Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport and for the past 75 years the category has provided the stage on which to see the very best drivers go into battle in the fight to take the coveted championship crown.
However, it isn't just the best drivers that the sport attracts. It's also a magnet for some of the greatest minds in the world of mechanics, aerodynamics and even business management, with no driver being capable of winning the championship if they don't have the right equipment at their disposal.
Today, the majority of the team command a workforce of over 1,000 people, each of whom has a key role to play in determining the competitiveness of their team's car. This contrasts sharply with the handful of personnel working out of an old carpet warehouse in Didcot who produced the championship winning Williams Ford FW07 that won the championship in 1980.
The only commonality between both of these eras is that each team had the same end goal of producing the fastest racing car in the world. Along the way, some teams have had more success in this pursuit than others, with a single moment of inspiration from one of these great technical minds having the potential to make the difference between success and failure.
As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the sports conception, we thought it was about time that we looked back on the best F1 cars of all time; recognising the genius creations that have gone on to destroy their competitors and set new standards in the world of motoring. Let's start off by hailing what is statistically one of the most successful.
1. McLaren Honda MP4/4 (1988)
Turbo engines were a fundamental ingredient for success in Formula 1 during the 1980s and no one mastered this technology better than Honda who had dominated the 1986 and 1987 championships with Williams.
The Japanese manufacturer opted to switch allegiance to McLaren for 1988 so as to maintain a relationship with their favoured driver Ayrton Senna. This coincided with the arrival of legendary designer Gordon Murray and the result was absolute magic with the team winning 15 of that year's 16 races. Only an error whilst lapping a backmarker in Monza by Senna cost the team the chance to complete a clean sweep.
Murray had pioneered a new design philosophy at his previous team Brabham in 1987 which helped the team achieve a much lower centre of gravity. This proved to be unsuccessful at first, with the Brabham BT56 proving to be highly unpredictable and ultimately dangerous. However, the learnings gained from this experiment were built into Murray's next creation which eliminated many of the flaws which had hampered the original design.
Not only did McLaren have the best chassis and engine, they also had the best driver line-up of the era with Senna joining Alain Prost in what would turn out to be one of the most volatile but successful driver line-ups in the sports history. The 1988 McLaren MP4/4 is perhaps the closest that any team has got to perfection either before or after.
2. Ferrari F2002 (2002)
Ferrari is the only team who has been present in the sport since its conception in 1950. Over this time there have been numerous highs and lows, but the team's peak period was unquestionably the early 2000s when the company president Luca Di Montezemolo gave Michael Schumacher the freedom to create his very own dream team.
Schumacher had dominated the 1994 and 1995 season at the Benetton team, creating a close knit team made up of technical gurus Ross Brawn and Rory Bryne who stunned the F1 world by taking the colourful clothing brand owned squad to championship glory ahead of renowned car brands such as Mercedes, Renault and Peugeot. Ferrari opened its cheque book to bring the Schumacher dream team over to Maranello where the team had been in a state of almost permanent disarray since the death of founder Enzo Ferrari in 1988.
It took the Schumacher dream team four years to smooth out the rough edges but once they got themselves into a winning position there was no stopping them. Combined with Ferrari's mind blowing budget and being the only team with its own test track during a period of unlimited testing, the Ferrari team looked almost unbeatable, perhaps being at its peak during the 2002 season. This came on the back of five years of constant refinements with the F2002 setting new standards for aerodynamic efficiency, centre of gravity and weight distribution,
What made the Ferrari dominance particularly galling was the team's policy of having Schumacher as the designated number one driver. This led to the team asking Rubens Barrichello to move over for his team-mate on a number of occasions, including at that year's Austrian Grand Prix which led to a crowd revolt. In every way, Ferrari was the ultimate winning machine and it wasn't willing to leave anything to chance in its pursuit of victory. The F2002 was the perfect personification of this.
3. Williams Renault FW14B (1992)
While the McLaren MP4/4 was busy dominating the 1988 season, a young engineer called Adrian Newey was pioneering a new approach to aerodynamics at the struggling March team. His focus on aerodynamic efficiency and pursuit of creating a chassis that was as compact as possible opened a whole new world to aerodynamicists of no compromise, where the mechanical aspects of the chassis were of secondary importance in the pursuit of outright aerodynamic performance.
Newey got picked up by Williams mid way through 1990 and the team's long serving technical director Patrick Head quickly realised that Newey was a far greater authority than himself when it came to putting pen to paper on the aerodynamics of their new car design. The result was the 1991 FW14, powered by a solid Renault engine that was mated with an evolution of the design Newey had been working on at March. Compromises on the mechanical aspects of the car led to early season reliability woes that would ultimately cost them both world championships, but come the end of the season it was clear that Williams had finally usurped McLaren as the dominant F1 team.
This form carried on into 1992 with the evolved FW14B which now featured Head's active suspension system which helped the car maintain an optimum ride height in all conditions. Combined with the improved Renault engine and ELF fuel, Williams was the dominant force with Mansell winning a then record of 9 wins from 16 races to seal the championship by the August holidays with four Grand Prix's remaining.
His team-mate Riccardo Patresse struggled more than Mansell to adapt to the active suspension system, but still took an extra win in addition to a further 8 podium finishes to secure 2nd in the championship and complete their utter domination of F1.
4. Red Bull Honda RB19 (2023)
The most recent addition to our list of the best F1 cars of all time is the remarkable RB19; another of Adrian Newey's absolute masterpieces. Newey had used his vast experience in 2022 to outhink his competitors when it came to the introduction of new ground effect technical regulations which had not been permitted in F1 since the early 1980s.
Being one of the few engineers to have experience from this period, Newey had prior knowledge of the issues these regulations were likely to cause and came up with a solution to counter the porpoising phenomenon where the bottom of the cars would hit the surface of the circuit at high speeds. Adopting a stiffer suspension than their rivals, Red Bull's early 2022 form was hidden by the car being overweight. However, a weight saving upgrade package mid season brought the RB18 more in line with the weight of its competitors, allowing Red Bull to secure both titles after a dominant second half of the season.
The Red Bull Honda RB19 was a natural evolution of this concept, eradicating the impediments which had compromised them at the start of 2022. In an era of increasingly long seasons, the fact that the team won 23 of the 24 races is a feat which surpasses that of even McLaren in 1988.
However, the gap that Red Bull enjoyed over its rivals in 2023 was far smaller than that which was achieved by the similarly Honda powered McLaren in 1988. Much of the team's success was due to it being a ruthlessly efficient organisation with a driver line-up where the lead driver was prioritised over his team-mate. That explains why we have put the Red Bull so much lower in our list of the best F1 cars of all time than the MP4/4.
5. Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid
New technical regulations often result in a shake-up of the running order, with some teams managing to get the jump on their competitors with smarter solutions to the restrictions that the new rules pose. There is no greater example of this than the work that was done by Mercedes Benz in response to the new turbo hybrid engine regulations of 2014.
Since returning to the sport in 2010, Mercedes had won just 2 Grand Prix over the previous four seasons. However, the manufacturer was determined to achieve the levels of domination it had achieved during its previous tenure in the sport during the 1950s; investing heavily to produce what was by far the most advanced power unit for the 2014 season.
The writing was on the wall early in the year at the first F1 winter test where the Mercedes powered cars ran flawlessly while their competitors struggled to string together more than a handful of laps together before encountering gremlins. However, Mercedes was not infallible with a number of power unit related failures robbing them of certain victories a number of times during the season. More victories were lost due to the difficult relationship which had developed between their drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, as the title fight ramped up in intensity.
Come the end of the year, Mercedes effortlessly won both championships but only claimed victory in 16 of the 19 races on account of these difficulties. This is despite having a significant pace advantage on their competitors at each grand prix. The technical advantage held by Mercedes with their power unit would go on to ensure they remained a championship winning force for many years to come as its rivals started work on eating into that daunting gap.
You can see the same Mercedes power unit which powered the Mercedes W05 in action for the very last time if you attend one of the remaining 2025 F1 races with Elegant Sports. With new engines set to be introduced into the sport in 2025, this will be your final opportunity to see a car powered by this legendary motor add to its colossal win tally. Make sure you act fast to secure your next F1 tour package today.