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
Valtteri Bottas
Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez
Lando Norris
Daniel Ricciardo
Lance Stroll
Sebastian Vettel
Esteban Ocon
Fernando Alonso
Charles Leclerc
Carlos Sainz Jnr
Pierre Gasly
Yuki Tsunoda
Kimi Raikkonen
Antonio Giovinazzi
Mick Schumacher
Nikita Mazepin
George Russell
Nicholas Latifi
Over to you
Spotted any more revealing statistics from the 2021 season so far? Share them in the comments.
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.
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.
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
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.
@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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
9th August 2021, 12:51
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.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
9th August 2021, 12:53
Notwithstanding being hit from behind at Hungary, Norris was also Mr. Reliable with a string of points finishes going back to Portugal last year.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th August 2021, 12:57
@chrischrill And remarkably he’s still third in the championship ahead of a Red Bull and a Mercedes.
F1 frog (@f1frog)
9th August 2021, 13:08
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.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
9th August 2021, 13:42
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.
Jefg
9th August 2021, 15:57
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
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.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
10th August 2021, 20:42
@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).
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.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th August 2021, 13:10
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.
David (@davisp)
9th August 2021, 16:47
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!
F1 frog (@f1frog)
9th August 2021, 16:50
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.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th August 2021, 21:28
Which also gave him his last win, which he got pretty close to in several occasions before.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th August 2021, 21:29
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.
Aussie Rod (@aussierod)
9th August 2021, 22:28
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.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
13th August 2021, 18:13
@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.
Mayrton
10th August 2021, 8:09
“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.
Mayrton
10th August 2021, 12:40
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.
rodewulf (@rodewulf)
10th August 2021, 21:02
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.
Mayrton
12th August 2021, 13:12
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.
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).