The Greatest Alliances and Rivalries in F1 History

Context: The rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost was one of the fiercest in Formula 1 history, peaking during their time as McLaren teammates from 1988 to 1989. Senna’s aggressive, emotional driving clashed dramatically with Prost’s smooth, strategic approach, resulting in legendary clashes like their controversial collisions at the Japanese Grands Prix in 1989 and 1990. Even after Prost moved to Ferrari and later Williams, the tension lingered—culminating in a contract clause that blocked Senna from joining Prost at Williams in 1993, prompting Senna to call him a “coward.”

Context: When Valtteri Bottas joined Mercedes, the team was still recovering from the intense and divisive rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Bottas brought a calm, team-first approach that helped restore harmony, often supporting Hamilton by defending positions, swapping when asked, and playing a crucial role in securing five more drivers’ titles and five constructors’ championships. Their respectful partnership was one of the most effective in modern F1, with both drivers publicly praising each other as ideal teammates.

Context: Hunt was charismatic and daring whilst Lauda was meticulous and data-driven. Their rivalry peaked in 1976 as Lauda was dominating the season but after his Nürburgring crash, Hunt managed to jump forwards in the standings. When Lauda came back, they pushed each other to the limit as they both had dreams of winning the championship. In the end, Hunt won by 1 point. Despite their on-track rivalry, Lauda and Hunt were close friends, having known each other since their Formula 3 days. Even after 1976, their mutual respect and friendship endured. Now, there is a movie about them called ‘Rush’ with Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl. (It is very good, I would definitely recommend it!)

Context: Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg grew up as childhood best friends as they were karting together. They shared hotel rooms, went to Monaco and practically went from race-track to race-track together until they ultimately both made it to F1. However, when they became teammates at Mercedes is 2013, no one expected the rapid demise of their friendship. They went from hugging and laughing together after podiums to hardly being able to look at each other. When Hamilton came in, it was clear that he was the number 1 driver but Rosberg refused to give up without a fight, disobeying team orders and fighting Hamilton for WDCs. They constantly got into battles on-track with them even crashing into each other at Spa in 2014 and in Spain in 2016. This created lots of tension and anger within the team. The more tension and pressure that rose, the more of a strain it put on their relationship until Rosberg finally won his first world championship. He retired just 5 days later.

Context: Unlike certain other rivalries, this one was built off of pure respect and hard racing. They had been competing against each other since Formula 3 but their rivalry only became a ‘rivalry’ when Schumacher was leading Ferrari and Hakkinen leading McLaren. Häkkinen won the World Championship in 1998 and 1999, while Schumacher won in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Despite the intense competition, both drivers have spoken highly of each other, with Schumacher stating that Häkkinen was his favorite opponent. Schumacher admired Häkkinen’s disciplined approach to racing, both on and off the track.

Context: Similarly to Hamilton and Bottas, Perez was an essential part of the Max Verstappen dominance of 2022 and 2023. He defended Verstappen’s number 1 spot from second, he scored necessary points and obeyed team orders. He was even nicknamed the ‘Mexican Minister of Defence’ from his incredible defending of Red Bull 1-2s. He played a crucial part of Verstappen ‘s championship wins.

Context: Lewis Hamilton was aiming for his 8th world championship as a veteran of the sport and coming off of a dominance that made him certifiably, the Goat. Max Verstappen was hungry, aggressive and younger aiming for his first world championship. The entire year was a year of tension, competitiveness and drive from the two teams (on-track and off-track). It was a (metaphorical) race right until the last (literal) race. Whoever won the Abu Dhabi grand prix would win the championship. Hamilton was dominating the race, he was unstoppable until a late-race safety car. Then-race director Michael Masi made a highly controversial decision to restart the race, but only let certain lapped cars unlap themselves, completely ignoring the written rules. Verstappen, with fresher tyres, overtook Hamilton and took the title. This has caused such controversy, emotion and anger amongst F1 fans throughout the years that literally no one can talk about it without getting very (VERY) worked up. Some advice: never ask an F1 fan what happened in Abu Dhabi 2021.