What Is A Grand Slam In F1? The Rarest Achievement in Formula 1 Explained

• A Grand Slam (also called a Grand Chelem) in Formula 1 requires a driver to qualify on pole position, win the race, set the fastest lap, and lead every single lap from start to finish during one Grand Prix weekend.
• Jim Clark holds the all-time record with eight Grand Slams achieved between 1962 and 1965, while Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen share second place on six each as of July 2026.
• Only 71 Grand Slams have been recorded across 76 years of the World Championship by just 28 different drivers, and several legendary World Champions including four-time title winner Alain Prost never managed one.

What Is a Grand Slam in Formula 1?

A Grand Slam in F1 is when a single driver accomplishes four specific feats during one race weekend: qualifying on pole position, winning the race, setting the fastest lap, and leading every single lap from lights out to the chequered flag. Also known by its French term Grand Chelem, the achievement demands a combination of outright speed, flawless car reliability, and zero driver errors. Across 76 years of the Formula 1 World Championship, only 28 drivers have completed a Grand Slam, making it one of the rarest individual distinctions in all of motorsport.

The difficulty lies in the fourth requirement. Pole position, race wins, and fastest laps are common accomplishments for top drivers, but leading every lap from start to finish requires total control over the entire race. A single slow pit stop, an early Safety Car, or a rival jumping ahead during the pit window can strip away a potential Grand Slam even when the winning driver finishes 30 seconds clear of second place. Max Verstappen demonstrated the tactical commitment required at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix when he pitted on the penultimate lap specifically to secure the fastest lap, telling Sky Sports: “I saw the gap and was like, ‘we have to pit. I want to go for the fastest lap’.”

The Four Requirements for an F1 Grand Slam

Pole position is the first condition. The driver must qualify fastest and start the race from the front of the grid, proving outright single-lap speed in qualifying. This alone narrows the field: in any given season, only a handful of drivers across the 22-car grid will take pole position at all, and some World Champions have gone entire careers with fewer than ten poles.

Winning the race is the second requirement. The driver who starts from pole must also cross the finish line first, which means surviving the opening-lap chaos, executing a clean pit strategy, managing tyre degradation, and defending position against any challengers. Approximately 40% of pole sitters convert their starting position into a race win, meaning six out of ten poles do not result in victory.

Setting the fastest lap is the third condition. The driver must post the single quickest lap time of anyone during the race, which in modern F1 often means pitting for fresh soft tyres near the end of the race to make a dedicated fastest-lap attempt. Since 2019, the fastest lap has also carried a bonus championship point for the top ten finishers, which adds a tactical dimension: rival teams often pit their own drivers late to steal the fastest lap and deny a Grand Slam.

Leading every lap is the fourth and most demanding condition. The driver must be classified as the race leader on every single lap from the first to the last. This means no rival can lead even temporarily during the pit stop phase, which requires either perfectly timed stops that maintain track position or a gap large enough that the driver re-emerges ahead even after losing time in the pits. A well-timed Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car can compress the field and eliminate the gap needed to pit without losing the lead, which is why many dominant race weekends fall just short of a Grand Slam.

Grand Slam Record Holders

Jim Clark holds the all-time record with eight Grand Slams, all achieved within just 32 races between 1962 and 1965. Clark’s Lotus was so dominant during this period that he completed consecutive Grand Slams twice: the 1963 Dutch and French Grands Prix back-to-back, and the 1965 French and German Grands Prix in succession. His eight Grand Slams came across only 72 career race starts, a ratio that no other driver in the sport’s history has approached.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen share second place on six Grand Slams each. Hamilton’s six span from the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix through to the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with three coming during his dominant 2017 season alone at the Chinese, Canadian, and British Grands Prix. Verstappen’s six stretch from the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix through to the 2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he led all 51 laps at Baku and won by over 14 seconds in his most commanding performance of that season.

Alberto Ascari and Michael Schumacher each recorded five Grand Slams. Ascari’s five came in a concentrated burst during 1952 and 1953, when Ferrari’s dominance under the Formula 2 technical regulations made his car almost untouchable. Schumacher’s five were spread across a decade, from the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix through to the 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix. Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel each achieved four Grand Slams, with Vettel’s including consecutive Grand Slams at the 2013 Singapore and Korean Grands Prix during his fourth championship-winning season.

The First Grand Slam and Early History

Juan Manuel Fangio achieved the first Grand Slam in World Championship history at the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix on 21 May 1950, only the second Championship race ever held. Fangio qualified on pole in his Alfa Romeo 158, led all 100 laps around the streets of Monte Carlo, set the fastest lap, and won the race. The Grand Slam as a statistical distinction was not widely recognised at the time, and the term only entered common F1 usage decades later, but Fangio’s performance set the template for what complete domination of a race weekend looks like.

Fangio would add one more Grand Slam during his career, at the 1956 German Grand Prix. Between Fangio’s two and Jim Clark’s record-setting run in the early 1960s, Alberto Ascari established himself as the most dominant single-lap-to-flag driver of his era. Ascari’s five Grand Slams across the 1952 and 1953 seasons reflected a period when Ferrari’s technical advantage was so large that Ascari won nine consecutive Championship races, a record that stood for over 60 years until Vettel matched it in 2013.

World Champions Who Never Achieved a Grand Slam

The Grand Slam’s rarity is underlined by the list of World Champions who competed for entire careers without recording one. Alain Prost, a four-time World Champion with 51 race victories, is the most decorated driver never to complete a Grand Slam. Prost won races from pole position, set fastest laps, and led races from start to finish on separate occasions, but never combined all four in the same Grand Prix. His racing style, built around tyre management and strategic patience rather than raw speed at every phase of a weekend, meant he often won races without needing pole or fastest lap.

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 World Champion, also never achieved a Grand Slam across his 349 race starts, the most of any driver in F1 history. Other World Champions who missed out include Graham Hill, John Surtees, Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Jenson Button, and Jacques Villeneuve. The absence of these names from the Grand Slam list is not a mark against their ability but a reflection of how many variables must align in a single race weekend for the achievement to occur.

The Grand Slam in 2025 and 2026

The 2025 season produced two Grand Slams. Oscar Piastri recorded the 69th Grand Slam in F1 history at the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort in August, becoming the 27th driver to join the list and delivering McLaren’s first Grand Slam since Mika Hakkinen at the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix. Piastri was also the first Australian to achieve one since Jack Brabham in 1966. Verstappen followed with his sixth career Grand Slam at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku in September, leading all 51 laps.

The 2026 season has produced one Grand Slam through the first nine races. Kimi Antonelli achieved the 71st Grand Slam in history at the Monaco Grand Prix on 7 June, leading all 78 laps from pole position in his Mercedes and setting the fastest lap. At 19 years and 286 days old, Antonelli became the youngest driver ever to complete a Grand Slam, breaking the previous record by nearly four years. The achievement came at the same circuit where Fangio had recorded the first ever Grand Slam 76 years earlier. Charles Leclerc, who recorded a Grand Slam at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, was characteristically relaxed about the statistical distinction at the time, telling reporters in the FIA post-race press conference: “It doesn’t matter to me that much. At the end what matters is that I crossed the finish line first.”

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Written by

Jarrod Partridge

Jarrod Partridge is the Co-Founder of F1 Chronicle and an FIA accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following Formula 1. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered F1 races at circuits around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every race report, driver profile, and technical analysis he writes.

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