Interesting (to me anyway) F1 Stats

[amp88]

I've been thinking of doing something like this for a while, but while feeling ill over the weekend I gave it a shot. I copied all the results from the Results Archive on The Official Formula 1 Website and have calculated a few statistics I find are quite interesting and hopefully some others do too. The stats I've calculated aren't the common ("Highest Number of Wins" or "Most Pole Positions", for example), I believe they're more insightful than those kind of stats. If anyone would like me to try to calculate statistics from the information available in the Results Archive I'd be happy to give it a try.

Anyway, here are the stats I've calculated so far (these are calculated from all races listed on the F1 site (from 1950 to Malaysia 2006):

Thanks to xs.to for Free Image Hosting [xs.to]

In calculating the average finishing position, if a driver started a race (i.e. they didn't fail to qualify, fail to pre-qualify or fail to start) they are given the finishing position as listed in order on the F1 site. For example, in the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg qualified for the race and started the race. He retired and is listed as 21st on the official result, hence I would classify him as 'finishing' in 21st. I can't think of any other reasonable or 'correct' way of doing so.

I believe my calculation method is correct (after testing against known stats), but I've already found several errors in the Official results. Don't bet your life on these stats being correct!

 

[BMWteamPTG]

wow...Fangio sure does have a comanding lead over...well the entire field.

good job. its nice when someone puts the time and effort into something like this. thanks

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Wow! A lot of work went into that post.

Interesting comparing the Montoya/Raikkonen stats.

 

[amp88]

Thanks

I'm working on a couple more at the moment, hope to have them up sometime soon.

 

[Blake]

Nice job.

Some very interesting stats. I wonder how thngs would pan out if you included non-championship rounds…

How about Championships Won ÷ Seasons Competing?

 

[amp88]

Nice job.

Some very interesting stats. I wonder how thngs would pan out if you included non-championship rounds…

How about Championships Won ÷ Seasons Competing?

Thanks

Yeah, it's a shame the non-championship rounds aren't up there, but I was just working with what was provided.

I'll try to do Championships Won / Seasons Competing, but that might be easier for me to do by hand than to program.

Anyway, here's the update (more than I intended, I just kept on thinking of new ones...)

 

[Gabkicks]

thx for the stats i just got finnished watching bahrain gp and 2nd and 3rd days of wrc

 

[niky]

Interesting stuff... not so surprising Fangio's on top, considering his race:win ratio is 50%, something that probably can't be beaten by anyone today. 👍

Surprised that Senna is so low on average finishing positions, though.

 

[amp88]

Surprised that Senna is so low on average finishing positions, though.

Yeah, I was surprised by that too.

Another couple more. Total seasons competed in and championship to season ratio (for Blake). It was actually much easier to do than I feared it might be.

 

[fatman_5050]

Wow... that's some very nice number crunching amp. Good job and thanks, I've been looking for a decent comparison between past and current racers, and this far exceeds what I could find.

 

[Mclaren_Man]

very interesting stats you got going there (+ rep for you), one part of maths that i enjoy are statistics.

by the way, are you an acountant for a living?

 

[amp88]

Wow... that's some very nice number crunching amp. Good job and thanks, I've been looking for a decent comparison between past and current racers, and this far exceeds what I could find.

Thanks. Glad they were of some use to you 👍

very interesting stats you got going there (+ rep for you), one part of maths that i enjoy are statistics.

by the way, are you an acountant for a living?

Again, thanks

I actually really dislike maths in general (because I failed it at uni), but I enjoyed working out how to do this and ironing out the problems associated with it.

Not an Accountant, but I am a computer science student

Right, one more. Last one until I can think of more or other people make suggestions...

Reasons for retirement and the number of retirements caused.

I'm not quite sure what the distinction is between "accident" and "collision". I imagine accidents involve more than one car, collisions involve one car hitting something other than another car (walls, barriers etc), but I'm not sure.

 

[Appie]

engine failues really spots the mark

 

[Schrodes]

Great work amp88. Some very interesting stuff there.

 

[liam2maps]

Good job. Not sure whether it would have been easier to get pole back then or now. Certainly it was more deadly back then to try.

 

[Pupik]

I hate step on your work, but you shouldn't accept the best finishes out of drivers that have largely races in 1 or two races:

http://xs74.xs.to/pics/06132/avgFin.GIF

For example:
- Dorino Serafini didn't even finish his first race, he shared the drive with Ascari. So Serafini technically didn't finish the race.

- Volonterio finished 6 laps down in his only race to be classified 6th in the 1956 German Grand Prix. The German GP was held at the Nurburgring that year, which means he was 6 x 14 miles, or 84 miles behind the winner, Fangio. Hardly an impressive performance. Until 1966, only finishing 51%of the race was required for classification, if still running; if you retired on the last lap, you were not classified (again, this was changed in 1966.)

- Peter Broeker was about 10 laps down to the winner of the '67 United States GP. Which wasn't half bad for someone who was using a Formula Junior car he salled the Stebro in the race. He did manage to be the last driver to finish the race, so his place was scored by attrition.

- Reiss, Blanchard, McDowell, Sparken, Pagani, Pozzi, Lederle, Forberg, Chitwood, and Galvez were all one-race-only drivers. Galvez had a considerable pre-championship resume beforehand, but didn't do as much racing out of South America as his countryman Juan Manuel Fangio did.

Of course, how is finishing position determined if you don't finish? Is the first retirement of the race in a field of 26 considered to be the 26th-place finisher?

Sorry to be so picky; that table of stats aren't really a good way to measure ability.

 

[amp88]

I hate step on your work, but you shouldn't accept the best finishes out of drivers that have largely races in 1 or two races

That's exactly why I've calculated the absolute averages AND the averages over a certain number of race starts or finishes (10 in most of the ones in this thread). If you look at the Highest Average Finishing Positions (with at least 10 Race Starts), you'll see Dorifini is missing from the results (as are the other "one hit wonders").

For example:
- Dorino Serafini didn't even finish his first race, he shared the drive with Ascari. So Serafini technically didn't finish the race.

It doesn't mention anywhere on the results page of the 1950 Italian GP that Serafini or Ascari shared their race with anyone. The program only takes what the information from the official results pages into account. I hope you'd agree that it would be unfeasible to check every single result with several resources to check whether cars were shared or not? The same goes for the rest of the extra-ordinary/exceptional cases you mention. The bottom line (in my opinion) is that the official results page is what I'm working from and I take what it contains as correct (except, of course, when it tells me Emerson Fittipaldi qualified 119th in the 1980 USA East Grand Prix, for example).

Of course, how is finishing position determined if you don't finish? Is the first retirement of the race in a field of 26 considered to be the 26th-place finisher?

From my first post: "In calculating the average finishing position, if a driver started a race (i.e. they didn't fail to qualify, fail to pre-qualify or fail to start) they are given the finishing position as listed in order on the F1 site. For example, in the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg qualified for the race and started the race. He retired and is listed as 21st on the official result, hence I would classify him as 'finishing' in 21st. I can't think of any other reasonable or 'correct' way of doing so."

Sorry to be so picky; that table of stats aren't really a good way to measure ability.

Fair enough, however, the "problems" you have outlined cannot be solved with only the Results Archive from the official F1 site.

 

[Ev0]

Lots of interesting stats to see! For example, it is worth noting that Gilles Villeneuve has a higher percentage of fastest laps than Senna.

 

[The Internet]

Surprised that Senna is so low on average finishing positions, though.

That's what a year with Toleman and a few more with Lotus can do.

 

[Small_Fryz]

It seems michael Schumacher really is a great driver then.

But it is definetly harder to get pole now, then it used to be. Its more about "do you want pole" than "are you good enough"

 

[Pupik]

Surprised that Senna is so low on average finishing positions, though.

He did crash out of a number of races, and his Toleman and Lotus cars weren't the most reliable cars; they were good cars when running, however.

Present-day race attrition is much less than before; the past 10-15 years have produced far more reliable cars at both ends of the grid. This is likely due to the huge amounts of testing and practice, and more testing, more aero bits, new gearbox mid-season, more engine development...etc.

 

[amp88]

Present-day race attrition is much less than before; the past 10-15 years have produced far more reliable cars at both ends of the grid. This is likely due to the huge amounts of testing and practice, and more testing, more aero bits, new gearbox mid-season, more engine development...etc.

Indeed. I'm planning to do a comparison of reliability in every decade (% finishes and causes of retirements). I'm also currently doing some work on Constructors, but it's not quite finished yet. I'll probably have it done when I get home from uni today.

 

[[FPV]Rusty]

lol, almost half the DNF's due to withdrawals are down to one race

 

[Impreza04]

Rep for you Amp88..

Certainly intresting to read theses.

 

[Blake]

Another thing which makes Fangio seem to have inflated figures is that he was there at the beginning of the championship. He never had a rookie season at a backmarker team. He was in a car capable of winning right from the start of his career – so his averages are a little up compared to drivers from the modern era.

 

[Blake]

How about the lowest / highest number of races before first win?

 

[amp88]

lol, almost half the DNF's due to withdrawals are down to one race

Yeah, I had a bit of a chuckle to myself about that too.

Rep for you Amp88..

Certainly intresting to read theses.

Thanks for the rep (and thanks to everyone else too) and I'm glad you find them interesting

Another thing which makes Fangio seem to have inflated figures is that he was there at the beginning of the championship. He never had a rookie season at a backmarker team. He was in a car capable of winning right from the start of his career – so his averages are a little up compared to drivers from the modern era.

Very true, I don't know how many other drivers have ever had that (Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark maybe?). Even Schumacher had his time in the poor Ferraris when he joined them.

How about the lowest / highest number of races before first win?

Good idea! Here you go.

I'm having a bit of trouble at the moment with the Constructors data, but I hope to have it up soon. I'm also working on another way to display the data (ideally I'd like it on a webpage that users can sort, so I'm looking into using JavaScript for that, but I've never used it before).

 

[amp88]

I've decided just to use Excel spreadsheets from now on to display any results. I've attached a zip archive with this post, containing two files - one for Drivers and the other for Constructors. The Drivers file contains all of the stats already displayed in this thread.

I think I'm going to move on to engines next.

edit: Removed incorrect spreadsheets

 

[Pupik]

Clay Regazzoni didn't win his first-ever F1 race. His first win was at the '70 Italian GP, which was his 5th of the season.

Likewise, Emerson Fittipaldi also scored his maiden victory in what was his 5th-ever World Championship GP. ('70 United States)

Michael Schumacher won his first F1 race on his 18th try. ('92 Belgium)

Juan Pablo Montoya did it on his 15th-ever F1 race. ('01 Italy)

Jody Scheckter won his first ('74 British GP) on his 13th attempt in a World Championship Grand Prix.

 

[amp88]

Clay Regazzoni didn't win his first-ever F1 race. His first win was at the '70 Italian GP, which was his 5th of the season.

Likewise, Emerson Fittipaldi also scored his maiden victory in what was his 5th-ever World Championship GP. ('70 United States)

Michael Schumacher won his first F1 race on his 18th try. ('92 Belgium)

Juan Pablo Montoya did it on his 15th-ever F1 race. ('01 Italy)

Jody Scheckter won his first ('74 British GP) on his 13th attempt in a World Championship Grand Prix.

Ah! Thanks for pointing that out 👍

I know exactly what caused this and am trying to fix it now. This particular problem is with the file names, it doesn't affect the actual content of the files.

edit: Ok, that should be the problem fixed now.