F1's five BBC's Sports Personality of the Year winners

The 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year is to be named onWednesday evening. The annual award is given to a British athletewho is deemed to have achieved the most in a given year. While noFormula 1 drivers are among the six-strong shortlist for the 2023gong, the championship has seen plenty of winners since the awardbegan life in 1954. Indeed, F1 is the third most successful interms of overall placings in SPOTY history, with Athletics enjoyinga total of 52 top-three placings, and Football 23, although onlyAthletics with 18 winners beats F1's total of eight. Along with theoverall award, Formula 1 has had winners of the Young SportsPersonality of the Year (Jenson Button, 2000), Team of the Year(Cooper, 1960 & BRM, 1962), as well as World Sport Star of theYear (Niki Lauda, 1977 & Sebastian Vettel, 2013). MaxVerstappen has the chance to join Lauda and Vettel in winning theWorld Sports Star if successful against the likes of NovakDjokovic, Erling Haaland and Siya Kolisi in 2023. RacingNews365takes a look back through the archives at F1's winners of the mainSports Personality of the Year award. 1961 – Stirling Moss Moss maynever have won the F1 World Championship, but the Briton was thefirst active F1 driver to be named Sports Personality of the Yearback in 1961. That year saw Moss take one of his most famous GrandPrix victories, when he hustled his comparatively under-poweredLotus 18 to victory around the streets of Monaco, beating the morepowerful Ferraris of Richie Ginther, Phil Hill and Wolfgang vonTrips. Moss also took an impressive win in changeable conditions atthe German Grand Prix around the fearsome 14-mile Nurburgring,going on to finish third in the Drivers' Championship in what wouldbe his final season of Grand Prix racing. 1973 – Jackie StewartF1's next Sports Personality of the Year was Jackie Stewart in1973. The Briton retired from racing at the end of that year havingjust taken his third World Championship title, and had become afierce advocate for improved safety conditions in F1. Stewart'stally of 27 Grand Prix wins stood as a record for 14 years beforeit was toppled by Alain Prost in 1987, and the Scotsman also heldthe record for most wins by a British driver until Nigel Manselltook his 28thwin at the 1992 British Grand Prix. Following hisretirement from competitive racing, Stewart turned his hand to amedia career, serving for many years as a commentator and presenterfor a variety of motor racing series. 1986, 1992 – Nigel MansellThe first F1 driver to be twice named Sports Personality of theYear, Nigel Mansell's first award came at the end of a 1986 seasonin which he had looked set to win his first World Championshiptitle, only for a dramatic tyre blowout in the season finale atAdelaide to scupper his chances. In 1992, however, Mansell wouldnot be denied, as he cruised to his only World Championship at thewheel of the all-conquering Williams FW14B, setting records forwins, pole positions and championship points in a single season.The Briton's record-breaking year also saw him scoop his secondSPOTY Award, before he decamped to America for a new challenge inCART, claiming the title at his first attempt in 1993. For a weekbefore Alain Prost won the 1993 F1 title, Mansell became the onlyperson to simultaneously hold the F1 and US open-wheel titles.1994, 1996 – Damon Hill F1's next Sports Personality of the Yearwas also a two-time winner, with Damon Hill first winning the awardin 1994 after coming agonisingly close to overhauling MichaelSchumacher to that year's F1 title. Having taken on greaterleadership at Williams following the death of Ayrton Senna, Hillhelped the team recover from that tragedy, and though he had a badyear in 1995, the Briton duly won his only World Championship titlethe following season, also collecting his second SPOTY award toboot. 2014, 2020 – Lewis Hamilton No surprises for guessing theidentity of F1's next Sports Personality of the Year. LewisHamilton first took the award in 2014 after having edged teammateNico Rosberg to that year's Drivers' Championship. The Briton’ssecond SPOTY win came at the end of a 2020 season in which he hadequalled Michael Schumacher's record of seven World Championshiptitles. Though Hamilton's tally of SPOTY wins does not match his F1title triumphs, the Briton has finished second in the BBC award onfour more occasions, doing so in 2007, 2008, 2017 and 2018.Hamilton actually holds the all-time SPOTY record for mosttop-three placings with six, but is second on the list behindTennis player Sir Andy Murray. Murray is the only three-time winnerin the history of the award, winning in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Andone that could have been… While Moss was the first athlete to winSports Personality of the Year thanks to his achievements in F1, heis not the first F1 driver to win the award. That honour goesinstead to John Surtees, who won the 1959 award after romping totitle glory in that year’s Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. TheBriton made the switch from bikes to cars during 1960, and in 1964became the first man to win World Championships on both two andfour wheels.