A Formula One car number is the number on a car used to identify a car and its driver. Currently, drivers are allowed to pick their own number for their career from 0, 2 through 99. Only the World Champion is allowed to use number 1. This number cannot be reallocated unless the driver has not driven in the sport for two seasons.
Until 2013, the numbers were allocated with two rules: the previous season's World Champion used the number 1; following the Champion and his team-mate (car number 2), the teams were ordered by their position in the previous season's Constructors' Championship.
Up to 1973, the numbers were given out by the race organisers. But midway through that year, permanent numbers were trialled, and in 1974, permanent numbers were issued based on the Constructors' Championship positions in 1973. Since the 1973 World Champion, Jackie Stewart, left F1 at the end of that season, the team leader for the constructors champion (Ronnie Peterson) drove the No. 1 car in 1974.
Teams only changed numbers when the Drivers' Champion was not driving for the previous No. 1 holder, or when teams left F1 and left gaps in the numbers. These permanent numbers lasted until 1995, in part due to a lack of teams.
These permanent numbers lead to a few quirks, namely Tyrrell holding onto numbers 3 and 4 for all 21 years, and the numbers 27 and 28 becoming iconic Ferrari numbers.
The number 13 was not used, as per racing tradition. In fact, only one race pre-2014 featured a number 13 car starting in Formula One history: the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix. It was also used in the 1976 British Grand Prix, but was not qualified. As a result of this, the number 14 was often used by a one-car team or a third driver. In 2014, the number was selected by Pastor Maldonado.
The number 0 has been used on a few occasions, mainly by Damon Hill in 1993 and 1994 after Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, the 1992 and 1993 World Champions, left the sport.
The number 8 has been used the most, with 988 races. The highest number is 208, in a Radio Luxembourg-sponsored car for Lella Lombardi at the 1974 British Grand Prix.
Following the death of Jules Bianchi, the FIA decided to permanently retire the number 17 he drove with before his accident.
Contents
- 1 Regulations
- 2 Summary of systems by year
- 3 Car number history
- 3.1 1974–1979
- 3.2 1980–1989
- 3.3 1990–1999
- 3.4 2000–2009
- 3.5 2010–2013
- 3.6 2014 – present
- 4 Notes
- 5 External links
Regulations
The car number is included as part of the FIA Sporting Regulations, under the "car livery" section. It is written as follows:[1]
9) CAR LIVERY
- 9.2 Each car will carry the race number of its driver as published by the FIA at the beginning of the season or the race number that has been allocated to his replacement under Article 26.1(b)(iii). This number must be clearly visible from the front of the car and on the driver’s crash helmet.
- Prior to the start of the 2014 World Championship season race numbers will be permanently allocated to drivers by ballot, such numbers must then be used by that driver during every Formula One World Championship Event he takes part in throughout his career in Formula 1. A driver’s career in Formula 1 will be deemed to have ended if he does not participate in an Event for two entire consecutive Championship seasons.
- Any new drivers, either at the start of or during a season, will also be allocated a permanent number in the same way.
- The only exception to this allocation process will be for the reigning World Champion who will have the option to use the number one. The number that was previously allocated to him will be reserved for him in subsequent seasons if he does not retain the title of World Champion.
Additionally, Article 26.1(b)(iii) is as follows:[1]
26) CHANGES OF DRIVER
- 26.1 b) In addition to the above each team will be permitted to run additional drivers during P1 and P2 provided:
- iii) They carry the race number that has been allocated to them.
Summary of systems by year
| 1950–1973 | Numbers allocated by event organisers. Number system and method of allocation different for each event. |
|---|---|
| 1973 | Permanent numbers trialed in second half of season, roughly based on Constructor standings. |
| 1974–1995 | Permanent team numbers were fully implemented, initially based on the 1973 World Constructors' Championship placings. No. 1 was allocated to the World Drivers' Champion, and the only way numbers moved about was through the changing of the team for whom the World Champion drove for, or with a reallocation of spare numbers. |
| 1996–2013 | Team numbers ordered by World Constructors' Championship position of the previous season, with No. 1 still going to the World Drivers' Champion. |
| 2014–present | Drivers allowed to choose their own, permanent numbers from 0 through 99 except 1. Only the World Drivers' Champion is allowed to use No. 1 at their discretion, though they are not required to do so. In allocating out the numbers, drivers with a higher Championship position in the previous season are given higher preference. |
Car number history
1974–1979
* Non-works entry. The entrant is these cases is not noted here.
1980–1989
* Non-works entry. The entrant is these cases is not noted here.
† Did not compete in any races.
1990–1999
| No. | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | not issued | Williams | not issued | |||||||
| 1 | Ferrari | McLaren | not issued | Benetton | Ferrari | Arrows | Williams | McLaren | ||
| 2 | Williams | |||||||||
| 3 | Tyrrell | Benetton | Williams | Ferrari | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Williams | Benetton | Williams | Ferrari | Benetton | Williams | ||||
| 6 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Brabham | McLaren | Benetton | McLaren | Jordan | |||||
| 8 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Arrows | Footwork | Ligier | McLaren | Jordan | Benetton | ||||
| 10 | ||||||||||
| 11 | Lotus | Simtek | Jordan | Prost | Sauber | |||||
| 12 | ||||||||||
| 13 | not issued | |||||||||
| 14 | Osella | Fondmetal | Fondmetal | Jordan | Sauber | Prost | Sauber | Arrows | ||
| 15 | LeytonHouse | |||||||||
| 16 | March | not issued | Pacific | Footwork | Sauber | Arrows | Stewart | |||
| 17 | AGS | |||||||||
| 18 | not issued | not issued | Tyrrell | Stewart | Prost | |||||
| 19 | Benetton | Larrousse | Larrousse† | |||||||
| 20 | Minardi | Tyrrell | Minardi | |||||||
| 21 | Dallara | Lola | not issued | Forti | ||||||
| 22 | Forti | Stewart | Minardi | BAR | ||||||
| 23 | Minardi | |||||||||
| 24 | not issued | Lola | not issued | |||||||
| 25 | Ligier | |||||||||
| 26 | not issued | |||||||||
| 27 | McLaren | Ferrari | ||||||||
| 28 | not issued | |||||||||
| 29 | Lola | Venturi | Sauber | |||||||
| 30 | not issued | |||||||||
| 31 | Coloni | not issued | Simtek | not issued | ||||||
| 32 | not issued | Jordan | not issued | not issued | ||||||
| 33 | EuroBrun | Pacific | not issued | |||||||
| 34 | Lambo | Andrea Moda | not issued | not issued | ||||||
| 35 | Onyx | not issued | ||||||||
| 36 | not issued | |||||||||
| 37 | not issued | |||||||||
| 38 | ||||||||||
| 39 | Life | not issued | ||||||||
| No. | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
† Did not compete in any races.
2000–2009
2010–2013
2014 – present
Notes: Only includes numbers given to race drivers. The effects of the ruling that a permanent number cannot be reallocated if a driver has driven in the past two seasons is denoted by a dash in the respective seasons and numbers. Some numbers are given on a temporary basis and can be reallocated, uses of these number are denoted with an asterisk (*).
Car Number 17 was retired in July 2015 after the death of Jules Bianchi.
| No. | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vettel | reserved for WDC | Verstappen | |||||||||
| 2 | not issued | Vandoorne | — | — | not issued | Sargeant | ||||||
| 3 | Ricciardo | |||||||||||
| 4 | Chilton | — | — | not issued | Norris | |||||||
| 5 | reserved | Vettel | — | — | ||||||||
| 6 | Rosberg | — | — | not issued | Latifi | — | — | |||||
| 7 | Räikkönen | — | — | not issued | ||||||||
| 8 | Grosjean | — | — | not issued | ||||||||
| 9 | Ericsson | — | — | Mazepin | — | — | not issued | |||||
| 10 | Kobayashi | — | — | Gasly | ||||||||
| 11 | Pérez | |||||||||||
| 12 | not issued | Nasr | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 13 | Maldonado | — | — | not issued | ||||||||
| 14 | Alonso | — | — | Alonso | ||||||||
| 16 | not issued | Leclerc | ||||||||||
| 17 | Bianchi | number retired | ||||||||||
| 18 | not issued | Stroll | ||||||||||
| 19 | Massa | — | — | not issued | ||||||||
| 20 | Magnussen | — | Magnussen | |||||||||
| 21 | Gutiérrez | — | Gutiérrez | — | — | not issued | de Vries | — | ||||
| 22 | Button | — | — | not issued | Tsunoda | |||||||
| 23 | not issued | Albon | — | Albon | ||||||||
| 24 | not issued | Zhou | ||||||||||
| 25 | Vergne | — | — | not issued | ||||||||
| 26 | Kvyat | — | Kvyat | — | — | not issued | ||||||
| 27 | Hülkenberg | — | Hülkenberg | |||||||||
| 28 | not issued | Stevens | — | Hartley† | — | — | not issued | |||||
| 30 | not issued | Palmer | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 31 | not issued | Ocon | — | Ocon | ||||||||
| 33 | not issued | Verstappen | reserved | |||||||||
| 35 | not issued | Sirotkin | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 36 | not issued | Giovinazzi* | not issued | |||||||||
| 38 | not issued | Bearman§ | ||||||||||
| 39 | not issued | Hartley* | not issued | |||||||||
| 40 | not issued | di Resta* | not issued | Lawson* | not issued | |||||||
| 44 | Hamilton | |||||||||||
| 45 | Lotterer* | not issued | de Vries*$ | not issued | ||||||||
| 46 | Stevens* | not issued | ||||||||||
| 47 | not issued | Vandoorne* | not issued | Schumacher | — | — | ||||||
| 51 | not issued | Fittipaldi | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 53 | not issued | Rossi | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 55 | not issued | Sainz, Jr. | ||||||||||
| 63 | not issued | Russell | ||||||||||
| 77 | Bottas | |||||||||||
| 81 | not issued | Piastri | ||||||||||
| 87 | not issued | Oliver Bearman | ||||||||||
| 88 | not issued | Haryanto | — | — | Kubica | — | Kubica | — | — | not issued | ||
| 89 | not issued | Aitken | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 94 | not issued | Wehrlein | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 98 | not issued | Merhi | — | — | not issued | |||||||
| 99 | Sutil | — | — | not issued | Giovinazzi | — | — | not issued | ||||
| No. | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
- † Hartley used the number 39 in the 2017 United States Grand Prix as the team's reserve number, but later used the number 28 in the Mexican Grand Prix and beyond after being confirmed for finishing the season, and choosing the number as his permanent number.
- ‡ Rossi was issued the number 42 in two races (Belgium, Russia) in 2014, but was withdrawn from both.
- $ De Vries used the number 45 during the Free Practice sessions of the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix and while substituting for Albon in the 2022 Italian Grand Prix.
- § Bearman made his Formula One debut at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for Ferrari, after main driver Carlos Sainz withdrew after being diagnosed with appendicitis.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Sporting Regulations – 12.03.2019". FIA. https://www.fia.com/file/78014/download/26183. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
