List of Formula One driver numbers

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In Formula One, each car is numbered. Since the inaugural Formula One World Championship in 1950, several numbering systems have been used. This list covers the numbers used by drivers since the start of the 2014 Formula One season, when drivers have been allowed to choose a number that they would carry throughout their career.^[1]

From 1950 to 1973, driver numbers were allocated by the organisers of each event, with no consistent method deployed across events.^[2] In 1974 a consistent race-to-race numbering system was first implemented in Formula One, based on the 1973 Constructors' Championship results. These assigned numbers were supposed to stay with their teams as long as they were part of Formula 1 or until they ran the reigning World Drivers' Champion, in which case they would swap numbers with the team previously running numbers 1 and 2. In the event of the drivers' champion not returning, no swap would take place, and number 0 would be used instead of 1 – this only occurred in 1993 and 1994 with Damon Hill. A little over two decades later, in 1995, the system was changed again. The numbers would change every year, as the previous season's Constructors' Championship standings would be used to determine the order from numbers 3 and 4 downwards, with the team of the World Drivers' Champion still getting numbers 1 and 2. In 2014, it was decided to introduce the current system, where each driver gets to choose a permanent number.^[3]

Drivers were initially allowed to choose any number from 2 through 99; number 1 is reserved for the World Drivers' Champion. The number 17 was retired in 2015 as a mark of respect to Jules Bianchi, who died that year from injuries sustained in a crash at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix while carrying the number.^[4]

A permanent number can only be reallocated if the driver associated with that number has not participated in a race for two entire consecutive seasons;^[5] for example, a driver picking their number for 2025 can not choose numbers which were last used in 2023 or 2024, unless the number was issued temporarily by the FIA. For instance, Jenson Button's number 22 would have been available for re-allocation in 2019 after his departure from full-time racing in 2016, but an appearance in the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix replacing Fernando Alonso (who was participating in the 2017 Indianapolis 500 on that weekend instead), meant that his number could not be reassigned until 2020 at the earliest. Yuki Tsunoda subsequently picked that number (22) for the 2021 Formula One World Championship.