Is Lando Norris a worthy Formula 1 world champion or not? That question has divided opinion since his title victory in Abu Dhabi. Quite a few believe that Max Verstappen was the better driver in 2025 and that Norris did not extract the maximum from his McLaren.
But in dividing opinion over his worth as a champion, the Briton is far from alone in Formula 1 history.
Let’s take a look at the raw numbers. Norris finished the season with 423 points, while a maximum of 648 were available. That equates to a points conversion rate of 65.28%.
Among all 76 world championship seasons in F1 history, Norris’ campaign ranks 48th in terms of his points conversion – incidentally one place ahead of Verstappen the year before, when the Dutchman achieved “only” 65.03% of the available points in his Red Bull.
Of course, statistics like these are always something of a gimmick – and even more so in Formula 1. Cars differ massively in competitiveness and, as always, the various points systems used over the decades distort any such number-crunching exercise.
Even so, the figures suggest that Norris is a long way from being an undeserving or unworthy world champion.
Still, let’s have a bit of fun and take a closer look at who actually recorded the worst – and the best – points conversion rates of every world champion in Formula 1 history.
The limitations
As mentioned, this is complicated by the different points systems over the years. Before 1991, dropped results were part of the sport: only a certain number of races counted towards the championship, with the rest discarded.
Sometimes this had little impact, because only one result per half of the season was dropped. At other times, however, drivers could afford a number of mistakes, as only 11 of 16 races, for example, were counted towards the title.
For this article we decided to use only the points that were genuinely available – in other words, the maximum number of points a driver could have on the scoreboard by the end of the season, and how many he actually did score.
Naturally, this approach favours drivers from earlier eras. On the other hand, reliability was far worse back then, which would otherwise have made it virtually impossible for them to achieve strong statistics.
Unsurprisingly, Juan Manuel Fangio, the dominant force of the 1950s, appears several times near the top of the rankings. In his case, usually only the best five results of a season counted (although seasons were, of course, much shorter back then). Four of his titles therefore rank fifth, 11th, 12th and 13th in terms of points conversion.
Even better than Fangio, however, were two other drivers: Alberto Ascari and Jim Clark. Both essentially managed perfect seasons, scoring 100% of the points available to them.
In Ascari’s case, only the best four results from eight races counted at the time. After skipping the Swiss Grand Prix to compete in the Indianapolis 500, which was part of the world championship back then, the Italian won the other six races and also set the fastest lap every single time. It simply can't get any better than that – and two of those victories did not even count towards the championship.
The following year, not all of his wins were counted either. And because he did not set the fastest lap in one of the races that did count, and had to share the fastest lap point at another victory with a second driver, he ended up 1.5 points short of perfection.
What Ascari failed to achieve, however, was managed by another driver. Clark won “only” two Formula 1 world championships – but both with a perfect 100% points score.
The 1965 season is particularly interesting. Clark won the first six races he entered. As only six results counted towards the championship, it effectively did not matter what he did in the final three races – his points total and the world title were already secured.
Clark was killed in a Formula 2 race at Hockenheim in 1968, and many are convinced that he would have won further titles had he not lost his life so tragically.
If we were to consider only those seasons in which every race counted towards the championship – that is, from 1991 onwards – Verstappen would be the clear number one. In 2023, Red Bull won every race of the season except Singapore, something that is clearly reflected in the statistics.
Verstappen scored 575 of a possible 620 points, a conversion rate of 92.74%. Remarkably, the Dutchman dropped just 45 points – in a season with 22 races, six sprints and, crucially, the bonus point for fastest lap, which Verstappen often had little influence over because other drivers could simply pit late in the race.
That alone cost him 13 points.
As a result, the season was even more dominant than Michael Schumacher’s 2002 campaign, when he finished on the podium in every race but still “only” achieved 84.71% of the available points – 144 out of 170.
Incidentally, if you were to compile a top-10 of the modern Formula 1 era from 1991 onwards and rank each season individually, it would not be particularly varied: Verstappen, Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Vettel, Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Senna, Hamilton, Hamilton, Hamilton.
But it is also worth looking at the other end of the list. And this is where the impact of modern reliability becomes apparent. Only one driver from 2000 onwards appears in the bottom 10: Vettel.
Being in this region does not automatically mean that a world champion was weak or undeserving. In Vettel’s case, the 2010 season was simply so closely contested that many drivers took points off each other. Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Hamilton and Jenson Button all harboured title hopes deep into the season, before Vettel snatched the crown.
The German led the championship for the first time all year only after Abu Dhabi – and that was enough to secure the title with a points conversion rate of 53.89%.
Hardly anyone would argue that Jochen Rindt was a weak or undeserving world champion either, despite scoring only 45 of a possible 99 points. On the contrary: with five consecutive wins, Rindt could have ranked much higher on the list.
But fate intervened. Rindt was killed in a crash at Monza and was unable to compete in the final four races of the season. As five of the last six races counted towards the championship, Rindt was left with just his victory at Hockenheim – and four zero scores. Even so, no other driver could catch him, making him the only posthumous Formula 1 world champion to date.
Rindt ranks second on the flop list, surpassed only by Keke Rosberg in 1982 – which is hardly surprising given that he won just one race that season. The Finn scored only 44 of a possible 99 points (44.44%), making him the world champion with the lowest points conversion rate of all time.
In fact, his statistics are flattered by the dropped-results system, as only 11 of 16 races counted. Had the entire season been counted, as it is today, 144 points would have been available – and Rosberg would have scored just 30.56% of them.
The whole list
| Year | Driver | Conversion rate (%) | Points won |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Ascari | 100.00 | 36 out of 36 |
| 1963 | Clark | 100.00 | 54 out of 54 |
| 1965 | Clark | 100.00 | 54 out of 54 |
| 1953 | Ascari | 95.83 | 34.5 out of 36 |
| 1954 | Fangio | 93.33 | 42 out of 45 |
| 1962 | Hill | 93.33 | 42 out of 45 |
| 1966 | Brabham | 93.33 | 42 out of 45 |
| 2023 | Verstappen | 92.74 | 575 out of 620 |
| 1988 | Senna | 90.91 | 90 out of 99 |
| 1960 | Brabham | 89.58 | 43 out of 48 |
| 1955 | Fangio | 88.89 | 40 out of 45 |
| 1957 | Fangio | 88.89 | 40 out of 45 |
| 1951 | Fangio | 86.11 | 31 out of 36 |
| 2002 | Schumacher | 84.71 | 144 out of 170 |
| 2013 | Vettel | 83.58 | 397 out of 475 |
| 1950 | Farina | 83.33 | 30 out of 36 |
| 2011 | Vettel | 82.53 | 392 out of 475 |
| 2004 | Schumacher | 82.22 | 148 out of 180 |
| 2015 | Hamilton | 80.21 | 381 out of 475 |
| 1991 | Senna | 78.79 | 78 out of 99 |
| 2020 | Hamilton | 78.51 | 347 out of 442 |
| 1969 | Stewart | 77.78 | 63 out of 81 |
| 1958 | Hawthorn | 77.78 | 42 out of 54 |
| 2018 | Hamilton | 77.71 | 408 out of 525 |
| 2014 | Hamilton | 76.80 | 384 out of 500 |
| 1989 | Prost | 76.77 | 76 out of 99 |
| 1971 | Stewart | 76.54 | 62 out of 81 |
| 2022 | Verstappen | 76.17 | 454 out of 596 |
| 2019 | Hamilton | 75.64 | 413 out of 546 |
| 1961 | Hill | 75.56 | 34 out of 45 |
| 2006 | Alonso | 74.44 | 134 out of 180 |
| 1980 | Jones | 74.44 | 67 out of 90 |
| 1964 | Surtees | 74.07 | 40 out of 54 |
| 1987 | Piquet | 73.74 | 73 out of 99 |
| 1985 | Prost | 73.74 | 73 out of 99 |
| 2016 | Rosberg | 73.33 | 385 out of 525 |
| 1986 | Prost | 72.73 | 72 out of 99 |
| 1984 | Lauda | 72.73 | 72 out of 99 |
| 2017 | Hamilton | 72.60 | 363 out of 500 |
| 2001 | Schumacher | 72.35 | 123 out of 170 |
| 1979 | Scheckter | 70.83 | 51 out of 72 |
| 2005 | Alonso | 70.00 | 133 out of 190 |
| 2021 | Verstappen | 69.57 | 395.5 out of 568.5 |
| 1959 | Brabham | 68.89 | 31 out of 45 |
| 1972 | Fittipaldi | 67.78 | 61 out of 90 |
| 1992 | Mansell | 67.50 | 108 out of 160 |
| 1956 | Fangio | 66.67 | 30 out of 45 |
| 2025 | Norris | 65.28 | 423 out of 648 |
| 2024 | Verstappen | 65.03 | 437 out of 672 |
| 2007 | Raikkonen | 64.71 | 110 out of 170 |
| 2000 | Schumacher | 63.53 | 108 out of 170 |
| 1967 | Hulme | 62.96 | 51 out of 81 |
| 1998 | Hakkinen | 62.50 | 100 out of 160 |
| 1993 | Prost | 61.87 | 99 out of 160 |
| 1973 | Stewart | 60.68 | 71 out of 117 |
| 1996 | Hill | 60.62 | 97 out of 160 |
| 1995 | Schumacher | 60.00 | 102 out of 170 |
| 1991 | Senna | 60.00 | 96 out of 160 |
| 1975 | Lauda | 59.72 | 64.5 out of 108 |
| 1983 | Piquet | 59.60 | 59 out of 99 |
| 2003 | Schumacher | 58.12 | 93 out of 160 |
| 2009 | Button | 57.58 | 95 out of 165 |
| 1994 | Schumacher | 57.50 | 92 out of 160 |
| 2012 | Vettel | 56.20 | 281 out of 500 |
| 1976 | Hunt | 54.76 | 69 out of 126 |
| 2008 | Hamilton | 54.44 | 98 out of 180 |
| 2010 | Vettel | 53.89 | 256 out of 475 |
| 1977 | Lauda | 53.33 | 72 out of 135 |
| 1968 | Hill | 53.33 | 48 out of 90 |
| 1978 | Andretti | 50.79 | 64 out of 126 |
| 1981 | Piquet | 50.51 | 50 out of 99 |
| 1997 | Villeneuve | 47.65 | 81 out of 170 |
| 1999 | Hakkinen | 47.50 | 76 out of 160 |
| 1974 | Fittipaldi | 47.01 | 55 out of 117 |
| 1970 | Rindt | 45.45 | 45 out of 99 |
| 1982 | Rosberg | 44.44 | 44 out of 99 |
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