Kimi Raikkonen achieved Ferrari’s 200th pole position in qualifying for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix.
The Italian team are far ahead of their rivals in terms of total pole positions, with McLaren on 135 and Williams on 125.
Here’s a complete breakdown of their achievement including every driver who scored a pole position for Ferrari.
Ferrari’s landmark pole positions
First pole position: Jose Froilan Gonzalez, 1951 British Grand Prix
50th pole position: Jacky Ickx, 1970 German Grand Prix
100th pole position: Patrick Tambay, 1983 South African Grand Prix
150th pole position: Michael Schumacher, 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix
200th pole position: Kimi Raikkonen, 2008 French Grand Prix
Top three teams with the most pole positions
Ferrari have the most pole positions and the most per race start with 26%. McLaren are second overall but Williams still have a better strike rate.
Who scored Ferrari’s 200 pole positions?
58 Michael Schumacher
23 Niki Lauda
13 Alberto Ascari
12 Felipe Massa
11 Rubens Barrichello
11 Jacky Ickx
7 Gerhard Berger
6 Juan Manuel Fangio
6 Phil Hill
5 Kimi Raikkonen
4 Rene Arnoux
4 Patrick Tambay
4 Clay Regazzoni
4 John Surtees
4 Mike Hawthorn
3 Nigel Mansell
3 Jose Froilan Gonzalez
3 Chris Amon
3 Giuseppi Farina
2 Gilles Villeneuve
2 Carlos Reutemann
2 Didier Pironi
2 Tony Brooks
2 Michele Alboreto
1 Wolfganf von Trips
1 Jean Alesi
1 Jody Scheckter
1 Lorenzo Bandini
1 Mario Andretti
1 Mike Parkes
Where have Ferrari’s 200 pole positions got them?
| Finishing position | # times achived from pole position |
| 1 | 88 |
| 2 | 36 |
| 3 | 8 |
| 4 | 9 |
| 5 | 4 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 1 |
| 8 | 3 |
| 9 | 4 |
| 16 | 1 |
| 18 | 1 |
| DNF | 42 |
One of the finishing positions is unknown because tomorrow’s race hasn’t been run yet.
There is only one starting position a Ferrari has appeared in more often than pole position, which is third place (204 times).
Most pole positions: all teams
1 Ferrari 200
2 McLaren 135
3 Williams 125
4 Lotus 107
5 Renault 50
6 Brabham 39
7 Benetton 15
8 Tyrrell 14
9 Alfa Romeo 12
=10 Cooper 11
=10 BRM 11
12 Maserati 10
13 Ligier 9
14 Mercedes 8
15 Vanwall 7
16 Kurtis Kraft 6
17 March 5
18 Matra 4
19 Shadow 3
=20 Lancia 2
=20 Watson 2
=20 Jordan 2
=20 BAR 2
=20 Toyota 2
=20 Honda 2
=26 Stevens 1
=26 Lesovsky 1
=26 Ewing 1
=26 Lola 1
=26 Porsche 1
=26 Wolf 1
=26 Arrows 1
=26 Toleman 1
=26 Stewart 1
=26 BMW 1
Lady Snowcat
21st June 2008, 20:24
Didn’t Kimi get their 100th win too?…
Robert McKay
21st June 2008, 21:31
19 years between pole no. 1 and no. 50.
13 years betwen 50 and 100.
Just 6 years between 150-200.
Ok, there’s obviously much more races per season nowadays, but still, that’s scary.
Shane
21st June 2008, 22:29
It’s cool that Lotus have been gone so long but are still 4th on that list. And yes getting the last 50 poles in just the last six years is a scary improvement.
Daniel
21st June 2008, 22:46
Surprised to see that Massa is already the fourth greatest Ferrari pole sitter, and soon (I hope) will be third. Even Lauda’s score is pretty possible to match…
Sassan
21st June 2008, 22:52
Yeah but now fuel effects their qualyfying pace nowadays unlike when Lauda would qualify on a full fuel tank. so really back thn it would be a test of the fastest. Also drivers racing for an amount of time and the amount of races there are also have an effect.
Terry Fabulous
21st June 2008, 22:58
Great research Keith,
I’m going to come out and say that the greatest Ferrari pole was Mario Andretti at the Italian GP 1982. It was the year that Giles had died and Pironi had had his terrible accident so they called over the old man from the States who STUFFED IT ON POLE AT MONZA!!!
Daniel
21st June 2008, 23:32
Sassan, agreed, but since 2007 you could use Q2 fastest lap times as a safer parameter for the fastest driver.
Still, I don’t think we should simply throw away pole positions on the current system, especially when the driver who made ends up showing he was heavier than his team-mate in qualyfing, by making his pit stop later…
fifan
22nd June 2008, 3:47
Lady Snowcat : Kimi Raikkonen’s victory in the Chinese Grand Prix was the 200th Grand Prix win for Ferrari.
Eric M.
22nd June 2008, 7:47
I’m very surprised that Alain Prost isn’t on that list with at least one. He spent two seasons with Ferrari, and was even challenging for the WDC in 1990. I would have thought he’d have managed at least one pole position during that time.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd June 2008, 8:08
Eric M – I thought the same so I double-checked but no, Prost never scored a pole position for Ferrari. Neither did Eddie Irvine.
Alex Andronov
22nd June 2008, 8:45
Great stats. I’d love to see one more though, Drivers ordered by strike rate…
If people say it’s because drivers are racing for longer these days then it would be good to see that taken into account. My guess is Schumi is still going to be top of the tree, but it’s hard to know for sure…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd June 2008, 9:24
Alex – Can you stick your suggestion in the Skribit box? I’ll try to do something on that.
Alex Andronov
22nd June 2008, 9:37
Keith, your wish is my command.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd June 2008, 9:41
Thank you – everyone else, if you like Alex’s suggestion, vote for it! I’m already working on posts based on some of the ideas in there.
George
25th June 2008, 17:10
Prost’s lack of a Ferrari pole is not that surprising – he only drove one competitive Ferrari (in 1990) and that was at the height of the period when Senna made the pole virtually his own personal fiefdom. However, it is worth remembering that Prost scored one of Ferrari’s more remarkable victories in 1990, in Mexico, from a lowly 13th on the grid – which is, of course, a true mark of the Professor’s quality.