Championship Watch
Jack Brabham won the 1959 Drivers' Championship for Cooper-Climax. Final 1959 standings — every driver and constructor ranked by points and wins.
Jack Brabham won the 1959 Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship driving for Cooper-Climax, finishing on 31 points, 4 clear of Tony Brooks. Brabham won 2 races that season.
Cooper-Climax took the Constructors' Championship with 40 points, 8 ahead of Ferrari.
6 different drivers won a Grand Prix, and 19 drivers scored championship points.
Championships in this era were decided on a "best results" basis — drivers counted only their highest-scoring finishes towards the title, so season totals can differ from the sum of every race result. Dropped scores were abolished from 1991.
Standings compiled from the Ergast/Jolpica Formula 1 results archive. Spotted an error? Tell us.
Jack Brabham leads the 1959 Drivers Championship with 31 points, holding a 4-point advantage over Tony Brooks (Ferrari). A gap of fewer than 25 points — one race win — means the title race remains mathematically open every single weekend.
In the 1959 Constructors Championship, Cooper-Climax leads with 40 points — a 8-point margin over Ferrari. The Constructors title is decided by the combined points haul of a team's two drivers from every race, making car reliability, pit stop execution, and strategic pairing as important as raw pace.
The current FIA points system awards points to the top ten finishers in every Grand Prix: 25–18–15–12–10–8–6–4–2–1. An additional point goes to the driver who sets the fastest lap of the race, provided they finish inside the top ten. Sprint events — held on Saturday at select rounds — offer a separate points structure: 8–7–6–5–4–3–2–1 for the top eight finishers, counting toward both championships independently of the main race result.
A driver must hold an FIA Super Licence and score at least one championship point to register on the standings. DNFs score zero, but a classified finish — completing at least 90% of the race distance — earns the driver’s finishing position even without a points reward.