Sport's worst-ever championship title defences

The British driver is looking to make history for the right reasons, however, and not join the likes of Damon Hill in suffering misfortunes severe enough to blow any chance of winning a race - let alone a world title.

Ahead of the F1 curtain raiser, we have compiled a list of some of the worst title defences in all sports, from France’s disastrous 2002 World Cup to England’s 2006-07 Ashes.

The worst championship defences in sport history

Damon Hill - F1 1997

Hill found himself cast out of Williams after winning the 1996 Formula One world championship for the team and, short of options, chose to join the unheralded Arrows outfit.

While the defending champion had ambitions of winning races with his new team, he ended up suffering multiple retirements and was robbed of a victory in Hungary when his car suffered issues in the final stages.

Hill came 12th in the final standings, with his ultimate second place at Hungaroring his only podium, and he signed for Jordan for 1998.

France - Men’s World Cup 2002

France arrived in Japan and South Korea as hot favourites for the 2002 World Cup, having won both the 1998 edition on home soil and Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands.

However, a team boasting Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet, Fabian Barthez, Marcel Desillay, Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane went out in the group stage having failed to score one goal.

Les Bleus’ opening match defeat to Senegal went down as one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history.

Lleyton Hewitt - Men’s singles, Wimbledon 2003

Number one seed Lleyton Hewitt opened the play on Wimbledon’s Centre Court in 2003, having lifted the trophy the previous year. But he wouldn’t last more than one match on his defence.

Australian Hewitt was downed 1-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 by the big serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who was ranked 203 in the world.

"It will probably sink in tomorrow and the next day, probably more so than today,” Hewitt said afterwards. Roger Federer went onto win his first championship.

Chelsea - Premier League 2015-16

Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge delivered the 2014-15 title, and then perhaps the worst campaign of any defending champions in Premier League history.

While David Moyes delivered an infamous first season after Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United and Leicester were almost relegated after their famous win, Chelsea’s sudden decline was perhaps the greatest ever shock.

Mourinho was sacked in December, with Chelsea 14th in the league and replaced by Gus Hiddink, who led the Blues to tenth as Leicester were memorably champions.

USA - Women’s World Cup 2023

The United States were the two-time defending champions when they arrived in Australia and New Zealand for the 2023 Women’s World Cup - but left after the round of 16.

An all-star team was eliminated by Sweden, making it the first time that the defending champions had not made at least the quarter finals.

Prior to this, the US had only just made it past the group stage, where they drew to both Portugal and the Netherlands after beating Vietnam.

England - Men’s Ashes 2006-07

If England’s 2025-26 Ashes campaign was bad, it was far more humiliating 20 years’ previous when Andrew Flintoff’s team were annihilated down under.

Australia beat the Tourists 5-0, the first whitewash of a series since 1920-21, leading to a postmortem of the English cricket side which had won the Ashes in 2005.

England were able to regain the Ashes in 2009.

Chris Froome - Tour de France 2014

Chris Froome won the Tour on its 100th anniversary in 2013 and was a big favourite for the following year - but lasted only five of the 23 stages before retiring.

The Team Sky rider crashed on stages four and five before succumbing to his injuries and walking away from the race as Vincenzo Nibali won.

Britain’s Froome returned to win the second of his four yellow jerseys in 2015.