Just three years ago, Ferrari produced their worst season in four decades, slumping to sixth in the championship.
So it will be cause for alarm that, three races into the new season, they’re on course to do even worse.Ferrari left Australia point-less after a race bookended by misery. Charles Leclerc went out in a racing incident on lap one while Carlos Sainz Jnr, having overcome an unfortunately-timed pit stop, copped a five-second time penalty on the penultimate lap. This might ordinarily cost a driver one place, if that, but as the race finished behind the Safety Car the luckless Sainz dropped from fourth to 12th.
Over the first three races of 2020 and 2023, Ferrari achieved strikingly similar results: Two retirements and an average placing of 7.25 over the other results. But during those 2020 races Leclerc nabbed a second-place finish, contributing to a points total of 27, one more than they have today.
If this season isn’t being kind to Ferrari, the last 12 months have been rough on Lewis Hamilton, who hasn’t won a race for more than a year. However he did make his 192nd trip to the podium last weekend. He has now stood on the rostrum in 17 consecutive seasons, breaking Michael Schumacher’s record.
Max Verstappen is the driver who looks most like breaking records at the moment. He took his 37th win and 22nd pole position last weekend, the latter putting him level with Fernando Alonso.
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There was no hat-trick for Verstappen, however, as his team mate Sergio Perez bagged the fastest lap and the bonus point. The 10th fastest lap of his career puts him level with a trio of champions: Graham Hill, John Surtees and Mario Andretti.
This would not be an unprecedented feat: Hamilton’s victory in the 2018 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard meant he had won at least once at every track on that year’s calendar.
Fernando Alonso kept up his record of finishing third in every race this year. Yuki Tsunoda also finished 11th on the track for the third race running, however Sainz’s penalty promoted him to 10th place for his and AlphaTauri’s first point of the season.
McLaren also got off the mark in Australia where both drivers scored points. That include rookie driver Oscar Piastri, who enjoyed the rare accolade of scoring points in his first appearance in his home country and city.
With that, all 10 teams have scored points within the first three races of the season. That’s one race earlier than it happened last year.
Three races into last year, one team was yet to score: Aston Martin. Today they lie second in the championship with 65 points, 10 more than they managed through the whole of last year. How times change.
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Over to you
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Australian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2023 Australian Grand Prix
- Australian GP to forbid fans from entering track at end of this year’s race
- I only missed one chance to score points this year – Albon
- Formula 1’s stewards should listen to drivers less, not more
- Mercedes unsure whether gains seen in Melbourne were ‘track-specific’
- Why Ferrari saw a ‘real step forward in pure performance’ in point-less Australian GP
Mike (@suwperman)
5th April 2023, 7:37
1 11 14 44. Only drivers with the digits 1 and 4 have been on the podium. Fingers crossed Lando fans
Simon (@donsimoni)
5th April 2023, 9:07
Rumor has it that Charles checks, if he can switch to 41 during the active season.
KaIIe (@kaiie)
5th April 2023, 7:41
Anyone know when was the last time there were three multiple champions on the podium? Was it the 1991 US GP at Phoenix with Senna, Prost, and Piquet?
Yeah, we had Hamilton, Vettel, and Alonso on the podium in the 2012 US GP, but Hamilton had just one championship to his name by then.
Bleu (@bleu)
5th April 2023, 7:47
Yes, that was the only time before it happened.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
5th April 2023, 9:08
Does this also mark the most championship titles on a podium ever? We have 2+7+2 for a total of 11 championships. the 2012 European GP saw Schumacher join Kimi and Alonso, but Kimi had 1 championship to the 2 of Max.
The 2017 United States GP saw Hamilton (then 3) win from Vettel (4) and Kimi (1) so that’s just 8.
Andy (@andycz)
5th April 2023, 9:17
What about Spain 93? Senna, Prost, Schumacher. It was before one Prost and all Schumi championships but together there were 14.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
5th April 2023, 10:29
@chrischrill @jerejj Equal most, Hamilton celebrated his 7th title in Turkey with Perez and Vettel on the podium, 7+0+4 (and Hungary 2021 before Seb’s DQ).
@andycz These usually count titles at the time, the current podium might outnumber 14 in a few years, too.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th April 2023, 11:07
@hunocsi I forgot to note the 2020 Turkish GP.
Simon
5th April 2023, 12:01
I’ll need therapy after learning of this omission
SteveP
6th April 2023, 7:18
I can’t resist the temptation.
Total =11, but taking the winners alphabetically the numbers should be 2 + 8 + 1
Jere (@jerejj)
5th April 2023, 8:00
Max’s first Melbourne pole position & win meant, Red Bull took their first pole & win in Melbourne since 2011.
He’s also won races on as many circuits as Michael Schumacher.
The first-ever top three with 11 championships.
De Vries’ first Q2 appearance this season.
De Vries & Sargeant are still the only point-less drivers after three races.
Tsunoda’s hurry-up gesturing on the weighing scales in Q2 was similar to Seb’s in the 2019 Brazilian GP qualifying when called to random weighing.
The first race since the 2019 Azerbaijan GP, with more than one driver starting from the pit exit.
Hulkenberg has started all three 2023 races in P10.
The first-ever race with three red-flag stoppages & the first red-flagged Australian GP since 2016.
Additionally, the second race to end under neutralization in two seasons, i.e., since the last Italian GP.
Miguel Bento (@miguelbento)
5th April 2023, 12:32
“The first-ever race with three red-flag stoppages”. And one more after the checkered flag! Has there been other races where we had a red flag after the checkered flag?
Nick T.
5th April 2023, 21:24
We used to go entire seasons without red flags, but now F1 is a safe space for drivers like Lando and Bottas who are scared of driving in the wet.
Christopher
6th April 2023, 0:26
I’m not entirely sure why you’re picking on two of the drivers who actually got through the mayhem that was this Australian GP.
Nick T:
7th April 2023, 0:11
I’m not questioning their skill. I’m questioning their values. I’m also citing them because they always complain when it’s wet.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
5th April 2023, 8:53
Guenther this is Charles……
Jimmy Cliff
5th April 2023, 9:52
“The 10th podium of his career puts him level with a trio of champions: Graham Hill, John Surtees and Mario Andretti.”
The podium was Max, Lewis and Alonso – it was Max 80th same as Senna and Lewis & Alonso both are above 100.
If Russell would have been on the podium it would have been his 10th sadly his engine had other plans.
Red Bull improved their own records of wins in last 50 races to 32 (64%) – still behind 2nd placed Ferrari with 38 wins (76%) and record holder Mercedes with 43 wins (86%).
Australia was the 21st country in which Max won a race surpassing Vettel. Lewis is record holder with wins in 26 different countries (of 34 countries F1 ever raced in). This year Max can increase it to 23 countries if he wins in Qatar and Singapore – Lewis has won in all countries on the current calendar except the Netherlands.
Max extends his own record to 22 races without retirement as well as 22 races in the points.
This ties Max with Bottas in 5th place
4th Alonso 23 races
3rd Schumacher 24 races
2nd Räikkönen 27 races
1st Lewis 48 races
stefano (@alfa145)
5th April 2023, 11:29
whose 10th podium is that?
MichaelN
5th April 2023, 11:43
It should be fastests lap.
Señor Sjon
5th April 2023, 12:51
There were more red flags yesterday than there were between the start of 2004 and end of 2009.
Both of those were caused by torrential rain making it undriveable, rather than a spot of gravel.
Nick T.
5th April 2023, 21:29
lol, just above I said we used to go entire seasons without red flags and you really brought that home. I actually started re-watching all races from 2000+ to note full data and examples on how we’ve gone from safety cars let alone red flags being extremely rare to them being expected. That’s the worst part. A new generation of fans are going to scream “it was dangerous!” because all they know is this new Mickey Mouse style of race directing.
Amazingly, Whiting, with half as much tech, was twice as on the ball.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
5th April 2023, 21:29
Nearly 200 podiums? Crazy… Few drivers get 200 starts.
Bob
5th April 2023, 22:39
First points at home GP (Autsralia) for these guys.
Piastri 2023 McLaren
Ricciardo 2012 Toro Rosso
Webber 2002 Minarid
This list would have been perfect if he did it one year earlier
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
5th April 2023, 22:41
Going by statsf1’s naming conventions, the last 4 Australian GPs have seen Red Bull with 4 different engine suppliers – TAG Heuer, Honda, RBPT, and Honda RBPT.
First time since Hungary 2018 (Hamilton/Vettel/Raikkonen) that 3 World Champions were on the podium together.
Hulkenberg has finished 7th in 5 of his last 6 Australian GPs.
Zhou’s first points since Italy 2022 (the previous race to finish under a Safety Car).
2022 saw Leclerc winning in Bahrain and Australia (with Verstappen not finishing either race) and finishing 2nd in Saudi Arabia. 2023 has seen Verstappen winning in Bahrain and Australia (with Leclerc not finishing either race) and finishing 2nd in Saudi Arabia.
The first 3 races of 2023 have seen Gasly manage two 9th-place starts and two 9th-place finishes.
Stroll has scored more points in the first 3 races of 2023 (one of which he did not finish) than he managed in the whole of 2022.
First time since Tuscany 2020 that only 12 cars were running at the end of the race.
The first 2 races of 2023 saw no non-mechanical DNFs. There have now been 7 such DNFs (including where the driver was still classified) in 2023.
Red Bull and Alfa Romeo are the only teams to get both cars to the finish in every 2023 race so far.
17th season (consecutive as well) in which Hamilton has led at least 1 lap – a new record.
43rd consecutive season in which at least 1 British driver has finished on the podium, and 34th consecutive season in which at least 1 British driver has led a lap – both extending records.
Thanks to statsf1 and the official F1 site for some of these.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th April 2023, 1:09
I know this is just statistic-wise ofc, but I wouldn’t consider this ferrari’s worst start in that long on performance, just thinking about 2020 makes me think that’s worse in terms of where they were in the competitive order.
Michael Zeitler
6th April 2023, 19:28
Alonso is the first driver with 3 consecutive podiums aged 41+ since Jack Brabham in 1967!