All brothers in Formula 1: Will the Leclerc brothers be next?

A winning couple

The first pair of brothers that springs to mind for Formula One fans is surely that of Michael and Ralf Schumacher. The two Germans, who are six years apart, both debuted six years apart with Jordan (1991 and 1997) and collected a combined 487 GP starts. Ralf and Michael were also the first and only pair of brothers to take first and second place in a Grand Prix. It happened for the first time at the 2001 Canadian GP.

We all know Michael's achievements: 7 world titles, 91 victories, and 68 pole positions. Many of these prizes were won in absolutely dominant seasons, in a career that ended at the age of 43. Even Ralf, however, can boast 6 victories and 27 podiums in his ten-year career, 15 of which he shared with his brother Michael, to whom he could seemingly contend for the world title in 2003

Team play

Moving into the 1980s, in Italy, we find the pair of Teo and Corrado Fabi. Together they made a total of 76 Grand Prix, but the curious thing is that they raced...zero! In fact, in 1983, the year of Corrado's debut, Teo only raced Formula CART, while the following year Corrado was Teo's substitute in the three F1 Grands Prix that overlapped with his brother's US commitments.

Then there are the Fittipaldi. Emerson and Wilson raced in F1 at the same time in the 1970s, with the former certainly being more successful, winning the championship in 1972 and 1974. In 1975, the Fittipaldi family founded a family team (Copersucar, later Fittipaldi), in which Wilson raced in the year of its founding, later giving way to his better-known brother for the following seasons. Fittipaldi's nephew (Pietro) also made his F1 debut, and the debut of his other nephew Enzo is awaited.

In his brother's shadow

In the same years as the Fittipaldi brothers, the Scheckter brothers, Jody and Ian, also entered F1. Jody is best known for winning the championship in 1979, as well as winning 10 races and claiming 33 podiums, while his brother was less fortunate, finishing tenth at best at the 1977 Dutch GP. Like them, the Villeneuve brothers: while Gilles is an unforgettable F1 hero, with 6 GPs won before his tragic death, Jacques Sr. never managed to qualify his car for the Sunday race.

Three-time world champion Jackie Stewart also had a brother in Formula 1. The two, however, never crossed paths on the track. Jimmy Stewart, the older brother, only raced one F1 race in 1953, before giving up racing and pursuing his younger brother's career. Also racing at the same time as Jackie Stewart was Jack Brabham, whose sons both raced in F1 in the 1990s, failing to cast off their father's shadow.

Everyone else

Going back to the first decades of Formula 1 we find other pairs of brothers, such as Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez, to whom the Mexico City racetrack is now dedicated, or Jim and Dick Rathmann, who only raced the Indianapolis GP. In the 1950s we also find the pair of Peter and Graham Whitehead, who raced the 1952 British GP together.

Closer to us in time we instead find Manfred and Jo Winkelhock, with the former racing 47 GPs in Formula One before dying tragically in 1985 and the latter trying unsuccessfully to qualify on seven occasions in the 1989 season. Manfred's son Markus also raced a Formula 1 GP, even leading it for a few laps. Finally, we close on a note of colour: the only pair of male and female siblings. We speak of Maria Teresa De Filippis, the first woman to race a GP in 1958, and Luigi De Filippis, who retired before the start of the Italian GP eight years earlier.