Which driver is making the best starts this year? Who is thrashing their team mate on one-lap pace?
Here are the telling stats which reveal key details on how all 20 of this year’s Formula 1 drivers are performing.
Lewis Hamilton
‘To finish first, you must first finish’: Lewis Hamilton is proving this motor racing aphorism. The world championship leader has completed the most racing laps this year, with 738 out of a potential 747.
Valtteri Bottas
On average Valtteri Bottas has finished 0.9 places lower than he’s started this year. That’s the worst of any driver, but it’s partly due to him being classified 14th in Baku due to his puncture. Without that, he’s averaged a gain of 0.1 places.
Sebastian Vettel
He may have led the most laps so far this year – 297 – but Sebastian Vettel has won fewer races than championship leader Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen
Ferrari have made some excellent starts in recent races, which makes it all the more astonishing that Kimi Raikkonen has failed to gain a place on lap one in every race so far this year – including Austria, where he nearly took the lead from third at the start. He is the only driver yet to finish lap one higher than he started.
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Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo has the most fastest laps so far this year, with four. Also, both of his two podium finishes were wins.
Max Verstappen
With the same six cars usually battling for the top six places on the grid it’s striking that Max Verstappen has started inside the top five on nine occasions, more than twice as often as his team mate.
Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez is the only driver to have out-scored his team mate so far this year despite having started, finished and lapped behind them more often than not.
Esteban Ocon
At last year’s summer break Esteban Ocon was 9-2 down against Perez in qualifying and 8-2 behind on race finishes. This year he’s up 9-3 and 7-2 respectively – by far the biggest swing of any driver who has the same team mate.
Lance Stroll
As Paddy Lowe pointed out pre-season, Lance Stroll gained the most places on lap one of any driver on the grid in 2017. The same has been true so far this year, but it’s surely related to the fact Stroll has the lowest average qualifying position of any driver: 17.08.
Sergey Sirotkin
Not only is Sergey Sirotkin the only driver yet to score a point so far this year, he is also yet to complete a single racing lap inside the top 10.
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Nico Hulkenberg
Although Nico Hulkenberg has completed the fewest racing laps of any driver so far this year – 578 – he has been the first midfield driver (non-Mercedes/Ferrari/Red Bull) four times, more than anyone else.
Carlos Sainz Jnr
In a similar vein, Carlos Sainz Jnr is the top midfield driver in terms of Q3 appearances: he’s reached the final 10 on 11 out of 12 occasions.
Pierre Gasly
Fourth place in the Bahrain Grand Prix for Pierre Gasly is the best result a Honda-powered car has scored since returning to F1 in 2015.
Brendon Hartley
Gasly tends to lead the way at Toro Rosso. Brendon Hartley has completed the fewest racing laps ahead of his team mate of any driver: 90.
Romain Grosjean
It’s not been a good season for Romain Grosjean who has crashed out of three races so far, the most of any driver.
Kevin Magnussen
Meanwhile Kevin Magnussen has taken seven points finishes for Haas, more than twice as many as Grosjean.
Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is dominating his team mate as usual. He is the only driver who hasn’t been out-qualified by his team mate all year and has completed more racing laps ahead of the team’s other car than any other driver: 544.
Stoffel Vandoorne
The only Renault-powered driver not to reach Q3 so far this year is Stoffel Vandoorne.
Marcus Ericsson
In a similar vein to Stroll, Marcus Ericsson has gained the most places on average during races this year, picking up 4.4 positions. However he’s also the only Ferrari-powered driver who hasn’t reached Q3 yet.
Charles Leclerc
Ignoring qualifying sessions which were affected by incidents, Charles Leclerc has the biggest average advantage over his team mate in terms of single-lap pace: 0.489 seconds.
Over to you
Have you spotted any more telling statistics about the drivers so far this year? Share them in the comments.
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2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
Hugh (@hugh11)
9th August 2018, 11:43
Wow. This is incredible. You’d have thought that even if it was just on strategy, pitting later, he’d have been in there at least once.
Hulkenberg has completed the least laps of anyone and is still 7th in the WDC. Amazing.
And Sainz, along with getting into Q3 11/12 times, is the only midfield not to get knocked out in Q2, as the one time he didn’t make it to Q3 was in Silverstone where he went out in Q1.
Benjamin RIchardson
9th August 2018, 13:17
Yeah, the Sirotkin one jumped out at me too.
OOliver
9th August 2018, 14:26
Sirotkin has been unfortunate in that the 2 races he had the potential to score points after qualifying decently, we’re scuppered by being sandwiched between Alonso and Hulkenberg at Baku and then having his team leaving him stranded on the formation lap from 13th position at Monaco. He has out qualified Stroll consistently, but seems to cautious during starts. I guess he doesn’t see F1 as a video game like his team mate.
Exediron (@exediron)
9th August 2018, 23:22
Out-qualified Stroll consistently? I thought they were split almost equally.
Eric (@fletch)
10th August 2018, 2:59
Correct 6-5 in favour of Sirotkin.
OOliver
9th August 2018, 14:28
Sirotkin has been unfortunate in that the 2 races he had the potential to score points after qualifying decently, we’re scuppered by being sandwiched between Alonso and Hulkenberg at Baku and then having his team leaving him stranded on the formation lap from 13th position at Monaco. He has out qualified Stroll consistently, but seems to cautious during starts. I guess he doesn’t see F1 as a video game like his team mate.
Moi
9th August 2018, 12:56
Completing 738 out of a potential 747 laps is incredibly good for Hamilton. Mercedes still has remarkable reliability it seems.
Nick (@notacop)
9th August 2018, 13:09
It’s not only reliable hardware but they have a consistent driver too. Ferrari is not that far reliability wise but Mistakes like Vettel’s at German gp are costly.
Scriv27
9th August 2018, 15:56
Vettel is not far behind – he’s completed every lap apart from the last 15 in Germany.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th August 2018, 7:31
Yeah.. But Lewis hasn’t finished all the laps because of a mechanical failure.. But seb hasn’t finished all the laps due to a driver error.
David BR (@david-br)
9th August 2018, 13:46
Nice feature.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th August 2018, 14:23
Interesting and indeed telling stats that I hadn’t really noticed or thought about before.
banana88x (@banana88x)
9th August 2018, 15:11
I can´t get enough of stats so thank you for this :)
jpvalverde85 (@jpvalverde85)
9th August 2018, 15:52
Best Ocon year, bad Perez year (yet still ahead, still podium). Touché!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th August 2018, 11:47
@jpvalverde85 Ocon paid dearly for that silly collision with Raikkonen in Baku. Second year in a row he should have been on the podium there.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th August 2018, 7:33
Agree with @keithcollantine . Ocon would have had the podium if it wasn’t for his contact with kimi on lap 1. But you’re right.. Perez just has that ability to sneak in podiums nearly every season.
Scriv27
9th August 2018, 15:57
Raikkonen is on a run of five straight podiums – no-one else has put together more than three in a row.
Schudha
9th August 2018, 17:12
Does Hamilton sit lower in the car now? I remember him saying he sat higher after 2011/12 to avoid all those crashes he was having with Massa etc.
Niefer (@niefer)
9th August 2018, 17:41
And yet the guy may not get a seat for 2019.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th August 2018, 11:47
@niefer I think Mercedes will make sure he gets a drive somewhere.
Niefer (@niefer)
10th August 2018, 17:04
@keithcollantine That somewhere is what worries me. Ocon must move up, not stall or regress. With Russell’s rising and after what happened to the good Wehrlein, I frankly don’t have any confidence about Ocon’s future.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th August 2018, 7:36
If Mercedes doesn’t secure his future.. Then Renault and Mclaren would definitely look out for him. I seriously doubt that even Force India would choose Perez over Ocon for next season.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
10th August 2018, 9:31
The stat that Verstappen has started from inside the top five shows he is quicker in qualifying.
The stat that shows Ricciardo has 4 fastest laps (should have been 5) shows he is faster in race trim. That also very neatly explains the the reason why Verstappen has had more laps in front of Ricciardo.
baasbas
10th August 2018, 10:05
Well, yes to the first part but to conclude RIC is faster in race trim just from the statistic that he has 4 fastest laps is absurd.
He could very well still be (although I doubt it), but the data to conclude this is simply not there
JohnH (@johnrkh)
10th August 2018, 12:32
So a single lap on a Saturday is more relevant than a single lap on a Sunday?
baasbas
11th August 2018, 9:43
Well, yes again. :-)
In Q3 you see there is only time to do about 2 proper attempts, that’s just 2 laps. The race is some 60 laps long. Therefore 1 out of 2 is more relevant yes. But that is not what you meant I guess. I think you’d want to use the fastest race lap to prove race pace. But there are many more factors. I believe Alonso got fastest lap in Hungary last year. Not exactly a car with awesome race pace.. just a case of a very late pit stop with low fuel levels and going for a ‘glory run’.
(not saying RIC only went for glory runs)
Oconomo
10th August 2018, 11:35
@JohnH
Race laptimes. Out of 526 laps they were on track together MV 302 versus DR 224.
This clearly shows MV is faster in racetrim, like he is in Qualifying.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
10th August 2018, 12:53
Um Ok if that is correct :) and taking into account that Ricciardo has had one more DNF than Verstappen so far this yr. How can Ricciardo be ahead?
Robbie (@robbie)
10th August 2018, 14:09
I place little value on fastest laps as a measure of anything of much significance, although perhaps it is a bit telling. The two drivers vying for the WDC this year each only have one fastest lap this season. DR would probably swap 3 of his fastest laps in favour of a WDC level placing in the standings in a heart beat.
Interestingly Max has two fastest laps, making RBR the ‘owners’ of half the fastest laps of the season so far. And there they sit a solid third in the WCC. I think particularly because of the tires and the need to conserve so much all at once, we see the two top contenders able to dial it down, control the pace, and conserve much moreso than teams and drivers who are needing to play catch-up in races. DR sitting behind Max more often, and having the most fastest laps, is an indication of that. Both RBR drivers usually sitting behind three or four Mercs/Ferraris is another indication of why together RBR has half the fastest laps.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
10th August 2018, 15:43
And one of those Max flaps was in Canada, when Dan’s flap got flagged early. So 5-1.
Robbie (@robbie)
10th August 2018, 22:23
Lol oh ya forget about that. Just not officially though, eh?
Palle (@palle)
11th August 2018, 14:21
Easy, when Max have had a few very good opportunties for winning races, but failed misserably because he was too aggressive and impatient when overtaking. Leading Ricciardo for many laps and then crashing into somebody or crashing out of the race doesn’t bring You in front pointwise. For the first 7 races or so this year, Max made far too many errors, crashes, contacts etc, but he was the last to admit there was a problem. Suddenly it disappeared and he is no longer a liability on track, so he will probably pass Ricciardo before the end of the season.
Palle (@palle)
11th August 2018, 14:24
In general I think these stats iin this article are cutting the seasons action far too short – highlighting 2 or 3 issues for each driver isn’t covering the season at all – it prompts more questions than it brings answers.