Youngest and oldest: race winners and champions by age

Published Invalid Date · figures as of the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, round 17.

The youngest driver to win a championship race is Max Verstappen, 18 years and 228 days at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. The oldest is Luigi Fagioli, 53 years and 22 days at the 1951 French Grand Prix, in a car he shared with Juan Manuel Fangio. Between those two lies a span of 34 years, and most of the extremes come from the first decade of the championship or the last.

Ages are counted from the driver’s date of birth to the date of the race, in whole years and days.

Youngest race winners

Rank	Driver	Age	Race
1	Max Verstappen	18 years, 228 days	2016 Spanish Grand Prix
2	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	19 years, 202 days	2026 Chinese Grand Prix
3	Sebastian Vettel	21 years, 73 days	2008 Italian Grand Prix
4	Charles Leclerc	21 years, 320 days	2019 Belgian Grand Prix
5	Fernando Alonso	22 years, 26 days	2003 Hungarian Grand Prix

Antonelli’s win in China in March 2026 also made him the youngest pole-sitter, at the same age, taking a record Vettel had held since 2008.

Oldest race winners

Rank	Driver	Age	Race
1	Luigi Fagioli	53 years, 22 days	1951 French Grand Prix
2	Nino Farina	46 years, 276 days	1953 German Grand Prix
3	Juan Fangio	46 years, 41 days	1957 German Grand Prix
4	Piero Taruffi	45 years, 219 days	1952 Swiss Grand Prix
5	Jack Brabham	43 years, 339 days	1970 South African Grand Prix

All five come from the first 21 seasons. Since 1970 no driver over 43 has won a race; Fernando Alonso, the oldest winner of recent years, took his last win at 31, at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix.

World champions by age

	Driver	Age at the title	Season
Youngest	Sebastian Vettel	23 years, 134 days	2010
	Lewis Hamilton	23 years, 300 days	2008
	Max Verstappen	24 years, 73 days	2021
Oldest	Juan Fangio	46 years, 76 days	1957
	Nino Farina	43 years, 308 days	1950
	Jack Brabham	40 years, 204 days	1966

The age of a title is counted to the day the title was decided, not the end of the season.

Why the extremes cluster

In the 1950s the grid was full of drivers who had raced before the war, and a championship race could be won by a 46-year-old because experience on dangerous circuits counted for more than fitness. From the 2000s the junior formulae delivered drivers at 17 and 18 who were already quick, and Verstappen’s debut at 17 in 2015 led to a minimum age of 18 for a super licence, which makes his record hard to beat: a driver would now have to win within 228 days of turning 18.

The full lists, with every driver’s age at every milestone, are on the records pages: youngest race winner, oldest race winner, youngest pole-sitter, youngest world champion and oldest world champion.