Alonso matches Jackie Stewart’s 27 F1 victories

2011 British GP stats and facts

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Jackie Stewart, Tyrrell, Zolder, 1973

Fernando Alonso matched Jackie Stewart’s tally of 27 F1 race wins in the British Grand Prix.

Stewart’s 27 victories stood as the high watermark of achievement in F1 for 14 years until it was beaten by Alain Prost in 1987.

Alonso and Stewart share the fifth-highest tally of race wins. He needs four more to match Nigel Mansell – and 64 to reach the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.

Alonso also set the fastest lap, giving him a career tally of 19, putting him level with Ayrton Senna, Stirling Moss and Damon Hill.

Mark Webber started from pole position for the eighth time in his career, giving him as many as John Surtees and Riccardo Patrese. It was the tenth consecutive pole position for Red Bull.

For the first time this year Vettel failed to add to his tally of wins or pole positions. But he did extend his run of consecutive front row starts to 14.

Jenson Button failed to score having been in the points for the last ten consecutive races.

It was his 200th appearance at an F1 race weekend. However, Button has only started 198 races. He missed the 2003 Monaco Grand Prix after crashing in practice, and did not start at Indianapolis in 2005 due to the mass withdrawal of Michelin runners.

Button’s retirement means only the two Red Bull drivers have completed every lap of all nine races so far this year. Both McLarens have completed eight, the Ferrari pair seven, and the Mercedes duo five.

Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 debut meant Australia had two drivers in an F1 race for the first time in 34 years.

The last race to feature two Australians was the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix, where Alan Jones (Shadow) and Vern Schuppan (Surtees) started.

Sergio Perez achieved the best result of his career with seventh place.

Jaime Alguersuari has scored points in three consecutive races, a personal best.

Silverstone became one of few F1 tracks to change the location of its start/finish line. It’s in good company: the only three other tracks on the current calendar to have done so are Monte-Carlo, Spa-Francorchamps and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Other F1 tracks that did likewise include Watkins Glen, Long Beach and Kyalami. Indianapolis used the same start line when it returned to the calendar in 2000, but reversed the direction of travel.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

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

2011 British Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    104 comments on “Alonso matches Jackie Stewart’s 27 F1 victories”

    1. Red Bull have 2 points less than they did after Belgium last year!

      328 against 330

      1. Vettel has matched Alonso’s first nine races of 2006, albeit Alonso scored 84 points on that particular points system.

        VET: 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 2
        ALO: 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 1

        And the 2011 McLaren drivers have the same score now as the 2007 ones did at the end of 2007!

        1. Nice one on the Vettel/Alonso comparison!

          So if Vettel finishes higher than fifth at the Nürburgirng he’ll be doing better than Alonso was…

          1. Oh No! :D

            1. also it shows how it can change. remember michael clawed back that gap in 06.

              the only problem is now michael wasnt really racing anyone else other than fisi.

              alonso, mark, lewis and jenson all take points off each other. but rarely off vettel

            2. Well 85Q, but Michael had help from the FIA by having the Mass damper suddenly banned.
              Looks like that is not going to happen this time after all.

            3. @BasCB

              Almost had hot blowing the diffusers banned for a bit there.

        2. very interesting!

        3. With a greater difference between first and second for points, Vettel could be caught quicker than Alonso was in ’06! :P

          1. /optimism! :P

            1. I like your optimism here Damon. Never giving up, eh!

        4. And Schumacher was able to catch up to Alonso towards end of the season and challenge for the title, showing that it might be still possible. But sadly no one is as close to Vettel as Schumacher was to Alonso in 2006.

          I think by end of this season Vettel (16) could overtake or be very close Alonso (27) win wise, if he continues his performance which is great considering Vettel started F1 career in 2008.

          1. Interesting stuff. Didn’t realise how dominant Alonso was at the start of 2006. Don’t remember anyone saying how boring it was.

            1. Good point Tommy. There’s been a lot more complaints about things being boring in F1 in recent years. For example, Bahrain 2010 and Valencia 2011 were just average F1 races in my opinion.

          2. How can Vettel overtake Alonso at wins by the end of the season if there are only 10 races remaining? Do some maths.

    2. So Vettel extends his run of consequetive podiums again and has now been 1-2 for a run of what 11 races?

      His championship lead is certainly a record one, due to the new points system as well, I doubt anyone had 80 points before, and certainly not mid season.

      1. Schumacher had 62 in France 2002, so yes i think it’s a record in absolute terms.

        1. But 2002 season had 17 races instead of 20.

      2. http://f1-facts.com/statistics/regulations_comparison/2011/1991

        In (good) old money with the 10-6-4 points Vettel would have a 45-point lead over Webber already. Not quite as ominous as Michael Schumacher’s lead at this stage but not massively far off it either.

        Vettel – 78
        Webber – 33
        Alonso – 32
        Hamilton – 32
        Button – 30
        Massa – 8

        1. … looking at that site further he is only three points off his 2010 total of 81 points already under that scoring format.

        2. Gees, Felipe baby…

        3. was it not 10-8-6?

          1. It was first one, then the other:

            Every F1 points system

    3. Roger Carballo AKA Architrion
      11th July 2011, 8:33

      It seems a bunch of pretty good numbers in Alonso’s career, isn’t it? Maybe the guy can drive

      1. I think if he can add another title to his belt, he can safely be put amongst the all-time greats

        1. Gotta agree with that.

          1. Also gotta agree.

    4. Love reading these stats/facts after the race weekend. Lets hope Alonso can get those four wins this year, so there might still be atleast some competition for the WDC…

    5. This is only the second round this year that Red Bull has been beaten on championship points.

      1. And every race Vettel hasn’t won, Red Bull have finished:

        Vettel – 2nd
        Webber – 3rd

    6. Alonso has had only four full seasons in a championship winning capable car. 3 seasons in a mid field car (03,04,08) and two seasons at the back markers(01,09).he must be the only one of the top ten 10 guys to be in bad cars for so many seasons.Taking all these into account i have to say, he has done brilliantly!!.

      1. Button has been in F1 for 12 years now and apart from 2004 (when he came second in the BAR), 2009 (the Brawn GP) and I suppose 2010 and this year’s McLarens (you can’t complain too much about a car that’s won races) he’s spent all eight other years in rubbish cars.

      2. Alonso wasn’t a backmarker in 2009. They had some awful races, but he was on pole in Hungary and he was on the front row in China. I’d say it was a midfield car, as he was everywhere during the season really.

        1. Those positions were achieved with only a spit of gasoline in the tank so you can’t really measure the car’s performance on that.

    7. Monte-Carlo, Spa-Francorchamps and the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

      That’s indeed some good company to be keeping.

      1. Eternal Newbie
        11th July 2011, 10:11

        Montecarlo has the history, the location, the glamour… but move it to a nondescript Mideastern desert and you’ll find the circuit itself is worth nothing.

        1. The history, the location and the glamour help it, but the circuit itself is fantastic. It’s challenging and every mistakes costs a lot, and even if it was in a desert it’d still be one of the best tracks in formula one.

          1. Eternal Newbie
            11th July 2011, 11:36

            So it’s the wall all around that make it a great circuit. Then why there are not walls around all the circuits? It surely would be simpler and cheaper than all the run-offs, all the circuits would be challenging and mistakes would cost a lot everywhere.

        2. Sure, with plenty of runoff the circuit WOULD be worth nothing.

          1. Eternal Newbie
            11th July 2011, 13:05

            And if it was built now, it WOULD have the run-offs instead of walls, for safety reasons. But with enough history, safety is apparently no longer a concern. So, take away the history etc and you get a worthless circuit, with plenty of run-offs, of course.

        3. But here is the point: the track is the way the track is (brilliant in my opinion), the place is the way the place is and the history of it is the way it is. As most people here like to say: theres no buts and ifs and maybes in F1.

        4. Montecarlo has the history, the location, the glamour

          Indeed it does, which is what makes it so special. The other 3 are brilliant tracks, loved by near enough everyone, which more often than not produce great races, often with changable weather.

          If the World Championship had only 4 races, I think those are the tracks I’d want to see them at.

          1. With Monza instead of Montreal though.

            1. Eternal Newbie
              11th July 2011, 14:14

              And Silverstone up to 1990, not the sorry excuse for a circuit it is now.

            2. Nah. Good races at Monza are few and far between. Montreal rarely fails to disappoint.

            3. @Eternal Newbie

              I hope you are a Troll.

    8. Has alonso now overtaken the SC for 2nd place in terms of laps led this season?

    9. It feels like a very long period since Fernando won his last WDC. I hope he wins at least another title or two before retiring. He is an absolute legend.

      1. Yep, a third or even fourth title without doubt cements his place amongst the greats.

    10. It was Ferrari’s 15th British GP win (iirc). 60 years ago Ferrari got their first win at Silverstone which I was quite surprised the BBC didn’t make a fuss of.

      1. They did mention it though, didn’t they? I guess they were too busy with the jetski’s :)

    11. Alguersuari scored points for the 3rd time a season after being out in Q1. No one else was capable of that since this quali format was introduced in 2006. (Last year Kobayashi finished in the points twice after being out of Q1 plus once starting last due to a penalty)

    12. Both McLarens have completed eight, the Ferrari pair seven, and the Mercedes duo five.

      what, 8 laps?! 8 races?

      1. Every lap of 8 races.

      2. Pretty obvious from the context.

        1. sorry, brain fade! mercedes need to up their game here!

    13. I thought Di Resta’s, Maldonado’s and Kobayashi’s qualifying positions were their career-best.

    14. Great achievement by Alonso but he’s raced more times than Stewart did ;) Fittingly Stewart’s percentage record was 27%! However if you take their percentages only from seasons when they were competitive at the front, it’s a lot more even, so bravo Fernando!

      Vettel is still a staggering 10 away from Senna’s record of consecutive front-row starts, but just 3, 2 and 1 away from the tallies of Damon Hill, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell respectively. Can he be the only the fourth driver to do the whole season (Senna, Prost, Hill) from the front row?

      I was also the third time Schumacher has had to serve a stop/go penalty at Silverstone. First in 1994 and then again in 1998. I don’t recall him having one since then, so could that be the longest gap (13 years) between a driver receiving the same kind of penalty in his career?

      1. It was Schumacher’s first time that he didn’t start within the first 10 at Silverstone, or so the commentator said.

        1. Did Schumacher actually do his stop go in ’94??? I thought he was given the penalty for overtaking on the warm up lap and then disqualified when he refused to accept the penalty. He then decided to ignore the black flag saying that he ‘couldn’t see it’ and was subsequently given a 2 race ban!

          1. if my memory serves me right, he did eventually come in. but it was too late

            1. Yeah MS was banned for 2 races for ignoring the black flag…Benetton was fined half a mill for failing to obey the officials…the FIA allowed MS to race in Germany, Hungary, and Belgium while an appeal awaited hearing in August.

              Germany…the famous pit lane fire revealing Benetton’s illegal fuel refillers.

              Hungary…before the race the FIA fined Benetton 100k for a delay in revealing their computer access codes raising suspicions of them using illegal traction control…MS won this race.

              Belgium…MS’s skidplate found to be illegal worn after the race and this win was excluded.

              Of course there’s lot’s more drama to this season and I just have to shake my head when people compare this WDC of MS’s to other WDC’s…like MS did something honourable in 94.

              Nowadays he’s going for the ‘most broken front wings by a former WDC’ title.

            2. I would call having 4 results from 16 taken off of you, which your rival all scored maximum in, a pretty good achievement. I’ve yet to see anything convincing that whatever Benetton were doing gave them more than 40 points that year.

              It’s not the most glorious championship ever but he still did the job on track.

            3. Eight races had been run in 94 before the pit fire in Germany (the ninth race of the season) after which the illegal fuel refiller was discovered. So that is nine races they benefitted from illegally quick pit stops.

              Here’s a quote from Formula 1: The Autobiography, after the first race in Brazil…”Senna laid down a marker by taking pole at Interlagos, ahead of Schumacher, and he led the first part of the race. But in this new era of refuelling, Schumacher got ahead at the first stops.”

              Then there was their hesitancy and hence a fine for withholding their computer access code, suggesting they were still using traction control which had been made illegal. And that was mid-August, the 10th race of the season. What about the previous and following ones? They were fined for that but likely continued to use it. They said at the time that the FIA knew they had it on board but it was up to them to prove they were using it.

              In general my point is that you cannot just look at that which Benetton were literally caught doing, and penalized for by a kangaroo court, but must also look at the other races where MS was benefitting from illegalities that were left unpunished…hence your suggestion of only 40 points worth of advantage is folly. And hence the outcry by fans and the media for Max not banning Benetton completely from the season for all the games they were playing throughout the season culminating with MS’s whack on DH.

    15. Great stats, everyone. Many thanks!

    16. Hamilton,Alonso,Vettel,Schumacher mostly all race for the wins not necessary for WDC. Maybe Vettel seems a bit more keen to snatch that title once again but generaly I see those guys enjoy winning on Sunday regardless of championship points. Like Lewis said, “2nd is less devastating”

      1. a) Just because Vettel is in the superior machine doesn’t mean he is keener than everyone else.
        b) I’m sure everyone on the grid enjoys winning on Sunday. Race win or WDC, bit of a no brainer don’t you think?

        1. It’s not the superior machine that led me get that feeling but his persistant finger and the way he seemed to me as very happy about the team orders eventhough he’s far ahead to loose the WDC.
          Hypotherically “everyone on the grid enjoys winning on Sunday”, some would argue and think about a half of grid just as much enjoy getting 6th or 8th place…
          I just wanted to say that those guy above are more thirsty for a win as opposed to their teammates.

          1. What about when Massa would do his finger? no one complained then? I think the real problem is him putting a beating on your “double world champion” race after race.

    17. And to add, that is why I would watch and follow the rest of the season even Vettel gets it half way through.

    18. Here’s a rare stat and fact from me:

      Daniel Ricciardo follows Damon Hill in making his race debut at Silverstone. Both qualified last on the grid and both were the last car running at the finish.

    19. Senna “only” had 19 fastest laps! I had to double check that but it is correct, I just assumed it would be a higher number!

      1. 65 pole positions tells its own story.

      2. Yep, suprisingly even beaten by Gerhard Berger.

      3. It is very interesting when you compare the differences between himself and Alain Prost. Prost had 41 fastest laps. Ayrton the bonzai qualifier and Prost faster with an empty track in front of him.

        1. senna set up for qualy, Prost concentrated on the race.

    20. Technically Silverstone has already changed/moved it’s start/finish line. The lines and grid were moved forward for the 1997 race onwards

      1. True, but it hasn’t been mentioned that the start/finish lines moved counties from Northants to Bucks.

      2. Actually, Silverstone moved its start/finish and pit area between 1951 and 1952 from the straight between Abbey and Woodcote (Farm Straight) to the location on the ‘old pit straight’ used until last year.

        So this is in fact the 3rd start/finish/pit area which has been used for F1 at Silverstone.

    21. Its a race between Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg for most championship points scored without a win. Heidfeld currently with the upper (or lower??) hand with 259 points to Rosbergs 257.5.

      That said, the new points system has been detrimental to the records.

    22. I’m also making the prediction that Vettel will be 3rd of the all time most pole positions by end of next season.

    23. Alonso and Stewart share the fifth-highest tally of race wins. He needs four more to match Nigel Mansell – and 64 to reach the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.

      I thought Schumi had 91 race wins?

      1. 27+64=91

      2. 27 + 64 = 91

        1. Einstein! I hate it when you do that Keith. :P

          1. I feel like Carol Vordermann.

    24. Wow, look at the the ride height of Stewart’s Tyrell. Looks like a tractor trailer. He could drive over a small dog and not harm it. :P

    25. didnt button also miss races in 2005 when they’re car was illegal it had a two race ban i think? I seem to remember him commentating at monaco.

      1. He did, but since he didn’t enter them in the first place they don’t count towards his 200 entries.

    26. Too bad most of his wins were GIFTS from McLaren’s engine blowing in 2005 and 2006 and then last year with Vettel’s engine/car. Then lets not forget singapore 2008.

      Quite an overrated driver who should not have won titles in 2005 or 2006.

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        11th July 2011, 14:29

        I am absolutely no Alonso fan – dispice him as a person and whinning baby when things do no go his way – however I unfortunately must strongly disagree with your statement.

        Alonso is one of the current 3 top drivers next to Hamilton and Vettel.

        Back to subject being stats:
        * Vettel is 8th and Webber 10th on all time point scoring list
        * Heidfeld is still the most succesfull driver without a win in terms of points (259) and podiums (13).
        * Adding Alonso’s, Vettel’s, Hamilton’s, Massa’s, Barrichello’s and Button’s wins together MSC still has 1 more race win with 91.
        * Adding Alonso’s, Vettel’s, Hamilton’s, Massa’s, Barrichello’s and Button’s FLAP’s
        together MSC still has 1 more FLAP with 76.
        * Alonso is ranked 5th in # of wins but only 13th in % of wins with 16.1%. Both Hamilton (18.8%) and Vettel (22.5%) have a higher % of wins with MSC at 32.7% still leading of active drivers => Fangio overall leader having won 45% of all races he started.
        * Alonso now has 67 podiums, 1 less than Barichello and a massive 87 less than MSC.

      2. Well this is just mjy two cents but I always thought he deserved his titles. To finish first you have to finish and Alonso was really good in 2005 (bar the Canada mistake). In 2006 he was absolutely flawless. I’m a bit of a Ferrari nutter so I was in the rival camp at the time but Alonso completely deserved that title in my mind. It’s the best championship campaign I’ve seen. Oh, and that first lap of Hungary was better than Senna’s opening lap at Donnington :P

    27. The first time an Australian has qualified first and last?

      1. An Australia sandwich!

    28. Impressive stuff from Alguersuari and Red Bull considering last seasons early unreliability.

    29. Little fact for you from me – this was the third F1 race I’ve been to, and the third time I’ve seen a Ferrari win and a wet Friday practice.

      They better not all be like this, it’ll get repetitive haha! I went to Spa 2009, Germany 2010 and Silverstone 2011. Next race I attend be sure to put a bet on a Ferrari win ;)

      1. That is really quite a weird coincidence, seeing as the Ferrari was nowhere on pace for most of ’09, hadn’t won for 10 races last year before Germany last year and hasn’t exactly set the world on fire this year as well :)

      2. you should warn us next time you plan on going to a race ten Katy!

    30. Well…really it should be 26 wins, but I guess that goes without saying.

      I know its been beaten to death, but I still can’t believe that he and Renault weren’t (or couldn’t have been, as it was stated at the time) stripped of that controversial sinagpore 08 win.

      1. I’m actually glad they weren’t. Alonso still had to nail those laps and every car on the grid had their race influenced by what happened. It was better to just punish those involved (I personally thought it was far too lenient though) in my opinion.

        1. I couldnt disagree more. He won because the team (or at least a few amongst them) cheated, and it came off EXACTLY as they’d planned it. That is not a rightful win, no matter what the records say, and if I were Fernando I would be hugely embarrased to have that win attributed to me.

          In fact, your argument is the same as saying that a world champion weight lifter who gets caught taking steroids should get to keep his title, because he still had to show up and lift weights.

          1. On that same tone, I believe MS should not have been allowed to keep his wins in 97…after whacking JV in Jerez and taking himself out of contention, and after Max had warned all drivers that there would be a 3 race ban at the start of the 98 season for any funny business, any interfering with the two drivers in contention for the WDC, MS was given the slap on the wrist of a penalty, that being stripped of his second place standing in the Championship…question…stripped of second place means no points…how can one get to keep wins with no points?

            There was also the disaster of a year in 94 with that Benetton continually caught in controversy to the point of amazement of many that they weren’t just banned for the season…the illegal fuel refillers, their refusal to hand over computer access codes, the resultant suspiscion of them having illegal traction control, their worn skidplates, and then the whack on DH in the final race. There’s no way the wins MS got to keep for 94, and the WDC, were above board.

            1. I would agree with that too. I’d like to think that if the FIA were more willing to strip drivers of illegitimate wins, then teams/drivers would be less inclined to cheat. Although I’m probably being hopelessly optimistic there.

    31. Christopher Vissing
      13th July 2011, 22:15

      Don’t know if anyone mentioned it.. But Pastor is yet to finish a FULL race distance ! Poor guy :(

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