F1 Drivers By Country On a World MapFormula 1

[JockeP22]

I kept my mind occupied for an hour and went through the number of Formula 1 drivers that have participated in at least
one Grand Prix since the start of the first season in 1950 up until today.
The driver's country of origin are those stated at statsf1.com, that's the source I used while compiling the data.


Click the image to show the full-size version:

 

[PeterJB]

Does anyone know why there was an absolute avalanche of Italian drivers in the first half of the 90s?

 

[Frank McGank]

Does anyone know why there was an absolute avalanche of Italian drivers in the first half of the 90s?

Because there was an avalanche of Italian startup teams. And Italians tend to be rather nepotistic.

 

[mustafur]

Spain is definitely the outlier considering it's location to the base of F1, but it's obvious that it's due to Bike racing, and the fact it's the World wide central hub for it.

 

[Frank McGank]

Spain is definitely the outlier considering it's location to the base of F1, but it's obvious that it's due to Bike racing, and the fact it's the World wide central hub for it.

Which is strange because Spain didn’t have any world-class motorcycle racers until what, the 90s? The first Spanish 500cc champion was Crivillé in 1999, and it wasn’t until Lorenzo and Marquez started dominating over the last decade that Spanish riders have won consistently. Britain and Italy have far more prestige in the motorcycling world, I reckon.

 

[mustafur]

Which is strange because Spain didn’t have any world-class motorcycle racers until what, the 90s? The first Spanish 500cc champion was Crivillé in 1999, and it wasn’t until Lorenzo and Marquez started dominating over the last decade that Spanish riders have won consistently. Britain and Italy have far more prestige in the motorcycling world, I reckon.

They didn't have much world class Riders but Spain is undoubtedly the hub they have the most championships in their country with most of the races on the Moto GP calendar and Dorna who runs Moto GP also being based in Spain.

It's just alot more popular then F1 is there.

 

[mastergracie]

They didn't have much world class Riders but Spain is undoubtedly the hub they have the most championships in their country with most of the races on the Moto GP calendar and Dorna who runs Moto GP also being based in Spain.

It's just alot more popular then F1 is there.

Maybe weather plays a role as well.

 

[Frank McGank]

They didn't have much world class Riders but Spain is undoubtedly the hub they have the most championships in their country with most of the races on the Moto GP calendar and Dorna who runs Moto GP also being based in Spain.

It's just alot more popular then F1 is there.

Well again, that didn’t become the case until the late 90s. Looking at MotoGP standings, prior to 1999 there had only been 2 champions in the 350cc championships in the late 80s, and a dozen or so 125cc and 250cc champions in the decade prior to that. Sure, they had some representation. But it’s rather like if F1 had had a wave of French support in the 2010s just because French drivers had success in F3000 in the 80s and 90s.

 

[mustafur]

Well again, that didn’t become the case until the late 90s. Looking at MotoGP standings, prior to 1999 there had only been 2 champions in the 350cc championships in the late 80s, and a dozen or so 125cc and 250cc champions in the decade prior to that. Sure, they had some representation. But it’s rather like if F1 had had a wave of French support in the 2010s just because French drivers had success in F3000 in the 80s and 90s.

Forget champions, look at the depth of field, they dominate the numbers of riders in basically every catogory, I'm sorry if your going to say that any other country can touch Spain when it comes to the Motocycle racing scene your dead wrong, it may have only developed big in the last 40 years or so, but thats the point, look at all it's neighbouring countries when it comes to F1 drivers and its a clear lack of numbers considering the location and population.

 

[daan]

Motorcycle racing does not start and end with MotoGP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ángel_Nieto

 

[Frank McGank]

Forget champions, look at the depth of field, they dominate the numbers of riders in basically every catogory, I'm sorry if your going to say that any other country can touch Spain when it comes to the Motocycle racing scene your dead wrong, it may have only developed big in the last 40 years or so, but thats the point, look at all it's neighbouring countries when it comes to F1 drivers and its a clear lack of numbers considering the location and population.

Again, that’s only in the last 15-20 years. Prior to that, the vast majority Spanish motorcycle racers were in the 250cc class and below and there weren’t that many to begin with. Until the late 90s, there were 4x as many French riders in the lower classes as Spanish riders. Where are all the Frenchmen in 500cc/MotoGP?

Motorcycle racing does not start and end with MotoGP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ángel_Nieto

All of Nieto’s championships were in the 50/80cc and 125cc championships. The Formula 3 and Formula Ford of the motorcycle realm. That’s like looking at all the Dutchmen who have won in Formula Renault and saying “that’s why F1 is so popular with Dutch drivers!”

 

[Northstar]

It always takes me a second when I see stats like this to remember the Indy 500 was technically a part of F1 for 11 years.

All of Nieto’s championships were in the 50/80cc and 125cc championships. The Formula 3 and Formula Ford of the motorcycle realm.

The classes he raced in are irrelevant when talking about how popular he was and the impact he made.

That’s like looking at all the Dutchmen who have won in Formula Renault and saying “that’s why F1 is so popular with Dutch drivers!”

Have any Dutchmen been awarded the Netherlands Lion based on their accomplishments in the feeder series'? Because Nieto was awarded both the Order of Civil Merit as well as Royal Order of Sports Merit.

 

[Pupik]

It always takes me a second when I see stats like this to remember the Indy 500 was technically a part of F1 for 11 years.

Ignore the 11 runnings of the Indy 500, and the US is closer to 30; with only four of them in the last 32 years.

#didntexcludeeddiecheever
#safespacetotalkaboutmichalandrettisf1carreer
#scottspeedstillraces
#butalexanderrossiwontheindy500

 

[Blitz24]

Ignore the 11 runnings of the Indy 500, and the US is closer to 30; with only four of them in the last 32 years.

#didntexcludeeddiecheever
#safespacetotalkaboutmichalandrettisf1carreer
#scottspeedstillraces
#butalexanderrossiwontheindy500

And weren't all of the rumblings that Jeff or Tony would eventually run F1?

 

[daan]

All of Nieto’s championships were in the 50/80cc and 125cc championships. The Formula 3 and Formula Ford of the motorcycle realm.

Angel Nieto, Sito Pons and others have been bona fide FIM World Champions. Show me the F3 and FF world champions.

That’s like looking at all the Dutchmen who have won in Formula Renault and saying “that’s why F1 is so popular with Dutch drivers!”

No, it's not.

Aside from that, you don't need to be a world champion to be a national hero. See Stirling Moss.

Fact 1: Spain likes motorcycle racing
Fact 2: You don't get why and aren't willing to try to understand.

Pointless carrying on, eh?

 

[Frank McGank]

Angel Nieto, Sito Pons and others have been bona fide FIM World Champions. Show me the F3 and FF world champions.


No, it's not.

Aside from that, you don't need to be a world champion to be a national hero. See Stirling Moss.

Fact 1: Spain likes motorcycle racing
Fact 2: You don't get why and aren't willing to try to understand.

Pointless carrying on, eh?

Because the lower engine sizes in the Grand Prix calendar functioned as a mix of a feeder series AND a support series for the 500cc full monty bikes. That’s something MotoGP got right as compared to F1 where F2 and F3 were sort of left to fend for themselves originally. F1 has since started copying the MotoGP format of the lower formulae tagging along on the calendar stops and racing as a support series on the same weekend.

Stirling Moss was a world champion, just not in F1. He dominated in endurance racing and sports/GT in ADDITION to his stint in F1. 250cc Motorcycle GP racing is not a 1:1 comparison to the World Sportscar Championship, and it’s rather stunning to see you try and make that comparison.

fact 1: was never in contention. My ORIGINAL point was me expressing an opinion on how odd it was for Spain to have devoted so much of their postwar racing talent to motorcycle racing, despite not having any world-champion level riders until 40 years after F1 began. And then a half dozen people flooded out of the woodwork to tell me how popular motorcycle racing is in Spain NOW as if that was relevant to my original point. No **** it is NOW. It wasn’t in 1960. Where were all the Spanish F1 drivers? What made Spaniards wake up one day and decide to all flood into motorcycle racing? Their first 500cc [prior to the reintroduction of 4 strokes in 2003, 500cc GP bikes were the F1 of the motorcycle world] didn’t come until 1999. Before then, they only had a few champions in the junior categories. Why would a dozen championships in the motorcycle equivalent to Formula Ford suddenly cause the whole nation to double down on bike racing?
^that was my original point, which was never answered. Instead you and the others decided to try and go “ha HA u r dum n rong”

Fact 2: you haven’t proven me wrong as I pointed out in the last paragraph, you’ve just deliberately shifted the conversation away from my original point because... you couldn’t answer it, I guess. Decided you’d have more fun trying to attack me on a personal level.

yeah, I reckon it is. You never get anywhere with people who refuse to stay on topic and instead bounce around like a pinball trying to bury their discussion opponent in irrelevant drivel.

 

[mustafur]

@Frank McGank If you changed the OP to Motorcycle racers who raced in the top classes I would bet Spain would dominate every country easily, and considering your responding to my comment about that do you not see the point?

World champions or not it's irrelevant to the point considering the OP list doesnt show that either on F1 WDC.

 

[daan]

Because the lower engine sizes in the Grand Prix calendar functioned as a mix of a feeder series AND a support series for the 500cc full monty bikes. That’s something MotoGP got right as compared to F1 where F2 and F3 were sort of left to fend for themselves originally. F1 has since started copying the MotoGP format of the lower formulae tagging along on the calendar stops and racing as a support series on the same weekend.

Stirling Moss was a world champion, just not in F1. He dominated in endurance racing and sports/GT in ADDITION to his stint in F1. 250cc Motorcycle GP racing is not a 1:1 comparison to the World Sportscar Championship, and it’s rather stunning to see you try and make that comparison.

fact 1: was never in contention. My ORIGINAL point was me expressing an opinion on how odd it was for Spain to have devoted so much of their postwar racing talent to motorcycle racing, despite not having any world-champion level riders until 40 years after F1 began. And then a half dozen people flooded out of the woodwork to tell me how popular motorcycle racing is in Spain NOW as if that was relevant to my original point. No **** it is NOW. It wasn’t in 1960. Where were all the Spanish F1 drivers? What made Spaniards wake up one day and decide to all flood into motorcycle racing? Their first 500cc [prior to the reintroduction of 4 strokes in 2003, 500cc GP bikes were the F1 of the motorcycle world] didn’t come until 1999. Before then, they only had a few champions in the junior categories. Why would a dozen championships in the motorcycle equivalent to Formula Ford suddenly cause the whole nation to double down on bike racing?
^that was my original point, which was never answered. Instead you and the others decided to try and go “ha HA u r dum n rong”

Fact 2: you haven’t proven me wrong as I pointed out in the last paragraph, you’ve just deliberately shifted the conversation away from my original point because... you couldn’t answer it, I guess. Decided you’d have more fun trying to attack me on a personal level.

yeah, I reckon it is. You never get anywhere with people who refuse to stay on topic and instead bounce around like a pinball trying to bury their discussion opponent in irrelevant drivel.

I like how you say "Stirling Moss was a world champion," yet I'm the one spouting drivel.

 

[Frank McGank]

I like how you say "Stirling Moss was a world champion," yet I'm the one spouting drivel.

Multiple time RAC winner
Multiple time Alpine Rally winner
Multiple Sebring 12h winner
Multiple time Gold Cup winner
Mille Miglia winner
Targa Florio winner
Multiple Nurburgring 1000km winner
24h of Le Mans winner
Amongst dozens of other victories

by ‘world champion’, I war referring to his dozens of wins across multiple categories AND the fact he almost single-handedly won the WSC for Mercedes in 1955 and Aston Martin in 1959. I wasn’t using the term in reference to Formula One. Don’t strut around acting like you won because you played the semantics game. “Hahaha you used a word improperly, that means you lose”

 

[LeGeNd-1]

I'm more amazed that there were 3 drivers from Zimbabwe, although wiki says there were 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_drivers_from_Rhodesia

Also learned that Zimbabwe used to be called Rhodesia. Guess that's 2 new things I learned today.

BTW, I think it's about time that Indy 500 results get retroactively removed from F1 history. It was never truly a part of it, and it just makes for confusing statistics like this.

 

[JockeP22]

I'm more amazed that there were 3 drivers from Zimbabwe, although wiki says there were 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_drivers_from_Rhodesia

Yeah wikipedia says a total of 5 with only 2 actually starting a Grand Prix, while StatsF1 says there were 6 in total with 3 starting a Grand Prix.

I had a look at the six names and this is what I found:

John Love - 9 F1 Grand Prix starts, 545 laps raced
Sam Tingle - 5 F1 Grand Prix starts, 239 laps raced
Mike Harris - 1 F1 Grand Prix start, 31 laps raced (1962 Grand Prix of South Africa, DNF steering)


And the other 3 drivers:

Gary Hocking was killed in practice and never started a Grand Prix.

Spoiler

Gary Stuart Hocking (30 September 1937 – 21 December 1962) was a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion who competed in the late 1950s and early 1960s based in Rhodesia.
Hocking was deeply affected by the death of his friend, Tom Phillis at the 1962 Isle of Man TT.
After winning the Senior TT, he announced his retirement from motorcycle racing and returned to Rhodesia. He felt motorcycle racing was too dangerous and decided a career in auto racing would be safer. Later that year, on 22 December, he was killed during practice for the 1962 Natal Grand Prix at the Westmead circuit. His car, a Rob Walker entered Lotus 24, ran off the edge of the track at the end of the long right hand corner and somersaulted end over end twice.

Ray Reed entered in the 1965 South African Grand Prix in his self-built RE-Alfa Romeo, but did not take part.

Spoiler

Raymond William Reed (30 April 1932 – 8 May 1970) was a Rhodesian racing driver born in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia. He was entered in the 1965 South African Grand Prix in his self-built RE-Alfa Romeo, but did not take part. Reed was killed along with his three children in an aircraft accident on 8 May 1970 near Nottingham Road, Natal in South Africa. He had been deemed to be flying in weather conditions under which he was not qualified or legally permitted to fly.

Clive Puzey failed to pre-qualify.

Spoiler

Clive Puzey (born 11 July 1941 in Bulawayo) is a former racing driver from Rhodesia.
Puzey's only Formula One World Championship Grand Prix attempt came when he entered the 1965 South African Grand Prix with his Lotus-Climax, but he failed to pre-qualify.

 

[Pupik]

BTW, I think it's about time that Indy 500 results get retroactively removed from F1 history. It was never truly a part of it, and it just makes for confusing statistics like this.

Alberto Ascari was the only F1 driver to actually race in the Indy 500 (1952), and Troy Ruttman was the only USAC driver to race in a GP (1958, Reims) to make the overlap of series while they counted.

Otherwise, it would be much easier to discount all 11 races from Formula One history, but you really can't quite do it, one can only judge the stats with perspective.

Heck, today's 5th-place finisher in an F1 race gets as many points as did a winner until 11-12 years ago. A sixth-place finisher gets as many points as a win paid out in the 1950s, a time when a 6th place netted no points at all (except if you managed to record the fastest race lap). So I tend to ignore direct points-scoring comparisons of any sort of 2009-Today Era and past drivers.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Alberto Ascari was the only F1 driver to actually race in the Indy 500 (1952), and Troy Ruttman was the only USAC driver to race in a GP (1958, Reims) to make the overlap of series while they counted.

Otherwise, it would be much easier to discount all 11 races from Formula One history, but you really can't quite do it, one can only judge the stats with perspective.

Heck, today's 5th-place finisher in an F1 race gets as many points as did a winner until 11-12 years ago. A sixth-place finisher gets as many points as a win paid out in the 1950s, a time when a 6th place netted no points at all (except if you managed to record the fastest race lap). So I tend to ignore direct points-scoring comparisons of any sort of 2009-Today Era and past drivers.

Just checked those two races, and neither Ascari nor Ruttman scored any point in those. So really it has no bearing on the championship of either series whatsoever. We could just treat them as one off entries and "disentangle" the two championships once and for all. I guess what I'm trying to say is the reasons that we haven't done it are probably more historical/sentimental than practical.

Agree about point comparisons. Ditto about number of races (like Kimi breaking the record this weekend) because today seasons are so much longer than old ones, and less danger so drivers have longer careers etc.