Motorsport has provided us with some truly incredible moments over the years. Who can forget the Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton battle in Formula 1 2021? Or the epic races we have seen at Le Mans, such as McLaren’s 1995 victory.
Throughout motorsports history, there have also been some genuinely dominant cars: cars that swept the competition away.
This list contains 25 of those cars that did just that. They range from the best of Grand Prix racing to those that took on the challenge of a 24-hour race.
2023 Red Bull RB19
After a dominant 2022 season, Red Bull stepped up to another level and didn’t give their opponents a chance across the 2023 season.
In Max Verstappen’s hands, the RB19 won 19 of the 22 races that year. Teammate Sergio Perez won another two, and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won Singapore’s only non-Red Bull win. Verstappen scored enough points that if he were the only driver on the team, he’d have won Red Bull the constructor’s championship single-handedly.
2020 Mercedes W11
The COVID-19-affected 2020 F1 season might have started in July. But that didn’t prevent Mercedes from producing what was possibly the fastest car in Formula 1 history.
The W11 won 13 of the year’s 17 races and took 15 pole positions. Red Bull and Max Verstappen won two, while Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez took shock wins in the other two. The W11 would often take pole position at a canter, with Lewis Hamilton taking pole in Hungary and finishing the session 0.8 seconds ahead of the first non-Mercedes car.
Porsche 919 Hybrid
The Porsche 919 hybrid brought the German manufacturer back into top-level sports car racing in 2014. The car competed in the LMP1 category of the World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Porsche raced the 919 until 2017 when it won three of the four Le Mans it entered. It should have also taken second place at its debut Le Mans in 2014, but a mechanical issue put it out of contention late. The 919 would win 17 WEC races out of the 34 it entered, take 20 pole positions, and win three consecutive driver and constructors championships.
Audi R18
Audi introduced the first generation of its R18 LMP1 car in 2011, and for most of the decade, it was the dominant force at Le Mans and in the WEC. The R18 won Le Mans four times on the bounce from 2011 to 2014, and it took two constructors and drivers championships in 2012 and 2013.
Its advantage, however, would ebb away as the competition stepped up. Toyota would dominate the WEC in 2014, and Porsche took over that mantle from 2015 onwards. Audi quit the series at the end of 2016 and has yet to return to top-level sports car racing.
1988 McLaren MP4/4
The McLaren MP4/4 and the Red Bull RB19 are just two cars that came close to sweeping an entire Formula 1 season. The Honda-powered MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 races that year and took 15 of the 16 pole positions in the hands of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
Mechanical issues and a backmarker took away the team’s chances of a clean sweep at that year’s Italian Grand Prix. The MP4/4 was also the car that Senna took the first of his three world titles after a memorable recovery drive at that year’s Japanese Grand Prix.
1989 McLaren MP4/5
While less dominant than the MP4/4, McLaren’s MP4/5 would still sweep the competition aside in the 1989 Formula 1 season. Prost and Senna would battle bitterly for the title. The championship was controversially decided at the Japanese Grand Prix.
McLaren won its fourth constructors title that season, winning ten out of 16 races. Senna won six of them, with Prost winning another four. As the year went on, Rivals Ferrari and Williams slowly caught up to McLaren.
2014 Toyota TS040
Across its two seasons of competition, Toyota’s TS040 was not its most dominant car. However, it was the clear leader of the pack in the 2014 WEC season, although technical issues meant they missed out on a Le Mans win that year.
The TS040 won five of the eight rounds of the WEC in 2014, as Toyota took the drivers and constructors titles. 2015, despite improving the car’s speed by a good margin, the TS040 failed to win a single race and took just two podiums across the whole season.
Toyota TS050
A slow start to life for the new generation Toyota LMP1 car would herald one of the most dominant runs in WEC history. The TS050 took a sole win in the 2016 WEC season, but it should have won three races after retiring in Spa and, cruelly, on the last lap of Le Mans.
Toyota then won five races in 2017 and won every race of the 2018-’19 season except for Silverstone, where both cars were unfortunately disqualified. Toyota would win six of the eight races of the 2029-’20 season before the new hypercar rules took effect for 2021.
2014 Mercedes F1 W05
The 2014 season was the first of the turbo hybrid era in Formula 1, and the Mercedes W05 was the clear class leader across the whole season. The combination of its excellent chassis and dominant PU106A engine meant the car won 16 of 19 races and took 18 of the 19 pole positions.
Felipe Massa achieved the only non-Mercedes pole position in the Williams FW36 at the Austrian Grand Prix. But that car still had the Mercedes powertrain in the back. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg fought exclusively for the title, with the British driver winning it at the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi.
2013 Red Bull RB9
In the final year of the V8 engine regulations, Red Bull dominated with the incredible RB9. The team faced stiff competition in the first ten races of the season, winning four, but things changed in the year’s second half.
Sebastian Vettel would sweep to nine victories in a row from Belgium to the final race in Brazil. He did not start from pole position only three times in those nine races, and the car won 13 of the season’s 19 races. It was also Red Bull’s last constructors’ title until 2022 and Vettel’s final drivers’ title of his four.
2022 Red Bull RB18
Red Bull and Max Verstappen with the RB18 won the first year of Formula 1’s new ground-effects era. Initially, the team faced stiff competition from Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, but at the mid-point of the year, both team and driver had control of the championship.
Verstappen won 15 races that year, which was a record for the most in a season, which he would beat with his 19 wins in 2023. Teammate Sergio Perez won two more, and the car took eight pole positions on its way to securing Verstappen’s second drivers’ title and the team’s first constructors’ championship since 2013.
McLaren M8
The McLaren M8 series of sports cars dominated Can-Am racing in the United States from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The car debuted in 1968, and the M8D won nine races in the 1970 Can-Am season.
McLaren founder Bruce McLaren was Tragically killed in a testing crash at Goodwood in 1970. The car, however, still went on to dominate after his loss, and the final win for the M8 was with the M8F in 1972 at Donnybrook.
1989-1993 Nissan Skyline GT-R R32
If you wanted to win the Japanese Touring Car Championship in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you needed the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32. It would enter 29 races and win all of them. It, of course, took four consecutive titles while doing so.
The R32 was so fast and successful that it killed the entire Group A Touring series. The R32’s most famous moments would arguably come at the Bathurst 1000 in the 1990s when it would destroy its rivals and earn it the nickname “Godzilla.”
Volkswagen Polo R WRC
While Toyota is arguably the team to beat in the current World Rally Championship era, it is nothing compared to the dominance displayed by Volkswagen from 2013 to 2016. The Polo R WRC would win 43 of the 53 rallies it entered, take 37 more podiums, and win four consecutive WRC drivers’ and constructors’ titles between 2013 and 2016.
Sebastien Ogier won all those championships, taking 31 wins in the Polo R WRC. Volkswagen pulled out of the sport after the diesel emissions scandal in 2016. However, it had already tested its 2017 WRC car designed to the new regulations. Had it entered the series, it could have dominated once again.
Toyota Yaris WRC
Toyota returned to the WRC in 2017, winning its second event in Jari-Matti Latvala’s hands. Esapekka Lappi took another win later that year.
It was in 2018, however, when the Yaris hit its stride. Ott Tanak should have won that year’s title, but he won the championship in 2019, and Toyota won the constructors’ crown in the previous year. The Yaris WRC would win the 2021 constructors’ and 2020 and 2021 drivers’ titles. At the end of the 207-2021 rules cycle, the Yaris had won 26 of its 58 rallies.
2004 Ferrari F2004
The Ferrari F2004 was so fast that it shocked Ferrari during F1 pre-season testing, even convincing them they had done something wrong with the car. But Ferrari had produced a remarkable vehicle that won 15 races in 2004 and took 12 pole positions.
Ferrari’s most significant competition was the BAR Honda of Jenson Button, who took ten podiums that year. Had it not been for Ferrari’s dominance, it would likely have won a few races, too. But the F2004 cantered to both championships that season, and it was the car that Michael Schumacher would win his final drivers’ title in.
2011 Red Bull RB7
While Ferrari and McLaren gave Red Bull some fight in 2011, the Red Bull RB7 swept to both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles in the hands of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
Vettel won the driver’s title at a canter, winning 11 of the year’s races, while Webber took victory at the final round in Brazil. But the RB7 was most impressive in qualifying, as it took 18 of the year’s 19 pole positions. Only Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren denied them a clean sweep with pole position in South Korea.
2002 Ferrari F2002
One of Ferrari’s other dominant cars was the 2002 F2002, which would win 15 races throughout its racing career, including one win in 2003 before that year’s car was ready.
In the 2002 season, Ferrari won 14 races out of 17. Schumacher took 10 of them, while teammate Rubens Barichello took another four. Schumacher won his fifth drivers’ title in the F2002, and Ferrari would also add to their constructors’ title tally.
Toyota GR010 Hybrid
Toyota’s first car to the new WEC hypercar rules has so far dominated each of the three seasons it has completed. The GR010 Hybrid won six out of six races in 2021 and four out of six in 2022.
Toyota lost out at Le Mans for the first time since 2016 in the 2023 season, as Ferrari took an emotional victory with their new 499P. However, Toyota won the other six races that year, and each constructor’s and driver’s title was from 2021 to 2023. The 2024 season, however, has yet to start so well for the GR010, as the best-placed Toyota finished in sixth place as the Porsche 963s from Penske and Hertz Team Jota swept the podium.
Citroën C4 WRC
While in the World Rally Championship, Citroën embarrassed its rivals by winning every season in which the C4 WRC raced.
The CR WRC debuted in the 2007 WRC season, and in the hands of Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo, it would win a multitude of rallies, with Loeb dominating the season. Citroën lost out on the 2007 constructors’ championship but won the next three on the spin, and the C4 won all four drivers’ titles it entered in the hands of Loeb.
Citroën DS3 WRC
The successor to the C4 WRC, Citroën’s DS3 WRC debuted in the 2011 season and would dominate the competition. It was in the hands of Sebastien Ogier that the DS3 was most dominant, winning the constructors’ and drivers’ titles in 2011 and 2012.
However, after Ogier left the team, the fortunes of the DS3 took a nosedive. Citroën struggled to replicate their form of previous seasons, and although drivers like Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo would win in the car, no more titles came the DS3’s way.
Mercedes CLK GTR
The gorgeous Mercedes CLK GTR is another race car that is so good that it broke the championship it raced in. The CLK GTR was a homologation special, as Mercedes built 28 road-going versions so they could race the car in the FIA GT Championship.
When it entered the championship, it had fierce competition from the McLaren F1 GTR, Porsche 911 GTR, and Marcos and Lister. But the CLK GTR won eight of the 13 races it entered and the 1997 and 1998 FIA GT drivers’ and constructors’ titles. The car was so good that after 1998, all of its rivals packed up and left, killing FIA GT racing. They should have built a faster car instead.
Porsche 956
Before the Porsche 919, the German manufacturer had taken several victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Many of these came with the 917, but it is the 956 that is perhaps its most dominant Le Mans racer.
Between 1982 and 1987, nothing but a Porsche 956, latterly in its 982 form, would win Le Mans. The 956 was so quick that it would establish a 35-year record by lapping the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 6:11.13 during qualifying for the 1,000 km Sports Car race, driven by Stefan Bellof. It took until the heavily modified Porsche 919 Evo driven by Timo Bernhard in 2018 before that record fell.
2019 Mercedes AMG F1 W10
The 2019 Mercedes W10 had a troubled pre-season testing. But by the time the first race in Australia came around, it was clear the W10 was the class of the field.
Across the year, the W10 took 15 wins—eleven for Lewis Hamilton and four for teammate Valtteri Bottas. The drivers took five pole positions each, and of course, it won both of the year’s world championships. That dominance would carry on into 2020 with the all-conquering W11.
1977 Lotus 79
The Lotus 79 will be the first Formula 1 car to use ground-effect aerodynamics, a philosophy that would shape the sport’s new 2022 regulations.
Designed by the legendary Colin Chapman, the Lotus 79 won seven races, took ten pole positions, and, with Mario Andretti, won the Lotus final drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 1978. Andretti won the title in Italy, but teammate Ronnie Peterson was tragically killed during that same race after a heavy accident at the start of the Grand Prix.
