Longest F1 Careers

How this is measured

The calendar time from a driver’s first Grand Prix start to their most recent one, in whole years and the days since the last anniversary. This is the span between the two races, not the number of seasons raced, so any break in between still counts: Fernando Alonso’s two-year sabbatical (2019 and 2020) and his 2002 test-driver year, Michael Schumacher’s retirement from 2007 to 2009, Kimi Räikkönen’s two years away in 2010 and 2011, Robert Kubica’s absence from 2011 to 2018 and Niko Hülkenberg’s missing 2011 and 2021 seasons all sit inside their spans. For seasons actually raced, see the most seasons contested record. Drivers still racing are measured up to their latest start, so their spans grow with every Grand Prix.

• A start is a race entry that took the start. Entries recorded as did not qualify, did not pre-qualify, failed the 107% rule, or withdrew are excluded.
• The 1950–1960 Indianapolis 500 rounds counted towards the world championship but were run to American rules with roughly 33-car grids and almost no overlap in entrants. They are excluded from every leaderboard on this site.
• The current season is included, so these figures change after every Grand Prix.