F1 Fanatic

Rounding off our look at 2012 in statistics, here are the most significant stats and facts from the season.

Triple champions

Of course the headline statistic for 2012 is Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull winning their third consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship titles. More on those here:

• Vettel clinches drivers’ championship hat-trick
• Red Bull win third constructors’ title in a row

A competitive season

It was a closely-fought season which produced many different race winners, pole sitters and more:

• Eight different drivers won races, the most since 2003
• Seven different drivers started from pole position
• Thirteen different drivers led races

Massa’s podium drought

Felipe Massa ended a 36-race spell without a podium finish at the Japanese Grand Prix. This is the longest a Ferrari driver has gone without finishing in the top three.

Of the five longest such streaks, three are clustered around the beginning of the 1980s when Ferrari produced two particularly poor cars.

Gilles Villeneuve had the misfortune to drive both the 312T5 in 1980 and the 126CK in 1981. Jody Scheckter raced alongside him in 1980 and and Didier Pironi replaced Scheckter the following year.

During Massa’s 36-race streak without a podium finish, team mate Fernando Alonso finished in the top three 17 times.

Maldonado 15th after win

Pastor Maldonado finished 15th in the championship which is the lowest ever finishing position for a driver who won a round, with the exception of Michael Schumacher in 1997.

Schumacher won five races and scored enough points to be classified second overall but was excluded after deliberately colliding with Jacques Villeneuve in the final race.

Previous drivers who finished outside the top ten in the championship in years they won races include the following:

• Jimmy Bryan finished 13th in 1958 after winning the Indianapolis 500 – he didn’t start any other rounds
• Jean-Pierre Jabouille finished 13th in 1979 after scoring Renault’s first win at Dijon, but not scoring in any other rounds
• Giancarlo Fisichella was 12th in 2003 after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix and only scoring points on one other occasion
• Michele Alboreto did the same in 1983, winning in Detroit
• Jean-Pierre Beltoise won the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix but did not score in any other round and ended the year 11th
• Jim Clark was killed after winning the first round of the 1968 world championship and was also placed 11th at the end of the year

NB. Does not include drivers who won races as part of shared drives when this was permitted by the rules.

More 2012 season statistics

Sebastian Vettel is the first driver to win the world championship without scoring a victory in Europe. His five wins this year came in Bahrain, Singapore, Japan, Korea and India.

For the first time since 1969, no Italian driver started a race during the entire season.

Kimi Raikkonen has now won races for three different teams: McLaren (nine), Ferrari (nine) and Lotus (one). Only 14 drivers have won races for three or more different constructors, including Alonso (Ferrari, McLaren and Renault) and Button (Honda, Brawn – who were previously Honda – and McLaren).

Raikkonen came within one lap of completing every lap of the season. The only driver to do this was Schumacher who completed all 1,090 laps in 17 races in 2002. Raikkonen did 1,191 in 20 races this year.

Heikki Kovalainen set a new record for most consecutive starts without scoring a point. He has started 60 races in a row without scoring a point, one more than Piercarlo Ghinzani’s 59-race streak from the 1984 British Grand Prix to the end of the 1989 season.

Ghinzani failed to qualify on 22 occasions in that time and Kovalainen did not start at Spain in 2010 (none of which are included in their tallies). Kovalainen’s last points finish was seventh for McLaren at Singapore in 2009.

Ferrari failed to set a fastest lap during the season for the first time since 1994.

Australian Grand Prix

• Red Bull’s streak of 24 consecutive front row starts ended. This is the fourth-longest ever in F1
• The Australian Grand Prix had two home drivers for the first time ever: Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo
• All five of Ferrari’s pit stops were quicker than everyone else’s
• HRT failed to start the first race of the season for the second year in a row
• More Australian Grand Prix stats and facts

Malaysian Grand Prix

• Sergio Perez was the first Mexican driver on the podium since Pedro Rodriguez in 1971
• Second place was Sauber’s best result as an independent team
• Nine different teams scored points, equalling the record for the 2010 European Grand Prix
• More Malaysian Grand Prix stats and facts

Chinese Grand Prix

• Nico Rosberg became the third son of a Grand Prix winner to score a victory for himself, joining Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve
• Rosberg took 111 starts to score his first race win, the fifth-longest wait
• Mercedes achieved their first victory since Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1955 Italian Grand Prix
• More Chinese Grand Prix stats and facts

Bahrain Grand Prix

• Two Lotus drivers finished on the podium for the first time since the 1979 Spanish Grand Prix, when Carlos Reutemann and Mario Andretti did so driving different models
• Four Renault-engined cars finished in the top four for the first time since the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix
• Force India led a race for the second time, thanks to Paul di Resta
• More Bahrain Grand Prix stats and facts

Spanish Grand Prix

• Pastor Maldonado scored his first F1 victory and pole position, and the first of each for a Venezuelan driver
• Williams 130-race win drought was the second-longest of all time
• Five different teams won the first five races of the year, matching the record set in 1983
• More Spanish Grand Prix stats and facts

Monaco Grand Prix

• For the second time in his career Michael Schumacher was quickest in qualifying at Monaco but did not take pole position – as also happened in 2006
• Rosberg made his 114th Grand Prix start, equalling the number made by father Keke
• More Monaco Grand Prix stats and facts

Canadian Grand Prix

• A record seven different drivers won the first seven races of the year: Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Pastor Maldonado, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton
• McLaren marked their 300th start using Mercedes power with their 73rd victor together
• The F1 podium was filled by GP2 graduates for the first time ever: Hamilton was joined by Romain Grosjean and Perez
• More Canadian Grand Prix stats and facts

European Grand Prix

• Alonso scored his second home victory, the other coming at the Circuit de Catalunya in 2006
• Schumacher became the oldest driver on an F1 podium since Jack Brabham in 1972
• Vettel equalled Jim Clark and Alain Prost’s tally of 33 pole positions
• More European Grand Prix stats and facts

British Grand Prix

• Ferrari’s first pole position since the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix
• Button failed to reach Q2 for the first time since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
• More British Grand Prix stats and facts

German Grand Prix

• Alonso became the fifth F1 driver to reach 30 Grand Prix wins, joining Schumacher, Prost, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna
• McLaren achieved the fastest ever stationary pit stop time, changing Button’s four wheels in 2.31s
• Schumacher became the oldest driver to set the fastest lap in a Grand Prix since Brabham 42 years earlier, and is the seventh-oldest of all time
• More German Grand Prix stats and facts

Hungarian Grand Prix

• McLaren set their 150th pole position. They would have had it in Spain, but Hamilton lost pole position due to a penalty
• Grosjean made his first front-row start, the first for a French driver since Jean Alesi in the 1999 French Grand Prix
• More Hungarian Grand Prix stats and facts

Belgian Grand Prix

• Grosjean would become the first driver to serve a race ban since Schumacher in 1994
• Alonso’s streak of 23 consecutive points finishes ended one short of Schumacher’s record (although Schumacher did so when points were not offered down to tenth place)
• Maldonado collected three penalties in one weekend
• More Belgian Grand Prix stats and facts

Italian Grand Prix

• McLaren passed Williams’ tally of front-row lock-outs reaching 62, with Ferrari ahead on 70
• Ma Qing Hua became the first Chinese driver to participate in an official F1 weekend
• More Italian Grand Prix stats and facts

Singapore Grand Prix

• Vettel’s 23rd win tied him with Nelson Piquet in tenth place in the list of most prolific winners
• Hamilton’s 24th pole position tied him with Piquet (and Niki Lauda) in tenth place in the list of most prolific pole-sitters
• Marussia/Virgin scored their best result with 12th for Timo Glock
• Schumacher made his 300th start
• More Singapore Grand Prix stats and facts

Japanese Grand Prix

• Vettel’s second career ‘grand slam’ – he won, led every lap and set pole position and fastest lap
• He set his fourth consecutive pole position at Suzuka, maintaining his 100% record
• Massa scored his first podium finish in 36 races, and Kamui Kobayashi his first ever
• More Japanese Grand Prix stats and facts

Korean Grand Prix

• Webber set the 200th pole position for a Renault-engined car
• Pedro de la Rosa started his 100th race, though he chose to mark the anniversary three races earlier in Italy
• More Korean Grand Prix stats and facts

Indian Grand Prix

• Vettel led 205 laps in a row in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India, the fifth-longest streak of all time
• He also scored the 150th win for a Renault-engined car
• McLaren set their 150th fastest lap
• Schumacher set a new record for most laps completed by a racing, passing Rubens Barrichello’s tally of 16,631. By the end of the season Schumacher had reached 16,825
• More Indian Grand Prix stats and facts

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• First win for Lotus in 25 years – the last was Ayrton Senna’s at Detroit in 1987
• Kimi Raikkonen scored his 19th win and first since returning to F1
• Vettel recovered from a grid position of 24th (though he started from the pits) to finish third
• More Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stats and facts

United States Grand Prix

• Like Mika Hakkinen before him, Hamilton won his penultimate start for McLaren in America. Hakkinen did so at Indianapolis in 2001
• McLaren scored their 181st win, giving them more victories since they entered F1 in 1966 than any other team
• Vettel started his 100th Grand Prix in the same country where he made his debut in 2007
• More United States Grand Prix stats and facts

Brazilian Grand Prix

• Schumacher finished his last Grand Prix in seventh place in car number seven. The seven-times world champion started his first Grand Prix from seventh place
• McLaren achieved their 58th consecutive points finish, covering every race in which Button and Hamilton were team mates. They surpassed the record previously held by Ferrari
• Hulkenberg led a race for the first time
• More Brazilian Grand Prix stats and facts

Over to you

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the 2012 season? Share them in the comments.

2012 F1 season review

• The complete F1 Fanatic 2012 season review
• What F1 Fanatics thought of 2012: The year in polls
• The drivers and cars of 2012
• F1 Fanatic’s 50 article highlights of 2012
• 11 different Driver of the Weekend winners in 2012

Images © Red Bull/Getty images, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo, Lotus F1 Team/LAT, Red Bull/Getty images, Williams/LAT, McLaren/Hoch Zwei, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo, HRT F1 Team, Red Bull/Getty images, Daimler/Hoch Zwei