mike Hailwood for the intense sprint to the finish line.

Not only was it the fastest Grand Prix in history at the time, but it remains the closest F1 finish in history as Gethin was just 0.01 clear of Peterson across the line. Despite winning, Gethin never led a full lap of the race, only taking the lead on the final lap having started it in fourth place.

Aside from a sixth place at the same track a year later, Gethin never scored another point although did score two non-championship wins over the next two years. With his racing career coming to an end, Gethin would later become a team boss at Toleman in 1984 and set up an eponymous F3000 team in the late 1980s.

He passed away in 2011.

3. Giancarlo Baghetti – 1961 French Grand Prix

Italian (like there was any doubt of that, given his name) racing driver Giancarlo Baghetti was born in Milan in 1934, and had worked his way into single-seater racing by the late 1950s.

Selected to drive a Formula Two Ferrari 156 in select non-championship Grands Prix, Baghetti won the 1961 Syracuse Grand Prix for Team FISA, following it with a win in the Napoli Grand Prix.

This was enough to convince Enzo Ferrari to give him a chance at a championship race, with Ferrari bringing along an additional 156 for the 1961 French Grand Prix at Reims – Baghetti getting the nod as the car was entered as a privateer for Team FISA.

Baghetti qualified 12th for the race, 5.6 seconds off the pace set by the leading trio of Ferraris as eventual World Champion led Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips, and Richie Ginther, and had a slightly less powerful engine as he was given the 65-degree V6 that was around 10bhp down on the others.

A good start to the race had Baghetti fighting with Bruce McLaren to move into the top 10, while the leading factory Ferraris maintained their starting order up front and holding off Stirling Moss in his Lotus.

It was a race full of incidents and accidents, with some gamesmanship up front as team orders saw Hill ordered aside to allow Von Trips through. But it was a short-lived lead, as Von Trips retired with an engine failure on Lap 20.

A mistake from Hill which saw him spin off resulted in him being hit by Moss, opening the door for Baghetti – a door which opened further as Ginther began suffering from oil pressure problems.

Heading into the final laps, it was Baghetti versus the two Porsche entries. Jo Bonnier’s engine would let go with just a lap and a half remaining, while Dan Gurney swept past Baghetti to take the lead at the start of the final lap.

“In the race, I was in a big slipstreaming group, with people like Clark and Gurney and McLaren,” Baghetti would recount to Nigel Roebuck in an interview for Motorsport Magazine in 1985.

“It was incredibly hot, and a lot of cars broke – including two of the Ferraris. Late in the race I was fighting with the Porsches, and when Phil Hill spun, suddenly it was for the lead! Oh, Mamma…”

Entering the pit straight for the final time, Gurney still led but the power of the slipstream along Reims’ long straights allowed Baghetti to duck out from under the Porsche and, just 200 metres before the line, the Italian drew alongside and just a nose in front as the pair crossed the line side-by-side.

The shock of winning on his F1 debut suggested a bright career for the new star, but Baghetti never came close to such heights again. Whatever the circumstances were that had all come together in such a unique fashion for the fairytale, the stars didn’t align even though he joined Scuderia Ferrari as a factory driver for 1962.

Indeed, Baghetti never even came close to the podium again, with his next best result being fourth in the Netherlands at the season-opener that season. Aside from another fifth place, Baghetti never even scored another point.

By the late 1960s, Baghetti had retired from racing and became a journalist and fashion photographer.

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2. Vittorio Brambilla – 1975 Austrian Grand Prix

Hailing from Monza, Brambilla’s interest in motorbikes and karting in the late 1950s gave way to a car racing career through the 1960s.

Clearly very brave behind the wheel, there was no doubting Brambilla’s speed – but he did develop a reputation for being crash-prone.

Racing in Formula 2 during the early 1970s for a variety of entrants, Brambilla scored a podium in mid-1973 before winning two races towards the end of the season.

Climbing up to Formula 1 for 1974 with March, points eluded him although there were flashes of pace. Sweden was particularly galling, where fifth place was on the table until a technical issue resulted in him coming home 10th.

Sixth place in Austria was his sole points finish of the season, and 1975 was roughly more of the same, aside from an eye-opening pole position in Sweden – until his day of days at the Osterreichring.

Brambilla had developed a reputation for being particularly adept in wet conditions, which came to the fore in Austria as heavy rain hit the track for race day. Brambilla had qualified eighth and, at the start, quickly moved his way up to third behind Ferrari’s Niki Lauda and Hesketh’s James Hunt.

Lauda was struggling for pace in the increasingly wet conditions and, by Lap 15, Hunt went through into the lead for Hesketh with Brambilla following him through immediately.

Hunt’s engine had an issue preventing him from using full power, and Brambilla managed to get past the highly-rated British driver as Hunt got wrong-footed while lapping his teammate, rookie driver Brett Lunger.

Brambilla’s fearlessness behind the wheel was fully evident as his March twitched and slid around the now dangerously wet and terrifyingly fast Osterreichring, and his pass on Hunt had come just in time.

With conditions worsening, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association’s Denny Hulme had suggested the race be stopped, a suggestion which March’s Max Mosley was more than in favour of.

The race was halted on Lap 29 – just past half-distance for the event.

But a crucial error was made while stopping the race, with the chequered flag being shown to the drivers instead of the red flag – only five races in F1’s championship history had been stopped at this time.

While many of the teams expected a restart, the regulations dictated the race was over as the chequered flag had been shown, unless a black flag was used at the same time. With no black flag being shown, the race result stood with half-points being awarded. Brambilla, at 37 years old and the oldest driver on the grid, was a Grand Prix winner.

Amusingly, on a day when his characteristic bravery had been evident, his other characteristic wasn’t far away. As Brambilla crossed the line at the chequered flag, he lost control of his March and spun at high speed – straight into the trackside barriers where he wrecked the front end of his car.

While elated with his win in Austria, the zenith of his career had already been achieved. A nondescript 1976 netted him a solitary point for sixth place at Zandvoort, while a move to Team Surtees in 1977 got him three minor points finishes.

A second year at Surtees was less successful, and Brambilla suffered head injuries in the start-line crash at Monza which claimed the life of Ronnie Peterson. Aside from a handful of one-off appearances through 1979 and ’80, his career was over and Brambilla, now in his forties, retired.

He died of a heart attack in May 2001, while mowing his lawn, just after watching qualifying for that year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

1. Pastor Maldonado – 2012 Spanish Grand Prix

Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado made his debut in 2011 with the Williams team, scoring a solitary point with a squad that could only manage five points in total for the season.

Maldonado was a flawed racer. Certainly fast, Maldonado had developed a contentious reputation through the junior categories as a notorious crasher – with flashes of talent that made him unbeatable on his (rare) days.

He had picked up a lifetime ban from racing in Monaco in 2005 when, while racing in the Renault World Series, he ignored yellow flags and hit a marshal – resulting in severe injuries for the unfortunate track worker, including a broken back.

Maldonado was banned but a report in Germany’s Bild suggested this ban was overturned following an intervention from Maldonado’s wealthy father who paid for the marshal’s rehab and recovery.

Maldonado’s talents as a racer were bolstered by his backing by Venezuelan state oil giant PDVSA, leading to Williams taking a chance on him. But the same form from his junior career carried forth – while he could be very fast, he got involved in plenty of incidents and accidents, including two separate collisions with Lewis Hamilton.

2012 started similarly, with Maldonado having a collision with Romain Grosjean in Australia, and a separate crash later in the same race. The first four races of 2012 netted Maldonado exactly zero points, but then came the Spanish Grand Prix.

There had been four different winners – from four different teams – in the first four races of 2012. The Williams, while better than the previous year, looked nowhere near a race-winning machine, and even podiums seemed a dream.

But an upgrade package for Spain transformed the car, as Maldonado recalled in a 2023 interview.

“Certainly, we had the new aero package that we used during the weekend, but it was a little bit late,” he said.

“We only got it on Saturday morning, and we just tried it, to put some mileage in the package, because the package – I remember it well – was very big.

“The floor, the sidepods, the front wing – everything was new and quite an important development package in the car.

“Normally in Formula 1, it’s quite difficult for everything to work together immediately. For example, if you have a rear wing or a front wing, maybe the front wing is okay, but the rear wing is not okay.”

The effect was instantaneous. Maldonado qualified second, behind Lewis Hamilton, only to inherit pole when the McLaren driver was disqualified due to a lack of fuel to provide a sample to the stewards.

But that lead disappeared immediately at the start, as home hero Fernando Alonso sprang off the line to pass the Venezuelan. By the end of Lap 1, Alonso led by over a second. With Ferrari having already won a race, and Alonso’s prestige, surely that was the end of that particular opportunity for Maldonado?

But Alonso was never able to significantly pull away from Maldonado, whose earlier first stop got him back ahead of Alonso as the Venezuelan set the fastest lap on his first full lap following the stop. The undercut effect got him ahead of Alonso to the tune of seven seconds, with a slightly smaller lead after the second stops due to a sticky wheel.

Alonso threw everything at Maldonado in his quest to get back ahead of the Williams driver but, despite the pressure of the unlikely position he’d found himself in, Maldonado came home a worthy winner – duly being held aloft by Alonso and third-place finisher Kimi Raikkonen on the podium.

At the following race, Maldonado picked up a 10-place grid penalty for crashing into Sergio Perez as well as hitting the wall at Casino Square, before retiring on Lap 1 by crashing into Pedro de la Rosa. Normal service had resumed and, while he would score points here and there over the following three years, never once again came close to the podium.

But, for one weekend at least, no one could beat Pastor Maldonado.

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