Verstappen smashes youngest F1 winner record

2016 Spanish Grand Prix stats and facts

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Max Verstappen didn’t just break the record for youngest ever F1 race winner yesterday: he obliterated it, and left it at a level where it is unlikely to ever be beaten.

At 18 years and 232 days old, Verstappen is over-two-and-a-half years younger than the previous holder of the record. That was Sebastian Vettel, who Verstappen shared the podium with yesterday and who is not far off being a decade older than Red Bull’s newest winner.

Vettel has held the record since his breakthrough triumph in the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. He can at least point out he took fewer starts to achieve his first win than Verstappen:

Driver First win Age
Max Verstappen 2016 Spanish Grand Prix 18 years, 232 days
Sebastian Vettel 2008 Italian Grand Prix 21 years, 79 days
Fernando Alonso 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix 22 years, 31 days
Troy Ruttman 1952 Indianapolis 500 22 years, 86 days
Bruce McLaren 1959 United States Grand Prix 22 years, 109 days
Lewis Hamilton 2007 Canadian Grand Prix 22 years, 159 days
Kimi Raikkonen 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix 23 years, 163 days
Robert Kubica 2008 Canadian Grand Prix 23 years, 189 days
Jacky Ickx 1968 French Grand Prix 23 years, 193 days
Michael Schumacher 1992 Belgian Grand Prix 23 years, 245 days

We now have our first race-winning driver from the nineties but we’ve skipped most of that decade to find that winner – Verstappen was born in 1997. As the FIA banned drivers under the age of 18 competing in Formula One in reaction to Verstappen’s race deal, his record will be very difficult to beat.

Verstappen became the youngest driver to lead a lap (beating Vettel’s record from the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix), and the first Dutch winner and race leader. The Netherlands is the 22nd different country to produce a race winner, 64 years after holding its first round of the world championship and 31 years after its last.

This was also Verstappen’s best starting position – fourth – and the first victory in F1 for car number 33. However he lined up behind team mate Daniel Ricciardo, who along with Romain Grosjean sustained his unbeaten qualifying record against his team mate so far this year.

It was the first victory for engines branded as TAG Heuer, though of course the power unit is in fact a Renault. McLaren won 25 races with TAG-branded Porsche engines in the eighties.

Verstappen replaced Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull for this race. With Kvyat moving over to Toro Rosso, this was the first time two F1 drivers have swapped seats between consecutive races since the 1994 European Grand Prix, when Johnny Herbert moved to Ligier in place of Eric Bernard, who in turn took Herbert’s race at Lotus. Coincidentally Herbert changed places again at the very next race, taking over the Benetton seat previous occupied by Verstappen’s father Jos.

Team mates again: Sainz and Kvyat
The last driver to win a race on his debut for a new team was Fernando Alonso at Ferrari in the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. That race was also followed by another new winning driver and team combination – Jenson Button at McLaren.

While Verstappen was achieving his first win, Kvyat scored his first fastest lap – and the first for Toro Rosso, in their 190th race.

Kvyat was reunited with Carlos Sainz Jnr, a driver he has been team mates with three times before: at Eurointernational in Formula BMW Europe in 2010, at Koiranen in Formula Renault 2.0 in 2011 and at Arden in GP3 in 2013.

A driver from Verstappen’s past enjoyed success on the morning of race day. Alexander Albon, who beat Verstappen to the 2010 KF3 karting World Cup crown, won the GP3 support race.

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Mercedes miss out on McLaren’s wins record

11th pole in a row for Mercedes – but no 11th win
A long streak of Mercedes success was broken when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg came to a stop in the turn four gravel trap on lap one. Had either of them won this race Mercedes would have equalled McLaren’s all-time record of 11 consecutive grand prix victories.

Rosberg also missed his chance to equal the record for most consecutive wins at the start of the season – a fifth would have equalled Nigel Mansell’s feat from 1992.

Instead Mercedes ended a 62-race streak of consecutive points finishes, the third-longest in F1 history. The last race which did not feature a Mercedes in the points was the 2012 United States Grand Prix.

As a consolation for the silver team they did pick up their 58th pole position which moves them ahead of Red Bull into fifth place on the all-time table. They’ve been on pole for the last 11 races in a row but managed a streak of 23 over the past two seasons – and even that left them one short of Williams’ all time record.

Although Mercedes locked out the front row again, Red Bull got closer to them in qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya than any other team has in the V6 turbo era. They were 0.68 seconds slower at a track generally seen as a reliable barometer for the rest of the season. Hamilton’s pole position time, a numerically satisfying 1’22.000, was 2.046s slower than the circuit record set in 2009 by Rubens Barrichello.

Massa in 2007: first of ten different Spanish GP winners
For a track with a reputation for processional races, the Circuit de Catalunya is at least supplying variety in race winners. Verstappen was the tenth different winner of the Spanish Grand Prix in the last ten years. Not since Schumacher four-race winning streak of 2001-04 has anyone taken consecutive wins at this track.

However Rosberg has the chance to win the same race for the fourth year in a row when the teams assemble for the next round at Monaco next week.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Spanish Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

Browse all 2016 Spanish Grand Prix articles

Author information

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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101 comments on “Verstappen smashes youngest F1 winner record”

  1. Now that Verstappen has put the record for almost every achievement in F1 at 18 years and 228 days, two and a half years younger than anyone for a win or a podium, I am curious to know: – Was he too young for F1, as many thought at the time? And was the FIA right to legislate that the minimum age for F1 should be 18? He’s only 228 days older than the minimum age, which is bizarre. Surely someone else may come along in the future who is as good as Verstappen at an early age? What do we think?

    1. Exactly what I thought.

      If I were the FIA I would probably be a bit embarrassed right now.

    2. @hahostolze

      No, no, maybe and if the FIA has any integritiy then they should repeal this rule!

  2. Verstappen ended the german anthem streak on the podium, which was played for 30 consecutive races (last race without it was Spa 2014 when Ricciardo won).

    AFAIK that is the longest streak a single anthem ever had.

    1. British teams McLaren, Williams and Benetton won 58 races in a row between 1991 and 1994.
      McLaren, Lotus, Williams and Benetton won 37 straight races between 1985 and 1987.
      Both these streaks have been ended by Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari, although in different spells, as he meanwhile also contributed to the longer one with his McLaren wins.
      If you don’t count Indy 500, Italian teams have won the first 31 Grands Prix since 1950 until Mercedes won on debut with Fangio in 1954.

      1. Well then it’s just the longest streak the german anthem ever had :P

        1. ColdFly F1 (@)
          16th May 2016, 18:31

          Now the Netherlands had their longest streak (still counting); obliterating their previous streak :P
          @lheela

  3. It was only a matter of time when he would smash the record. I highly doubt this will ever be broken but who knows. Now he has 5 years to become the worlds youngest champion.

  4. After 286 races, Netherlands managed a win , this is the longest period for the first victory of a country. Spain had taken 144 races .
    first time since 1958 Indianapolis 500, car # 33 leads a race
    Max is the first driver since Alesi in 2001 that score points by two different teams in the same season
    First time since the 1993 Hungarian GP (D Hill car # 0) that a new car number wins a race
    first time since 1974 South African GP , car # 33 managed a podium
    First time since the 1996 Monaco GP (Mugen Honda ) that a new engine wins a race
    first time since the 1985 european GP car # 26 set the fastest lap of the race
    200 GP for a Mexican driver

    1. The Alesi fact is not true. Vettel in 2007 scored points for both BMW Sauber and Toro Rosso.
      Fisichella had the chance to do the same for Ferrari and Force India in 2009 however he could not finish in the points for Ferrari.

      1. Manfred (@)
        16th May 2016, 12:51

        Not to mention a certain relegated Red Bull driver this year…

  5. For the second time in three races, Daniel Ricciardo was able to secure fourth place despite a puncture in the race. On both occasions, his team mate stood on the podium. He is the only driver bar Bottas to finish fourth in a race this season.

    Romain Grosjean’s first retirement of the season, whilst Esteban Gutierrez had his best finish since he scored points in the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix.

    With both Mercedes drivers suffering from a touch of over-aggression, this leaves the two Williams drivers as the only drivers to score points in every race so far this season, with Massa’s results ranging between fifth and eighth and Bottas’ between fourth and tenth.

    Finally Manor have certainly made some progress. The fastest time set by Pascal Wehrlein in qualifying was 4.6% slower than the pole position time. For comparison, the fastest Marussia in 2013 (the late Jules Bianchi) was 4.9% slower than the pole position time that year. It’s not a huge amount, but as it is around Barcelona, I thought that it was worth noting.

    1. Another one (but take it with a grain of salt as the data comes from Wikipedia): it has taken Max Verstappen 71 competitive car races to achieve his first F1 win. That’s 12 more than it took Kimi Raikkonen before his first.

      1. Vettel also won in F1, having less starts than Verstappen, dispite being older.

      2. @craig-o unfairly for Max, a side-effect of there being more races per season now.

        1. @optimaximal To be fair, nearly half of Verstappen’s starts have come from 2014 in F3 Europe, where he did 33 races in that season alone. Kimi only had 20ish starts to his name before F1.

  6. 4 out of 5 races now where the pole sitter has lost the lead by the end of the first lap. I’ll be keeping an eye on this stat ;)

  7. A fairly interesting observation –

    The youngest driver on the grid fought the oldest driver in F1 to win this race.

    I know a lot of people want to see the old guns retire for new blood, but personally I love seeing the experienced guys fighting it with the young guys. We need a mix of drivers in Formula 1, experienced and young.

    1. And Raikkonen is doing quite well this year. Who would have thought he would be second in the standings after 5 races?

      1. True, I think Kimi deserves a lot of credit that he is the driver who has capitalised the most on Lewis’ troubles so far. A lot of people (myself included) questioned why Ferrari stuck with him after his poor 2014 season so it’s great to see him bounce back.

      2. @paeschli Though I can’t help but think it had to do with VET being hit by KVY and getting an in-hindsight worse strategy than RAI in ESP.

        1. @davidnotcoulthard Same thing can be said for Kimi, he was eliminated by Sebastian no less in China. Not to mention, qualifying has been equal opportunity for them so far this season and it’s 3-2. Kimi is legitimately doing better than the last two seasons.

          1. @npf1 I agree Kimi is doing better but with Vettel scoring 100% podium finishes again and being hit by Kvyat and the engine failure in Bahrein it wouldn’t be wrong at all to suspect Vettel would be ahead.

          2. @npf1 If memory serves me strategy in ESP aside (which in part was sort of pure luck) VET got problems through no fault ogf his own in Bahrain and Russia. Kimi did in Australia and China. VET retired in both races, Kimi salvaged a few points but it was perhaps at the expense of Kimi that VET got 2nd.

            But yeah, Kimi’s doing better against VET compared to last year (if not against VET full stop – which I guess I don’t think he is)

  8. @brickles It also means that the pole sitter
    leading every lap or nothing

    1. Think Ricciardo led a few laps before Rosberg repassed him on lap 3/4 to retake the lead.

  9. Michael Brown (@)
    16th May 2016, 12:41

    That FIA age rule sure looks stupid now; it turns out Verstappen is ready for F1 after all.

    Like what was said on Sky, this is the first time Red Bull have won a race without Vettel driving for them.

    1. which also makes Red Bull, with their “dreaded” Renault V6 engine a more successfull team in this era than Ferrari is :-)

    2. Last time a driver joined a team mid season and won … Tambay in 1982?

      also … does this GP now hold the record of breaking the most records?

      1. this was also the first victory of ANY red bull driver in any European open wheel category in quite some time

        1. ‘Last time a driver joined a team mid season and won… Tambay in 1982?’

          Mansell win In 1994

          1. absolutely right, had forgotten about that one… also won because the two leading cars crashed against each other (or more specifically Schumacher threw his car at Damon Hill)

    3. Verstappen is the exception to the rule. They are preventing a situation where a whole bunch of 17 year olds think they are ready for F1, when in reality they are not.

      1. Well Corey, they can all think what they want, if the F1 teams themselves don’t think they are ready they won’t get a seat.
        RBR made a judgement call on Verstappen, just like any team with any young talent, decided he was ready, and they brought him in.

        Guess what, this process worked. And I have yet to see a good reason to regulate it like they have done.

        1. Still needed. Because of Verstappen success so early, every other team is going to start looking for drivers that can get it done at his age. This can cause a backlash in there drivers being pushed too early, before they are ready.

          I’ll point out again. Max Verstappen was an exception. I never said Red Bull was wrong. He was ready. But, I am certain that other young drivers will adopt the whole “If he can do it then so can I” mentality.

          1. I think it’s important to keep the rule as it is to prevent poor teams in financial danger getting tempted selling their seats to Celis or Stroll like kids. Or even worse, Stroll or Celis like dads buying complete teams for their sons.

            However, a special clause for proven exceptional talent would fit the regulations very well, but on the other hand thinking about that clause will not be necessary until ‘the new kid’ arrives. According to Lauda that will take about 100 years. :)

          2. So what if they’re looking for younger drivers that can get it done Corey? What’s wrong with having drivers that can get it done? The point is they can get it done, isn’t it?

          3. @ peter – perhaps they could come up with a rule which requires a certain number of points to get a superlicence thereby making sure there was a minimum standard required to be allowed into F1. Oh, wait, they already have that rule.

            This rule does nothing but keep potential talent out of F1 and is typical of F1’s reactionary rule making. If the FIA thought under 18s shouldn’t be in F1 then why didn’t they have this rule in place before Max came along? The days when a talented 17 year old professional race driver wasn’t safe in F1 were well past before this rule was invented.

    4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      16th May 2016, 14:08

      @mbr-9 well, I still think he’s not ready. Time will tell – it’s all a matter of luck. Generally speaking, teenagers don’t make the same decisions as adults. Being upfront definitely makes it more safe for all drivers because he hopefully won’t have many cars around him. I disagree with F1’s decision to let him compete in a sport that’s still dangerous. It also shows a lack of leadership at the helm of F1 to allow such a young driver to compete because if anything happens their head will be on the chopping block – that’s a decision that no experienced manager would allow for obvious reasons.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        16th May 2016, 14:09

        Oh and his parents are extremely irresponsible for allowing him to drive and if anything happened should have been criminally liable for pushing him and gone to jail.

        1. Why are they ‘extremely irresponsible’ parents? Because they encourage their kid to become a world athlete in a sport? To embrace his passion and talent? How is that irresponsible parenting? They guided him for his entire life to make sure that he wasn’t tempted to make the wrong mistakes. His dad coached him to become the incredible driver that he is today. And he is still a very regular kid. How is that irresponsible parenting?

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            17th May 2016, 22:54

            @psybill well F1 ain’t exactly tennis:-) It’s not like you’ll smash the ball too hard and it’ll pop:-) I understand that they want him to succeed and he would have succeeded even if he joined at the age of 18 – it’s a matter of letting him be a little more mature even by his own standards and by everyone else’s standards… McLaren was able to wait for Lewis and Toro Rosso was able to wait for Vettel. Now every 16 year old will join F1 and all it takes is one to make the wrong call…

        2. @freelittlebirds then how do you decide which single seater category is OK and which is not? Apparently you think an 18-year-old shouldn’t drive F1. What about GP2? 330km/h, is that acceptable? How do you draw the line?

          Heck, F3’s are fast enough to cause major mayhem whem it goes wrong. So we’ll only allow 20-year-olds in F3?

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            17th May 2016, 22:56

            @mattds that’s a very good argument – the lower categories are also too dangerous for young drivers… There will always be some danger but generally speaking you learn in the lower categories which should be safer – whether they are or not, that’s a different story. They should be though…

      2. Can you listen to yourself? He’s just won a race, but no, he’s not ready.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          17th May 2016, 22:49

          @hahostolze it doesn’t matter if he wins 20 races if he ends up killing someone – how old do you need to be to drive a regular car?

      3. @freelittlebirds

        that’s a decision that no experienced manager would allow for obvious reasons

        Except lots of very experienced managers did make exactly that decision not just to put him in the STR, but to hand him a second year and then to promote him to RBR. Most importantly all of those many experienced manages have been proved entirely correct in their decisions, not just by Max’s fantastic race victory but by his performances throughout his time at STR.

        1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          17th May 2016, 22:51

          @jerseyf1 it has nothing to do with his performance – I’m not saying he wasn’t ready because he wasn’t fast – it has to do with maturity – Verstappen might be the exception to the rule but the line should not be bent for anyone because the next 16 year old might die or kill another driver…

    5. maarten.f1 (@)
      16th May 2016, 15:57

      @mbr-9 The last driver to win for Red Bull, prior to Verstappen, was Daniel Ricciardo. But yes, Vettel was still driving for Red Bull at the time.

  10. Only two drivers (Bottas and Massa) have scored points in every race, and this is just after 5 races..

    1. Yep, they are probably the happiest dudes on the grid! :)

  11. Jelle van der Meer
    16th May 2016, 13:16

    Max age is really extraordinary if you consider that not until the last race of 2016 has anyone been younger to participate in an F1 session. Vettel is next youngest with 19yrs 56 days, by then Max already raced in 40 races.

  12. Is this the first time a driver has won on his debut for a team after switching during a season?

    1. Fangio won his first race for Mercedes having switched from Maserati in 1954.

    2. No. At least Fangio has done it as he jumped from Maserati to Mercedes between the 1954 Belgian and French grands prix.

    3. Alonso.

  13. “Although Mercedes locked out the front row again, Red Bull got closer to them in qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya than any other team has in the V6 turbo era.”

    I was thinking about this from the moment that Christian Horner declared that “fact” in his jubilant state post-quiali, but surely the closest anyone came to Mercedes in qualifying in the V6 turbo era was when Williams locked out the front row at the Red Bull Ring in 2014?

    1. @geemac
      I think Keith meant that no team got closer to Mercedes in the V6-hybrid-era AT THIS CIRCUIT than RB did this year (last year Ferrari were nearly 0.8 behind).
      Clearly Ferrari were closest to Mercs in qualy. At Singapore Vettel beat the fastest Mercedes by 1.5 sec. Even though they struggled that particular weekend a lot, I doubt they would’ve taken pole away from Seb if they had a “normal” weekend.

    2. @geemac in qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya

      1. @keithcollantine @srga91 Ah, I should have read that properly. The perils of reading F1 articles at work…

  14. Max is the first race winner to not have seen Senna race.

    1. @bruns Where does that leave Nino Farina?

    2. The first since Senna himself. ;)

  15. “With Kvyat moving over to Toro Rosso, this was the first time two F1 drivers have swapped seats between consecutive races since the 1994 European Grand Prix, when Johnny Herbert moved to Ligier in place of Eric Bernard, who in turn took Herbert’s race at Lotus.”

    If I remember correctly, the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix saw a similar kind of thing happening as well, when Prost driver Jean Alesi was signed by the Jordan for the rest of the season, replacing Heinz-Harald Frentzen, while the German driver joined Prost. However, Frentzen did not participate on the GP before, Eddie Jordan ran Ricardo Zonta for the German Grand Prix.

  16. The qualifying saw first time since 1981 British Grand Prix as pole time was flat into thousands of seconds. Back then Rene Arnoux took pole with 1’11.000″.

    Previous time as neither driver starting from the front row completed the opening lap was 1990 Japanese Grand Prix.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      16th May 2016, 14:44

      @bleu nice stats – thanks for sharing. I was wondering if pole had ever been flat before – 35 years ago, wow.

  17. I believe this is only the second time ever that the oldest and youngest drivers on the grid shared the podium, the first being when Michael Schumacher led home Nigel Mansell in the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix (note that Christian Fittipaldi DNQ’d for that race).

    1. Correction: Finished 1-2. Mansell and Schumacher were also on the podium together in Germany, where Fittipaldi was not present in either qualifying or the race.

  18. For a Fun stat
    No WDC won the race in 2016 and their best result is P2.

    1. i think the record is 1994. no former champ won until the final race of the season, Mansell winning the Australian GP. 2009 it took till race 10 (of 17), Lewis winning in Hungary. there are prob some more, just cant think of them just now

      1. I think the record is 1979, when no WDC won a race the entire season.

        1. @eduardogigante And of course there was 1950.

  19. I just love this F1Fanatic community. So many brilliant stat geeks over here. It’s impressive! Keep this up, love this stuff!

  20. This race also ended the run of 56 consecutive races that were won by either Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo or Vettel. Last winner before these 4 was Alonso, Spain 2013. Verstappen was still competing in karting then.

    1. We’ll then talk about “the first win not by VET, HAM, ROS, RIC, or VES” come the next time anothe rwinner shows up?

      1. @davidnotcoulthard Or simply the last time another team than Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull won, the 2013 Australian GP (Kimi with Lotus) some whopping three years ago.

  21. First time ever my girlfriend watched a whole Grand Prix!

    1. Awesome stat! ;)

      For me a happy/sad one: the first GP that I’ve missed in a very long time… Had a really good reason to miss it though: got a daughter!

  22. Saurabh (@sksahukanker62)
    16th May 2016, 17:21

    can u make a list of ten different Spanish GP winners…

    1. Massa 2007, Kimi 2008, Jenson 2009, Webber 2010, Vettel 2011, Maldonado 2012, Alonso 2013, Hamilton 2014, Rosberg 2015, Verstappen 2016.

  23. If i were Ricciardo i will be worried, first race they favoured the young guy instead of the older one. Marketing to sell more cans to youngsters? Is it Redbull becoming a marketing team instead of a sports team? What is clear from this gp conclussions is that Ferrari doesnt bet they can win the championship, and that Redbull doesnt think in championships too. Because they were really dumb to sacrifize their championships real driver options in the first race they can cut the championships point difference. Mercedes were celebrating their stupidity at the end of the race.

    1. Wow Bernie is a reptillian!

  24. Verstappen is just the third driver, after Schumacher (1996) and Alonso (2013), to win at Catalunya from outside the front row.

    1. And like in 2013, the drivers in the podium had started 4th, 5th and 6th (although in 2013 they weren’t in that order).

  25. Just watched Max on dutch TV 20:00 May 16th.
    “He said Riciardo was holding him up early on and Riciardo was not doing good enough with his tyres for a 2 stop strategy”.

    1. He also said Kimi was faster, but he knew he could not pass him because of his faster exit into the strait.
      His passing move on Vettel in corner 3 he learned from watching Alonso do it.

    2. Yeah that was the story yesterday too. Ricciardo being all unhappy is just an act.

  26. Here is another major fact:

    Verstappen broke 2 records.

    Vetter’s record for young driver to win an F1 race was not the only one that he broke.

    He also broke the record of Graham Rahal for winning a major open-wheel event. Graham Rahal won his event at the St. Petersburg GP in 2008 at the age of 19 years and 36 days.

    He also becomes the 3rd race car driver in the last 10 years to win an open-wheel event before the age of 20:

    Max Verstappen – 2016 Spanish GP (F1): 18 years and 227 days.
    Graham Rahal – 2008 St Petersburg GP (Indy Car): 19 years and 36 days.
    Marco Andretti – 2006 Sonoma GP (Indy Car): 19 years and and 167 days.

    1. My apologies:

      There is a 4th:

      Current Manor F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein won a DTM event at Lausitz Eurospeedway in 2014 at the age of 19 years and 331 days.

      1. DTM isn’t open-wheel though.

  27. Red Bull have never won a race when one of their drivers surnames has not started with a V. Before Sunday they had only ever wondered when Vettel was part of the team.

  28. Max has also become more “successful” than his father (there are many ways of measuring this and I have not done the math comparing points, but he has now won a GP and Jos has not). It’s a well known fact that sons of racing drivers tend to do worse than their father. This is also the case in the 13 instances where father and son have both reached formula 1 – Max Verstappen, Jacques Villeneuve, Kevin Magnussen and Christian Fittipaldi are the only 4 cases where the son’s results are superior to the father (I sense some controversy coming here but Gilles never won the WDC and only won 6 GPs). Damon Hill and Nico Rosberg have beaten their father in number of points and victories but not championships. The other 7 have scored worse results overall – Nelson Piquet Jr, David and Gary Brabham, Hans-Joachim Stuck (counting pre warh, Michael Andretti, Kazuki Nakajima and Markus Winkelhock (despite holding the record of leading 100 percent of the races he participated in)

    1. Christian Fittipaldi was superior?!

      1. @hahostolze His dad’s name was not the same as ELP’s keyboardist’s last name if Wikipedia is right.

        1. And said dad’s name is still not the same as ELP’s keyboardist’s last name….

          1. @davidnotcoulthard I’ve royally buggered that one up, haven’t I? Christian isn’t Emerson’s son, he’s Wilson’s.

  29. Every Russian to have started an F1 race currently has 1 fastest lap to their name.

    Red Bull’s 51st victory – the same number as Alain Prost, who was heard in the C4 commentary.

    The last 2 drivers who won the first 4 races of a season both saw their start-of-season runs broken by a DNF, in a race won by a driver who drove for more than one team that year.

    Vettel is still yet to finish 2nd in Barcelona (he has also only won once).

    The last 3 first-time winners had not led a lap prior to that race.

    3rd race in the last 8 years (after Italy 2008 and Spain 2012) to be won by a driver who had never previously finished on the podium – before that we have to go back to France 1979.

    4th year in a row that Mercedes have locked out the front row in Spain.

    Raikkonen has already had as many podiums in 2016 as in the whole of 2014 and 2015 combined.

    Both Saubers and Haryanto equalled their best result of the season, having also achieved said result in Bahrain.

    Only non-Spanish McLaren drivers have started 12th this year.

    Massa now has the longest unbroken points-scoring streak (6 races, last no-score was his DSQ in Brazil).

    Williams now have the longest unbroken points-scoring streak for a constructor (8 races, last no-score was USA).

    22nd year in a row in which at least 1 Ferrari-powered car has scored a fastest lap – extends their record.

    Closest finish since Singapore 2010.

    I think this is the first time since Australia 2014 that the Mercedes drivers have not been 1st and 2nd in the drivers’ championship.

    3rd time that the drivers who started 1st and 2nd both failed to finish the first lap, following Belgium 1977 and Japan 1990. The latter ended up in a 1-2 finish, with the driver in P2 making his debut for that team having previously driven for a different team that year – which is what might have happened in this race had Ricciardo used a 2-stop strategy.

    All of Vettel’s Red Bull wins came from a top 3 grid position – none of the victories scored by the team since Vettel’s last Red Bull win have come from a top 3 grid position.

    1. @paulgilb Great stats!

    2. @paulgilb

      France 1979

      The winner finished 3 times in the points – all of which wins.

      Yet people only remember than race for the fight for 2nd.

    3. @paulglib VET was 2nd in the Championship a few times last year (I think he was after Singapore)

  30. When was the last time the youngest age a which someone got pole position was older then the last time someone got a win?

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