Editor's Note: The Most Conceited Number in Formula 1

1 Editor's Letter Paul-Henri Cahier - Getty Images When Emerson Fittipaldi won his first Formula 1 drivers’ championship in 1972, his beautiful black and gold cigarette advertisement wore nine different car numbers through the 12-race season. This story originally appeared in Volume 34 of Road & Track. In those days, the organizers of each race basically assigned car numbers.

Imagine such a thing happening in today’s merch-centric, celebrity-driver era? Car numbers have always been an easy shorthand for driver names, usefully requiring fewer characters and therefore less space, but today they’re also part of a driver’s portfolio of brand attributes. All of this numbers talk takes me simultaneously to a warehouse about an hour’s drive from Barcelona and to my living room couch.

First, my couch. Watching a race last year, my teenage daughter said to me, “I mean, it seems kind of conceited! ” We were talking about how Max Verstappen’s car carried the No.

1 and she thought that was an unnecessary flex. It must be said that she does not care for Verstappen’s demeanor. I pointed out to her that traditionally the drivers’ champion gets the option of using the No.