Statistical anomalies in motorsports.

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Jimlaad43
The 2020-21 Formula E season is the one to beat comfortably. Going into the final double-header, 18 drivers were mathematically able to win the title. In the first of the double header, only 4 drivers were knocked out, meaning 14 drivers went into that final day with a chance of winning the title.
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After a start line crash eliminated two title contenders, the race was basically between De Vries and Dennis for the title until Dennis threw it away.

Despite 14 drivers being able to take the title, the championship leader ended up winning it by finishing 8th somehow, as the total randomness of the 2020-21 season reared it's head again and 1st to 5th in the race results were held by drivers not in contention.
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For context, De Vries won the title with 99 points out of a theoretical total of 450. The group format for qualifying mixed the grids up massively, and the chaotic racing that the Gen 2 cars encouraged just all reared their heads that season to make consistency impossible and entertaining races.

Gen 2 Formula E was the best era
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Been reading up on the 2020-21 FE season.

Sounds a bit like the 1982 F1 Season, minus the tragedies, obviously.
 
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I know there have been a few videos posted on Youtube about the 1992 Cup season, but this one came out just three days ago and is good as always.
 
Okay, is this anomalous or coincidental?

In the 1986 British Saloon/Touring Car Championship, the late Tony Lanfranchi entered 3 rounds in a Vauxhall Nova and there are a few reoccurrences of multiples of 8.

His 1st and 3rd races each had 16 entries (In each case, he started 16th and last), his 2nd had 32.

He would have started 32nd (if he'd been 1 place lower) and finished 24th in his 2nd race and he would have scored 24 points in his class, if you take away the 2 bonus points for setting the fastest lap on his class. His on-the-road finishes also add up to 24 (He came 11th at Snetterton and 13th on-the-road at Silverstone, only to be promoted by the disqualification of 7th placed Brian Chatfield's Ford Capri).

Not to mention winning the title in his class as he was the only entrant in his class to do more than one race all season.

He also inherited the title in his class in 1983, despite only scoring a quarter of original winner Steve Soper's tally (68-17). He wouldn't even have inherited any wins if the TWR Rovers had been excluded a la Tyrrell in 1984.
 
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Here's a question.

Longest gap between double podiums?

Team Enstone hadn't had one since Korea 2013 until last weekend's Brazilian GP.

(Excluding teams that left and came back, that is!)
 
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Ligier in 1980 and 1994.

Edit: Just checked, they had one in 1985 so that isn't longer.
 
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If you're including team purchases with no regard to physical location, then Tyrrell's 1-2 at the 1976 Swedish GP to Brawn's identical result in the 2009 Australian GP will be tough to beat.
 
Roo
If you're including team purchases with no regard to physical location, then Tyrrell's 1-2 at the 1976 Swedish GP to Brawn's identical result in the 2009 Australian GP will be tough to beat.
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Good grief! Yes! Of course! Forgot about Tyrrell gradually evolving into Brawn (and now Mercedes obviously).

That always throws me because BAR were treated as a new entry, rather than a continuation of Tyrrell.
 
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Marco Andretti seems to appear in various Indycar crash compilations with his car upside-down a lot. Can we get a full list of the times he has flipped an Indycar and does anyone else come close to his total?

Indianapolis 2007
Mid-Ohio 2007
St Petersburg 2011
Portland 2018
 
Jimlaad43
Marco Andretti seems to appear in various Indycar crash compilations with his car upside-down a lot. Can we get a full list of the times he has flipped an Indycar and does anyone else come close to his total?

Indianapolis 2007
Mid-Ohio 2007
St Petersburg 2011
Portland 2018
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If only looking at IndyCar, he's probably first. If you want to look at NASCAR as well, probably Ryan Newman or Rusty Wallace would have him beat.
 
Not sure if anomaly or just incredible.

The last time Max Verstappen finished outside of the points, he was 18 years old, he is now 27.
 
With the conclusion of the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix today, all world champions who have clinched the title in Vegas finished fifth (Piquet 1981, Keke Rosberg 1982 and Verstappen 2024 ).
 
Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both clinched their first titles by finishing 5th in Brazil.

The championship was decided in Brazil every year of the 2nd half of the 2000s.
 
Har1MAS1415
Okay, is this anomalous or coincidental?

In the 1986 British Saloon/Touring Car Championship, the late Tony Lanfranchi entered 3 rounds in a Vauxhall Nova and there are a few reoccurrences of multiples of 8.

His 1st and 3rd races each had 16 entries (In each case, he started 16th and last), his 2nd had 32.

He would have started 32nd (if he'd been 1 place lower) and finished 24th in his 2nd race and he would have scored 24 points in his class, if you take away the 2 bonus points for setting the fastest lap on his class. His on-the-road finishes also add up to 24 (He came 11th at Snetterton and 13th on-the-road at Silverstone, only to be promoted by the disqualification of 7th placed Brian Chatfield's Ford Capri).

Not to mention winning the title in his class as he was the only entrant in his class to do more than one race all season.

He also inherited the title in his class in 1983, despite only scoring a quarter of original winner Steve Soper's tally (68-17). He wouldn't even have inherited any wins if the TWR Rovers had been excluded a la Tyrrell in 1984.
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17 points must be the lowest points tally for any champion in any series in the year they won the title, be it in their class or outright, or at least one of the lowest.
 
Roo
In 3 consecutive races, no less. Other drivers have driven for 3 different teams in a season but I don't know of any who did so over 3 consecutive races weekends.
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Stumbled across another: Maurice Trintignant drove a Maserati 250F for Scuderia Centro Sud to 7th in the 1958 Belgian GP, retired from the following French GP when the fuel pump failed on his BRM P25 entered by the Owen Racing Organisation, and finished 8th in a Rob Walker Racing Team Cooper T43 in the next race, the British GP.

3 consecutive races, 3 different cars with 3 different engines and at least 2, possibly 3 different tyre manufacturers.
 
A question to all you clever people.

Today's Bathurst 6 Hour was won by a car that started 66th on the grid, beating the event record which was from 63rd set a few years ago (10 cars in the top class for reference).

Has there been a lower grid position for a race winner that anyone knows of?
 
In eras and series without personalised numbers found in Nascar or current Formula One, there's something I've been wondering about:

Arrows Grand Prix carried the no. 1 car in 1997 because they had signed reigning champion Damon Hill. Arrows had never and never did win a race, let alone a championship. Has such a thing happened elsewhere? A team carrying no. 1 despite never winning?
 
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Before mid-1973, the numbers were just assigned by whatever order the organizers decided upon. Order of entry for the race weekend? Random numbers? Pick your own? Triple digits? These three are the only car-and-driver combinations which were not champions; in fact, none of these vehicles nor teams scored any championship points...

Graham Whitehead: 1952 British GP - Alta F2

Lance Macklin: 1953 British GP - HWM-Alta

Rodger Ward: 1959 United States GP - Kurtis Kraft...though as a "constructor", they'd won many Champ Car races as well as the Indy 500

Of course, the answer in F1 was when they ran it to F2 standards. The lone entry of that Kurtis Kraft in a GP wasn't even to Indy 500 standards! (more info)

Car number 1 was used for some winners of the Indianapolis 500 during the 1950s; Johnnie Parsons (1950) and Jimmy Bryan (1958) each won with the number 1 used. But six other Indy 500 ran drivers with #1 during that era.

Henry Banks: 1951 Indy 500 - Moore, powered by Offenhauser

Duane Carter: 1952 Indy 500 - Lesovsky, powered by Offenhauser

Sam Hanks: 1954 Indy 500 - Kurtis Kraft, powered by Offenhauser

Bob Sweikert: 1956 Indy 500 - Kuzma, powered by Offenhauser

Tony Bettenhausen: 1959 Indy 500 - Epperly, powered by Offenhauser

Rodger Ward: 1960 Indy 500 - Watson, powered by Offenhauser

John Watson drove the 1985 European GP at Brands Hatch after Niki Lauda injured his wrist, so that's the last time a driver carried Numero Uno without being a world champion. Which other non-champions raced with car number one...but in all cases, their team was a world champion at some point or another.

José Froilan González: 1954 - Ferrari; this was a shared drive with Hawthorn

Stirling Moss: 1958 Dutch GP - Vanwall

Peter Collins: 1958 British GP - Ferrari

Jean Behra: 1959 Dutch GP - Ferrari

Jean-Pierre Beltoise: 1968 and 1969 Monaco GPs - Matra

Chris Amon: 1967 Belgian GP - Ferrari

Pedro Rodriguez: 1970 Belgian and Dutch GPs - BRM

Ronnie Peterson: 1974 Season - Lotus

Before 1985, 1972 was the last year to feature multiple drivers (two) using car #1; Jackie Stewart (reigning and outgoing champ) and Emerson Fittipaldi, the champion-to-be.
 
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GTracer38
A question to all you clever people.

Today's Bathurst 6 Hour was won by a car that started 66th on the grid, beating the event record which was from 63rd set a few years ago (10 cars in the top class for reference).

Has there been a lower grid position for a race winner that anyone knows of?
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Johnny Mantz qualified 75th (and last) for the inaugural NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950...and won it by 9 laps. It was the largest field for a top-tier US stock car race, and offered tremendous prizes for its day; though some large-purse races (such as Daytona) featured 50+ starters until the mid-1970s.

I'm surprised sandbagging hasn't been called "Mantzbagging" but stock car racing was a very different animal in those early days. Vehicle preparation was either showroom stock, a properly-tuned road car, or something that was probably in its ninth or tenth accident and massaged with a sack of hammers for race day. Eventually NASCAR got more serious, but it was still okay if your co-driver was a rhesus.
 
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Pupik
Johnny Mantz qualified 75th (and last) for the inaugural NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950...and won it by 9 laps. It was the largest field for a top-tier US stock car race, and offered tremendous prizes for its day; though some large-purse races (such as Daytona) featured 50+ starters until the mid-1970s.

I'm surprised sandbagging hasn't been called "Mantzbagging" but stock car racing was a very different animal in those early days. Vehicle preparation was either showroom stock, a properly-tuned road car, or something that was probably in its ninth or tenth accident and massaged with a sack of hammers for race day. Eventually NASCAR got more serious, but it was still okay if your co-driver was a rhesus.
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Fascinating story and one for fans of the tortoises of the world snatching the unexpected victory.
 
Pupik
Johnny Mantz qualified 75th (and last) for the inaugural NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950...and won it by 9 laps. It was the largest field for a top-tier US stock car race, and offered tremendous prizes for its day; though some large-purse races (such as Daytona) featured 50+ starters until the mid-1970s.

I'm surprised sandbagging hasn't been called "Mantzbagging" but stock car racing was a very different animal in those early days. Vehicle preparation was either showroom stock, a properly-tuned road car, or something that was probably in its ninth or tenth accident and massaged with a sack of hammers for race day. Eventually NASCAR got more serious, but it was still okay if your co-driver was a rhesus.
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Cheers!

I remember watching something on this race, where they were talking about the use of truck tires for durability at the expense of outright speed. I'd forgotten about it until your post but never knew that he'd started behind so many cars. Wild!
 

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