Five one-time F1 race winners from the 2000s you may have forgotten including a record-breaking victory

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Since the Formula 1 world championship started in 1950, there have been a total of 115 different Grand Prix winners to date.

Up until 2020, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher held the record for the most race wins in F1 history with 91 victories. The German won 72 races with Ferrari, as he also claimed five consecutive championships from 2000 to 2004 – the only driver ever to accomplish this feat.

But at the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton beat Schumacher’s record by winning his 92nd race at Portimao on his way to also equalling the German’s record seven F1 drivers’ titles.

The successes that Hamilton enjoyed with Mercedes from 2013 to 2024 also saw him go on to set a new F1 record Grand Prix win tally of 105, before he joined Ferrari in 2025. His penultimate victory with the Silver Arrows also saw the Briton score his record ninth British GP win.

While Hamilton has set a record at the top that will be hard to beat, 33 of the 115 different race winners to date only ever took the chequered flag first on one occasion. And it is hard to believe some of the names in recent years that only claimed one win.

With that in mind, F1 Oversteer has taken a look at five one-time Formula 1 race winners from the 2000s that you may have forgotten.

Jarno Trulli – 2004 Monaco Grand Prix winner with Renault

Starting his F1 career in 1997, it took Jarno Trulli until his eighth season on the grid to finally win his first and only Grand Prix.

Racing with the likes of Minardi, Prost and Jordan, the Italian joined Renault in 2002 and spent three years with the team alongside Jenson Button and later Fernando Alonso. It was in his final season with the French outfit that Trulli scored his victory.

Qualifying on pole for the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix, Trulli navigated the tight streets of the Principality to win the historic race by just under half a second over former teammate Button.

Later that year, the Italian left Renault to race with Toyota for the final two races of the 2004 season. He went on to spend five full years with the Japanese team, grabbing seven podiums in that time.

Trulli finished his career with backmarkers Lotus, with whom he failed to score a point across the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Robert Kubica – 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner with BMW Sauber

Robert Kubica displayed great speed in Formula 1 after BMW Sauber promoted the Polish racer from his test driver role for the final six rounds of the 2006 season.

But some devastating accidents prevented him from reaching the potential many believed he had.

Scoring a podium in his third race in F1 with third place in the 2006 Italian Grand Prix especially proved the potential that Kubica brought to BMW Sauber.

And after he was consistently at the front in 2007 alongside teammate Nick Heidfeld, Kubica grabbed a thoroughly deserved first win in 2008.

Just one year from his horrific crash in the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, Kubica qualified second on the grid for the 2008 edition behind Hamilton. After the Brit bizarrely crashed in the pit lane, the Pole took advantage and claimed victory plus the lead of the championship.

Kubica finished the 2008 season in fourth with 75 points, but he was never able to reach the same heights afterwards as he left BMW for Renault in 2010 – with whom he only scored three podiums.

A horrific crash at the 2011 Ronde il Andora rally then changed the trajectory of Kubica’s career, as he suffered 42 fractures and lost three-quarters of his blood. Yet Kubica overcame the damage to his right hand to make a heroic F1 comeback with Williams in 2019.

Heikki Kovalainen – 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix winner with McLaren

Four races after Kubica scored his solitary win in F1, Heikki Kovalainen also grabbed his only win in the pinnacle of motorsport at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Finn showed great potential in his debut season with Renault in 2007, finishing level on points with experienced teammate Giancarlo Fisichella before swapping places with Alonso to join McLaren alongside Hamilton in 2008.

Unfortunately, Kovalainen failed to make much of an impact at the Woking-based outfit in his two seasons there.

But he did get his one moment of glory in Budapest, as he benefitted from Hamilton having a deflated tyre while battling for the lead and Felipe Massa suffering an engine failure just three laps before the end to win the race.

After a dismal 2009 campaign, Kovalainen left McLaren and joined Trulli at Lotus (later Caterham) and spent three seasons with the team, often pushing the boundaries and almost getting his car into the points. The Finn left F1 in 2012 and went on to have great success in rallying.

Pastor Maldonado – 2012 Spanish Grand Prix winner with Williams

Perhaps the most infamous name in recent F1 history, Pastor Maldonado was notorious for being wickedly fast but also incredibly crash-prone during his junior career – and he certainly brought that with him to the pinnacle of motorsport.

Maldonado joined Williams in 2011, becoming the first Venezuelan driver to race in F1 since 1984, and scored just one point in his debut year.

After scoring his first points of 2012 in China, the Venezuelan then qualified second for the Spanish Grand Prix. But Maldonado was promoted to the pole position after Hamilton was disqualified and sent to the back of the grid.

With many expecting home hero Alonso to surge forward for the win in his Ferrari, Maldonado held on thanks to Williams’ superior strategy to claim the first and to date only win from a Venezuelan driver in Formula 1.

Maldonado only scored points three more times in 2012, and he only scored one point in 2013 before moving to Lotus the following year.

He then struggled to find consistent results at the start of the turbo hybrid era from 2014 and while points were more regular in 2015, the Venezuelan left F1 at the end of the season.

Esteban Ocon – 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix winner with Alpine

After the dramatic battle for the 2021 drivers’ title between Hamilton and Max Verstappen, it is perhaps easy to forget that there were four other race winners that season – one of which being Esteban Ocon.

The Frenchman started eighth for the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, which proved to be a very chaotic race in an equally chaotic championship.

After Valtteri Bottas caused a first-lap multi-car collision in wet conditions and a subsequent red flag, Ocon was promoted to second for the restart – where, bizarrely, only Hamilton started on the grid, as everyone else pitted for dry tyres.

After the seven-time champion then came into the pits to switch to dry tyres, Ocon was handed the race lead and held on to win his and Alpine’s first and only win in F1 to date.

Ocon also had Alonso to thank for holding Hamilton off for lap after lap towards the end of the race after making a late pit stop.

The Spaniard’s defensive driving ensured Hamilton could only make his way back through to third place, as Ocon won by 1.859s ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel with the Mercedes man 2.736s adrift.

Ocon’s time with Alpine came to an end before the close of the 2024 season, when the Enstone outfit released him to hand Jack Doohan an early F1 debut in that year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Alpine had originally confirmed that Doohan would replace Ocon in 2025.