2008 F1 season in statistics p2/2

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Sebastian Vettel - F1's youngest points scorer, pole sitter and race winner

It’s been a record-breaking season, with the youngest ever pole sitter, race winner and champion.

Plus a raft of first-time winners and more interesting stats and facts about the 2008 championship.

The championships

Lewis Hamilton won the drivers’ championship, becoming the youngest person ever to do so and the sport’s first mixed race champion:

Lewis Hamilton wins the 2008 F1 title and becomes youngest world champion

Ferrari won their 16th constructors’ championship, extending their record as the most prolific winners of the teams title:

Ferrari claims a record 16th F1 constructors’ world title in Brazil

First-time winners: drivers and teams

Three different drivers scored their first wins in 2008: Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen and Sebastian Vettel. The last season to see as many first-time winners was 2003, when Kimi Raikkonen, Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso scored their first wins. The following seasons had more maiden winners:

1982: Five (Riccardo Patrese, Patrick Tambay, Elio de Angelis, Keke Rosberg, Michele Alboreto)
1951: Four (Lee Wallard*, Luigi Fagioli, Froilan Gonzales, Alberto Ascari)
1959: Four (Jack Brabham, Rodger Ward*, Jo Bonnier, Bruce McLaren)
1975: Four (Carlos Pace, Jochen Mass, James Hunt, Vittorio Brambilla)

Two different teams scored their first wins in 2008 – the first time this has happened for 29 years. BMW and Toro Rosso were the first time winners this year, in 1979 it was Renault and Williams. In the intervening period only three other teams scored their first wins: Benetton (now Renault), Jordan (now Force India) and Stewart (now Red Bull).

Sebastian Vettel

Lewis Hamilton wasn’t the only driver setting ‘youngest ever’ records. Sebastian Vettel, already F1’s youngest points scorer, became the youngest pole sitter and youngest race winner at Monza. More here:

Sebastian Vettel is youngest F1 pole man
Sebastian Vettel is youngest F1 winner

2008 driver career tallies

Wins

Fernando Alonso 21
Kimi Raikkonen 17
David Coulthard 13
Felipe Massa 11
Rubens Barrichello 9
Lewis Hamilton 9
Giancarlo Fisichella 3
Jarno Trulli 1
Jenson Button 1
Robert Kubica 1
Heikki Kovalainen 1
Sebastian Vettel 1

Pole positions

Fernando Alonso 17
Kimi Raikkonen 16
Felipe Massa 15
Rubens Barrichello 13
Lewis Hamilton 13
David Coulthard 12
Jarno Trulli 3
Giancarlo Fisichella 3
Jenson Button 3
Nick Heidfeld 1
Robert Kubica 1
Heikki Kovalainen 1
Sebastian Vettel 1

Fastest laps

Kimi Raikkonen 35
David Coulthard 18
Rubens Barrichello 15
Fernando Alonso 11
Felipe Massa 11
Lewis Hamilton 3
Giancarlo Fisichella 2
Heikki Kovalainen 2
Nick Heidfeld 2
Nico Rosberg 1

Miscellaneous

Apart from the Super Aguri drivers, whose team collapsed after four races, every driver contested every round.

Nick Heidfeld finished every race and has done so since last year’s French Grand Prix. His 28 consecutive race classifications is a record which he could extend further next year.

BMW registered only two retirements all season, neither of which were due to car failures. That matches Ferrari’s record for fewest retirements in 2004.

Kimi Raikkonen matched the record for most fastest laps in a season he shares with Michael Schumacher. He set ten, as he did in 2005 and Schumacher did in 2004.

F1 held its 800th Grand Prix at Singapore. More here:

800 F1 Grands Prix in numbers

Got more interesting statistics from the 2008 season? Post them below…

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “2008 F1 season in statistics p2/2”

  1. In addition to becoming the youngest polesitter and winner, Vettel also became the youngest podium finisher at Monza, beating Fernando Alonso’s record from Malaysia 2003.

    So that’s (at least) 4 “youngest” records Alonso lost this year…

  2. These statistics really show Raikkonen is championship winning stuff. I think he will come back strong next year.
    I read in many news sites that he lost his motivation half way through the season.

  3. Kimi has more FLAPS than both DC and RB combined!
    Now that is an achievement to be proud of.

  4. You mentioned before you didn’t remember when was the last time the last race of a season had a home driver deciding the championship… I’m not sure, but the closest I got from it was 1961 US Grand Prix, but Phill Hill was already champion and didn’t even compete, because of his teammate’s (Von Trips) death in Italy…

    Well, for sure in 1950 Giuseppe Farina raced the last race of the season at home, and was crowned Formula 1’s first champion, by winning and seing Fangio retire…

    Can anyone find out another case?

    So far, 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix was the second case of a home driver deciding the title at the last race, and the first when the local contender lost…

  5. @ Daniel
    I remember Dutch TV commentator Olav Mol mentioning that the only time a driver could’ve won the WDC at his home GP, was 1950 (Farina) and 2008 (Massa).

  6. Didn’t Kimi Raikkonen score 10 fastest laps this season, equalling his record (2005) that he shares with Schumacher (2004)?

  7. if Massa has got 11 FLAPs, who is the Felipe that got 3?

  8. Jian – That was a typo, fixed now.

Comments are closed.