Telling stats 2024

24 telling stats on every driver from the 2024 Formula 1 season

Formula 1

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Who was the best at starts this year? Who contributed the least to their team’s points tally?

These telling statistics reveal the best and worst performances by each of the 24 drivers over the 24 grands prix of 2024:

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Jeddah Corniche Circuit, 2024
Max Verstappen spent 560 laps in the lead, more than twice as many as any other driver

Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Interlagos, 2024
There were so many telling stats indicating how bad 2024 was for Sergio Perez that we covered them in a separate article

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, Miami International Autodrome, 2024
Out of the drivers who entered every race, Lewis Hamilton gained the most places in grands prix, an average of 2.26 per race

George Russell

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Mercedes, Las Vegas Strip Circuit, 2024
George Russell out-scored his team mate by the narrowest margin of any driver, with 9.8% more points than Hamilton

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Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Yas Marina, 2024
No surprise who made the best start of 2024: Charles Leclerc picked up 11 places in one lap at Yas Marina

Carlos Sainz Jnr

Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2024
Ferrari was the only team to take pole positions with both cars, thanks to Carlos Sainz Jnr being the only driver to take a single pole position

Lando Norris

Start, Circuit de Catalunya, 2024
The worst starter of the year was Lando Norris, who lost one place at the start every two races on average (the same as Valtteri Bottas)

Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Zandvoort, 2024
The only driver to complete all 1,444 laps in grands prix this year was Oscar Piastri

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Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, Circuit de Catalunya, 2024
Out of all the drivers who raced the full season, Lance Stroll contributed the lowest share of his team’s score, 25.5% (0.3% less than Perez at Red Bull)

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, Jeddah Corniche Circuit, 2024
Among those not in a Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari or Mercedes, Fernando Alonso was first to the flag more times than anyone else, racking up eight ‘best of the rest’ finishes

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Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon, Alpine, Interlagos, 2024
Thanks to Esteban Ocon’s superb performance at Interlagos, he was the only driver outside the ‘big four’ teams to lead a lap or finish in the top two

Pierre Gasly

Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 2024
Pierre Gasly lost the closest qualifying battle on the grid, 12-11 (52%-48%), after Alpine dropped his team mate one race before the end of the season

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Alexander Albon

Alexander Albon, Williams, Shanghai International Circuit, 2024
Out of all the drivers who entered every round, Alexander Albon covered the fewest laps: 1,139

Logan Sargeant

Logan Sargeant, Williams, Zandvoort, 2024
Continuing his run from his first season, Logan Sargeant never once out-qualified his team mate

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo, RB, Baku City Circuit, 2024
By the time he was dropped by RB, Daniel Ricciardo was the worst starter on the grid, losing 0.82 places per race on average

Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda, RB, Circuit of the Americas, 2024
Yuki Tsunoda lost the most places of any driver during races, finishing 1.7 places lower than he qualified on average

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Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas, Sauber, Yas Marina, 2024
In what looks like being his final season in Formula 1, Valtteri Bottas was the only driver to enter every race yet fail to score a point

Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu, Sauber, Spa-Francorchamps, 2024
Zhou Guanyu finished higher than he qualified 17 times, the most of any driver

Kevin Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen, Haas, Las Vegas Strip Circuit, 2024
The best driver at making up places on lap one was Kevin Magnussen, who picked up 1.33 places at the start per race

Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas, Imola, 2024
After Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg had the second most ‘best of the rest’ finishes of any driver, with five

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Oliver Bearman

Oliver Bearman, Haas, Interlagos, 2024
In his two appearances for Haas, Oliver Bearman out-qualified and finished ahead of Nico Hulkenberg both times

Franco Colapinto

Franco Colapinto, Williams, Singapore, 2024
Although he only started nine races to his predecessor’s 14, Franco Colapinto spent 11 more laps ahead of the other Williams than Logan Sargeant did

Liam Lawson

Liam Lawson, RB, Circuit of the Americas, 2024
The only part-time driver to make a double-digit position gain during a grand prix was Liam Lawson

Jack Doohan

Jack Doohan, Alpine, Yas Marina, 2024
Don’t judge Jack Doohan too harshly for having the largest qualifying lap time deficit to his team mate – 0.55 seconds – as he only started one race

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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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42 comments on “24 telling stats on every driver from the 2024 Formula 1 season”

  1. Perez lmao

    1. Perez literally does have 24 telling stats on how bad he’s been…

      1. @wsrgo @david-br I didn’t want to do any more. I had the kid from the Simpsons episode crying “stop, he’s already dead” in my head…

  2. A separate article about Perez’s stats speaks volumes about his season as a whole.
    Overall, interesting stats regarding each driver.
    The Piastri one is, of course, something I already noted in the Abu Dhabi GP stats & facts article.
    Being reserved with judgment on Doohan is definitely valid, given expecting anything from him at such short notice was effectively impossible.
    Next season is another matter with proper off & pre-season preparations.
    Another note-worthy aspect about Colapinto is that he scored more points in nine GPs than Sargeant managed in 37, even more so in two already.

  3. Piastri didn’t take any pole? Even in sprints?

  4. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
    17th December 2024, 13:39

    Not sure all of these are that telling. Should supposedly positive stat is only a positive because he almost always qualified last and gained from retirements to gain those places.

    I feel that Sargeant if anything almost deserves a statistic of beating Albon once this year in Canada. He literally would have qualified better than Albon regardless if he had been allowed to use his own car. But instead, Albon got it after destroying his own. Even with an additional car Albon somehow still has raced the least laps of any driver over the fill season.

    I also don’t really think Bottas getting no points is telling. He would have got points in Bahrain, probably China and Qatar too if things didn’t go against him.

    1. I also don’t really think Bottas getting no points is telling. He would have got points in Bahrain, probably China and Qatar too if things didn’t go against him.

      Super unlucky in Abu Dhabi.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        17th December 2024, 22:32

        Well, the incidents with both drivers were clearly his fault, and the one with Magnussen was a rare mistake by any driver. A lock up to that extent with no driver ahead making Bottas lose downforce. Looking at his onboard, he left breaking until a little too late, but applied the breaks at the same time as steering a bit which I think triggered it.

        He indeed did cause himself to bounce into Perez, but Red Bull actually confirmed that that was not the reason why Perez retired, and he infact had a clutch issue before it even happened. Bottas clearly spun Perez, but it was such a light tap on his rear left tyre that it simply won’t have damaged anything. Compare it to Bottas (coincidently in the same race) colliding very heavily into Magnussen’s left rear tyre, and broke his own suspension, yet Magnusson continued and set fastest lap. I think the penalty handed out to Bottas at the start was sort of influenced by Perez retiring for an unrelated reason that at the time looked related. Incidents like that on the first lap usually don’t get punished. Example being Hulkenberg when he actually was fully responsible for taking out BOTH Ocon and Colapinto at the first corner in Qatar.

        1. Well, the incidents with both drivers were clearly his fault

          The “super unlucky” was a tongue-in-cheek quote, from another driver in a very similar situation.
          He, of course, can do no wrong so he was “super unlucky”; whereas Bottas apologised.

  5. Sargeant didn’t once qualify ahead of Albon, but when Perez’ slump started, Sargeant did outqualify him.
    Imola no time set Sargeant
    Monaco 15-16
    Canada 13-16
    Spain 20-8
    Austria 19-8
    Britain 12-19
    Hungary 14-16
    Belgium 19-3
    Dutch no time set Sargeant

  6. Nice touch on the Leclerc stat to show a picture with 11 cars behind him – really puts into perspective the gains he made on a single lap.

    1. Yes, I think they showed this picture before when talking about his recovery, either somewhere here or on the broadcast after the race.

    2. @joeypropane Thanks – there’s nothing like finding just the right picture!

  7. Piastri’s one is mighty impressive. In his second season of F1.
    How often does that happen? I guess drivers have trundled round at the back and kept finishing – does it still count if they got lapped?

    1. No, because the driver would not be completing all the race laps and, consequently, not all the season laps.
      Just 3 drivers ever managed to do this, Schumacher in 2002, Hamilton in 2019, and Max in 2023.

      Needless to say, reliability is much better now than in earlier years of F1, so it can happen from time to time.

      1. Jonathan Parkin
        17th December 2024, 15:44

        Just noticed it’s happened consecutively for the first time. Are we going to have a hat trick in 2025

      2. Edvaldo True, although Hamilton also managed to reach the chequered flag in all 2017 races, but failed at completing all possible racing laps as he got lapped in the Mexican GP & the same with Kimi in 2012, Ricciardo in 2016, & Sainz in 2021.

        1. Kimi in 2012 – is that the one where he would have done all the laps but got lost after a minor off and attempted to leave Interlagos?

  8. That picture of Logan Sargeant is a classic.
    It looks like he is still trying to drive it in a kind of Wacky Races episode :)

  9. Lewis needs to work on his qualifying. I wouldn’t make beating a George or Charles on Saturday a huge goal, though. If he starts within three places of them he should be able to pass them in the race. If there’s time it would be good to prioritise a race setup without ending up ten positions off where the car should be.

    1. On the Yuki stat… I’m not sure this means he’s a great qualifier as he can unnecessarily lose positions.

    2. As I stated below, HAM prefers to set up the car for racing and not qualifying so he probably doesn’t need to work on qualifying but could work on a setting up differently.

      1. @jimfromus Unfortunately for Lewis, I think Leclerc spent most of 2024 focusing on race setups too, which is why his race pace was generally good.

        1. Let’s see what happens. I think he was fussing too much about qualifying. It’s going to be difficult to just do okay when the field is this close, but if he sets up for the race and can still qualify consistently in the top eight where the car should be, he can make up positions with his race pace. I think he will beat Charles there.

    3. Hamilton needs to be allowed to qualify unhindered. eg Cold-tyres gate

  10. “Out of the drivers who entered every race, Lewis Hamilton gained the most places in grands prix, an average of 2.26 per race”

    Relative easy if your qualifying performance took a massive nose in 2024 – avg starting position Hamilton was 8.83 versus his teammate 5.625. Even worse on average Hamilton only started 0.55 grid position ahead of Perez.

    9 out of 24 races Lewis didn’t qualify top 8 despite all year having at minimal the 4th fastest car and some weekends even the (close to) fastest car also indicated by the 4 pole positions by Russell.

    1. Or is it evidence that HAM prefers to set up his car for the race and not qualifying?

      1. I think it’s both: yes, hamilton prefers to have a fast race than qualifying car in recent times, however he was already like that in 2023, and in that case he matched russell in qualifying head to heat, while here russell dominated.

      2. head to head*

  11. Lance Stroll extends his own record, by completing his 8th rookie season.

    1. This made me titter

    2. The question is: will he retire as a rookie, or will he ever become an experienced driver?

  12. Pierre Gasly was the only full-season driver that didn’t cost his team any crash damage in 2024, which is really remarkable considering that Alpine struggled most of their season for example against the Williamses, that had to take 11 million dollars worth of crash damage done by their drivers combined.

    1. Sort of making up for previous seasons when he was capable of taking out 2 Alpines at a time.

    2. Which is also not true, because he did got crash damage already in Japan.

  13. Out of all the drivers who raced the full season, Lance Stroll contributed the lowest share of his team’s score, 25.5% (0.3% less than Perez at Red Bull)

    I’d give that one to Bottas.

    1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      17th December 2024, 22:36

      I think this is only including drivers that contributed to the points, which Bottas unfortuantly didn’t at all. Not that that was reflective when if he had better luck, he likely would have got several more points than Zhou has got now.

      1. True, unfortunately this bad luck has been constant for bottas, even when he was at mercedes he had for example a puncture at the last lap when in the lead in baku and ended up with no points; wolff himself said sometime: “If it weren’t for bad luck, he wouldn’t have luck at all”.

      2. We can add the fact he went to sauber and it looked decent, vasseur went to ferrari, the team got worse and didn’t give bottas a car good enough to continue in f1, even if he’d be good enough to be number 2 at red bull for example.

  14. The way that headline is worded suggests that you’ll be providing 24 stats per driver….

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