Photo by Martin Lee / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr (credit links at the end of the content)
We continue our journey by bringing you some of the most important stats and drivers from the past. We are mostly focused on forgotten F1 projects and forgotten teams, but from time to time we also try to bring back some forgotten teams, stories, and unbeatable records from F1 history. Our next topic is about one of the most interesting records in Formula 1, the drivers with the most hat-tricks in F1.
Most Hat-Tricks in F1
A driver completes a hat-trick by taking pole position, winning the race and setting the fastest lap during the same Grand Prix, achieving one is difficult, doing it repeatedly is even more difficult, only a select group of F1 legends have accumulated hat-tricks in significant numbers.
Here are the five drivers with the most F1 hat-tricks, counting down from No. 5 to the record holder at No. 1.
Juan Manuel Fangio – 9 Hat-Tricks
Long before modern F1 became a global sporting empire, Fangio was establishing himself as one of the greatest drivers the world had ever seen, the legend recorded nine hat-tricks in F1 from 51 Grand Prix starts, the total becomes even more impressive when the conditions of Fangio’s era are considered.
F1 in the 1950s was completely different world from from the one we know today, cars were physically demanding, reliability was unpredictable and circuits could be unforgiving, drivers didn’t have sophisticated data systems, simulators, tyre technology and engineering support available to modern competitors.
His career included memorable performances at some of the most demanding venues of the period. For example, Nürburgring demanded a lot from both the driver and the car. His last win came there, where he had to recover around 50 seconds in just 13 laps to take victory, something you simply do not see nowadays. That day, he was setting new lap records almost every lap, constantly beating his own times as he pushed harder and harder.
To complete a hat-trick in that environment meant being the fastest qualifier, winning the race, and setting the fastest lap, all while dealing with machinery that could punish even the smallest mistake. And he did it nine times in just 51 races, an incredible nine hat-tricks from 51 race starts.
Jim Clark – 11 Hat-Tricks
Moving into the 1960s, another legendary figure takes the fourth position, Jim Clark recorded 11 F1 hat-tricks during his career, and Clark’s numbers are particularly striking because he achieved them in only 72 Grand Prix starts.
For most fans, he is not only considered the greatest Scottish F1 driver, but many still believe he was one of the best drivers in the history of the sport. He became synonymous with Team Lotus and its legendary designer, Colin Chapman.
He possessed an extraordinary natural feel for a racing car. In an era when the connection between the driver and the car was much more direct, he could be devastating over a single qualifying lap and equally impressive across a full race distance. When the Lotus was working properly beneath him, he could make a Grand Prix look almost simple!
But it was not only about having a fast car. During his career, Clark showed that even when the car was not performing properly or had a mechanical issue, he knew how to race and how to cope with what he had. A perfect example came at Spa-Francorchamps in 1963, when his gearbox was failing and kept popping out of fifth gear. Despite the problem, Clark managed to keep pushing and went on to win the race.
Max Verstappen – 14 Hat-Tricks
Max Verstappen is still on the rise. Despite not having a truly competitive car in 2025 and 2026, he remains up there with the best and is probably the driver most likely to come close to the top of this list. With his career still going, there is plenty of time for him to add more hat-tricks and potentially challenge the records ahead of him.
Max Verstappen has recorded 14 F1 hat-tricks, from his earliest years, his aggressive approach and extraordinary car control made it clear that he possessed unusual talent.
First comes qualifying, where he can extract an exceptional lap from the car and put himself at the front of the grid. We saw this during his battles with Lewis Hamilton in their first title fight in 2021, which went all the way to the final race in Abu Dhabi, where Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the last lap to win the championship.
But before that, we also have to remember his incredible qualifying lap at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He had produced two incredible sectors and looked on course for a remarkable pole position before hitting the wall at the final corner. Even though he did not finish the lap, many fans still go back and watch it, wondering if it could have been one of the best qualifying laps of his career. He was extracting absolutely everything from the car.
His best season came in 2023, and that was also the year when he recorded the most hat-tricks, with six during his dominant campaign. He broke a number of records along the way, including the record for laps led in a season, reaching 1,003 laps at the front. He won 19 of the 22 races, finished on the podium 21 times, and ended the championship a massive 290 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen 14 F1 hat-tricks place him among the very best in F1 history.
Lewis Hamilton – 19 Hat-Tricks
Only one driver stands between Max Verstappen and the record holder, and that is Lewis Hamilton, he has recorded 19 F1 hat-tricks in F1, putting him just three behind the all-time record.
If you ask me who could have been at the top of this list and had more F1 hat-tricks than Michael Schumacher, I would probably say Lewis Hamilton. His dominant years with Mercedes gave him plenty of opportunities to do it. However, from 2019 to 2024, there was also a rule that awarded one extra championship point to the driver who set the fastest lap, as long as they finished inside the top 10. That may have actually cost Hamilton some opportunities to catch Schumacher, because drivers who had a comfortable gap often pitted late in the race for fresh tyres purely to go after the fastest lap and take that extra point. Instead of Hamilton collecting another hat-trick, another driver could sometimes take the fastest lap simply because they had nothing to lose by making a late pit stop.
His first came during his remarkable rookie season in 2007 in Fuji, when he produced a complete weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Over the course of his career, Hamilton has competed through several major technical eras, he began during final years of the V8 generation, before becoming the defining driver of the turbo-hybrid period with Mercedes since 2014, when Hamilton was at his best, pole position could be followed by a controlled victory, if the circumstances were right, the fastest lap as well.
Another Record: Why this Schumacher record remains out of reach for Hamilton & Verstappen
Michael Schumacher – 22 Hat-Tricks
At the top of the list stands Michael Schumacher, with an extraordinary 22 hat-tricks in F1.
It is a stat that perfectly reflects the kind of driver Schumacher became during his greatest years.
He wasn’t merely a driver who won races, but he was capable of controlling almost every part of a Grand Prix weekend.
On Saturday, he could produce the qualifying lap necessary to start from pole. One that I still remember is his Austrian Grand Prix pole lap in 2003. At the first corner, the rear of the car suddenly broke away, sending him into a massive sideways slide over the exit curb and completely beyond the track limits. I remember the commentators even saying that the mistake would probably cost him pole position. But Schumacher somehow put together an incredible second and third sector, producing a lap time of 1:09.150 to take pole and shock everyone watching. Fans still go back and watch that qualifying lap today because of how much he managed to extract from the car after that huge moment in the first sector.
That weekend was not over yet, though. Schumacher later had a problem during a pit stop and was stationary for around 20 seconds, putting his race victory in serious doubt. But once again, Michael found a way. He fought back, went on to win the race, and also set the fastest lap. It was one of the greatest examples of a Schumacher hat-trick, showing exactly why he was so difficult to beat when everything was on the line.
However, for fans of the classic V10 era, the image i s unmistakable, the red Ferrari at the front of the grid, Michael Schumacher operating at a level that often appeared almost untouchable, and the rest of the field fighting for whatever remained.
However, when it comes to hat-tricks, Michael Schumacher did it 22 times, and he remains at the top of the list at the moment. The question now is whether anyone will be able to catch him. With Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen still among the most successful drivers in this statistic, we will have to wait and see if Schumacher’s record can finally be broken.
Twenty-two times, he managed to own the entire weekend.
For the whole list of the hat-tricks in F1 you can find here.
Another Record: Schumacher’s unbreakable record that even Hamilton may never reach
FEATURED IMAGE CREDITS: Photo by Martin Lee / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr
