F1’s greatest finales: 5 iconic season-ending showdowns

Jonathan Victoria • 04 Dec 2025 Features

Nothing like a final race shootout to determine the champion!

It’s not every year we’re treated to a final race showdown, but the past has proven that when the F1 world championship comes down to one final go around, it's destined to be an occasion to remember.

For the first time since 2010, the 2025 season will be decided between more than two drivers, so to celebrate what is due to be a barnstormer of a final weekend of the season (and these regulations), we’re taking a look at 5 of the best season-enders in F1 history.

Mexico 1964 - An all-British grudge match in Mexico City

The 1964 finale saw the first three-way title fight, one that was poignant of the sport at the time: fragile machinery and team intrigue all colliding at altitude deciding the outcome between Jim Clark, Graham Hill and John Surtees. 

Clark looked poised to claim his first title, but mechanical failure tore the championship out of his hands late on. Hill also got sucked into the disorder, leaving Surtees - who simply kept himself in the right places all afternoon - to do what champions do: take the points that mattered, not the headlines. 

The result felt less like a single “winning move” and more like surviving a collapsing Jenga tower. Surtees emerged as the last man standing, sealing one of F1’s most unusual and historically significant titles.

Japan 1976 - Fuji’s finale to a Hollywood season

You couldn’t script a season like 1976. It was pure theatre - a head-to-head duel between two of Formula 1’s most contrasting characters: the icy precision of Niki Lauda and the wild charisma of James Hunt. Their battle raged across continents and headlines, with personal style, politics, and speed all clashing as much off the track as on it.

But everything changed when Lauda suffered a terrifying crash at the Nürburgring in torrential rain, barely surviving after his Ferrari burst into flames. The idea that he would return just six weeks later, still bandaged and scarred, seemed unthinkable. But he did.

The title came down to the wire in Japan, and once again the heavens had opened. Lauda, having already risked his life once that season, made the courageous decision to retire after just two laps. Hunt, needing a podium, pushed through changing weather, a late puncture, and the weight of expectation to finish third - enough to snatch the title by a single point.

Lauda's withdrawal was controversial to some, but legendary to most. It redefined what courage could mean in motorsport. And Hunt’s comeback under pressure completed one of F1’s most emotionally charged, unforgettable finales.

Brazil 2008 - Heartbreak in real time

The 2008 finale is basically cinema: Felipe Massa wins his home race at Interlagos and - briefly - wins the world championship too. The Ferrari garage erupts, the crowd roars, and for a few seconds it feels inevitable. 

But F1 doesn’t wait for your emotions to catch up. In the shifting wet-dry-wet chaos, Lewis Hamilton needed one more position, one more car, one more sliver of track to rewrite the ending - and he got just that, as the Toyota of Timo Glock, who decided to stay out in the changing conditions on dry tyres, was seen squirming about.

This led to Hamilton making his move on the literal final corner to give him the fifth place he needed to steal the championship back from the Ferrari driver.

What makes this finish legendary is how fast the ground truth changes: a title decided not by a long strategic arc, but by a final-lap scramble where everyone’s tyres and decisions suddenly mattered at once. Massa’s joy turning into devastation in front of a home crowd is as raw as sport gets.

Abu Dhabi 2010 - A first-ever four-way battle

2010 is the perfect “modern” finale: multiple contenders, relentless pressure, and the championship decided as much by traffic as by pace. 

For the first time in F1 history, four drivers arrived with a shot of glory, which meant every pit call had a political consequence - cover this rival and you expose yourself to that one. 

The decisive twist was that the likely champion, Fernando Alonso, didn’t lose the title in a crash or a mistake at the limit, but in a strategic corner where track position became a cage. One wrong move and you’re stuck, watching the championship drift away one frustrating lap at a time. 

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel did the hardest thing in a finale: he just executed. Clean air, clean laps, no drama, while the others (teammate Mark Webber and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton) got pulled into the undertow. 

It was a season-ender that proves titles can be lost quietly, with nothing “wrong” on paper, until you look up and realise the maths has flipped.

Abu Dhabi 2021 - Controversy for the history books

We’re going to give this one its well-deserved time.

2021 saw one of the greatest battles in F1 history between the sports most accomplished driver of all time vs one of the greatest talents we’ve ever seen. Lewis Hamilton was going for a record-breaking eighth world title, while Max Verstappen was aiming to solidify his claim as “next up”.

All season long, it was a battle like no other. Both drivers were miles ahead of the field at virtually every round, only competing with one another. A heroic fightback from Hamilton in the final few races meant they headed into the final race level on points. The objective was clear - finish ahead of your rival.

Verstappen started on pole but Hamilton got the better start, jumping into the lead through the first corner. The first bit of controversy then came later in the lap, when Verstappen tried an audacious lunge down into turn six, forcing Hamilton off. He re-joined still ahead, and despite Verstappen’s calls to the stewards, they deemed the move too ambitious and that the order would stand.

It would remain that way for the majority of the race, despite Sergio Perez’s best efforts to hold up Hamilton to get his teammate back into play and ahead in the mid part.

With 10 laps remaining, Hamilton was ahead and well on his way to the record-breaking title. But suddenly, back runner Nicholas Latifi hit the wall at turn 14, causing great damage and debris all over the track and bringing out a late safety car.

Verstappen understandably pitted for new soft tyres in the hopes that should the safety car come in before the end of the race, he would have the advantage over Hamilton, who stayed out and on much older hard tyres.

Indeed, that was the way things played out - but not that simply. As the cars followed the safety car round lap after lap, the season - and ultimately a sensational title fight - was seemingly coming to an end behind Bernd Mylander.

That was, until then-race director Michael Masi made an incredibly decisive call to allow one final lap of racing go ahead to decide the title victor. The only problem was, the rules had to be bent in a very dubious way to allow it to happen.

Typically, during a safety car period, when the track is clear and they plan on going back to green flag conditions, any lapped cars throughout the order will first be allowed to unlap themselves and rejoin at the back of the pack.

In this case, Masi decided to enact his own ruling, allowing only the five cars between the championship rivals to go through, and not even giving the time for them to get around the track and rejoin before sending the safety car back in for the one lap shootout.

On that final lap, Verstappen with his fresher tyres was able to catch Hamilton off guard into turn five, taking the lead of the race and championship. He held off the counter-attacks and crossed the line to take his first world title.

It’s a season ending that has divided all ever since, but the fact of the matter remains that the world received a thrilling end to an equally as thrilling campaign.