Williams end second-longest F1 victory drought
2012 Spanish Grand Prix stats and facts
Pastor Maldonado became the 104th different driver to win a round of the world championship.
He added Venezuela to the list of countries that have produced race winners, becoming the 21st different nation to do so.
Maldonado also scored his first pole position, something 96 different drivers have achieved. He inherited first on the grid after Lewis Hamilton was penalised, costing McLaren what would have been their 150th pole position.
Williams’ wait for a win
Williams are no strangers to victory in F1 – this was their 114th and Maldonado is the 15th different driver to have won for them.
But it’s been a long time since their last taste of success: Juan Pablo Montoya’s win in the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix. This was also the last race before F1 Fanatic came into existence!
Williams ended one of the longest victory droughts ever for an F1 team. They failed to win in the intervening 130 races they started. But it falls well short of the record set by Ligier, who went 223 races without a win between Jacques Laffite’s victory in Canada in 1981, and Olivier Panis’s Monaco Grand Prix triumph in 1996.
Here are the five longest victory droughts for F1 constructors:
| Team | Win | Next win | Gap |
| Ligier | 1981 Canadian Grand Prix | 1996 Monaco Grand Prix | 223 |
| Williams | 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix | 2012 Spanish Grand Prix | 130 |
| Tyrrell | 1978 Monaco Grand Prix | 1982 Las Vegas Grand Prix | 70 |
| Renault | 1983 Austrian Grand Prix | 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix | 64 |
| Ferrari | 1990 Spanish Grand Prix | 1994 German Grand Prix | 58 |
Williams also had a 54-race win-less streak between the 1997 Luxembourg and 2001 San Marino Grands Prix.
Two other teams in F1 today with long gaps between wins are McLaren (49 between Adelaide 1993 and Melbourne 1997, and 44 between Fuji 1977 and Silverstone 1981) and Mercedes (40 between Monza 1955 and Shanghai 2012).
There have been longer win droughts in terms of duration, but these were set by teams who left the sport and returned. Such as Honda, who went 39 years between John Surtees’ win at Monza in 1967 and Jenson Button’s Hungarian Grand Prix win in 2006, though the team did not participate between 1969 and 2005.
Likewise Mercedes ended a 57-year wait for another victory this year, but did not compete as a full constructor between 1956 and 2009.
Most different winners at the start of the season
Maldonado became the fifth different driver for a fifth different team to win a race at the start of the season. The only other season this has ever happened was 1983:
| Race | 1983 | Winner | 2012 | Winner |
| 1 | Brazil | Nelson Piquet, Brabham | Australia | Jenson Button, McLaren |
| 2 | USA West | John Watson, McLaren | Malaysia | Fernando Alonso, Ferrari |
| 3 | France | Alain Prost, Renault | China | Nico Rosberg, Mercedes |
| 4 | San Marino | Patrick Tambay, Ferrari | Bahrain | Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull |
| 5 | Monaco | Keke Rosberg, Williams | Spain | Pastor Maldonado, Williams |
In 1983 the sixth round was won by Prost. If a different driver or team wins the next race it will set a new record for most consecutive winners at the start of the season. Given Lotus and Sauber’s strong start to the year, it is not out of the question.
We have now had seven different winners in the last seven races, including Lewis Hamilton’s win in Abu Dhabi and Mark Webber’s in Brazil at the end of last season.
The record for most consecutive different winners is nine. Here are the longest streaks:
| First race | Last race | Number | Winners |
| 1961 French Grand Prix | 1962 French Grand Prix | 9 | Giancalo Baghetti, Wolfgang von Trips, Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, Innes Ireland, Graham Hill, Bruce McLaren, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney |
| 1982 German Grand Prix | 1983 French Grand Prix | 8 | Patrick Tambay, Elio de Angelis, Keke Rosberg, Rene Arnoux, Michele Alboreto, Nelson Piquet, John Watson, Alain Prost |
More Spanish Grand Prix stats and facts
Romain Grosjean set fastest lap for the first time in his career. A different driver has set fastest lap in every race this year including both Lotus drivers, although neither of them have won a race.
His team mate Kimi Raikkonen led a race for the first time since his comeback – the last time he led was at Monza in 2009.
Kamui Kobayashi equalled his best-ever finish with fifth, which he also scored in last year’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Mark Webber’s run of four consecutive fourth-place finishes came to an end. He also failed to score for the first time in ten races.
Five drivers have completed all 293 racing laps so far this year: Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen.
Without penalties, Hamilton would have started every race from the front row so far. A gearbox change penalty dropped him to seventh in China, and his exclusion from qualifying this weekend left him last on the grid.
Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2012 F1 championship points
- 2012 F1 season records
- 2012 F1 race data
- 2012 F1 qualifying data
- 2012 F1 retirements and penalties
- 2012 F1 strategy and pit stops
- 2012 F1 driver form guides
Spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Spanish Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2012 Spanish Grand Prix
- Maldonado voted Spanish GP Driver of the Weekend
- Spanish Grand Prix gets highest rating for five years
- F1 fans’ videos from the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix
- Force India expect more from Barcelona upgrade
- Top ten pictures from the Spanish Grand Prix
Image © BMW ag
Bullfrog (@bullfrog) said on 14th May 2012, 20:38
He’s won his 24th Grand Prix I think, that must be quite high up the list of “least races before winning”.
Montoya, Villeneuve, Coulthard and Hill won sooner – but they all started off in a winning Williams, whereas Pastor got a rubbish one. Same applies to Hamilton’s McLaren. Schumacher won exactly a year after his debut, but I think it took Vettel, Alonso and Kovalainen more than 24 GPs to win one.
Overwatch (@overwatch) said on 14th May 2012, 21:05
He’s in the middle…
http://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/pilote/victoire/gp-avant.aspx
paulgilb (@paulgilb) said on 14th May 2012, 22:20
Random stat: this is the first Spanish GP since 1998 in which the driver who started 2nd also finished 2nd.
How many other drivers had not led a lap prior to the race in which they scored their first win? Obviously Nino Farina, Johnnie Parsons, and Giancarlo Baghetti managed it.
Polishboy808 (@polishboy808) said on 15th May 2012, 2:10
Some more Facts:
-Michael Schumacher has finished on the podium in the Spanish GP more than any other current driver, a total of 12 times, half of those (6) being wins. Fernando Alonso is in second place with half the amount of podiums that Michael has (6), podiums, but he has only won his home race once.
-This is the first time that Raikkonen finished on the podium in Spain but didn’t win the race. His other two podiums in Spain were both wins in 2008 and 2005.
Thats all I got lol.
James Robertson (@mclarenboy0310) said on 15th May 2012, 2:28
That is immensely interesting to know that if it hadn’t been for gearbox penalties and stripping of pole position Hamilton would have started on pole for every single race so far.
plushpile (@plushpile) said on 15th May 2012, 4:38
Pole? I think you meant the front row.
He set the second fastest time in Q3 at Bahrain and China…
xivizmath (@xivizmath) said on 15th May 2012, 7:28
Kamui Kobayashi came 5th in this race. Last time we had a Japanese in the top 5 was 2004 Grand Prix of Japan. It was Takuma Sato for BAR-Honda.
andae23 (@andae23) said on 15th May 2012, 8:49
I believe Kamui also became fifth in last year’s Monaco GP.
McLarenJB2009 (@mclarenjb2009) said on 15th May 2012, 11:35
Also we have 4 consecutive races that a driver scores either his maiden win or his maiden podium.
Malaysia – Perez 1st podium
China – Rosberg 1st win
Bahrain – Grojsean 1st podium
Spain – Maldonado 1st win
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner) said on 15th May 2012, 13:29
I always think ‘I bet the race winners would love to see this article’, surely it can only compound how good they feel about winning a race, having your name mentioned in the same sentence as F1 legends.
Andrew81 (@andrew81) said on 20th May 2012, 21:13
I’ve just unearthed another stat from this unusual Grand Prix. Maldonado ended another victory drought, that of the number 18, which hadn’t won since Peter Gethin triumphed in the the fantastic Italian Grand Prix of 1971. This was actually the longest victory drought of any number used in F1 today. That record now lies with the number 21, which has only Jackie Stewart’s victory in Argentina 1972 to its name (back when drivers changed numbers during the year).