Heidfeld sets record for most podiums without a win

2011 Malaysian GP stats and facts

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Nick Heidfeld, Renault, Sepang, 2011

After his third-place finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix Nick Heidfeld now holds the record for most podium finishes without a win.

He’s finished second or third 13 times – one more than previous record-holder Stefan Johansson.

Heidfeld’s third place was the 100th appearance on the podium by a Renault driver. Only six teams have more (see table).

TeamPodiums
Ferrari643
McLaren454
Williams296
Lotus172
Brabham124
Benetton102
Renault100

Sebastian Vettel scored his fourth win in a row and his third consecutive win from pole.

The last driver to win four races in a row was Jenson Button in 2009 (Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey).

If Vettel can win again in China this weekend he’ll be the first driver to win five in a row since Michael Schumacher in 2004 – and he went on to win seven on the trot.

Vettel’s 12th career win gives him as many as fellow champions Mario Andretti and Alan Jones, plus Carlos Reutemann. His 17th pole position puts him level with Jackie Stewart.

Mark Webber set the fastest lap for the seventh time in his career. But lap times at Sepang were significantly slower than last year.

The quickest lap of the weekend was Vettel’s pole position time of 1’34.870, was 1.3 seconds slower than last year’s best during practice (qualifying was hit by rain).

The fastest race lap was 3.5 seconds slower than last year and 6.3 seconds slower than the 2004 record sent by Juan Pablo Montoya.

Paul di Resta has now scored points in his first two race starts. The last driver to do that was Lewis Hamilton in 2007, but the number of points-paying positions has been increased from eight to ten since then.

As indicated in the previous stats and facts, Hamilton is now the driver who has had the longest career spent with just one team: 73 for McLaren, one more than Jim Clark had with Lotus.

Vettel leads the championship by 24 points, which is a larger lead than anyone held during the whole of last season.

The top five drivers on the grid all qualified in the same positions in the first race.

So far this year Fernando Alonso has led two laps, Lewis Hamilton three, and Sebastian Vettel has led the remaining 109.

Spotted any more interesting facts and stats from the Malaysian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

Review the year in statistics so far here:

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix


    Browse all 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

    Image © Pirelli

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    177 comments on “Heidfeld sets record for most podiums without a win”

    1. Great facts, especially the one aboit Vettel’s 24 point lead.

      Surely Heidfeld will want to forget that fact? ;)

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        11th April 2011, 8:57

        In fact it is the biggest lead ever after only 2 races – however that is more due to new point system – his lead is still less than 1 race win

        1. LOL, i just love the statistics and nice tidbits of information they provide.

          1. I counted 63 pit stops this race?

        2. It looks better on paper than it actually is, agreed ;)

        3. Well it’s only really being compared to last year. Also being 1 point off having a race in hand is very large after just 2 races.

      2. Best stat of the race:

        It was race #91 for Rosberg
        his teammate has 91 vicories

        U can be sure Rosberg will make it 92 races without a win next week but i wouldn’t bet on Schumi gettting his 92nd victory there :)

        1. lol what if it rains in China and Schumi actually wins there again (as in 2006, his last victory)?

    2. Technically the sports greatest loser? Shame.

      I for one hope he’s gets 1st this season, along with Petrov.. it’ll be great to see them both mixing it up!

      They’ve had terrific starts in the last two races.

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        11th April 2011, 9:01

        No – without a doubt that must be Luca Badoer – 56 starts without scoring a single point – then also considering he was driving when his teammate won races.

        1. Interestingly I think Badoer had a lap record at Zandvoort for a while? Might have been at a test or something so might not be when other drivers actually had the chance though ;)

        2. Luca Badoer drove two races in the appalling F60 after 10 years out of F1 and Kimi had done already half a season before obtaining a podium.

      2. Renault are capable of winning a race this year, i’m pretty sure, They’re closer to the front than Mercedes were last year and they have two drivers with plenty to prove – and so far they’re doing it. And we all know how well Renault can develop. I’m looking forward to Monaco to see what they can pull out of the bag there!

        1. Yeah, it would be great to see Heidfeld finally crack the top of the podium at the most hallowed of all Grands Prix.

      3. I’m viewing Renault a bit like BMW Sauber in 2008, probably a little slower. They may have a slim chance of winning a race, but it looks like it will need rain or carnage for it to happen. I really hope they can pull it off though

        1. bring on montreal!

      4. And I believe this year he will make another record- Most GPs before 1st win.

        1. Cant do that this year, he needs another 34 starts to be first with De Cesaris.
          Nick has 174 starts, De Cesaris 208

          1. de Cesaris never won

            1. yes, thats what im saying. De Cesaris has 204 starts without ever winning, Quick Nick has 174 so he needs another 34 to get level. After that he can win his first and get a hold of the record :)

    3. Lotus 172

      *choke* *cough* *splutter* :)

      1. Shouldnt this podium go under Lotus and not Reno? Reno just supplies engines.. right?

        1. We all know the other (very slow and useless) “team” lotus are the fakes.

          The results speak for themselves, as always.

          1. Well let’s give Lotus Cars a 40mill budget and a clean sheet of paper, and we’ll see where they are once they’ve found all the personnel they will need and have designed and built the car from scratch.

            As it is they’ve just gone for the simple “stick our badge on someone else’s car” for 60mill (I believe).

            Still, credit to the Renault team for another podium and making the race very exciting for us. Awesome start!

            Team Lotus and also Virgin & HRT, in my book anyway, are neither slow nor useless. Given the conditions they are working under, to start with nowt and be almost challenging the established teams in the 2nd year is good going. HRT to be within 107% with all they’ve gone through is pretty damn good in my book as well.

            If we must slate them, let’s do it after we see where they are in 5 or even 10 years.

          2. They may be slow and useless but they are the real deal…there’s a direct link all the way back to Chapman.

            1. Neither team is the “real deal”. Initially the Chapmans backed 1Malaysia, but not anymore.

              The only real deal left the sport in 1994.

            2. You can trace ownership of Team Lotus from Fernandes back through Hunt…Collins and Wright…the Chapman family…to Colin Chapman. The Chapmans may not like it…we may not like it…but it’s the real deal.

            3. As I said, it isn’t the real deal. They may spend money like they want to be, but I’m afraid no-one is.

            4. Yes, it is.

        2. But Lotus cars only sponsors. In that case we would probalby have cigarette giant Marlborough leading by some margin, followed by the likes of Camel, West, JPS …

          To cut this short, just nonsense.

        3. lotus is just a title sponsor.

          you would have to give Vodafone a bunch of podium finishes too.

    4. First time since Turkey 2009 the championship leader wins a race.

      1. That’s a good one. I fear, like London buses, that long wait could be followed by the championship leader winning a lot of races over the next few weeks…

        1. Let’s hope not, otherwise we’re in for a boring championship for everyone but the Vettel-fans.

          1. Yeah, this looks a bit like 2009.

          2. Well speaking as a Vettel fan, I don’t want him to win every race, that’s so dull, no-one wants that. I’d much rather there be a brilliant battle for the title. Hoping that McLaren can get a few wins, same for Ferrari and a couple for Renault :)

            1. @ Martin: Yes, but with the exeption that Brawn didn’t have a strong budget in 2009, but rather with a lot of money spent on it by Honda the year before. I’d be surprised if Red Bull would struggle as Brawn did in the second half of the season.

              @ Katy: Ok, of course everyone want exitement. I suppose I’m just sick of seeing Massa massively beaten by Alonso every weekend, som if Massa would start to dominate, I’d like him to keep it up all the time! Anyway, it’s starting to look brighter for Felipe :D

            2. I agree Katy. I’d especially like to see Renault get a few wins. It would be great to see either of their drivers make the top step, but especially Nick after his extensive record of no wins…

        2. god it will be like early 90s wiliams and mid 00s ferrari :-(

          1. And the end of the 90s in another adrian newey car – 1998/1999 the flyin finn !!!- mclaren storm to the titles

    5. If Vettel can win again in China this weekend he’ll be the first driver to win five in a row since Michael Schumacher in 2004 – and he went on to win seven on the trot.

      That makes me hate Montoya even more. What a record Schumacher could’ve set.

      Good that Heidfeld got the 100th Renault podium. I’ve always been a fan of his, just hope he can get a win under his belt while the Renault still has relatively good performance.

      1. Schumacher wouldn’t have won Monaco anyway, Trulli and Button were way too far ahead. IIRC, the collision occurred under the safety car when MS hadn’t stopped but Trulli and Button had. Besides, it was Michaels fault for brake testing in the tunnel…

        1. Well he had the lighter car (Plus the best car on the grid in race pace anyway) and it was Schumacher. You could never have ruled out a win there. Besides there was about 30 laps to go, enough time to pull out a big enough gap.

          As for the brake test, it was nothing like a brake test. He put the brakes on and Montoya should have been looking, if he would’ve moved earlier the collision wouldn’t have happened, it’s amazing how people can think he would give up the chance of a race win to slam Montoya into the wall? Don’t be ridiculous.

        2. Aside from what RIISE said, Montoya was lapped too. He had no business ramming into the current race leader, and after what Verstappen did to him in Brazil, he should’ve learned that.

      2. Two things:

        1. Like Dan says, Schumacher wasn’t on course to win that race, he still had a pitstop to make

        2. It served him right for being careless with his tyre warming, he was effectively brake testing Montoya

        (this is all iirc of course, it was a long time ago. 7 years, wow, time flies…)

        1. And he didn’t just brake test Montoya, when Montoya slammed on the brakes and steered to his right almost into the barrier to avoid hitting Schumacher, Michael closed the door on him (despite the fact that as it was under the safety car he wouldn’t have lost a position) and caused them to both get taken out!

          1. One of the truly stupid moments in Schumi’s career.

          2. Exactly Rob, although I should point out Montoya didn’t retire, his car wasn’t even badly damaged, and he went on to finish 4th

            1. Hmm, my memory seems to have remembered that incident but not anything else from that race…

      3. If Vettel can win again in China this weekend he’ll be the first driver to win five in a row since Michael Schumacher in 2004 – and he went on to win seven on the trot.

        This makes me love Montoya even more.

        1. I love Montoya for stupidly handing Alonso 2nd place at Turkey and Belgium in a much faster car.

    6. I wouldn’t put it past Hedifeld to gain a few podiumplaces, before Kubica comes back and wins for Renault.
      Such drama seems to be the recurring theme of Heidfelds career. Maybe Ferrari wants him as new teamplayer alongside Alonso?

      1. We’ve seen what happened to Massa. If Kubica is ever successful I’ll be as surprised as happy.

      2. Don’t be silly, does everyone conveniently forget that Heidfeld was easily a match for Kubica in their time as team mates? Nick is no slouch you know, stop getting sucked into the Kubica hype, you can’t know anything for sure.

        1. My comment was meant to be more about the drama of Heidfelds career than about the talents of both Heidfeld or Kubica. Heidfeld seems to be followed by bad luck.

        2. It’s interesting that even though Heidfeld outscored Kubica in 2 of their 3 seasons together, people rate Kubica far more highly. I must admit I do too to be honest for some reason, but it doesn’t look good on Kubica’s CV

          1. I always found that interesting too Ned. I think too many people do so because of Kubica’s win in Canada in 08.

            Kubica only gained the win because Hamilton took himself and Kimi out of the race and Massa had a problem and had to battle through the field. Heidfeld who the team had switched to a one stop strategy after the Hamilton blunder moved over and let Kubica easily sail by to win 1 year after his horrible accident at the same track.

            So in a sense the win for Kubica that year was a gift. I find it a shame that Ferrari didn’t have the same sense of kindness at Germany last season, and even more so since Kubica has suffered a large incident like Massa had.

            Here’s to hoping Kubica can return like Massa has, but in the meantime for Heidfeld to go on and claim his maiden victory this year one we can all karma for his kindness in 2008.

            1. In 2008 Kubica was in with a real chance at the title until BMW decided to concentrate on their 2009 car. When BMW had a decent car he was the one who stepped it up and challenged for the title. Nick maybe lacking something to take him from good driver to world class driver?

            2. Don’t you think Kubica was a better driver last year compared the BMW years though? You could just tell he had found a new level just from watching him in the cockpit.

            3. Thats right, Nick couldnt get it together that season.

              his race pace was fine but it was qualifying.

              same happened to kimi that year too. and a bit to alonso in 07

            4. Baz,

              Seriously, BMW was never in with a REAL chance on the title.

              The only way he could have won the title was if Massa, Raikkonen and Hamilton kept on not finishing races all the time (as they did during the first few races).

              It’s just ludicrous to call that a real chance.

          2. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but;
            You’d expect Heidfeld to beat Kubica in 2007 as it was effectively RK’s rookie season and Nick was a veteran of 7 seasons, while in 2009 Heidfeld scored a lucky podium by virtue of the red-flag coming out at the right time in his pitstop sequence. Add to that the dog of a car the F1.09 was and that RK was too heavy for KERS (when it was used)…
            In the season RK outscored Nick he competed for the championship in the 3rd fastest car for longer than the reigning WDC…

            1. You see though the Rookie season meant nothing then since there was testing. The reason Hamilton was up to speed quickly was due to being able to bang in hours of practice times.

              Kubica was with the team since 2006 so he had no problem getting up to speed.

              I just disagree completely with the whole Kubica future World Champion furore, how the hell can you know? We all know Heidfeld isn’t WC material so he needs to be in a team with a more competitive team mate to get an idea of his real pace.

              But as i’ve said before he won’t be the driver he was once he comes back, if he ever does.

            2. RIISE, everyone in Formula One rates him very, very, highly. He’s able to push a car to its limits and the more experienced he is getting the more potential he is fulfilling. So sad for him to get injured this year, that car would have been right up there in his hands.

            3. Last post:

              he won’t be the driver he was once he comes back

              Previous post:

              you can’t know anything for sure

            4. phildick – But that is something you can know for sure, the body cannot regain the same sort of performance after an incident like this. The mental state of him alone will probably be like Massa’s except on a much larger scale.

              I was not contradicting myself.

            5. thatscienceguy
              11th April 2011, 13:58

              RIISE – what about Lauda? Or Hakkinen? They seemed to do alright.
              Some drivers can bounce back, some can’t. We’ll have to wait and see how Kubica does.

            6. In 2009 Heidfeld scored a lucky podium by virtue of the red-flag coming out at the right time in his pitstop sequence.

              Heidfeld only received the equivalent points for a 5th places finish though.

            7. Some drivers can bounce back, some can’t. We’ll have to wait and see how Kubica does.

              Exactly. But Kubica hasn’t won anything much so far in his career. So let’s put the “future world champion” stuff to bed until he actually challenges for a title or at least wins races on his own pace.

    7. Vettel becomes the first reigning champion to win the first two races (incidentally, the same races) of the year since Michael Schumacher in 2004.

      This is the third race Vettel has won more than once, the others being Japan and Abu Dhabi (all twice).

      1. Which other drivers have multiple wins on certain circuits, does anyone know?

        The ones that spring to mind for me are Massa’s 3 consecutive wins at Istanbul, Raikkonen and his Spa mastery, Button’s two wins (and two poles) at Melbourne, Alonso’s three wins at Bahrain.

        Hamilton has two wins and has never not been on pole at Montreal which is pretty impressive. And Schumacher has won about a million Grand Prix’s at some circuits

        1. Barrichello has won thrice at Monza. Montoya won Brazil twice and always ran well there…

          Prost won his home race six times, and of course Senna won Monaco six times, just edging Graham Hill who won Monaco five times.

          1. @Dan….even montoya has two wins at monza
            DC two wins at silverstone

        2. Schumacher won more than one race on 18 different tracks (up to 8 on a single one. He COULD make that 20 by winning Bahrain and Shanghai until he ends his career, since he won there once already).

          Alonso won more than one race in Bahrain (3), Nurburgring (this and all following 2), Malaysia, Hockenheim (yeah, there too), Monza, Singapore, Japan GP (but on different tracks) and I think Monaco aswell.

          Massa won Turkey 3 times, Brasil and Bahrain twice.

          Since you brought Raikkonen up, he won Spa 4 times (could have been more), Malaysia 2 and Spain twice as far as I remember.

          Barrichello won Monza thrice (thriiicccee :-D) I think.

          Hamilton won twice in Canada and Hungary.

          I think those are all current (plus 1) drivers who won multiple times at the same track.

          1. Hamilton won twice at Spa… Oh, wait a minute…

            Schumacher holds the record for most wins at same gp and same race track: 8 at Magny-cours in France.

            1. ah Spa 2008. If only Lewis had waited until after turn one, that race was comfortably his.

            2. Well, at least Hamilton was the first driver to finish the race on two occasions, even if that didn’t neccessarily translate to being classified first!

            3. well, if the race lasted longer he would have been given a drive-thru for cutting a corner.

            4. I miss Magny-Cours, I thought it was quite a cool little track. Not having a French Grand Prix is just odd.

        3. Hamilton was on pole at Montreal last year wasn’t he??

        4. Including some you said Ned there are…

          Massa: 3 at Turkey and all after achieving pole, 2 at Bahrain, 2 at Brazil but three consecutive poles.

          Alonso: 3 at Bahrain, 2 at Malaysia, 2 at Monaco (consecutive), 2 at Nurburgring, 2 at Hockheinem, 2 at Singapore and 2 at Monza.

          Lewis: 2 at Hungary, 2 Canada

          Vettel: 2 Malaysia, 2 Suzuka

          Rubens: 3 Italy.

          And that’s all I can think of!

          1. Or what Bananarama said :P

      2. On average, in half of the races since 2007 the pole sitter has been either Vettel or Hamilton.

        1. That is quite a startling statistic.

          1. Holy crap! It really is. But who has it been in the other half…probably Massa, Alonso, and Button. That kind of makes it a little less impressive.

            1. Some Webber and Barrichello poles in there too.

    8. Not only the top five drivers qualified in same position as Melbourne, but the last six plus Schumacher and di Resta as well. So aggregated its 13 drivers.
      There are included the two HRTs, altough they were not allowed to start in Australia.

      1. I noticed this as well – very strange – and alot (ie: Sutil) were only 1 place off their Melbourne starting place!

        I love these coincidences. I think I’ll be putting Vettel as my pole man every race in the Prediction Championship from now on!

    9. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      11th April 2011, 8:49

      First the boring stat – Heidfeld extended his number of race starts without win to 176 only 32 to go to the record of Andrea de Cesaris with 208. Mark Webber is still record holder with most races till first win – being 130 races. Heidfeld is now the record holder with most podiums without a win being 13 – previous co holder was Stefan Johansson with 12.

      Vettel’s scored his 12th win in 64 races an impressive win ratio of 18.8% however he is only ranked 11th, from the active drivers Lewis is 9th with 19.2% and Michael is 4th with 33.6%. Absolute record holder is Fangio with an amazing 45.1% win ratio this next to his 68.6% podium ratio.

      Vettel’s 17th pole in 64 races puts him ahead of Michael with pole ratio, however Vettel’s 26.6% ratio makes him 5th,Michael is 6th with 25.1% and Lewis is 7th with 24.7%. And who else than Fangio is 1st with 54.9% – still can’t believe Fangio was not voted best World Champion ever.

      Vettel’s 4th consecutive win puts him 8th in record list or 6th if a driver is only counted once – other active drivers with 4 consecutive wins are Alonso and Button – Michael is listed 5 times with 4 of more consecutive win streaks his longest 7 in 2004 which would have been 13 if he didn’t stupidly crashed under safety car situation in Monaco.

      1. I would bet that by the end of the season Vettel will have surpassed both Hamilton and Alonso for total number of poles, and have more than any other current driver bar Schumacher with his staggering 68 poles. Vettel’s only 1 behind Hamilton and 3 behind Alonso at the moment.

      2. Laranja Mecanica
        12th April 2011, 23:25

        still can’t believe Fangio was not voted best World Champion ever.

        Fangio was surely the best ever, or at least the numbers say so, but it was a bit hard to vote for him, his career ended well before most of us were born, and there’s not that much racing footage of him around either.

        I have been watching F1 for 40 years now, and remember Jackie Stewart well, but I honestly couldn’t vote for anybody before him.

    10. Surely someone’s been with one team for longer than Hamilton has spent with Mclaren? He’s only been around 3-4 years, what about Schumacher with Ferrari (10 years if I’m right)??

      1. This discussion has already been had… it’s the wording that makes it a little difficult.

        McLaren is the first and only team Hamilton has been in.. that’s where the record is coming from.

        One, as in ONE team, not one team for a bit then another for 10 years.

        1. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
          11th April 2011, 9:12

          So if I understand this correctly then if Hamilton moves, he will then lose this record? Or is it a record for the longest stint for your intial team?

          1. Yes, if Hamilton moves he will lose the record.

        2. Aha… makes sense then.. pretty sure he’ll stay with Macca too, i think they’re in his blood..

      2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        11th April 2011, 9:10

        Shady – it only counts if the driver has driven for 1 team in its entire carreer.

        Keith – if you are measuring this correctly – Adrian Sutil is co-record holder. Sutil never changed teams – the team just changed names.

        Sutil has driven 17 races for Spyker and 56 races for Force India

        1. If you go down that route things quickly start to make no sense. For example, the original Renault team raced against the modern Renault team in their Toleman guise in 1985.

          1. That particular example makes sense to me – the new Renault is ex-Toleman where all the components have been changed with team.

            In the case of Spyker/Force India, the only management change in the first half-year was Mallya becoming team owner/chairman – he didn’t become team boss on the sporting side until the falling-out between Kolles and Gascoyne. Apart from that it was basically a swap of PR staff, new sponsors and new identity.

            However, I do see the sense in declaring Lewis as sole holder of this particular record. The line gets very blurry otherwise and a solid statistic is not the place to do the blurring.

      3. Also ONE, as in ONE team name/management ID, not one team that’s gone under 2 names and management identities (otherwise Lewis would be joint first with Adrian Sutil).

      4. it means with the team you first race with. Like schumi’s was Jordan, who spent about 5 minutes with!

    11. * Top 5 qualifying in consecutive races happened last in San Marino and Spain 2002: Michael, Rubens, Ralf, JPM and Kimi. Before that it was Europe and San Marino 1993, with actually top six being same: Prost, Hill, Schumacher, Senna, Wendlinger and Andretti.

      * Heidfeld has now three podiums in Sepang. His previous one was two years ago on the same circuit, and he was also third in 2005.

      1. Great stat Bleu!

    12. Vettel broke the streak. On Sunday the leader of the world championship going into a race weekend has won the grand prix for the first time since Turkey 2009.

      1. Ah, good one!

        1. I basicly wrote the same thing.

          1. sorry! I had looked over the comments to see if anyone else had already said it but I must have missed yours.

            1. No worries, still it’s interesting no-one had managed to lead the championship and win a race at the same time before!

    13. Would I be right in thinking that Di Resta is (currently) the only driver ever to have scored points on every one of his race starts?

      Or were there any one-race stand-in drivers that picked up points?

      1. Since there were only 2 race starts, I doubt it’s significant

        1. Ha yeah, if he retires before Shanghai maybe it will be, otherwise it means nowt.

          Actually, I find points scoring records like this have been completely devalued in recent years. It’s been a solid start to his career, but I find it hard to get excited about a driver finishing tenth

          1. Ghost in the Ruins
            11th April 2011, 10:05

            I understand your point and I agree. But remember in years past the reliability and finishing rates for teams in F1 wasn’t as good as what we have now. It was normal to lose up to 30% of the field through accidents and failures and a lot of smaller, slower teams could pick up the occasional 6th place.

            1. Yeah I agree, if points went to 6th then they’d be more highly valued, but then teams like Sauber and Force India would only score one or two points a year. I miss unreliability

        2. Like saying Brawn GP was the greatest team because they won 100% of the championships possible.

      2. Hamilton also picked up points on his first 9 race starts. All podiums too!

        1. yeah that was amazing, if he could get back to that consistency he would be unbeatable.

          but he has never got near that again

          1. In that year the only true competition for Hamilton was in the form of Alonso as his team mate, Kimi and Massa for Ferrari and too a much lesser extent Kubica and Heidfeld in the BMW’s.

            2 factors: one, there is more top level competition now and two, Mclaren’s car is not the class of the field as it was in 07.

            I also think being a rookie can give you a slight mental edge, as the willingness to prove oneself can make people do extraordinary things.

      3. He’s the only driver to hold that record with 2 starts. The six other drivers with 100% in the points finishes all started one race only. Interestingly Button is at exactly 50%. Schumacher and Hamilton are both pretty high on that list, with Alonso and Vettel slightly lower in percentage.

    14. This is not so much a stat as an observation, but Nick Heidfeld must surely be the considered the greatest driver never to win a GP? 13 podiums for four different teams is no mean feat, and he’s beaten Raikkonen, Massa and Kubica over a season at various stages in their careers.

      Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s a superstar, but I think he’s proven himself to be a very capable driver over the years, and his lack of success is more to do with him not having a good enough car (only Robert Kubica has won a race will teammate to Heidfeld). It’ll be a real shame if he can’t manage a win before he retires

      1. Chris Amon is often labelled the best driver never to have won a full championship round, but never seeing him in action I can’t say for sure. But if stats are anything to go by they’re probably right.

      2. Thankyou Ned, I’ve been arguing this point for several years. I find it amusing that some drivers like Heikki (nothing against him, I like the guy a lot) can inherit a win whilst being rather uncompetitive while someone like Nick has yet to win, despite instances like 2008 where he was 2nd place 4 times!

      3. Also that one time a team mate of Heidfeld’s did win a race was only because Heidfeld let Kubica past.

      4. On pure F1 performance then yes, either one of Heidfeld or Amon.

        However if you consider drivers who were great in their own right but did not achieve great F1 results you could be looking at McNish, Bellof or perhaps Pescarolo? Or indeed Sunday’s special celebrity guest steward!

    15. Sush Meerkat
      11th April 2011, 9:27

      boring stat coming right up:
      second race in a row the Podium has been
      1) Red Bull
      2) McLarvit
      3) Renault

      1. Sush Meerkat
        11th April 2011, 9:31

        I’ve got another stat!.

        Its the 6th race in a row that Horner hasn’t moaned about lack of power in the Renault Engine!

        Congrats Christian!

        1. He didn’t even complain much about the failure of it in Korea, did he?

    16. Another interesting stat that the BBC alluded to in their coverage: Sepang is the circuit least likely to require the Safety Car, there’s something like a 10% chance of it appearing in the GP.

      Actually, I think this could make a decent topic for an article Keith, at least statto’s like myself would appreciate it!

      1. And Melbourne has the biggest chance of safety cars, it was written in the Autosport magazine before the race.

        1. While I find it believable, it amazes me that Monaco isn’t higher.

          1. i would of thought canada would of had that little stat.

            i can remember races in melbourne without safety cars. canada usually there is more than 1.

    17. It is the first time Felipe Massa has beaten Fernando Alonso in 10 races (not counting alonsos reatiment)

      1. Ouch, harsh one that one. I’m willing to trust you but it seems quite huge!

      2. First time Button has beaten Hamilton (not counting retirements or mechanical issues) since his win in China last year (though I beat he would have beat him in Monza, still twice in 17 races is startling).

    18. That win will come one day, maybe this season with the Lotus car being so competitive and as it looks like Kubica will be out this season in looks promising.

    19. here’s a stat
      4 drivers have now won at least twice in Malaysia
      Schumacher 00,01 and 04
      Kimi 03,08
      Alonso 05,07
      Vettel 10,11

      1. Schumacher and Vettel are the only ones to win back-to-back Malaysian GPs also

    20. Yesterday was the first race in Alguersuari’s career that he didn’t finish in 11th!

      1. Hahaha, nice one ;)

    21. Hamilton’s 72 races for one team is a record?

      What about Patrese for Williams from 1988-1992 (5 full years) or David Coulthard from 1996 – 2004 (9 years)?

      1. They drove for other teams, and this record is for most races with one team, without driving for others.

    22. Not exactly a stat, but I thought you might be interested in this. I made a “word cloud” using the F1 article from Wikipedia. Words that appear often in the article appear as larger words in the cloud. Take a look.

      http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3443878/Formula_One

      1. Nice!

        Would it be possible to do so with the Articles on F1F? (and maybe omitting the verbs)

        1. Sure, it’s very simple to use, but you’d have to take all the verbs out individually. Also, I don’t know how you put two words (like Grand Prix) together.

    23. Another (slightly rubbish) safety car stat: this is the first time since 2007 that the first two races of the season have been SC free. In 2007, it didn’t even make an appearance until Canada, where it was needed 4 times, giving me the opportunity to use the London buses analogy for the second time today :D

      1. Another slightly contrived stat:

        You wait weeks for London buses analogies from Ned Flanders and…. etc. etc. etc.

    24. Tarquin Tardybrush
      11th April 2011, 12:32

      How many bearded drivers have been on the podium? Does Heidfeld have a specially modified helmet to contain his beard? Is a beard not considered a fire risk by the FIA? Maybe he should get a stop and shave penalty!

      1. button? probably been on podium with beard.

        lewis has a beard of sorts going on.

        shame alonso didnt keep his evil looking one. everyone treats him like the devil so he might as well look like it.

      2. “stop and shave penalty”

        Brilliant!

    25. I this record equal with the record for the longest streak of podiums without a win? (Regardless of whether the driver had a career win or hadn’t.)
      Anybody?

      1. Barrichello had 15 podium finishes without win from Hockenheim 2000 to Montréal 2002.

      2. Mika Hakkinen also had a 15 podium strike before his first win.

    26. He’s finished second or third 13 times – one more than previous record-holder Stefan Johansson.

      Woah! Barrichello had 12 as well before his maiden win in Germany 2000!

      Later on he had a streak of 11 podiums w/o a win – twice, a once a 10 race streak.

    27. This is the first consecutive podium finish for Renault since Japan 08. This is the first consecutive podium finish for them without gracing the top step since Brazil 06.

      The last time there were 2 Germans and a Brit on the podium was also at Malaysia in 09 I think? Which also including Button and Heidfeld.

    28. Here’s a thought – Sebastien Buemi had a stop-go penalty. Feels like we’ve not had one of those for a long time. Anyway know when the last one was?

      1. Didn’t Rubens have one at Australia in 08? I think he left with the fuel hose still on so got that penalty (lovely consistency again) and then was disqualified as he ignored the red light exiting the pit lane.

        I really can’t recall if there have been any in between that one and yesterday’s though.

    29. Kubica in Hungary 2010 (after crashing into Sutil in the pits)?

      PS: Why was it a stop-go, not a drive-through?

    30. Paul di Resta has now scored points in his first two race starts. The last driver to do that was Lewis Hamilton in 2007, but the number of points-paying positions has been increased from eight to ten since then.

      But Lewis was in a McLaren.

    31. Vettel leads the championship by 24 points, which is a larger lead than anyone held during the whole of last season.

      that is very interesting, didn’t expect that.

      1. Last time anyone had a lead of 96% of a race win or greater was Button at the end of 2009.

        The last time anyone had such a big lead after the second race was Schumacher in 2001.

    32. Ferrari haven’t been on the podium for the first two races this season. When did that happen before (bar the horrible 2009, that is)?

      1. After a bit of research, this is what I found:

        Discounting 2009, the last year Scuderia Ferrari didn’t score a single podium from the two first races was 1993. That sure wasn’t yesterday. Actually, that was before I was born!

        1. Wow, that is the most incredible statistic of all!!!

    33. “results speak for themselves”?? Luckily they don’t for most people, only people who are stupid enough to think the Renault team is now Lotus. Infy, you have just made one of the stupidest comments i’ve ever seen.

      I bet Lotus Group think all fans are as stupid as you- thank god the rest of us understand the word “marketing”- phew!

      Go and watch the football, f1 doesn’t need fans like you…

    34. Have Renault made the record for the most number of spots gained on first lap?

      Follow-up question: Does the Forward Exhaust coupled with KERS give some mega-startline speed? Perhaps a technical insight into this might help?

      1. remember fisi start at spa in the benneton/renault in 01? then the race got stopped after burtis crash and he did it again! he nearly took the lead if i remember right.

    35. UKfanatic (@)
      11th April 2011, 14:53

      Heidfeld’s record is impressive didnt knew that, but i’m sure he knows that if vettel had an mechanical or pit problem and he didnt had had pit problems he could have break that streak of winless podiums. Anytime this year that can happen or maybe just rain cause hes handy in the rain without kubica he can forget team orders like in 07 and maybe retire again but with an victory, in 09 he made an podium and was kicked out anyway

    36. Michael Schumacher completed his 15,000th lap in F1.
      The record must however belong to Barrichello, methinks.

      1. Perhaps not if you consider the relative reliabilities of their cars?

    37. Why the hate for Heidfeld? He did a brilliant job in Malaysia, period. He has not won a race, but how many times has he had a car when the other guy won a race in the same car?

      The lap times historical note is pretty interesting. To my eye, the cars were just creeping around, especially through the turns 5 – 8 sweeping turns, turns that used to be real white-knuckle semi-flat out turns. And as slow as they were going, all we could hear on the radio were race engineers pleading with drivers to “look after the tires.”

      I’m never one to say the sport should be dangerous or require “courage” to be good, but after a certain point, can we really say that driving an F1 car now is at all like taming the V-10 beasts of six-seven years ago?

      I’m a little bit dreading a season that ends up being about drivers crawling around the course like grannies trying to figure out how many times they can pit so they can crawl a bit faster than the other guy.

    38. dyslexicbunny
      11th April 2011, 16:59

      I believe Petrov has the most air for this season. Webber took last year. As for general record, no idea.

    39. Under_investigation
      11th April 2011, 18:12

      Has any driver ever lost the world championship after winning the first 2 races?

      1. LehonardEuler
        11th April 2011, 18:55

        Alain Prost in 1982. There might be another one, but that’s the one I recall/found.

      2. LehonardEuler
        11th April 2011, 19:04

        I also found:
        Jacques Laffite in 1979
        Niki Lauda in 1976
        Emerson Fittipaldi in 1973

        1. Tarquin Tardybrush
          12th April 2011, 11:32

          Jacques Laffite never lost the championship. He just never won it.Still around and crazy as hell.

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