5 F1 World Champions who've won the Indy 500

Jim Clark

With 25 Grand Prix wins, 33 pole positions and 28 fastest laps, Jim Clark had already broken multiple motorsport records by the time of his death in 1968. The legendary Scot was also a two-time World Champion, he claimed a first title 1963 and then another two years later in 1965 with Team Lotus. 

With an insatiable appetite for racing, Clark had also taken part in the Le Mans 24 Hours, placing second and third in 1959 and 1960, respectively. After his initial F1 success with Lotus, he and the team ventured across the Atlantic to tackle the Indy 500, a journey he would make five times between 1963 and 1967. In his typical Clark fashion, he was immediately mixing it at the very front of the field.  

Clark finished second on his debut at the Brickyard in the Lotus 29, and after a disappointing retirement from pole position in 1964, it all came together for him in 1965 — a season regularly regarded as one of the very best in motorsport history. Clark delivered the first ever Indy 500 victory for a rear-engined car in the Lotus 38, leading 190 of the 200 laps at a then-record average speed of 150.686 mph. He returned to the United States to finish second again in 1966, underlining just how formidable a driver he was. 

To twice finish runner-up, and dominate the event in 1965, all while racing far from his European comfort zone, during a season that also saw him win the F1, Formula 2 and Tasman Series titles only heightened the scale of Clark’s astounding achievement.  

Graham Hill

Following in Clark’s footsteps, Graham Hill also set several records throughout his career, at a time holding the record for most podium finishes to go with his 14 Grands Prix victories across his 18 seasons in F1. Hill claimed the World Championship in 1962 and 1968, but he too sought to expand his horizons during that time, and in the wake of Clark’s own success, made the journey to Indianapolis for the first time in 1966. 

As an Indy 500 debutant, he started from 15^th on the grid but drove a consistent and error-free race to, by his own surprise, come home as the victor. The result was famously disputed, after Lotus believed initially that Clark had been a lap ahead. Official timing ultimately confirmed Hill as the winner, however, delivering a first Indy 500 victory for both him and the Lola chassis. 

Hill was already an established F1 great — earning the name ‘Mr. Monaco’ after claiming five Grand Prix wins at the principality between 1963 and 1969. The Indy 500 was a complement to his résumé, but his mission wasn’t complete until his victory at Le Mans in 1972, when he became the first, and to this day only victor of motorsport’s coveted Triple Crown.  

Mario Andretti

Mario Andretti was crowned Formula 1 World Champion in 1978, clinching the title at the Italian Grand Prix with two races to spare aboard the Lotus 79. In doing so, he became only the second World Drivers’ Champion from the United States, confirming his place among the sport’s true greats. 

Yet Andretti’s Indy 500 story followed a very different arc. His lone victory at the Brickyard came in 1969 — well before his F1 success — laying the foundations for a career that would go on to span multiple disciplines. That triumph followed a fiery practice crash in the Hawk-Ford, underlining both the danger of the event and the resilience required to conquer it. 

The scale of Andretti’s achievement becomes even clearer in context. Across 29 attempts between 1965 and 1994, he would win the Indy 500 just once, a stark illustration of how merciless this race can be. Despite three pole positions and seven top three grid starts, Andretti was repeatedly denied by mechanical heartbreak, often while holding commanding leads with only a handful of laps remaining. After taking fifth in his final classified finish in 1993 for Newman-Haas, Andretti bowed out a year later with early retirement in his last start. 

Emerson Fittipaldi

Emerson Fittipaldi became the youngest F1 World Champion in 1972 with the Lotus 72 before adding another title to his name in 1974 with McLaren. After walking away from F1 at the end of 1980 following a loyal but lean five-year stint with his brother’s Fittipaldi Automotive team, the Brazilian legend reinvented himself in America.

His Indy 500 tenure was as dramatic as it was successful; he made his debut in 1984, finishing 32^nd after an early oil pressure failure, but he soon became a master of the Brickyard. The breakthrough came in 1989 for Patrick Racing, where he clinched victory after a heart-stopping, wheel-to-wheel duel with Al Unser Jr. that ended with "Little Al" in the wall.  

He proved it was no fluke four years later, taking a second win for the famous Penske squad in 1993. Across 11 Indy 500 starts, Fittipaldi secured two wins, a pole position, and several podiums, becoming a rare example of a driver who truly conquered both sides of the Atlantic with F1 and IndyCar.  

Jacques Villeneuve

Jacques Villeneuve became just the second driver, after Andretti, to win the F1 World Championship, the CART title and the Indianapolis 500. He was also Canada’s first F1 World Champion, sealing the crown in 1997 after finishing runner-up to Williams team-mate Damon Hill at the end of an emphatic debut season.  

By the time Villeneuve arrived in F1 for the first time his reputation was already firmly established. A reigning CART Champion and one of the most scrutinised young drivers in world motorsport, he carried enormous expectation as the son of the beloved Gilles Villeneuve, but the comparisons didn’t end there.

His career was defined by fast starts, and he delivered immediately on that promise in 1994, producing a statement performance to finish second on debut in Forsythe/Green’s Reynard-Ford, just 8.6 seconds behind winner Al Unser Jr. 

Twelve months later, in the final Indy 500 before the acrimonious split between CART and IRL, Villeneuve secured sensational last-gasp victory, charging back from two laps down to bolster his title assault and complete one of the most dramatic ever wins at the Brickyard. Fittingly, his Team Green Reynard carried the iconic #27 made famous by his father at Ferrari.  

Today, Villeneuve has turned his hand to historic racing with appearances at the Goodwood Revival, where, in 2026, he is set to feature in the all-star RAC TT Celebration at the wheel of the famous CUT 7 Jaguar E-type — the car that won this grandstand race last year.

Together, these five drivers represent a rare multi-discipline crossover. Each competed at the highest level in contests that carried fundamentally different demands and conditions, and their achievements were built on adaptability and sound judgement, rather than specialisation. 

That only five have managed to complete this rare accomplishment speaks volumes. Even the great Fernando Alonso has tried but failed to make it six, and who knows if anyone will ever manage it again.

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Main image courtesy of Getty Images.