They may not have always finished in the same positions, but Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel have appeared on all of the first three podiums of the 2015 season.
That is the first time such an occurrence has happened at the start of a Formula 1 season.
For the second time in three races, Hamilton stood atop the podium with Rosberg to his right and Vettel to his left. With Vettel winning in Malaysia, Rosberg is the only driver to have stood on the podium in 2015 but not on the top step.
Vettel is the second Ferrari driver in history to have finished his first three races for the Scuderia on the podium – the other being his current team mate Kimi Raikkonen who, like Vettel, took one win and two third place finishes in his first three races for Ferrari in 2007.
Hamilton’s impressive numbers
Lewis Hamilton’s second win of the season was also his fourth in China, making him comfortably the most successful driver at the Shanghai International Circuit. It was another dominant performance from the Mercedes driver, who recorded his second hat trick (pole, win, fastest lap) of the 2015 season (the other being Australia) and the seventh of his career.
Hamilton’s win was also his tenth consecutive podium appearance, stretching back to Monza last year, which is the fifth-longest run in the sport’s history. Hamilton needs one more podium in Bahrain to equal Sebastian Vettel’s personal record of 11 consecutive podiums – which he has achieved twice – but will need to appear on every podium up to the Singapore Grand Prix if he is to break Michael Schumacher’s all-time record streak of 19.
The world champion has also now led 12 consecutive races from Hungary last year, the joint fifth-longest run of all time. Once again, Hamilton needs to lead just one lap in Bahrain to match Sebastian Vettel’s longest run. Hamilton has now also led 1,956 laps in his career, jumping Sir Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark to sixth on the all-time list.
Safety car finishes
After Max Verstappen’s Renault engine decided to spontaneously ground to a halt along the pit straight in the closing laps of Sunday’s race, the Chinese Grand Prix became the seventh race in F1 history to have finished under the Safety Car.
List of races that have finished under Safety Car conditions:
- 1999 Canadian Grand Prix – accident involving Heinz-Harald Frentzen at Turn Three
- 2009 Australian Grand Prix – Robert Kubica crashes at Turn Five after contact with Sebastian Vettel
- 2009 Italian Grand Prix – Lewis Hamilton crashes at the Lesmos on the final lap
- 2010 Monaco Grand Prix – accident at Rascasse involving Jarno Trulli and Karun Chandhok
- 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix – Paul di Resta aquaplanes into the barriers along pit straight
- 2014 Canadian Grand Prix – final lap crash involving Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez
- 2015 Chinese Grand Prix – Max Verstappen’s Toro Rosso breaks down on pit straight
Fernando Alonso also saw the chequered flag in a McLaren on Sunday for the first time since the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix. It was only the second time the double world champion had finished a race in 12th position – the first being on his Formula 1 debut in Australia 2001.
Lotus scored their first points of the season with Romain Grosjean coming home in seventh place, but after a torrid afternoon for Pastor Maldonado ended with the Venezulean forced out after contact with Jenson Button, Maldonado remains the only driver yet to finish a race this season aside from Kevin Magnussen.
After his contact with Maldonado, Jenson Button received the first penalty points on his super license from the FIA.
Manor Marussia recorded their first double finish in China since they were revived at the beginning of the year, with Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi classified in 15th and 16th places respectively, two laps down.
Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2015 F1 championship points
- 2015 F1 season records
- 2015 F1 race data
- 2015 F1 qualifying data
- 2015 F1 retirements and penalties
- 2015 F1 strategy and pit stops
- 2015 F1 driver form guides
Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Chinese Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2015 Chinese Grand Prix
- Driver of the Weekend wins for Hamilton & Raikkonen
- 2015 Chinese Grand Prix team radio transcript
- Chinese GP round sees 18 perfect predictions
- Top ten pictures from the 2015 Chinese Grand Prix
- Vote for your 2015 Chinese Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th April 2015, 11:32
Most consecutive wins for a team; Mercedes have won the last 1 races (HAM 1, ROS 0). McLaren holds the record with 11 races (Senna 7, Prost 4) in 1988. Ferrari stalled at 10 races (MSC 6, BAR 4) in 2002, Red Bull ended its streak at 9 races (VET 9, WEB 0) in 2013 and Williams never went higher than 7 races (Prost 4, Hill 3) in 1993. Mercedes were on 8 races (HAM 7, ROS 1). With Vettel winning in Malaysia this streak had ended.
Most consecutive podiums for a team; Mercedes have now finished on the podium in each of the last 22 races. Ferrari holds the record with 53 during 1999-2002, McLaren and Red Bull managed 19 during 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 respectively.
Most consecutive pole positions for a team; Mercedes have now started from pole 13 (ROS 8, HAM 5) times. Williams holds the record with 24 (Prost 13, Mansell 8 Hill 2, Patrese 1) during 1992-1993. McLaren and Red Bull have had runs of 17 (SEN 14, Prost 3) and 16 (VET 13, WEB 3) during 1988-1989 and 2010-2011 respectively. Surprisingly Ferrari never managed to get more than 7 (MSC 7, BAR 0), this was during 2000-2001. Ferrari’s last pole was in Germany with Alonso in 2012, Red Bull’s last pole was in Brazil 2013 and Williams’ last pole was in Austria 2014.
10th consecutive podium for Hamilton his longest run since also finishing 9 times on the podium in his first 9 races back in 2007.
11th consecutive front row start for Hamilton.
Sainz and Nasr have finished 100% of their first Formula One races, can they beat Chilton his streak of 25 races?
McLaren have not won for 41 races, a run that dates back to Brazil 2012. They went 48 races without a win from 1993-97.
Ferrari had not won since Spain in May 2013, which was the last time a team other than Mercedes or Red Bull won. Vettel ended the Ferrari drought with his win this Sunday.
Williams have not won since Spain in May 2012, a run of 56 races.
Red Bull have not won since Spa 2014, a run of 10 races.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th April 2015, 11:40
In Malaysia…
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2015, 11:35
Red Bull have not had a podium in any of the first 3 races, which is the first time since 2008. The last time Red Bull were not in the top 3 in any qualifying session of the first 3 races was also in 2008.
Williams have scored points in the last 22 consecutive races now, their longest points scoring streak ever. Previously, it was 19 races (Monaco 1991-Canada 1992).
12th is Fernando Alonso’s worst classified finishing position since Silverstone 2010, where he finished 14th.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2015, 11:46
Hamilton has finished every single race he has actually finished on the podium since Brazil 2013, that is a streak of 19 podiums (excluding non-finishes).
– Vettel’s longest streak is 14 (Monaco 2013-Malaysia 2014).
– Alonso has 15 (Turkey 2005-Canada 2006).
– Schumacher had 19 in a row (USA 2001-Japan 2002).
– Senna had 22 (San Marino 1989-Canada 1991)
– Prost had 17 (Brazil 1988-Monaco 1989)
The reason to why I excluded non-finishes is to negate the randomness of reliability and bad luck.
frood19 (@frood19)
14th April 2015, 12:43
it’s a nice stat but doesn’t take into account driver error (eg. senna crashing out of suzuka 1990)
Ciaran (@walsh-f1)
14th April 2015, 13:19
That example was more a case of driver intention.
hobo (@hobo)
14th April 2015, 16:22
I may be miscounting or something but for the Schumacher streak, he had 20 consecutive podiums (counting actual finishes) from European GP 2000 to Belgian GP 2001, had a 4th place in the following race (Italy 2001), and then had 19 consecutive podiums from USA 2001 through the entire 2002 season (no DNFs or retirements for 2002), which ended in Japan.
So just for context 39 of 40 consecutive podiums when finishing. As for the actual stat, I think 20 was his max.
@kingshark
Will Wood (@willwood)
14th April 2015, 13:01
@kingshark
That’s a good one. Wish I’d picked up on that.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
14th April 2015, 11:47
In the case of 2007 it was almost surprising that the first three podiums of the year were not the same three drivers as Alonso fell out of podium contention in the Mclaren. Otherwise the start to this season and that one would be quite similar. In 2007 Kimi went on to win the championship whilst the faster McLarens took points off each other in a hard fought internal struggle. Vettel might be the long shot for the title this year but looking back to 2007 he stands a good chance if Ferrari can continue to improve and the Mercedes continue to squabble. He has build a solid foundation for a potentially surprising WDC charge.
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 12:25
@jerseyf1 there’s a major difference between 2007 and 2015: in 2007 the McLarens were fighting each other and taking points off each other at various occasions.
I don’t see such an internal struggle at Mercedes. Hamilton is quicker and when both finish without some kind of problems, most of the time gains the upper hand and is ahead.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
14th April 2015, 15:22
@mattds I don’t actually expect it to happen, but when the pressure is on things can turn ugly.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2015, 22:22
@jerseyf1
There’s only one extremely unconventional problem for Ferrari:
In 2007, Ferrari were faster than McLaren around the majority of the season. The only reason to why McLaren ever had the championship lead to begin with is because Ferrari drivers making mistakes (Kimi in Monaco, Massa in Malaysia and Canada), and Ferrari’s reliability problems (Kimi in Spain and Nurburgring, Massa in Australia, Hungary & Monza).
Ferrari are not faster than Mercedes in 2015. They might have been in Malaysia, though Mercedes were clearly ahead in Australia and China.
I’m not sure anyone gets the idea from that McLaren was faster than Ferrari in 2007.
Polo (@polo)
14th April 2015, 16:02
@jerseyf1 Another difference is that the Ferrari and McLaren were much closer in 2007, whereas the Mercedes this year still has a sizeable advantage in ultimate pace when the tyres allow it. Ferrari will really need to out-develop Mercedes over the season to have a realistic shot at the title.
Also, I have always questioned the view that the McLaren was the better car in 2007. Given that Alonso has come very close to the title in inferior cars in the past (not to mention that he has separately dominated both 2007 Ferrari drivers when teammates), I have a hard time believing that he would lose out to a slower car in the championship. I think the Ferrari was likely the better car over the course of the season.
Ferrari took pole in the first four races (with the first three races having large margins of 0.3-0.4s in the Ferrari’s favour). It was only really the three races between Monaco – USA where the McLaren looked like the superior car, and by Britain the two cars were very closely matched again.
As the season progressed from that point on, McLaren’s car never looked any faster than Ferrari’s. If anything, Ferrari developed their car better and had the better car in the second half of the season – Ferrari took several dominant victories in the second half of the season, such as in Turkey where the Ferraris finished 25 seconds ahead of the nearest McLaren, at Spa they were 14 seconds ahead, and in the final race the two Ferraris finished almost 60 seconds ahead of Alonso even though Alonso had a clean race. McLaren’s four victories in the second half of the season were usually more marginal: Alonso’s win in Germany came after he inherited the lead when polesitter Raikkonen missed the pit entry, Hamilton only won the Hungarian GP by 0.7s from Raikkonen, and Hamilton’s win in Japan came in torrential wet conditions that mixed everything up. McLaren’s only dominant victory in that time came in Monza, but that track played to their strengths (while the Ferrari had better downforce and cornering speeds, the McLaren had a straight-line speed advantage – something that is well-rewarded at Monza).
Let’s not forget that, if Raikkonen hadn’t retired from pole in Germany he would have had 10 podiums in the last 10 races in 2007, while the McLaren drivers were finishing off the podium every now and then (due to being beaten by the Ferraris, rather than solely because their drivers were fighting each other). Ferrari also had more wins that McLaren (9 vs. 8) so it wasn’t just because McLaren’s drivers were dividing their wins between them. The Ferrari seemed like a stronger car over the course of the season to me, with the only races where the McLaren clearly outclassed it being Monaco, Canada, USA and Monza.
hobo (@hobo)
14th April 2015, 16:27
@polo – Nothing to add, but solid analysis.
Tim M (@tim-m)
14th April 2015, 17:07
@polo – good points. I find most people are so centralized on the inner competition at McLaren in 2007 that they fail to recognize that Alonso and Hamilton are both exceptional drivers, and likely flattered the perception of that year’s McLaren.
Cece
15th April 2015, 17:36
Lewis was a rookie. He was a good driver, but there is no way that the present is indicated by the future in this case. He did not have the experience he would go on to have and his results next to Alonso, exposed Alonso’s failings. All the top drivers are exceptional or they wouldn’t be top drivers. That goes without saying. But Alonso should have definitively won in 2007 and he failed to do so. I’ve heard all of the excuses, but him putting his emotions in front of the championship (the team’s against me; Lewis cheats, etc) was the root of his issues. That is part of racing and he failed on that front. Raikkonen won the most races and had Zero drama and that is why he was able to eek out the win in the end. Hamilton did fantastic, nothing at all negative to say about the rookie. But comparing Alonso positively is just false props due to his being a top driver and needing excuses for what was in the end a very poor effort by the world champion. Like Vettel in 2014 or Lewis in 2011 (except they don’t try to pretend those were good seasons).
DaveW (@dmw)
14th April 2015, 17:21
Yes, well done, Polo. And I believe 2008 was similar, though people say the cars were equal there too. Massa had a beast of a car but Ferrari threw away so many points with terrible pit work and bad strategy, typified in the terrible Singapore refueling farce. When you look at how Alonso later crushed Massa in the same car, but only matched Hamilton while at McLaren, this suggests that Hamilton was really dragging the McLaren into contention in 2008.
zippyone (@zippyone)
14th April 2015, 19:56
@dmw People always say this about Alonso v Hamilton and Alonso v Massa but they forget that the Massa pre-Hungary 2009 was very different to the Massa after.
I think he is only now fully recovered as someone on here said the other day it takes around 4 years to fully recover from a serious head injury.
I think it is very difficult to make accurate comparisons of drivers based on how they each fared against the same team-mate in different seasons especially when one of them had a serious head injury before and after.
I don’t think Massa is the best driver to compare others to as he has been so up and down through his F1 career. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful!
David-A (@david-a)
14th April 2015, 20:36
@zippyone – Yeah, I agree. Drivers have their ups and downs, so I do not agree with the revisionist view that Mclaren were only dragged into contention, using Raikkonen’s nightmare 2014 as a yardstick for his form in 2007.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2015, 22:24
@zippyone and @david-a
When Alonso went up against Massa in equal cars, he tonked him.
When Alonso went up against Raikkonen in equal cars, he tonked him.
When Massa and Raikkonen went up against each other in equal cars, they were evenly matched.
In 2007, Ferrari had more wins, more pole positions, more fastest laps, and lead more kilometers than McLaren; despite having the Massa-Raikkonen line-up, and McLaren having a Hamilton-Alonso line-up.
I don’t know how much more evidence one needs to conclude that Ferrari had the best car in 2007.
David-A (@david-a)
15th April 2015, 1:11
@kingshark – Mclaren not having the best car in 2007/8 =/= dragged into contention, as @dmw claimed. I didn’t disagree with the 2007/2008 Ferraris being faster. But I feel the difference between the cars is being overstated, and partially based on data from years later.
zippyone (@zippyone)
15th April 2015, 10:09
I can see your logic @kingshark, I believe Alonso is stronger than Massa and Raikkonen – I rate him highly – but think he has been slightly flattered by a weak Massa and an appalling year for Raikkonen last year.
I’m not debating whether the 2007 Ferraris were faster than the McLarens – just annoys me when people compare Alonso v Massa as a benchmark.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
15th April 2015, 10:20
@david-a and @zippyone
Fair points by both of you. I think that the 2007 Ferrari was better than McLaren by a modest margin. Out of the 17 races, I’d have picked Ferrari 10 times, and McLaren 7 times. The difference wasn’t much, but the F2007 was slightly faster than the MP4/22 overall IMO.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
14th April 2015, 21:28
@polo I think the issue towards the end of the season was that Alonso and De La Rosa only had the blueprints for the early season Ferrari!
My point was that Ferrari were close enough and Vettel has built a decent start despite the performance deficit that Ferrari have something of a chance if they can out-develop Mercedes. As always the theory is that there should be diminishing returns from upgrades to the most developed car/engine which is currently the Mercedes.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2015, 22:29
@jerseyf1
This season is much closer to 1998 than it is to 2007. In 1998 Ferrari were genuinely an inferior car. Anyone who believes that the 2007 Ferrari was an inferior car is living in la-la land.
Problem is, that unlike 1998, Ferrari don’t have a legend like Schumacher to perform to maximum capacity and challenge the superior car.
If This Then That
14th April 2015, 21:28
Let’s not forget if Vettel never wore Red Bull overalls he wouldn’t be a World Champion.
All If’s and But’s!
f199player (@f199player)
14th April 2015, 11:49
I believe its the first time Fernando Alonso failed to finish on the lead lap in China
Cece
15th April 2015, 17:44
He is driving the world’s most miserable top car at the moment. Button is in the same predicament. All the over the top bragging by media and fans is nothing more than hype. Drivers don’t ‘drag the car to higher positions than possible’. Top drivers get the most out of cars and in general all of these drivers do. But sometimes, they don’t. Button was clearly getting more from the McLaren than Alonso last race, but Alonso clearly got more out of it the race before (prior to retirement). All manner of factors play into it. This happens all the time from race to race or even from season to season. Everything else is just exaggeration. I don’t know why it is done.
JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
14th April 2015, 11:58
Interesting that the rate of races finishing under safety car conditions has clearly risen since the turn of the century. I assume that an analysis of the total number of safety cars used will also have increased significantly leading to this result.
The 2010 Monaco GP didn’t quite finish under safety car conditions. The race was restarted just before the chequered flag flew, though the FIA didn’t really intend that outcome so they changed the rules and effectively backdated them to apply to Monaco!
AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
14th April 2015, 12:32
@jerseyf1, actually I was wondering about the safety car regulations for race finishes. Is it allowed to overtake before the chequered flag? Hamilton did power out of the final corner as if to prevent Rosberg from overtaking him. What if he had spun at that point?
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
14th April 2015, 12:48
@adrianmorse Not anymore, no. The rules now state that if the safety car pulls in at the end of the last lap then no overtaking can take place. The only reason the safety car pulls in rather than finish the lap and the race is for the ‘show’, so the leader is first over the line in photos.
The spin is an interesting question though, it’s obviously unlikely to happen but I would assume he can be passed and the spinner, whoever it is, has to wait to rejoin safely.
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 12:51
@adrianmorse in case the race ends under SC conditions, which was the case here, the SC drives into the pits and the cars must take the finish without overtaking.
The result isn’t final until they take the finish however. Meaning that should Hamilton had spun out, he would have lost the win.
I know why you’re asking – I wondered myself why on earth he powered out of the final corner when overtaking isn’t permitted anymore.
uan (@uan)
14th April 2015, 14:10
@mattds
From his perspective he may not have really put the power down. But the car would have better down force the faster he goes around corner. Could also be pent up energy, having just been driving behind the SC. He was pretty excited after race.
Also less of a chance of someone accidentally hitting him from behind (cough) Rosberg (cough) lol.
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
14th April 2015, 12:38
Yes that was the race where Schumacher did the move at the last corner, because technically the safety car had pulled in and the race was live. The FIA didn’t foresee that outcome when they wrote the regulation.
frood19 (@frood19)
14th April 2015, 12:44
i remember being really annoyed when he was disqualified – i thought it was brilliant quick thinking by him/brawn.
also, @keithcollantine – wasn’t the 1999 canadian gp ended under the safety car because of panis’s leg breaking crash?
_Ben_ (@_ben_)
14th April 2015, 12:50
It was ’97 that Panis crashed and the race was red flagged.
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
14th April 2015, 12:51
I always thought it was harsh, they had in my opinion found a flaw/loophole in the original rule and just swapping them back would’ve been the fairest.
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 12:53
@weeniebeenie letting Schumacher keep his result would have been the fairest, since the rules simply permitted to overtake from the SC line onwards and that’s exactly what Schumacher did.
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
14th April 2015, 13:09
I was too. He wasn’t disqualified but they gave him a 20 second penalty which put him out of the points. I would have let him keep the place, but if they were going to penalise him then surely only a one place penalty was appropriate. But I guess there was no scope in the rules to do that. With the 5 second time penalty they’ve brought in nowadays I think the punishment would have been much less harsh if the incident happened now.
Bleu (@bleu)
14th April 2015, 12:58
I think the rules actually still stated that overtaking was forbidden on the last lap. However, the problem was that marshals were showing green flags and light panels at the time.
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
14th April 2015, 13:04
Yeah the rule was:
“If the race ends while the safety car is deployed it will enter the pit lane at the end of the last lap and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal without overtaking.”
Mercedes argued that the race ended under green flag, not the safety car. The rule was just poorly worded and not fully clarified. Not sure what it says now.
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 13:15
@bleu @weeniebeenie rule 40.13 now adds an exception:
Rule 40.15 has been added especially for the last lap:
In other words, the rules now forbid a track going green in the last lap. When the last race lap starts under SC conditions, it will always finish under SC conditions as well.
This is different to 2010 when the FIA did spread the message “SC in this lap” as well as showed green flags from the SC line, which meant that they were effectively racing.
Strontium (@strontium)
14th April 2015, 23:06
The Monaco Grand Prix of 2010 was effectively the same as it is now, but the FIA messed it up. They said that the restart was happening, then completely unfairly penalised Schumacher due to the rule. Even the commentators thought the restart had taken place. Mercedes’ argument for having the penalty removed was ignored even though it was correct.
Bleu (@bleu)
14th April 2015, 12:31
* Even when ignore “from start of the season” it was only third time as three drivers filled the podium in three races.
– Mika Häkkinen, David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello were on the podium in 2000 French, Austrian and German GPs.
– Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello were on the podium in 2000 Malaysian, 2001 Australian and Malaysian GPs.
* Third time in history as first three races of the season have included safety car. Previous occurences were 2001 and 2009. In both those years, fourth race did not have safety car period.
* First time as Chinese GP had exactly one safety car period. Safety car was used earlier in 2005, 2009 and 2010 – twice in each race.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th April 2015, 12:45
!
– Maldonado
Martin
14th April 2015, 12:41
Max Verstappen became the youngest driver in F1 to cause a finish under the safety car.
Jos Verstappen
14th April 2015, 13:43
Max Verstappen became the youngest driver to cause a safety car.
Additional youngest stats:
* Youngest driver to overtake
* Youngest driver to finish a race
* Youngest driver to blow an engine
* Youngest driver to blow a 2nd engine
* Youngest driver to qualify
* Youngest driver to reach Q2
* Youngest driver to reach Q3
* Youngest driver to retire from a race
uan (@uan)
14th April 2015, 14:58
*youngest driver to start 3 GPs
*youngest driver to start 3 GPs at the start of the season
*youngest driver to …
Basically, everyday will be a new record or extending an existing “Youngest” record.
More power to him. But at a certain point it’s easy to fall into the realm of the absurd.
I wonder what are significant milestones?
Youngest driver to:
– lead a session (FP/Q/Race)
– lead a lap
– be on Pole
– Podium
– Win a race
– Win the WDC
– ???
Martin
14th April 2015, 16:42
I’m waiting on
“Youngest Driver to be taken out by Maldonado”
TribalTalker (@tribaltalker)
14th April 2015, 21:00
+1 – Made me laugh.
Also we could have “Youngest Driver to take out Maldonado”.
AldoH
14th April 2015, 19:21
Bet you he will soon establish a record as the Youngest Driver to Complain that Lewis Is Way Too Slow.
TheNewNo2
14th April 2015, 12:48
Button has qualified 17th for three races in a row.
Ciaran (@walsh-f1)
14th April 2015, 13:18
First time since 1981 that McLaren have failed to score a point in the first three rounds. In results terms it’s their worst start to a season since their very first in 1966, when the then one-car team retired in the first race in Monaco, failed to start the second in Belgium and didn’t compete at all in the third race in France.
Interestingly McLaren could have a season like they had in 1981. In both seasons they were going on a journey into the unknown (First Carbon fibre car in 1981, Honda engines in 2015). They had only scored 1 point after 6 rounds, but then scored a splurge of points in the next five races (albeit all by John Watson, which included a win at the British GP), to finish 6th in the Constructors Championship. They might not win a grand prix like they did in 1981, but they might have a similar turnaround.
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th April 2015, 13:49
@keithcollantine – your 2015 season stats are ‘going back in time’ again!
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th April 2015, 13:59
Verstappen ‘finished’/classified 17th.
The worst classification for any Verstappen (Jos’ worst was 16th)
Is this the first time a racer classified in the same position as his age?
Gabriel (@rethla)
14th April 2015, 14:12
No it cant be. Alot of young dudes must have finished at p18-p22 in the backmarker teams
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 14:43
@rethla @coldfly It is certainly the first time this has happened for drivers under 20 (there have been 8 of them).
However I also suspect that this will have happened before outside of the top 20. The biggest chance of randomly searching and finding a match would be to look at the results from the Indy 500, which typically saw 33 starters meaning about 13 possible hits per race.
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 14:46
@rethla @coldfly OK, I’ve got this. It happened for the first time in the third F1 race ever – the 1950 Indy 500. Jerry Hoyt, born January 29, 1929, finished 21st. The race was held on May 30.
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th April 2015, 14:52
truly impressed, @mattds – thx
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
14th April 2015, 15:26
@mattds The 1950 Indy 500 was a World Championship race but not an F1 race.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
14th April 2015, 15:26
But yeah, VERY good find.
MattDS (@mattds)
14th April 2015, 15:41
@davidnotcoulthard You are correct, the Indy 500 was not ran to F1 regulations. It was, however, part of the first FIA WDC.
Not sure how to go about this now, maybe we’ll let @coldfly decide whether he meant F1 or the WDC :)
I’ll see if I can find a match for F1 races then (don’t expect it today though ;) )
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th April 2015, 15:54
Let’s make it for now “first time in F1 a driver classified in the same position as his age?”
@mattds @davidnotcoulthard
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
14th April 2015, 15:59
@coldfly Yeah…..
Then again, I think we all care more about World Championship stats than about F1 stats (I mean, think about all those non-championship races!)
Simtek (@)
14th April 2015, 18:13
@coldfly I’m afraid even discounting the Indy 500 Verstappen can’t claim this record. Ricciardo was 22nd at Suzuka in 2011.
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th April 2015, 23:24
thanks @anto – good hunting Sherlock!
Let’s leave it for somebody to add it to the “youngest driver to ….” as listed above ;)
Shrieker (@shrieker)
14th April 2015, 15:52
We’re not going to get a dotw vote for the Chinese GP ? Or have i missed it.
mantresx (@mantresx)
14th April 2015, 16:13
Also Sergio Pérez finished yet again in 11th position, can’t remember how many times now but it’s a lot.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
14th April 2015, 16:43
@mantresx 15 times out of 78 starts, or 18%. Almost once every five races.
MattDS (@mattds)
15th April 2015, 9:17
@xtwl or even 15 times out of 64 classified finishes, 23% :)
reg (@reg)
15th April 2015, 0:21
The best part of that stat used to be that he had never finished 12th. If only Monza 2013 had gone a little differently.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
14th April 2015, 22:21
4th victory in China for Hamilton – equals Hungary.
Second consecutive Chinese GP in which there has been a flag waved near the finish line at the end of lap 55.
3 different drivers have finished 7th so far this season – none has scored any other points this season.
First time since Japan last year that either qualifying or the race has featured 2 Marussias.
The top 10 on the grid were also the top 10 in the race.
And some more from magnetimarelli.com:
First time Hulkenberg has failed to get out of a dry Q1.
First time Alonso has failed to get out of Q1 in 2 consecutive races.
Hamilton & Rosberg locked out the front row for the 18th time and scored their 13th 1-2. Both figures equal Hakkinen & Coulthard.
First time since Germany 2013 that Raikkonen has led a lap.
ColdFly F1 (@)
14th April 2015, 23:27
@paulgilb
That jinxed 7th position again!
Jos Verstappen
15th April 2015, 8:24
The top 10 on the grid were also the top 10 in the race.
That is a very nice one, would be curious how many times that happened in the past, should not be that much if it ever happened
Strontium (@strontium)
14th April 2015, 23:52
I may well be wrong but I have tried to research this one as much as I can.
This is only the second time Button has been fully responsible for causing a collision with another car during a Formula 1 race, the other being the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix with Karthikeyan.