2010 in stats part one: records and races
2010 F1 season review
The first part of F1 Fanatic’s review of 2010 in stats looks at how F1 changed in 2010 and reviews some of the key records from each of the 19 races.
Drivers
Drivers, 1992-2010
The addition of three new teams meant more drivers were able to compete in F1 this year. We saw the most drivers complete a full season in a decade.
Race winners
Winners, 1992-2010
One of the elements that made it such an exciting season was how evenly the wins were spread between drivers. No-one won more than five races – the lowest since 1999.
Pole positions
Pole positions and pole sitters, 1992-2010
With qualifying unaffected by fuel loads for the first time since 2002, pole position became a truer test of who was the quickest over a single lap. More often than not it was Sebastian Vettel, who took pole in ten out of 19 races.
Retirements
Retirements, 1992-2010
Reliability has been gradually improving but the influx of new teams and the loss of the likes of Toyota meant it took a hit in 2010. But expect it to creep up again next year.
2010 stats and facts highlights
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Bahrain, 2010
- Fernando Alonso wins on his debut for Ferrari
- Lotus start their first race since Adelaide 1994
- Virgin and HRT start their first races
- Vitaly Petrov, Nico Hülkenberg, Bruno Senna, Karun Chandhok and Lucas di Grassi start their first races
- Rubens Barrichello matches Graham Hill’s record of starting races in 18 consecutive seasons
- Red Bull qualify both cars on the front row of the grid for the first time
- Mark Webber becomes the first Australian driver to set fastest lap in his home race
- Jenson Button scores his first win for McLaren
- Three different teams win the first three races – Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull – for the first time since 1990 (McLaren, Ferrari and Williams)
- Mercedes finish on the podium for the first time since Monza 1955
- Lewis Hamilton starts from his lowest ever grid position in F1 – 20th
- Jaime Alguersuari and Nico Hülkenberg score their first points in F1
Jenson Button, McLaren, Shanghai, 2010
- McLaren score their first one-two since Monza 2007 (Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton)
- The first one-two for a pair of British drivers since Melbourne 1999 (Eddie Irvine and David Coulthard)
- Vitaly Petrov scores his first point and becomes the first Russian to do so
- Mark Webber leads a race from start to finish for the first time
- The 40th world championship Spanish Grand Prix
- Webber becomes the first driver to lead two consecutive races throughout since Kimi Räikkönen in 2005 – in the same two events
- Webber leads the championship for the first time in his career
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Istanbul, 2010
- Vitaly Petrov set the fastest lap for the first time in his career. It is also the first for a Russian driver
- Ferrari’s 800th Grand Prix start
- Hamilton becomes the fifth different driver to lead the world championship in a season, which has never happened before
- Hamilton has started all three Canadian Grands Prix he’s raced in from pole position
- McLaren score their first back-to-back one-two finish since the 2000 French and Austrian Grands Prix with David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen
- Three world champions stood on the podium at the end of the race, which hadn’t been seen since the 1991 United States Grand Prix (Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet)
- Michael Schumacher has his lowest finish in an F1 race: 15th
- The 500th F1 race start for Lotus
- The worst result for Ferrari since the 1978 French Grand Prix
- Sakon Yamamoto starts his first race since the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix
- The 100th consecutive race without a win for Williams
- Sebastian Vettel takes pole position by 0.002s over Alonso – the smallest margin between the first two on the grid since Räikkönen out-qualified Schumacher by the same gap at Monza in 2006
- 100th F1 race start for Red Bull
Rubens Barrichello, Williams, Spa-Francorchamps, 2010
- Rubens Barrichello marked his 300th race start
- Alonso becomes the first Ferrari driver to win his first race for the team at Monza from pole position since Niki Lauda in 1974
- Alonso scored his first perfect result: winning from pole position, setting fastest lap and leading every lap
- Christian Klien made his first F1 start since the 2006 Italian Grand Prix
- Nick Heidfeld made his first F1 start since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- Schumacher finished in the points for the 200th time in his career
- At two hours, 48 minutes and 20.810 seconds, this was the longest race for 50 years
- The race with the most finishers since the 1952 British Grand Prix.
- Nico Hülkenberg gives Williams their first pole position in 100 races. He is the sixth-youngest driver to start a race from pole position
- Red Bull win the constructors’ championship for the first time ever
- Red Bull follow Brawn as the second consecutive new winners of the constructors’ championship, which last happened with BRM and Lotus in 1962 and 1963
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Abu Dhabi, 2010
- Vettel emulates Giuseppe Farina and Kimi Räikkönen by going from third to first in the championship at the final round
- Vettel leads the world championship for the first time and becomes the sixth leader of the year – increasing the record
- Vettel is also the youngest ever world champion
2010 F1 season review
- The complete F1 Fanatic 2010 season review
- Lewis Hamilton voted best driver of 2010
- The best guest contributions of 2010
- F1 Fanatic’s 50 best articles of 2010
- The 2010 F1 season in 100 pictures
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part four: the top three
- Vote for the best F1 driver of 2010
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part three: 8-4
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part two: 17-9
- 2010 F1 driver rankings part one: 27-18
Image © Ferrari spa, www.mclaren.com, Ferrari spa, Williams/LAT, Red Bull/Getty images
rascalb said on 30th November 2010, 15:21
The Abu Dhabi podium featuring the newly crowned world champion and the most recent two world champions strikes me as a pretty rare thing. I think I read something about that last happening in the 80s. Does anyone know if that is the case?
Kimster said on 30th November 2010, 20:15
In last race of ’88 (Adelaide)
Winner: Prost, WDC of 86
Second: Senna, WDC of 88
Third: Piquet, WDC of 87
Craig Woollard said on 1st December 2010, 16:21
At Germany, Hamilton beat Schumacher’s record for most points in a season, although the new scoring system helped him of course ;)
Lobo said on 8th December 2010, 17:39
The last 5 years have produced 5 different drivers winning the championship for 5 different teams:
2006 – Alonso, Renault
2007 – Raikkonen, Ferrari
2008 – Hamilton, McLaren
2009 – Button, Brawn
2010 – Vettel, Red Bull
This had not been see since the late 70s, early 80s.