One of the hardest accomplishments in motorsport is winning a championship, to the point that the only challenge more difficult is winning a second.
Whilst it may initially appear that winning a championship gives that driver an advantage going into the new season, motorsport changes so rapidly that an entire series can rapidly shift on a year-by-year basis.
Different rules for motorsport gears, aerodynamics, engine output and technical features can make a driver who felt completely in their element one year struggle heavily the next as they and their struggle to adapt to a new normal.
Here are some of the worst-ever championship defences in Motorsport
Damon Hill – 1997
Absolutely no part of Damon Hill’s Formula One career was as you might expect, from debuting in
F1 at the age of 32, the controversial ending to his 1994 title campaign at Adelaide to his final win in the typically unheralded Jordan car.
However, the strangest part of his career happened after he won the world championship in 1996.
He was surprisingly released from the Williams team despite this success and would be lured by money and promises of a competitive car by Tom Walkinshaw’s Arrows team.
The first step of his title defence was a complete disaster, nearly failing to qualify for the first race in Melbourne before failing to start the race.
This alongside six other retirements and a car that struggled with reliability left him with a total of seven points, six of which scored thanks to a phenomenal second place at Hungary.
Nelson Piquet – 1982
Nelson Piquet had won the world championship by a single point in 1981 and would win twice more in 1983 and 1987. However, his 1982 title defence would be an infamous part of an infamous year for the sport.
The combination of the bizarre ground effect aerodynamics and the debut of highly powerful turbocharged engines led to a failure to qualify and only four finishes throughout the year, the most memorable part of which was a fistfight with backmarker Eliseo Salazar.
Jody Scheckter – 1980
Statistically the worst full title defence season in the history of F1, Jody Scheckter’s season started with three DNFs, the result of a Ferrari engine that simply was not good enough for the ground effect era F1 found itself in.
After failing to qualify in Canada and only scoring two points thanks to a fifth place at Long Beach, the 1979 World Champion retired from the sport entirely, and it would take another two decades for a Ferrari, this time at the hands of Michael Schumacher, to win the world championship.