Top 5 oldest F1 winners

1. Luigi Fagioli

53y 0m 22d (1951 French GP)
The great Italian’s career began as early as 1926 (and we think Fernando Alonso has been plugging away a long time). A multiple grand prix winner in the 1930s, Luigi Fagioli returned post-war as one of Alfa Romeo’s ‘three Fs’ for the new world championship. His only victory in the nascent series was unhappily shared – and marked his last F1 start. Hauled from his Alfetta at Reims after an early spin, Juan Manuel Fangio took over and won. Known for his temper, proud Fagioli walked away. He was dead less than a year later, three weeks after crashing during practice in the only Monaco GP run for sports cars.

Giuseppe Farina

46y 9m 3d (1953 German GP)
Much like Fagioli, Giuseppe Farina lost his best racing years to the war. Formula 1’s first world champion was driving for Ferrari by the time he scored his final points-paying victory. After Alberto Ascari lost a wheel while leading at the Nürburgring, Farina duelled with Mike Hawthorn and Fangio, passing both to win. He made his final F1 start at Spa in 1955, finishing third, and tried to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 as late as 1957. As tough as they’ve come.

Juan Manuel Fangio

46y 1m 11d (1957 German GP)
‘The Maestro’ saved the best ’til last. How fitting that Fangio should seal his fifth world title at the Nürburgring, his favourite circuit, hunting down the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Peter Collins in his Maserati 250F. “Afterwards I knew what I had done, the chances I had taken,” he’d tell journalist Nigel Roebuck. “I believe that day I took myself and my car to the limit, and perhaps a little bit more. I had never driven like that before, and I knew I never would again.”

Piero Taruffi

45y 7m 6d (1952 Swiss GP)
He’d first raced on four wheels as a 17-year-old in 1923, but it was on two that Piero Taruffi made his name, winning the 1932 500cc European motorcycling championship on a Norton. At the start of his best F1 season the all-rounder scored his only victory in the world championship at Bremgarten. In Ascari’s absence – he was racing at the Indy 500 – Farina led from pole, until magneto trouble handed the race and a comfortable win to Ferrari’s dependable campaigner Taruffi. He’d turned 50 by the time he won the ill-fated final Mille Miglia in 1957.

Jack Brabham

43y 11m 05d (1970 South African GP)
There could have been so much more in Jack Brabham’s last season: the red-faced error at Monaco’s final corner; running out of fuel almost in sight of the flag at Brands Hatch. Instead, the Kyalami season opener represented the final flourish for ‘Black Jack’, his monocoque BT33 recovering from a poor start to demote Jackie Stewart’s March. Jacky Ickx’s decision to return to Ferrari left him with little option but to race on into the new decade. A happy excuse, for the ‘old man’ who never wanted to quit.