The F1 Drivers Who Racked Up the Most Retirements in Their Careers
When we celebrate Formula 1 history, we tend to go for the positives: The drivers with the highest win rates, or the most World Championships, or the greatest skill. But motorsport is a fickle beast, and today, I want to talk about that. Specifically, I want to talk about the drivers that have racked up the most race retirements in their careers.
I’ve ranked these by number of retirements in a career — not by the percentage of retirements to the driver’s career starts (though I did include those stats too, just because they’re fun). I’ve also included the first and last retirements for each driver. As a result, there aren’t tons of drivers from the early eras of F1 included here, since there just weren’t as many races in an F1 calendar back then.
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This includes every retirement a driver has made as well: both where the driver was technically classified as having finished the race because, despite retiring, he had completed 90 percent of the race distance; and in cases where the car was disqualified after the race.
Martin Brundle
Retirements: 72
Percentage of Race Starts: 45.57
First Retirement: 1994 Belgian GP
Last Retirement: 1996 Belgian GP
Back before he had made his career in broadcasting, Martin Brundle tried his hand at Formula 1. His time as a driver, though, was admittedly pretty fraught with issues, leading him to retire from 72 races.
Mario Andretti
Retirements: 72
Percentage of Race Starts: 56.25
First Retirement: 1968 United States GP
Last Retirement: 1982 Caesars Palace GP
Mario Andretti may be one of the most storied American racers, but that doesn’t mean every aspect of his career has been, well, impressive. Unless you count his ability to rack up 72 retirements in his F1 career — over half of his race starts!
Giancarlo Fisichella
Retirements: 74
Percentage of Race Starts: 32.31
First Retirement: 1996 Australian GP
Last Retirement: 2009 Turkey GP
The sheer length of Giancarlo Fisichella’s career has saved his percentage ratio here — but 74 retirements is still enough to earn him a place on this list.
Jenson Button
Retirements: 75
Percentage of Race Starts: 24.51
First Retirement: 2000 Australian GP
Last Retirement: 2017 Monaco GP
We’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Jenson Button fairly regularly this past week thanks to his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series start at Circuit of the Americas. The one-time F1 Champion may have been an impressive driver, but 75 retirements in his career means he’s earned a place here.
Graham Hill
Retirements: 77
Percentage of Race Starts: 43.75
First Retirement: 1958 Monaco GP
Last Retirement: 1974 Dutch GP
Graham Hill’s pencil mustache will go down in history as one of the finest examples of motorsport facial hair — which has helped distract from his retirement record. The man competed in a notoriously unreliable era and tried to help develop fledgling cars. What else would you expect?
Johnny Herbert
Retirements: 78
Percentage of Race Starts: 48.75
First Retirement: 1989 Belgian GP
Last Retirement: 2000 Malaysia GP
Johnny Herbert’s F1 career was a series of vague mishaps sandwiching his best season in 1995. He was plagued by unreliability for much of his career, leaving him walking back to the pits about as frequently as he was taking the checkered flag.
Niki Lauda
Retirements: 80
Percentage of Race Starts: 46.78
First Retirement: 1971 Austrian GP
Last Retirement: 1985 Australian GP
Niki Lauda’s ability to secure three Championships is actually impressive when you consider he failed to finish about half of the races he started.
David Coulthard
Retirements: 81
Percentage of Race Starts: 32.93
First Retirement: 1994 Spanish GP
Last Retirement: 2008 Brazilian GP
The first time I met David Coulthard, he made a joke about getting naked in a conference room with Daniel Ricciardo. I feel like I should be allowed to add that to his DNF total.
Derek Warwick
Retirements: 84
Percentage of Race Starts: 57.53
First Retirement: 1981 Caesars Palace GP
Last Retirement: 1993 Japanese GP
I also would have retired from the Caesars Palace GP, if only so I wouldn’t have to race that godforsaken track. Good on you, Derek Warwick.
Eddie Cheever
Retirements: 84
Percentage of Race Starts: 64.63
First Retirement: 1978 South Africa GP
Last Retirement: 1989 Australian GP