Vettel equals record for best start to a season
2011 Monaco GP stats and facts
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Monaco, 2011
No driver in F1 history has made a better start to a season than Sebastian Vettel has over the first six races of 2011.
Five wins and a second place from the first six races is as good as any driver has done at the start of a season.
Here’s how he stacks up so far against the drivers who made the best starts to a season:
| Year | Driver | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 2011 | Sebastian Vettel | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1994 | Michael Schumacher | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 1992 | Nigel Mansell | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | DNF |
| 2009 | Jenson Button | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2002 | Michael Schumacher | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 1965 | Jim Clark | 1 | NE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1969 | Jackie Stewart | 1 | 1 | DNF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2004 | Michael Schumacher | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | DNF | 1 |
| 1954 | Juan Manuel Fangio | 1 | NE | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| 1952 | Alberto Ascari | NE | DNF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
DNF: Did not finish; DNS: Did not start; NE: Not entered
Read more about those drivers’ achievements here.
Vettel started from his 20th career pole position, which gives him as many as Fernando Alonso and Damon Hill.
It was his 11th consecutive front row start and Red Bull’s seventh pole position in a row.
His 15th race win puts him on a par with Lewis Hamilton.
For Red Bull it was their 20th victory. They are ninth in the list of all time winners, behind Tyrrell with 23.
Jenson Button gave McLaren their 10,000th lap in the lead of a race. They are only the second team to achieve this, the other being Ferrari.
McLaren also scored points for the 25th race in a row – the entirety of the Button-Hamilton partnership.
Remarkably for two of the most famous and prestigious names in motor racing, Ferrari have not won the Monaco Grand Prix in the last ten attempts. Here’s how they’ve fared since Michael Schumacher last won for them in 2001:
| Year | Highest car | Driver |
| 2002 | 2nd | Michael Schumacher |
| 2003 | 3rd | Michael Schumacher |
| 2004 | 3rd | Rubens Barrichello |
| 2005 | 7th | Michael Schumacher |
| 2006 | 5th | Michael Schumacher |
| 2007 | 3rd | Felipe Massa |
| 2008 | 3rd | Felipe Massa |
| 2009 | 3rd | Kimi Räikkönen |
| 2010 | 4th | Felipe Massa |
| 2011 | 2nd | Fernando Alonso |
Mark Webber set the tenth fastest lap of his career, four of which have come this season. He now has as many as Graham Hill, John Surtees and Mario Andretti.
Kamui Kobayashi achieved his best ever finish with fifth place.
Williams finally scored their first points of the year courtesy of Rubens Barrichello.
The safety car made its first appearance of 2011.
Despite a troubled race, Lewis Hamilton finished in the points for the tenth time in a row, Fernando Alonso has been in the points for 12 consecutive races.
Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen and Vitantonio Liuzzi are the only drivers who have out-qualified their team mate in every race this year.
Vitaly Petrov failed to reach Q3 for the first time in 2011.
Mercedes failed to score for the second time this year.
Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2011 F1 statistics
- 2011 F1 statistics: Championship points
- 2011 F1 statistics: Season records
- 2011 F1 statistics: Races
- 2011 F1 statistics: Qualifying
- 2011 F1 statistics: Retirements
- 2011 F1 statistics: Strategy
Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Monaco Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2011 Monaco Grand Prix
- New video of Maldonado and Hamilton's Monaco crash
- Vettel would have gone the distance in Monaco - Pirelli
- Williams: first points of 2011 "bittersweet"
- 2011 Monaco Grand Prix: complete race weekend review
- Vettel made call to stay out, says Horner
- Hamilton apologises to Massa and Maldonado
- Vote for your Monaco Grand Prix Driver of the Weekend
- McLaren: Hamilton loses cool after weekend of frustration
- Red Bull: Vettel takes another win under pressure
- Ferrari: Red flag decided the race
Journeyer (@journeyer) said on 30th May 2011, 11:02
Jenson Button has a very interesting record at Monaco – he either finishes on the podium (2nd in 2004, 1st in 2009, 3rd in 2011) or he doesn’t finish at all (every other year except 2003 and 2005 where he couldn’t race).
TheNikii (@thenikii) said on 30th May 2011, 11:30
what about 2006-2008 when he finished 11th and 2001 with 7th?
F1Andy83 said on 30th May 2011, 17:07
If am I not mistaken, all drivers who won the first 5 or 6 races have also won the championship that year.
zecks said on 30th May 2011, 18:06
of course! the seasons were shorter so there was less chance of being caught by anyone
Jonathan said on 30th May 2011, 18:59
Schumacher was almost caught in 1994.
Or rather, he WAS caught, but had an extra trick up his sleeve…
Simon said on 30th May 2011, 11:04
As good as Vettel has been so far, I just hope someone can start to take some race wins off him now. Mclaren look to be the only realistic challengers at the moment.
I’d also forgotten how dominant Button was at the start of 2009.
Patrickl (@patrickl) said on 30th May 2011, 14:54
At least Button had some actual opposition. Although Red Bull made a huge amount of mistakes in the first 7 races, they were just as fast if not faster in half the races.
Joey-Poey (@joey-poey) said on 30th May 2011, 15:56
As much as I hate to admit it, Ferrari seems to have a chance at winning a few. Had the race not been red flagged, Button would have had to get by Fernando even if both of them got by Vettel.
Journeyer (@journeyer) said on 30th May 2011, 11:10
Also, HRT get their best finish of the season so far wirh 16th and 17th.
Funkyf1 said on 30th May 2011, 11:22
Williams would have scored more points if Hamilton didn’t take out Maldonado
ledzep4pm (@ledzep4pm) said on 30th May 2011, 11:23
For Hamilton
Is two penalties and a deleted qualifying time a record for a weekend ??
May be number of incidents with stewards in a season?? Malaysia weaving, Spain reprimand, 3 in Monaco (off the top of my head)
sato113 (@sato113) said on 30th May 2011, 11:48
given the circumstances, 6th wasn’t a bad result for him!
Commendatore said on 30th May 2011, 11:59
To compensate for his undeserving result & his dangerous and infantile driving in Monaco yesterday, the stewards should have banned him for the Canadian GP (or even better for the British GP).
That way he might have learnt his lesson!!!
Patrickl (@patrickl) said on 30th May 2011, 14:55
Yeah, how dare he overtake in a non DRS zone.
f1alex (@f1alex) said on 30th May 2011, 14:58
Err, I don’t necissarily agree that everything he did was dangerous, but in general I think there should be a limit on the number of penalties (in one weekend) before a grid drop or something, similar to the three strike reprimand rule.
Snow Donkey said on 30th May 2011, 16:58
I agree, but I do not feel it should carry over to the next weekend. Maybe an exclusion from the results of the event in question. I also do not feel that a deleted time should be considered a penalty, it’s just not a valid lap, try again type of deal (pity he didn’t have time to).
f1alex (@f1alex) said on 30th May 2011, 17:18
Now that you mention it, Snowdonkey, I think your idea is a better one, because the problem with a grid drop is that they are punished for the one weekend by getting the three (or whatever number) penalties, and then punished again two weeks later in the form of a grid drop because they got too many, even if they did nothing wrong on that weekend. It would probably be better if the punishment is restricted to the weeked the driver offended, rather than another race.
Palle (@palle) said on 30th May 2011, 18:34
Yes, if not for the red flag, the rear wing collapse could have caused a DNF for him.
But why are they allowed to repair and change tyres in the break?
Sadly the red flag kind of destroyed the tension, which had been built, during Buttons catch up. But a very exciting Monaco GP indeed.
GameR_K (@gamer_k) said on 30th May 2011, 11:28
Well records are meant to be broken. We wouldn’t know which car/driver combo might win the first 6 races by next year. Is that even possible? We wouldn’t know at this point. Same with the championship. Also the new points system makes this gap look humongous. Two or three bad races for the leader and everyone else will be in the reckoning for the title hunt. Besides, we still don’t know what effect the Bulls will have when the exhaust thing gets banned by the FIA. Long way to the season, so there is no point in moaning how Vettel is bad for the championship. It is an unfair game, as only two people get to drive the RBR this season. But that is how it has been for a very long time.
Palle (@palle) said on 30th May 2011, 18:44
Nothing unfair about that – if You want to see drivers compete in exactly the same equipment there are other racing series, where that happen. F1 is a constructors, team and driver sport. Don’t focus on the drivers alone. We have always seen periods of varying length with a dominant combination of constructor/team/drivers and that is the spirit of F1. If You watch cycling, tennis, or whatever the equipment is almost standard, but not F1.
GeeMac (@geemac) said on 30th May 2011, 11:40
I read somewhere that Kovalainen has now taken JJ Letho’s record of most races (consectutive I think) without a point for a Finnish driver (somewhere around 30).
The rise of Red Bull is quite a remarkable story when you think that they only scored their first win in 2009…
RSWF1 said on 30th May 2011, 11:40
It can be noted that Shuey only won in 1994 by 1 point… its a long season, thankfully!
sato113 (@sato113) said on 30th May 2011, 11:48
very good point
Fixy (@fixy) said on 30th May 2011, 15:36
Very good point
Ned Flanders said on 30th May 2011, 12:09
Yes, but that was the textbook example of a rigged championship. If Ecclestone hadn’t been looking to hold Schumacher back to keep the interest going until the end of the season, he would’ve been an easy winner
sw6569 (@sw6569) said on 30th May 2011, 12:26
well…exhaust blown diffusers are about to be banned…
Metrium (@metrium) said on 30th May 2011, 12:30
Then all we’d need is for Vettel to get disqualified from two races and banned for two more and the championship will be tight at the top again!
Ross said on 30th May 2011, 12:46
Was just pointing out there is a precendent… If any team has had a rapid enough rise to court suspected mis-deeds…then its Red Bull. Not that I actaully think that they have or should…just saying. Its a long season!
BasCB (@bascb) said on 30th May 2011, 13:35
Please don’t get Bernie started on that!
sato113 (@sato113) said on 30th May 2011, 18:01
so how did Ecclestone hold Schumi back in ’94?
Neil said on 30th May 2011, 13:30
He did only win by 1 point, but he also had 2 exlusions, 2 DNFs, and 2 retirements.
Robbie said on 30th May 2011, 14:29
Senna’s death, illegal fuel fillers, illegal traction control, worn skid plates, the whack on DH for the ‘win’…94 is not a year to which to be comparing strong/record-breaking season starts. That would be like saying a bank robber and an entrepreneur are both millionaires, therefore they are comparable and honourable.
Neil said on 30th May 2011, 17:50
The point im making is that for Vettel to lose this championship, hes going to have to have _alot_ of zero points finishes.
Unlikly.
David-A (@david-a) said on 30th May 2011, 23:20
The bank robber example is rather extreme. His point is that Vettel will need DNFs or failures to score (whether by being DQed, banned, or simply crashing or having a mechanical failure), if anyone is to catch him. Not likely.
Robbie said on 31st May 2011, 16:57
Yeah it was really moreso Ned Flanders that I was responding to, who made it sound like BE held MS back in 94, when in fact Benetton was rife with actual illegalities, suspected illegalities, and the controversial whack on DH, ie. not an honourable year or start to a year to be comparing to anyone, including SV this year.
I fully agree that SV is going to be damn hard to catch this season, and it won’t happen because we are about find out they have major illegalities going on with the car, or are withholding computer codes from the FIA, or have overly worn skid plates, or that SV is going to whack someone off the track for a ‘win’…
So all I’m saying is 94 was a terrible and dishonourable year for MS/Benetton, and just because MS had one of the strongest starts to a season that year does not make it a season they should be proud of or that we should be comparing SV’s far more honourable season start to…
Jelle van der Meer (@jelle-van-der-meer) said on 30th May 2011, 11:56
On Vettel’s lead yes it is big but even if he finishes 3rd all the remaining races the championship is not a guarentee win.
Vettel has bad start but has a long way to go once we get to race 13 to beat MSC 2004 start of 12 wins and 1 DNF
All other active drivers combined have overtaken MSC with # of wins – MSC has 91 and all others have 95.
Vettel now has a 22.1% win ratio, 36.8% podium ration and 29.4% pole ratio.
Alonso with 65 podiums is ranked 5th in all time list, behind MSC with 154, Prost 106, Senna 80 and Barrichello 68.
Nick Heidfeld continuous his run of starts without a win now 180 – unfortunately I think he will not be allowed to break Cesaris record of 208 unless he gets a race seat for 2012.
Rosberg is leader in # of starts without a pole, 95 at the moment – Johnny Herbert holds the record with 160 closely followed by Martin Brundle at 158.
Sutil is leader in # of starts without a podium, 77 at the moment – Pierluigi Martini holds the record with 119.
The current active drives have now more than 25% of all points ever scored – 6833.5 points out of total 24512 points
Jelle van der Meer (@jelle-van-der-meer) said on 30th May 2011, 11:57
Correction: Vettel has a very good start but has a long way to go once we get to race 13 to beat MSC 2004 start of 12 wins and 1 DNF
Fixy (@fixy) said on 30th May 2011, 15:38
Amazing stats! Thanks!
Journeyer (@journeyer) said on 30th May 2011, 12:14
Oh, I should correct myself there. Button either finishes on the podium or he doesn’t score. :D Thanks for that, TheNikii!
PS. Keith, the reply function isn’t working for me in IE9.
Ned Flanders said on 30th May 2011, 12:22
Almost half the field scored their best finish of the season yesterday: Ferrari (2nd), Sauber (5th), Force India (7th), Williams (9th) and Hispania (16th). Lotus did too (13th), but they were technichally classified in that position in Australia after the Sauber’s were excluded.
Surely that is quite an unusual occurance over a quarter of the way into a season? I suppose it reflects the fact that reliability is so great these days that the frontrunners are usually the same at each race. I miss the days of attrition…
Jelle van der Meer (@jelle-van-der-meer) said on 30th May 2011, 12:23
Keith to confirm but Kieth’s article on “”Furious Hamilton calls penalties “a joke”” is the most commented article in history of this website
So far 762 comments and counting :-)
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 30th May 2011, 12:30
I think you’ve got the record for most different spellings of my name in one comment :-)
I’m not sure if that’s the record but I’d be very surprised if it’s not the most comments in under 24 hours. As you’d expect, there’s quite a few unpublished comments on that article too!
Damon (@damon) said on 30th May 2011, 12:24
It was the 4th time in a row that when Vettel gets the pole position and the win, Webber has the fastes lap of the race.
Webber’s had 4 FLAPs in 6 races this season, and he only won in Spain, where he didn’t have the FLAP.
————
Mark Webber has scored more points this season after round six than he had last year.
However, Webber led the championship last year (tied with Vettel) on 78 points, and this year although having scored one point more (79), he’s only third, and trailing by a gigantic margin of 65 points behind Vettel.
Ross said on 30th May 2011, 12:40
Webber didnt win in spain…
OEL said on 30th May 2011, 13:21
Vettel didn’t take pole in Spain.
OEL said on 30th May 2011, 13:22
Sorry, missed “win”, thought you ment Webber didn’t score fastest lap there.
Damon (@damon) said on 30th May 2011, 16:54
Haha, oh sorry, I messed up. I confused data in my stat tables.
A revised 1st part of my comment:
Webber’s had 4 FLAPs in 6 races this season, each of them in a race where it was Vettel who was on Pole Position.
verstappen (@verstappen) said on 30th May 2011, 12:27
It was Vettel’s first Monaco win.
sw6569 (@sw6569) said on 30th May 2011, 12:27
What is sad about Vettel’s record is the amount of points he has. It would have taken any driver pre 2010 almost 2.5 seasons to accrue that many points. The record books are being ruined.
Ross said on 30th May 2011, 12:42
its not ruining the ‘record; books at all, its well noted that the points system has been changed, and nor is it the first time its been changed…
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 30th May 2011, 15:39
Comparing points totals has been a meaningless exercise since they first changed the points system in 1958:
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2009/12/22/think-the-new-f1-points-system-is-weird-weve-seen-much-stranger-than-that/
When it comes to changes which have messed up historical comparisons, the one which really annoys me is the seven years of ‘race fuel qualifying’ from 2003-2009.
Jelle van der Meer (@jelle-van-der-meer) said on 30th May 2011, 16:12
Keith what about refuelling ban – all fastest laps stats out the door.
Now a new set of tyres get you the fastest time – in the past a new set of tyres also meant more fuel – so fastest lap meant something now it means little to nothing
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 30th May 2011, 16:16
Fastest lap isn’t much use as a statistic anyway for reasons other to do with refuelling. For example, very often the winner won’t set fastest lap because they are preserving their car.
Fixy (@fixy) said on 30th May 2011, 15:41
That’s why Wikipedia has, in the list of drivers with most career points, a pre-2010 and 2010 section: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_driver_records#Career_points