Ferrari’s record points streak comes to an end

2014 Japanese Grand Prix stats and facts

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Ferrari’s difficult season continued in Japan where they failed to score a point for the first time since the 2010 British Grand Prix.

In that time they had scored points in 81 consecutive races, beating McLaren’s previous record of 64 which was set last year.

None of Ferrari’s engine customers finished in the top ten either, meaning there were no Ferrari-powered points scorers, which last happened at the 2009 Singapore Grand Prix.

Mercedes now have the longest running points-scoring streak for a team: 35 races, which began at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, the race before Lewis Hamilton joined them.

The W05s were in their usual imperious form at Suzuka: they locked out the front row of the grid and finished one-two, both for the eighth time this year. If they continue to finish one-two in all of the four remaining races, Nico Rosberg must win at least three of them including the double points finale to beat Hamilton to the drivers’ championship.

Mercedes’ one-two finish would have clinched the constructors’ championship had the Red Bulls finished further down. That didn’t happen, but Mercedes have a much stronger chance of wrapping up the title in Russia this weekend.

Hamilton’s eighth victory of the season means he now has twice as many wins as his team mate, and Rosberg cannot end the season with more wins than him. It was the 30th win of Hamilton’s career – one more will see him tie with Nigel Mansell as the most successful British driver in terms of race wins.

Rosberg took pole position for the eighth time this year. With Hamilton on six, if Rosberg wins two more he will become the inaugural winner of the FIA’s pole position trophy, which was introduced this year. It was the 12th pole of Rosberg’s career, putting him level with Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard.

Hamilton’s sixth fastest lap gives him one more than Rosberg so far this season, and moves him on to 19 for his career so far. That puts him level with childhood hero Ayrton Senna, as well as Stirling Moss, Damon Hill and Mark Webber.

Rosberg led his 400th lap of the season – but the next time by Hamilton took the lead off him. By the end of the race, however, Hamilton had still led fewer laps this season than his team mate – 362.

Vettel, Alonso and Bottas out of title race

Third place for Sebastian Vettel means he has still never failed to appear on the podium in six visits to Suzuka. However he is no longer able to retain the championship crown he won for the last four seasons.

Team mate Daniel Ricciardo is now the only person who can stop one of the Mercedes drivers from winning this year’s championship. This may have a bearing on team orders at Red Bull, but with Vettel having already announced he is leaving the team at the end of the season, he wouldn’t have much incentive to follow them.

Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso are also officially out of the championship hunt. The latter had his second retirement due to a mechanical fault in three races, having had no such failures in the preceding 86 races.

However the Japanese Grand Prix will not be remembered for any of these milestones, but for the terrible crash suffered by Jules Bianchi which brought the race to an early end. It’s poignant to note that on lap 13 he crossed the start/finish line in fourth place – the highest position ever officially occupied by a Marussia.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Japanese Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2014 Japanese Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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34 comments on “Ferrari’s record points streak comes to an end”

  1. I think this was fourth race in F1 history which was stopped twice. 1987 Austrian and 1990 Belgian Grand Prix’s were stopped twice due to first or second lap incidents. 1981 Belgian Grand Prix was stopped after that infamous startline incident (although that stoppage was more up to the drivers themselves) and then restarted race was stopped due to rain.

    1. @bleu What about Malaysia 2009?

      1. Started normally, stopped when rain got heavy and the race was never restarted.

    2. Does the 1991 Australian Grand Prix count as well

      1. From memory that race was only red flagged once as well.

  2. Did this race also mark the first successful overtake between the Mercedes drivers? Of course in Bahrain Rosberg got by into T1, but Hamilton re-passed into T4.

    Two remarks: – Rosberg does not need to win all remaining races if they continue to finish one-two. If Rosberg wins at least three, including Abu Dhabi, then he is champion.
    – The last line of the fourth paragraph does not end.

    1. @adrianmorse “Did this race also mark the first successful overtake between the Mercedes drivers? Of course in Bahrain Rosberg got by into T1, but Hamilton re-passed into T4.”

      HEY! That’s my stat! :)

      I think so which would mean: It took untill Japan for one of the two Mercedes drivers to overtake the other succesfulluy in a normal racing situation (excluding starts, DNFs, SC and MM (MonzaMistakes))

      1. No, that’s MY stat!! :)

    2. @adrianmorse Thanks I’ve corrected that.

  3. Like the Jenson – scored more points than Lewis in 3 years, Nico needs to pick up on the, “I led more races than Lewis” mantra….

  4. Lap 13…
    Seriously, what is it with this number?

    1. Or that accidents keep happening to people who have waited for a Ferrari drive (Massa, Schumacher, Kubica, Bianchi)? Hulkenberg better make sure he gets to 2016 in one piece..

      1. And Webber wasn’t exactly accident-free either.

  5. Dear God, Kimi is useless. I can’t imagine many people doing much worse than him. Than again, he was beating Grosjean and was in the running for the WDC in 2012. I guess Alonso really is indispensable. I’m hoping that he stays at Ferrari and that Alison delivers the goods. Engine might lack a bit, but it should be much closer to Mercedes’ unit, since they have much more room for improvement.

    1. I think Alonso must have a very particular way of setting up a car, no one seems to be able to perform well initially when partnering him.

    2. Virtualexpert
      9th October 2014, 0:19

      Alonso has singlehandedly been keeping Ferrari in the points for years. No pressure, Vettel! And he didn’t have a No 1 driver contract either, otherwise Kimi could never have got an equal treatment contract as you can’t have conflicting contracts. The points hauls are pure talent. If Alonso gets in a Mercedes he’ll be having a laugh.

  6. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    8th October 2014, 13:42

    With his 8th win of the season Hamilton moved into a very short list high up the multiple wins per season list. With 4 races to go he has a real chance to surpass Mansell.
    6 wins: Hunt, Massa, Andretti, Ascari, Button, Fangio and Stewart.
    7 wins: Villeneuve, Raikkonen, Clark, Alonso and Prost
    8 wins: Hamilton, Hakkinen, Hill and Senna
    9 wins: Mansell
    13 wins: Vettel and Schumacher

    What I find interesting is that despite longer season these days above list is dominated by retired drivers rather than current F1 drivers 6 of 19 names are current F1 driver.

    1. You’re right, but your list only futures the most wins per season of those drivers.
      Michael Schumacher is about 9 times on that list.
      1994: 8 wins
      1995: 9 wins
      1998: 6 wins
      2000: 9 wins
      2001: 9 wins
      2002: 11 wins
      2003: 6 wins
      2004: 13 wins
      2006: 7 wins

    2. @jelle-van-der-meer It used to be ‘easier’ to produce a dominant car?

      1. Or, if you look at @jlracing‘s list, its pretty clear that in the recent past many of those possible wins were dominated by a single person, it shows Schumacher, but I am sure Vettel took that one over in the last several years, leaving little scope for others

    3. @jelle-van-der-meer

      I’m not sure the list doesn’t support the hypothesis that longer recent seasons lead to greater likelihood of large numbers of win per season.

      By my count there are 32 WDC winners and your list includes 18 of them (plus Massa). Those 18 include all of the last 12 WDC winners (ordered by first title won) going back to Prost. The other 6 are spread over the 1950s to 1970s (6 out of 20 WDC winners).

  7. ColdFly F1 (@)
    8th October 2014, 13:50

    7th Mercedes fastest lap in a row.
    I believe longest stint since DHL started awarding fastest lap trophey.

    1. Mercedes can actually set fastest lap all season, but the drivers maintain a disciplined aproach and only go fast when they need to. No glory fastest lap just for the record like we used to see Vettel and Kimi do.

  8. Very nice stat about Bianchi at the end.

    Nico Rosberg is suffering his longest winless drought this year, now on five races without a win.

    Sebastian Vettel finished ahead of Daniel Ricciardo for the second race in a row for the first time this year, it’s also the first time he has had two podiums on the bounce this season. He also is now ahead of Fernando Alonso in the championship.

    Jean-Eric Vergne has scored 72% of Toro Rosso’s points this year so far. Only Fernando Alonso (75%), Jules Bianchi and Romain Grosjean (100% each) have scored better.

    Marcus Ericsson had arguably his strongest weekend: outqualifying and finishing ahead of the other Caterham and both Marussias.

    It was the first race in which Fernando Alonso was the only driver to not be classified. It is the first time that Alonso has suffered two non-finishes due to mechanical problems since 2006 (Hungary, Italy).

    Jenson Button finished ahead of both Williams cars for the fourth time this season. Nico Hulkenberg finished ahead of Sergio Perez for the first time since Germany.

    It was the eighth Mercedes 1-2 of the season. Three more will see them surpass McLaren’s 1988 season. It’s not out of the realms of possibility.

    Kimi Raikkonen finished 12th for the third time this year.

    1. Did Bianchi get up to 2nd before pitting? I think he was definitely in a podium position when he came in..

  9. About Bianchi.. His racing number is 17, and he was in 17th place when he crashed. Also during the first red flag he was driving in 17th position #ForzaJules

  10. Ferrari started so strong, but somehow they failed horribly in Japan. The performance seems to be there, but they aren’t able to extract it. Will be tough to beat Williams..

  11. Mercedes tweeted this cool stat after the race:
    8th pole & 8th 2nd place for Rosberg, 8th win for Hamilton, 8th front row & 8th 1-2 for Mercedes, all achieved at a figure of 8 circuit.

  12. Read that Kimi said his front end setup problems were back in Japan in the wet or dry. Plus, a long pit stop put him out of the top 10 for the rest of the race. Not sure what happened in the pit stop.

    1. Looking at the pit stops Raikkonen stopped 4 times as opposed to 2 or 3 stops. That would probably be a factor for finishing 12th.

  13. Rosberg became the first driver in F1 history who claimed 8 2nd places in the same season

    Only one car not classified, the last time was in the United States GP 2013

  14. 7th race in a row in which the Red Bull who started ahead was classified behind.

    Maldonado’s grid penalty means that Chilton is still yet to start a race from 22nd this year (he has started 21st 7 times).

    Lotus, Williams and Caterham were the only teams where the driver who started higher was also classified higher (if we were to use qualification position before penalties rather than actual starting positions then Lotus would be replaced by Toro Rosso).

    Under the 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system, Rosberg would be 1 point ahead of Hamilton.

    And some from magnetimarelli.com:

    First time a Mercedes-powered car has managed pole in Suzuka.

    24th track at which Hamilton has started from the front row – equals M Schumacher, trails Prost (30).

    34th consecutive race without a McLaren on the front row – longest since 1978-81.

    20th different track on which Hamilton has won – equals Vettel, trails M Schumacher (23) and Prost (22).

    All 4 British wins at Suzuka have come from 2nd on the grid.

    3 of Hamilton’s last 4 wins have come by passing Rosberg for the lead on lap 29.

    Hamilton’s 8th win of the season – either he will win the title or become the first driver ever to win 8 races in a season and not win the title that season.

  15. Can I blame it on Raikkonen?

  16. Not to be morbid, but was Max Verstappen the only F1 driver to have ever been involved in a weekend without an F1 death his lifetime? (barring the early years). I can’t remember how many 18/19/20yr olds have been in practice in the last 3 years.

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