Triple Crown of Motorsport: Races, previous winners, history

Consisting of the three single greatest motor racing challenges, the Triple Crown is an unofficial accolade that only one driver in history has been able to accomplish.

Merging Formula 1 with IndyCar and endurance racing, the Triple Crown comprises of the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix.

Debate has raged as to whether the F1 World Championship should be included instead of the Monaco Grand Prix, although the prestigious crown jewel of the F1 calendar remains included by popular demand.

Which three races make up the Triple Crown?

Indianapolis 500

A 200-lap extravaganza, the Indianapolis 500 is the ultimate test of bravery and commitment as drivers navigate the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval at speeds of over 220mph.

The race is contested by the IndyCar series but the field typically attracts some of the world's greatest drivers as guest entries.

Fernando Alonso is arguably the most notable name to feature in Indy 500, while former McLaren F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya was an entrant in 2022 and 2023.

24 Hours of Le Mans

The ultimate test of endurance, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a race that is revered worldwide. It's not about who is the fastest, but who is most durable.

Teams will take to the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans and race for 24 hours, with modern competitors covering in excess of 5,000km - the equivalent of driving straight across from London to New York.

With teams consisting of a minimum of three drivers to share the workload through the night and into the next day, the 24 Hours of Le Mans pushes machines to the extreme, testing every component to the maximum.

Likened to a “high-speed game of chess”, several household names in the car industry have triumphed at Le Mans, including Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar and Bentley.

Monaco Grand Prix

It's the race that every F1 driver dreams of winning.

Arguably the most iconic race track in existence, the Circuit de Monaco is set in the heart of Monte Carlo before a grand, yacht-filled harbour as drivers navigate 78 laps of the 3.337km-long circuit.

There is no room for error around Monaco as the circuit requires complete precision; just glance at when Ayrton Senna crashed out of the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix despite leading by just shy of 50 seconds.

Several world champions have triumphed on the streets of Monaco, but not all of them, including the likes of Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell.

Previous Triple Crown Winners

Graham Hill is the only driver to have accomplished the Triple Crown of Motorsport, and he even completed the alternate version by winning two F1 drivers' titles.

Hill won five times at Monaco, landing the first of his successes in 1963 before adding two more victories to his belt before winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1966.

The former Lotus driver added his fourth and fifth triumphs at the Principality in 1968 and 1969 prior to completing the Triple Crown in 1972, helping Matra to claim a famous victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

McLaren are the only racing team to have achieved the Triple Crown.

Has any other driver come close to completing the Triple Crown?

Several drivers have won two of the three events, including notable faces from Formula 1.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso won not once, but twice at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018 and 2019, over a decade on from his last Monaco Grand Prix success in 2006.

Alonso contested the Indy 500 in 2017, 2019, and 2020, although his best finish is 21st having experienced mechanical issues in two of his three attempts.

The legendary Bruce McLaren is another to have won at Monaco and Le Mans, along with 1970 F1 world champion Jochen Rindt and Frenchman Maurice Trintignant.

Other than Hill, Juan Pablo Montoya is the only driver to win Indy 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix, while A. J. Foyt is the only other individual to succeed at Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

F1 world champions Jim Clark, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Jacques Villenueve have also triumphed in the famed Indianapolis race, although all four have never won at Monaco.