A slumbering giant has reawakened.
Mercedes, who laid waste to the competition in Formula 1 from 2014 to 2016, then continued to win almost as they pleased for years after, looked like a spent force for much of the past two-and-a-half years.Just 10 days ago, they had only won once since the end of 2021. But back-to-back victories in the last two grands prix have shown the Brackley squad are back among the front-runners.
George Russell’s Austrian Grand Prix victory was assisted by Max Verstappen and Lando Norris tangling. But the silver-and-black arrows put on a show of strength at Silverstone, locking out the front row of the grid for the first time since that against-the-run-of-play victory late in 2022.
The bitter fight between the two teams that season had almost begun to fade in the memory. But Russell and Lewis Hamilton have put Mercedes back on top, nudging them up to 127 wins, and there now seems a realistic possibility they can prevent Red Bull overtaking them.
Two teams lie ahead of them: McLaren on 184 wins and Ferrari with 245 – almost as many as the two rivals combined.
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It bears pointing out we are not comparing like with like here. Red Bull have started 76 more rounds than Mercedes, so they had a head start. This is better reflected by comparing their winning rates.
That fell sharply when they returned to F1 in 2010 and won nothing for the first two years. Meanwhile Red Bull were piling up wins and surpassed Mercedes’ winning rate at the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, notwithstanding the fact they didn’t win that race.
But Mercedes’ immediate mastery of the V6 hybrid turbo regulations which arrived in 2014 soon propelled them back ahead. Hamilton’s victory in the first race of 2015 edged them past Red Bull. However since the pair went toe-to-toe in 2021, Red Bull have narrowed the gap rapidly:
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Almost all of Red Bull’s recent success has come courtesy of Verstappen. As a result he edged passed Hamilton’s winning rate earlier this year. But at long last, Hamilton too has hit back.
Hamilton had never previously gone 10 consecutive rounds without winning one, but last weekend he ended a 56-race win-less streak. In a striking parallel the driver he replaced at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher, the sport’s only other seven-times champion, ended his enormously successful career with 60 consecutive win-less races, including 58 in his three seasons at the Brackley team.
Kimi Raikkonen extended the record for most consecutive races between wins six years ago. He scored his first win for 115 races at the Circuit of the Americas.
Raikkonen’s 2,044-day wait for a win is more than double Hamilton’s 945 days – and that isn’t even the record. Riccardo Patrese went 2,402 days (over six-and-a-half years) without a win between 1982 and 1990.
Hamilton doesn’t rank among the 10 drivers who ended the longest win-less streaks in F1. Several British drivers are among them, including a pair of drivers who won just three races each, 1958 world champion Mike Hawthorn and Johnny Herbert. Another notable name is Elio de Angelis, who won exactly two races during his career, 994 days apart.
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There is one driver on the grid well-placed to empathise with Hamilton’s situation prior to last weekend. Fernando Alonso will smash Patrese’s record if he wins another race. He marked the 11th anniversary of his most recent win in May, and has been waiting 4,074 days as of last Sunday.
In an encouraging sign of the standard of competition this year, Hamilton became the sixth different race winner. This is the most seen in F1 since 2021.
As the season reaches its halfway point, seven different drivers have now led races. Sergio Perez is the only driver from the four race-winning teams who hasn’t led a single lap yet.
Four different drivers led on Sunday, the most since last year’s race at the Circuit of the Americas. Only one race saw more leaders last year, at Monza, where there was five.
This was the fourth consecutive race led by Russell. He also picked up his fourth pole position for a grand prix, putting him level with Hawthorn, Didier Pironi and Jarno Trulli (F1 does not officially count his 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix pole).
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Verstappen marked his 200th participation in a grand prix weekend. He did not start three of those, when he appeared in practice for Toro Rosso in 2014.
Finally, Logan Sargeant scored his best result of the season so far with 11th, but is still seeking his first point, as are the two Sauber drivers.
Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the British Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2024 British Grand Prix
- The ‘good and bad’ reason Piastri is sure he can win after three near-misses
- Gasly solved mystery handling problem by using Ocon’s settings
- Mercedes “will be in an even stronger position” after next upgrade – Hamilton
- Verstappen “refuses to believe” Red Bull are reaching limit of RB20’s potential
- Why “under construction” McLaren still celebrate third place after missing a win
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
10th July 2024, 8:27
It is not just a battle for races won but also races with at least 1 lap in the lead.
* End 2021 Mercedes 168 versus Red Bull 132 – gap 36
* End 2022 Mercedes 176 versus Red Bull 151 – gap 25
* End 2023 Mercedes 179 versus Red Bull 172 – gap 7
* After Imola (7th race) Mercedes and Red Bull tied at 179
* Neither lead in Monaco
* Thanks to Russell’s pole in Canada, rocket start in Spain and winning Austria they were still tied at 182 and after Silverstone Mercedes is leading again as Red Bull didn’t lead a single lap.
Coventry Climax
10th July 2024, 15:56
And you honestly think 20 drivers and 10 teams are all truly concerned with those figures?
Get real.
melanos
11th July 2024, 18:36
Come on, stats are mostly for fun. Beyond the most obvious ( WDCs, wins…) nobody really cares. But there are some really bizarre ones for fans to enjoy.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:31
Interesting to think about that red bull didn’t lead at all in silverstone, as they felt the least competitive they’ve been this year to me, with moments where 2 cars were faster.
SteveP
10th July 2024, 8:36
I suppose you can make a stat out of pretty much any set of numbers.
What does it all mean though?
notagrumpyfan
10th July 2024, 8:59
On Sunday two Spanish drivers finished ahead of the sole French finisher.
Spain beat France 2-1.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
10th July 2024, 12:42
One of the Spanish drivers is as old as the combined age of both Spanish goalscorers.
José Lopes da Silva
10th July 2024, 9:51
I like these stats articles.
Coventry Climax
10th July 2024, 15:52
You can safely leave the words ‘pretty much’ out of there, SteveP.
The number ‘1’ is statistically smaller than the number ‘2’ by a 100% of the times.
See? You don’t need any context to create statistics from a set of numbers at all.
It’s -statistically- quite like the old Monty Python sketch with a quizz expert on questions that have ‘2’ for the answer.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th July 2024, 9:15
Three Brits started a race in the first three positions for the first time since the 1968 South African GP & the first such feat in Silverstone, specifically.
Coincidently, Logan Sargeant has out-qualified Sergio Perez three times over the last five GPs.
The inaugural Saudi Arabian GP is where Lewis Hamilton took his last victory before the lengthy hiatus, & at 39 years & 182 days, he became the oldest race winner in the 21st century & achieved his 12th consecutive Silverstone podium finish as well as 15th total, which extended his record for a single circuit.
No one else has ever won a GP beyond their 300th start, 344th is a record on this front.
He also achieved his 150th podium finish for Mercedes & the 199th of his career.
He took the all-time record between the first & the last or most recent victory at 17 years & a month, with Kimi Räikkönen holding the record previously at 15 years.
Finally, he became the first driver other than Lando Norris or the Ferrari duo to win the DOTD honor this season.
Due to DNS, Pierre Gasly has failed to complete the British GP for three consecutive seasons, although Esteban Ocon & Kevin Magnussen at least managed to reach the chequered flag in Silverstone after having retired in the last two seasons & last season, respectively, with the latter also being the last driver to finish the race on the lead lap for the first time this season.
Yet another 2024 race where Guanyu Zhou finished last & the second where he got lapped twice by the leader(s), with the British GP being the third this season where Charles Leclerc was driving at least a full lap down to any extent & another race for Sergio Perez to get lapped in his Red Bull Racing stint.
Regarding the penultimate paragraph, entries are based on appearances as a full-time driver or when driving in competitive sessions is the purpose beforehand or for substitution purposes rather than when a non-regular merely drives in a practice session, so his first entry is from the 2015 Australian GP, & thus the next season-opener will be Oliver Bearman’s second entry, & as another example, if any driver without a single race driven in F1, who’s done FP1 running in the recent past were to become a full-time driver someday or get a single race for substitution purposes, that’d be his first (official) entry, for that matter.
Jere (@jerejj)
15th July 2024, 8:54
Although the words ‘appearance’ & ‘entry’ themselves have different definitions from each other, so one can argue that merely referring to FP1-only running as an appearance is valid, albeit an ‘official entry’ is still only applicable to pre-planned racing duties & regular driver substitutions by qualifying in historical statistics.
ppzzus (@ppzzus)
10th July 2024, 9:16
i still think Austria was a bit of a false dawn, iirc Russel was a dozen seconds off the lead when Norris and Max started dancing. I wouldnt call it a gifted win but Russel was very fortunate. Silverstone felt like it was on merit with proper pace, no safety cars, just a good clean race to the flag. A bit fortunate that Norris went with the softs for the final stint, however Mercedes still won with softs so it couldn’t have been that bad. Norris just cooked them.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:36
Yes, there’s no doubt it was a lucky win in austria, this season had 6 different winners from 4 different teams, which definitely didn’t happen since a while, most likely 2012, but didn’t check, and apart from russell I think all other winners had 1 or more wins on merit, leclerc got pole and looked faster at monaco, norris was lucky with the SC mistake in miami, but had such a pace in the last stint that I feel he’d have overtaken verstappen, hamilton’s win here was quite deserved, norris had a slow pit stop but was self inflicted, and sainz in australia had already overtaken verstappen before he had mechanical problems.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:36
And verstappen had a few races where he had to perform well to win, such as imola or canada.
José Lopes da Silva
10th July 2024, 9:56
The qualifying British trio upfront deserve some investigation
Coventry Climax
10th July 2024, 11:05
Their rivalry may be ‘bitter’ or notorious, but Verstappen – notoriously as well – doesn’t give a hoot about statistics.
Janith
10th July 2024, 12:29
I’m sure Verstappen remembers the number 104 very well
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th July 2024, 16:52
No doubt he doesn’t care about it anything like as much as he gets asked about it – but there have been times when he’s admitted he was going after a particular statistic.
Coventry Climax
10th July 2024, 18:04
There’s quite a margin between going for a record (which is not the same as a statistic) when the win isn’t actually at stake, and being bothered by -mostly silly- numbers when there’s so much more important things going on in the championship for you.
It is understandable, but quite significant and utterly sad, that the focus of reporting has shifted to politics and statistics so much, over true car development and technical things, dealing with actual racing, with the little development that’s still allowed being subject to BoP, otherwise known as the scythe to cut of anything that sticks it’s head out above grass-roots level.
Jonathan Parkin
10th July 2024, 13:59
I’ve said this before, but Lewis has had both versions of the British National Anthem played for one of his wins. For the first 103 it was God Save The Queen, for his 104th it was God Save The King
He is the only British winner this applies to, an achievement that will possibly never be surpassed, unless of course if Jenson, Damon or Nigel come back and win a race
NM
10th July 2024, 14:05
this needs some explenantion, did the anthem change between Austian and British GP?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
10th July 2024, 14:33
No, Hamilton didn’t win in Austria.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
10th July 2024, 15:30
God save the Queen was played from February 1952 till September 2022.
* No British driver won before 1952
* Both Russell & Norris only won their races after September 2022
As result Lewis is the only British driver who has won races under Queen Elizabeth II (God save the Queen) and now with his latest win under King Charles III (God save the King).
Although technically Lando Norris also stood on the podium with both anthem being played.
Monza 2021: God save the Queen was played for McLaren as the winning constructor.
Miami 2024: God save the King was played for Lando as winning driver.
Jere (@jerejj)
10th July 2024, 16:44
@f1statsfan What do you mean Lewis is the only British driver who has won races under Queen Elizabeth II?
JB, DC, etc., have also won with God Save The Queen version playing for them.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
11th July 2024, 8:15
@Jere read the 2nd part of that same sentence “and now with his latest win under King Charles III (God save the King).”
Button and Coulthard like all other British drivers (except Russell & Norris) have won races under Queen Elizabeth II but didn’t win a race before 1952 or after September 2022.
Russell & Norris did win a race under King Charles III but didn’t win before September 2022.
notagrumpyfan
10th July 2024, 14:41
I always understood that the UK doesn’t have a formal national anthem, as it has merely a popular songs which happens to be played at sporting and formal events.
I even thought that ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ could be considered the anthem due to its popularity ;)
SteveP
10th July 2024, 19:07
The formal anthem is used for various functions and sports where the representative is competing as a UK “citizen”* so where the competition involves England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland as separate nations there is a different tune/words used. e.g. “Jerusalem” for England cricket. That maybe what you’re thinking of. The distinction is that UK is all the nations, who have one common anthem, each individual nation has as you say a popular tune that has an association with that nation.
*NB. We aren’t actually “citizens” we are subjects of the monarch. The monarch’s most useful function being blocking the appointment of a President.
notagrumpyfan
10th July 2024, 23:43
It’s not a formal anthem; never declared as such.
It’s just customary to play that song. It could’ve been any song ;)
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
10th July 2024, 15:30
Technically Lando Norris also stood on the podium with both anthem being played.
Monza 2021: God save the Queen was played for McLaren as the winning constructor.
Miami 2024: God save the King was played for Lando as winning driver.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:47
Surely you don’t mean surpassed, but equalled, in which case I don’t see why not, it just will be in 70 years or thereabouts, so not stuff we’ll get to witness.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:49
As in surely at that point there will be a queen again and some driver might win a race in 2090 when there’s still a king and then 2091 when there’s a queen, just an example as I have no idea how old those people are.
hobo (@hobo)
15th July 2024, 14:30
Nice trivia here.
Funny that so many are having trouble understanding this.
Abovo
10th July 2024, 15:22
It was the first time that one nation secured the first three spots in qualifying since the 1997 French Grand Prix, when Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher did the same.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 4:08
Interesting stat, 27 years is a long time, thinking about it, it’s not often that a country even has 3 drivers on the grid, let alone all competitive drivers in competitive cars.
mzs16 (@mzs16)
10th July 2024, 17:58
I thought the anthems were being played without the words, so there isn’t any actual difference?
Otherwise you can cook up something similar for Red Bull too, as the words of the Austrian anthem were made gender neutral a few years ago, and I’m pretty sure they’ve won races on either side of that.
Coventry Climax
10th July 2024, 18:09
Like I sort of said in an above comment; look at what we’ve come to discuss here, for lack of things really related to motorracing.
Quite ‘discussting’, actually.
haeggi
10th July 2024, 20:33
Hulkenberg has scored more points (16) in the last two races, than Perenz (15) in the last 7 races (inlcuding 1 Sprint).
notagrumpyfan
10th July 2024, 23:45
Now that’s a stat !
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 4:09
Yes, I saw it mentioned in the other thread too, it’s indeed impressive by both drivers, even with perez performing so badly it speaks really highly of hulkenberg.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
10th July 2024, 22:21
First all-British 1-2-3 on the grid since South Africa 1968 (Clark, Hill, Stewart) – this would turn out to be Clark’s last F1 race.
2nd time in 4 races that Russell has managed pole with Leclerc missing Q3.
First season in which 3 drivers representing Great Britain have won races since 1999 (Irvine, Coulthard, Herbert). First season in which 3 drivers from Great Britain have won races since 1995 (Hill, Coulthard, Herbert). First season in which 3 English drivers have won races since 1958 (Moss, Brooks, Hawthorn, Collins).
First time we have had 2 consecutive non-Verstappen wins since the same 2 tracks (Britain and Austria) in 2022. Just as in 2024, the two races were won by team-mates.
Perez scored more points in the first race of this season (18) than he has managed in the last 6 race weekends (15).
Hamilton scored more points in this race (25) than in the first 5 race weekends of this season (19).
Hamilton keeps alive his record of at least 1 top 2 finish and at least 1 lap led in every season he has competed in.
Gasly’s 2nd non-finish of the season, both caused by gearbox problems that manifested themselves before the start of the race.
Perez and Bearman are the only drivers not to have started ahead of their team-mate in 2024.
2nd race in a row where the podium did not feature any of the podium drivers from the previous race. This last happened in the last 3 races of 2020, which was also the last time a triple-header saw 3 different winners.
Hamilton breaks Raikkonen’s record for longest time between first and most recent F1 wins (both in terms of days and number of GPs).
Hamilton is the oldest race winner since Mansell in Australia 1994.
Thanks to statsf1 and the official F1 site for some of these.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 4:14
Interesting stat the one about 2 team mates winning 2 consecutive races where verstappen doesn’t win, he was unlucky to take some debris at silverstone 2022, while in austria ferrari won on merit, in this case the opposite, there was a crash for the lead in austria and red bull looked not fast enough to win in normal circumstances at silverstone.
Generally speaking, verstappen not winning 2 races in a row is a rarity in recent timmes.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 4:20
Impressive the stat about perez and hamilton scoring more points in the first race than the others combined, really shows how much their form changed, the car has something to do with it as well, especially for hamilton’s improvement.
Hamilton also is the first driver to win over 300 races and 16 years went by between his first and last silverstone wins, which is over twice longer than a typical career back in the 1950s.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 4:21
I meant the first driver to get a victory after having participated in over 300 races*
Alasdair McNeil
11th July 2024, 10:35
First season in which 3 drivers representing Great Britain have won races since 1999 (Irvine, Coulthard, Herbert). First season in which 3 drivers from Great Britain have won races since 1995 (Hill, Coulthard, Herbert).
The above looks like the same stat as written, but presumably should say United Kingdom rather than GB in the first instance so it captures the fact that Irvine is Northern Irish. Formally, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Alasdair McNeil
11th July 2024, 11:32
Maybe the distinction is intended to be “representing” versus “from” GB. Did Irvine represent GB even though he was Northern Irish?
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:26
In a striking parallel the driver he replaced at Mercedes, Michael Schumacher, the sport’s only other seven-times champion, ended his enormously successful career with 60 consecutive win-less races, including 58 in his three seasons at the Brackley team.
When it comes to this stat, 58 out of 60 is already a big % ofc, but it’s worth noting that he was on course to win both of his last 2 races with ferrari if not for mechanical failures, he was in the lead with 5 sec margin on alonso at 2\3 of the way into the japanese gp when the engine failed, and he was dominating qualifying until a fuel pump failure, which set him 10th of the grid, plus a puncture overtaking fisichella in the early laps.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
11th July 2024, 3:27
Then recovered almost a lap on the lead drivers over the course of the race.
melanos
11th July 2024, 19:10
Last week was a temporary setback for Michael Schumacher in his quest for fifth place in the wins/race stat, after JM Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Jim Clark and Max Verstappen (not counting the outliers Lee Wallace and Bill Vukovich who only won those pesky Indy500 races in the ‘50s.
Schuey was expected to reach fifth place in Monza but now this stat will have to wait until Baku; but in case disaster strikes again this season, it will take until Abu Dhabi.
hobo (@hobo)
15th July 2024, 14:32
I’m curious if Merc is really able to fight for wins in standard conditions. Austria was not a “Mercedes is back” moment. I suspect that the conditions helped Merc/Hamilton in GB. Happy he got the win, happy to see the fight, and hope Merc is in the fight. But very suspect as to whether that is actually the case just yet.