Can Max Verstappen's new racing team succeed where other F1 champs failed?

Known to be a difficult character, Surtees had a tendency to rub his own drivers up the wrong way too.

“There were days when I would be called to Goodwood for a test and I’d arrive at 9am and wait there all day while John drove round,” said former Surtees man Tim Schenken.

“Then, with about 20mins to go, he’d ask me to get in and see what I thought. The seat, pedals and wheel were all set up for him… It was a difficult situation.”

The Surtees highlight would be a single podium for Carlos Pace at Austria in 1973 before folding five years later. Somewhat uninspiring when put up against his record as a driver.

“I’m my own worst critic, and I look back and see things that I didn’t get right,” Surtees said. “Yes, we weren’t far off and at times we competed with the best, but when compared with my career as a driver, my team was a disappointment. That was not entirely our fault, there were factors beyond our control, but I set high standards and we didn’t achieve them.”

Graham Hill – Embassy Hill Racing (1973 – 1975)

Double world champion Graham Hill’s Embassy Hill Racing is one touched by tragedy.

Making its debut in 1973 with a Shadow DN1 customer car and Hill at the wheel, the team struggled for results.

Hill himself managed just one point in 1974 alongside a roll call of team-mates in Guy Edwards, Peter Gethin and Rolf Stommelen.

Hill retired in 1975, and that same season Stommelen was leading the chaotic Spanish GP at Montjuič Park before his rear wing failed, sending him over the barrier and killing four bystanders.

The team had regrouped in preparation for the 1976 season with rising British star Tony Brise at the wheel, before he, Hill and several key members died in a plane crash on return to Britain from testing at Paul Ricard.

Hill was flying the plane at the time, but the cause of the crash has never been established. The team closed its doors thereafter.

Emerson Fittipaldi – Copersucar Fittipaldi (1975 – 1982)

Double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi shocked the world when he announced he was leaving McLaren to join his brother Wilson’s team in an all-Brazilian assault for 1976.

“Wilson was building a new car for ’76 that was conventional and looked good and [childhood friend and technical director] Richard [Divila] was doing very well,” Emerson told Motor Sport. “I thought ‘Why not? It’s the time to go now and decided to do it. It was a very difficult decision, but I had a lot of idealisme to have this team materialise.”

Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out. Wrestling with difficult cars all the while, Fittipaldi manfully managed three podiums in four years – a paltry offering for someone used to winning titles.

The Brazilian took a sabbatical after 1980 before a hugely successful stint in IndyCar later, while his eponymous grand prix team soldiered on for another two campaigns.

Ironically in 1981, the year before the team began to founder with money issues after title sponsor Skol pulled out, the Fittipaldi squad had all the building blocks for F1 greatness: 1982 drivers’ champion Keke Rosberg at the wheel, 1982 constructors’ champion (with Ferrari) Harvey Postlethwaite at the drawing board, successful former Lotus team manager Peter Warr running things and a young Adrian Newey, looking after aerodynamics in his first GP job.

What if this mercurial group had stayed together?

“We had a great car from Harvey and we were trying to get that breakthrough, like Frank Williams when he got sponsorship from the Saudis,” Emerson said. “We wanted to try and get through that same period.”

If only.

Alain Prost – Prost Grand Prix (1997 – 2001)

For all Alain Prost proved a brilliant force on the race track, his skills as a team boss seemed somewhat lacking.

After taking on a Ligier team that had existed for 20 years, under his own name Prost managed to run it into the ground in just five.

In 1997, Prost Grand Prix’s first season, the team essentially ran a Ligier car (the JS45) which showed real promise.

Driver Olivier Panis had scored two podiums and lay third in the championship after six races. However, a leg-breaking accident for the Frenchman in Canada derailed its campaign, and the outfit never recovered.

Prost folded at the end of 2001, having scored points just three times that year in the hands of Jean Alesi.

Jenson Button – Jenson Team Rocket RJN and JBXE (2020 – 2024)

Button’s fledgling GT team – or Jenson Team Rocket RJN to give it its full name – made its British GT championship bow in 2020, and at first things were looking promising.

Using a McLaren 720S, James Baldwin and Michael O’Brien won on debut at Oulton Park before taking three further podiums. Meanwhile Button and friend Chris Buncombe – who ran the team – finished 14th at a one-off appearance in the Silverstone 9 Hours.

In 2021 the full-time squad moved down to GT4 2021 with a car driven by Jordan Collard and James Kell, taking one class win and a further podium.

The team ran one more far less successful British GT year in 2022, but by now Button’s attention had turned to bombastic green tech entrepreneur Alejandro Agag and his new Extreme E off-road rallycross series.

With a team dubbed JBXE, Button entered one race in 2021 as a driver-owner before letting Kevin Hansen take the wheel, claiming to be too busy himself.

With Button since never-again appearing at another Extreme E event, the team languished as a backmarker from thereon. It has no announced plans to run in the Extreme H hydrogen evolution series yet.

Lewis Hamilton – X44 (2021-2023)

Having a bit more success than Button’s team when it started, Lewis Hamilton’s X44 squad also entered Extreme E upon its inauguration in 2021.

Run by Prodrive, the team hired WRC legend Sébastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez in what was a strong first season, taking one win and finishing second to old nemesis Nico Rosberg in its debut season.

Hamilton’s team then won the title in dramatic fashion the following year when a last-gasp effort by Loeb in the season-finale at Uruguay allowed X44 to become champion.

Carlin took over from Prodrive for one more year in before the squad withdrew at the end of 2023.

Hamilton never appeared at any Extreme E event for the entirety of X44’s existence.

Keke and Nico Rosberg – Team Rosberg (1995 – 2024)

Team Rosberg has the distinction in this list of being run by both father and son.

1982 champ Keke first entered the DTM with his eponymous team in the mid ‘90s, becoming a midfield runner until a brilliant late run of success in the late 10s.

Rene Rast took three drivers’ title for the team before it switched attentions fully to Extreme E, now under the stewardship of son and 2016 champ Nico.

The Extreme E concern became one of the best in the championship, winning both the 2021 and 223 crowns with Johan Kristofferson, Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky and Molly Taylor driving.

However, with the championship switching to hydrogen power for 2025, the Rosberg squad announced it was folding.