The most revealing stats on every F1 driver’s 2021 season so far

2021 F1 season

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Which drivers are working wonders in sub-par equipment? Who’s finished last more than anyone else? Here are 20 telling stats on their performances so far.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Hungaroring, 2021
Although Hamilton’s Hungary result means he now leads the championship, he hasn’t led the most laps this year. Only once in the past 12 years has a driver who didn’t lead the most laps won the title – Nico Rosberg in 2016

Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Baku City Circuit, 2021
Underlining Mercedes’ diminished competitiveness compared to recent seasons, Bottas ranks only sixth in terms of laps led, behind his team mate, the Red Bull drivers, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Red Bull Ring, 2021
Verstappen has led the most laps of any driver this year – 403, over three times as many as Hamilton – including every lap of both races at the Red Bull Ring

Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez, Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021
Perez has led his team mate on-track for just 4.5% of laps where both cars were circulating, the lowest of any driver. Every time it happened – in Portugal, Azerbaijan and France – it was because Verstappen pitted first

Lando Norris

Lando Norris, McLaren, Bahrain International Circuit, 2021
Norris has been the first driver home in a car other than a Mercedes or Red Bull far more often than any other driver – seven times in the first 11 races. Leclerc is the only other driver to have done so more than once, finishing ‘best of the rest’ twice

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021
While Norris hasn’t failed to reach Q3 yet, Ricciardo has gone out in Q2 five times and Q1 once

Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021
Stroll may not have scored as many points as Vettel, but he has finished ahead of him more often in races where both drivers reached the chequered flag

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, Hungaroring, 2021
Before his disqualification in Hungary, Vettel had scored more points over the first 11 races this year than he had during the whole of 2020

Esteban Ocon

Ocon is the only driver to have won a race in a car other than a Red Bull or a Mercedes

Fernando Alonso

The Alpine drivers are the closest team mates in the championship – Alonso is just one point behind Ocon, and has the longest scoring streak of any active driver, with top 10 finishes in the last six races

Charles Leclerc

Start, Baku City Circuit, 2021
Leclerc is the only driver to have taken pole position in a car other than a Red Bull or a Mercedes, though he only got to start there in Baku, as a car problem meant he failed to start in Monaco

Carlos Sainz Jnr

Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Hungaroring, 2021
Sainz an Leclerc were level on points until Vettel was disqualified in Hungary. Now Sainz leads by three, despite having finished behind Leclerc more often than not in qualifying and the races

Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly's destroyed left-rear tyre, 2021 Styrian Grand Prix
Gasly is statistically the worst started this year, having lost a total of 24 places on lap one. Damage in the Styrian Grand Prix and a delay due to the turn one crash in Hungary are largely to blame

Yuki Tsunoda

Despite picking up points on his debut and in four subsequent races, Tsunoda has the lowest share of any team’s haul, contributing just 23% of AlphaTauri’s total

Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Red Bull Ring, 2021
Raikkonen is the best starter so far this year, gaining a total of 30 places on the first lap, including five at the Styrian Grand Prix

Antonio Giovinazzi

Despite out-qualifying Raikkonen 80% of the time, Giovinazzi has spent just 29% of laps ahead of his team mate during races

Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher, Haas, Hungaroring, 2021
Schumacher is the only Haas driver to have run in a points-paying position this year – he spent 24 laps in the top 10 in Hungary

Nikita Mazepin

Nikita Mazepin, Haas, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021
Mazepin has chalked up the most last-placed finishes of any driver this year – six so far. Team mate Schumacher has two

George Russell

George Russell, Williams, Silverstone, 2021
Russell isn’t the only driver to have out-qualified his team mate every weekend – Gasly and Schumacher have too – but among those only the Williams drivers have set times in every qualifying session. Russell’s ‘Mr Saturday’ nickname is therefore well deserved except perhaps at Silverstone, scene of his best result, when qualifying was on Friday.

Nicholas Latifi

Nicholas Latifi, Williams, Hungaroring, 2021
Latifi trails Russell 7-2 in terms of who has finished ahead in races but he was leading when it counted in Hungary, and has scored more points than his team mate as a result

Over to you

Spotted any more revealing statistics from the 2021 season so far? Share them in the comments.

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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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21 comments on “The most revealing stats on every F1 driver’s 2021 season so far”

  1. despite having finished behind Leclerc more often than not in qualifying and the races

    I mean, it’s a stats article, you could’ve included the actual stat. It feels strange to see a qualitative statement in a sea of numbers.

  2. Notwithstanding being hit from behind at Hungary, Norris was also Mr. Reliable with a string of points finishes going back to Portugal last year.

    1. @chrischrill And remarkably he’s still third in the championship ahead of a Red Bull and a Mercedes.

  3. The stat about Giovinazzi really surprised me, as I think he has been quite considerably better than Raikkonen this year. Maybe it is because Raikkonen has had a few races where he was ahead of Giovinazzi for most of the race and then has thrown it away with a silly error, and Giovinazzi has also had a few races where he has been behind due to bad luck early in the season.

    1. I think it’s partly also because of the Q1/2 split. Räikkönen hasn’t been the greatest qualifier this season, but even if Kimi fails to get into Q2, it means only starting one or two places lower than his teammate, and with a good start can thus easily swap places.

    2. Stats of the 21st century:
      In his career in a car that has been between 0.5 and 5 seconds faster than quite a lot of the field, bottas has never overtaked anyone on track.
      Also, even though Russell has outqualified his williams teammate(which stopped being a real stat when he went to merc), he has never outscored a teammate in f1.
      And no matter if 100 journalists try to convince me tsunoda is a good driver, you will never succeed

    3. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      9th August 2021, 23:07

      @f1frog

      I’ve done several detailed comparisons between Kimi and Giovinazzi on other forums and Giovinazzi has actually been significantly better overall. I would say pretty much the only race this year where Kimi was very obviously better was last time out, and even here, Kimi’s pace was very poor compared to Giovinazzi. Despite Giovinazzi taking a gamble, losing out, pitting an extra time, getting a 10 second stop go penalty – he STILL only finished around 20 seconds behind Kimi. This indicates his pace was still far better.

      I think Giovinazzi has somewhat improved this season, while at the same time, Kimi really isn’t good enough any more IMO.

      1. @thegianthogweed The most effective starts of the entire grid is making Kimi have the upper hand though. Despite being heavily outqualified by Giovinazzi, he is outscoring his teammate (2-1) and leads in final race positions with both Alfa Romeos finishing as well (6-4).

        1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
          11th August 2021, 0:36

          I would say Giovinazzi has had getting on for the worst luck of any driver though. I could go in to far more depth. The stats give the wrong impression.

  4. Interesting and revealing stats among all drivers.
    Gio especially, even though he’s regularly out-qualified Kimi this season, races haven’t been as clear cut but instead varied between them. No wonder Vasseur hasn’t ruled out an all-lineup change for next season despite technical rule changes.

  5. Haha Kimi is amazing… I can remember a year (his last Ferrari season?) where he didn’t gain a single place all season in lap one… and now this!

    1. It was between Abu Dhabi 2016 and USA 2018 that he didn’t gain a single place on lap one. It was good that he ended that streak by taking the lead from his teammate’s title rival.

      1. Which also gave him his last win, which he got pretty close to in several occasions before.

  6. Missing that verstappen also led the full monaco gp, although I’m not sure if perez managed to complete a whole lap ahead of him before pitting, I think not cause I remember it being marked as a race led from start of finish.

  7. Up to the Hungarian GP, Norris had finished every race but one in the top 5. Ricciardo conversely had finished every race but one outside the top 5. A very telling stat.

    1. @aussierod
      Not even Tsunoda and Mazepin, among the drivers who are underperforming very badly relative to their teammates have stats similar to that, for other reasons than pure performance, it should be noted. The closest parallels are: before the Hungarian GP Verstappen had finished every race but two on the podium, Perez conversely had finished every race but two outside the podium; Hamilton had finished every race but three in the top 2, Bottas almost conversely had finished every race but one outside the top 2.

  8. “Wolff compares Red Bull rivalry to Ferrari fight when Mercedes were pushed ‘almost to breaking point’”
    Headline on Formula1.com. That explains a lot of his recent behavior. Apparently Toto goes in panic mode rather easily at the hint of competition. Maybe an ingredient for a streak of domination, getting upset if there’s a fly in the room.

  9. On another unrelated topic. Whats that censorism about not booing? How arrogant to state you can not boo an artist that makes a concious choice to perform in front of an audience. Its ok to cheer and applaud, but not to Boo? That is both hypocrisy and textbook censorship.

    1. Mayrton
      Snowflake mentality is finally taking over sports, haven’t you seen at the Olympics earlier this month? Just the most recent stance of it. Too much glorification of weakness and ungrateful protests even for silly things, and on top of that competitive and fighting spirit is in an all-time low.

      1. Thats because people feel insulted all the time and dont get the picture that banning insults is not the solution, but is in fact censorship which imho is far far worse than insulting. We should insult more and people should build resistance to taking offense. Then we can have a dialogue to find out what is triggering the miscommunication. Now we just bury it under ‘you cant say things like that’ without questioning why or what is behind the insult. It is a circle to the bottom right now since no communication is bad… and all sheep follow. Compare it with the dynamics in a group of friends. They easily insult. But there is hardly offense taken. Subsequently the motive behind the insult is discussed and the topic goes away. Society is depriving us of having this conversation by merely brushing all (not up my alley) things off as offensive.

  10. Andrew Wilson
    18th August 2021, 4:08

    How about this one: records will show that Lewis Hamilton’1’12.909 claimed the race lap record at Monaco over a 1’14.260 Max Verstapen set in 2018, but that isn’t strictly true. For about one and a half laps Yuki Tsunoda held the race lap record with a 1’14.037. On a different day Yuki might have held on to the title, but Lewis (as if we needed another example of just how fast the man and his Merc are) was approaching qualifying speeds (he actually re-beat Mazapin’s quali time).

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