Championship Watch
James Hunt won the 1976 Drivers' Championship for McLaren. Final 1976 standings — every driver and constructor ranked by points and wins.
James Hunt won the 1976 Formula 1 World Drivers' Championship driving for McLaren, finishing on 66 points, 2 clear of Niki Lauda. Hunt won 6 races that season.
Ferrari took the Constructors' Championship with 79 points, 8 ahead of McLaren.
7 different drivers won a Grand Prix, and 20 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.
James Hunt leads the 1976 Drivers Championship with 66 points, holding a 2-point advantage over Niki Lauda (Ferrari). A gap of fewer than 25 points — one race win — means the title race remains mathematically open every single weekend.
In the 1976 Constructors Championship, Ferrari leads with 79 points — a 8-point margin over McLaren. 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.