Vettel matches Senna’s win tally with 9 fewer starts

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix stats and facts

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Sebastian Vettel equalled Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 career grand prix victories with his latest win in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The pair occupy third place on the all-time list of F1 race winners, behind Michael Schumacher on 91 and Alain Prost on 51.

Vettel took 149 races to score his 41st win. Senna reached that tally after 158 of his 161 starts. Schumacher took his 41st win in the 2000 Italian Grand Prix, which was his 140th start, and Prost did the same in his 174th grand prix, at Mexico in 1990.

Here’s how their career stats compare:

Sebastian VettelAyrton Senna
149Starts161
14Technical retirements33
41Wins41
45Poles65
73Podiums80
4Championships3
1,964Points*1,881

*All finishes adjusted to current scoring system

Vettel’s surprise win put the brakes on several of Mercedes’ dominant streaks. With neither W06 finishing on the podium, they failed to take a record-breaking tenth double podium finish in a row. They also failed to extend their run of 28 consecutive podium finishes which is the second-longest of all time, albeit far behind Ferrari’s record of 53 (though Mercedes is the only team to have managed half as many).

In fact, this was the first race since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix that the podium featured no Mercedes-powered drivers. Since the beginning of last year, the Hungaroring is the only circuit where Mercedes has failed to get a car home in first or second place.

Lewis Hamilton’s streak of podium finishes came to an end. He managed the second-longest of all time: 16 podiums in a row, three fewer than the record held by Schumacher. He also failed to add to the record for leading 18 grands prix in a row which he established at the British Grand Prix.

However Hamilton did score his fifth pole position in a row which is a new personal best. No one in the field today has managed to take six or more: Senna, Schumacher, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen are the only drivers to have done so.

Despite a dreadful race Hamilton managed to extend his points lead over Nico Rosberg to 21. With the first ten races of the season complete Hamilton has 26 points more than he had after the same number of races last year, Rosberg nine less.

Daniil Kvyat scored his first podium finish and the best-ever result for a Russian driver – going one better than Vitaly Petrov managed in the 2011 Australian Grand Prix. Kvyat is the second-youngest driver to stand on an F1 podium – just 18 days older than Vettel was when he won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. Red Bull ended an 11-race streak without a podium finish, their longest in six years.

The top four drivers in the race all drove for Toro Rosso at some stage in their careers. Among those drivers was Max Verstappen, who scored his best result with fourth place, and more than doubled his career points tally. Appropriately, he did so at the only track where his father stood on an F1 podium.

Fabio Leimer made his first appearance at a grand prix weekend, which means all ten GP2 champions have now run in an official F1 session. Giorgio Pantano is the only one whose F1 participations came before he took the title.

There were no Force Indias in the second practice session as the team were investigating the cause of a failure on Sergio Perez’s car. Three years ago the team sat out second practice in Bahrain for safety concerns of a very different nature. In another parallel with the 2012 season, Felipe Massa caused an aborted start after failing to line up properly on the grid, as Schumacher did in that year’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Pastor Maldonado attracted attention for the wrong reasons by falling foul of the stewards on three separate occasions during the race. All three infringements were for different reasons (contrary to some reports, he did not incur a penalty for speeding in the pits while serving a penalty for the same infraction). Maldonado has personally incurred seven penalties so far this year – three more than any other driver.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Hungarian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

2015 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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224 comments on “Vettel matches Senna’s win tally with 9 fewer starts”

  1. Did Maldonado just set a record for the most penalties in a single race?

    1. And did he set a record for brushing off the most penalty points as not his fault but silly stewards who he can’t possibly take seriously? …….all despite the almost inevitable race ban I am sure he will get this season.

      Time to go to put twenty quid on a race ban for Maldonado before the odds change.

      BTW has anyone ever noticed that the latin root of Mal-don-ado means “bad gift of participation”. He certainly has been a poor participant of F1, bad gift indeed. ;)*wink and nod*

  2. How times change; I remember looking back on Senna’s career and how amazing and quick his rise was, but when you compare it to the later generation, like Schumi, Vettel and Hamilton, it seems that kids these days seem to win earlier and for longer… What an amazing era we’re witnessing.

    1. I don’t think it is that amazing from a driver quality point of view. In comparing Vettel’s achievements to Senna’s there are some things to consider. Vettel had a car which was the class of the field for at least two more, possibly three more seasons than Senna. Vettel did it in 9 fewer starts, but did he do it with 9 fewer finishes? Don’t forget in Senna’s day the cars were much less reliable.

      1. It’s a bit more nuanced than that. Vettel has had a car that was the clear class of the field in 2 seasons, 2011 and 2013. The same as Senna, in ’88 and ’89. Vettel had the fastest car, but not an especially reliable car in 2010. Kind of the inverse to Senna in 1991 where the Williams was probably quicker than the Mclaren but less reliable.
        In 2012 the cars were evenly matched with the Mclaren arguably being the quickest car. In 1990 the Mclaren was the better package overall than the Ferrari but they were reasonably even. And in 2009, well the Red Bull was the quickest car from mid season but still hardly the class of the field.
        What Vettel never had was a driver of the calibre of Alain Prost driving the sister car, which allowed him to take 11 wins and 13 wins in his most dominant seasons. And as you say the cars were much less reliable in Senna’s day.

        1. Actually, Senna was never able to beat Prost in the two seasons they paired at McLaren (1988-1989). In reality, the Frenchman scored more points in 1988 and would/should have been the world champion that year, if it wasn’t for that stupid “best of 11 results” rule.

          1990 and 1991 were good seasons for Senna, because he still had the best car on the grid and his new team mate (Berger) was a perfectly average driver who was instructed to play 2nd fiddle to the Brazilian and didn’t win a single race, even though he had a winning capable car. Actually, Bergers’ only win in two seasons with Senna at McLaren, was Japan 1991… A Senna’s “gift” to the Austrian for his “submission and loyal services” (Ayrton was leading comfortably and lifted/braked at the last corner before the chequered flag). Sad.

          In comparison, Vettel faced a much stronger competition from Webber while at Red Bull.

          1. Never let the facts get in the way of good story eh, @elio? Here is a different perspective: The points rule in 1988 were neither new nor unknown to the drivers. When Mclaren dominance became clear very early on, everybody knew that the championship would be decided by who won most races. Senna did (8 to 7)….not even Prost, who could whine like no one else, ever complained about it. In 1989, again Senna won more races than Prost (6 to 4) and was only stopped from winning the championship by Prost crashing against his car, very clearly on purpose, at the Japanese GP. But Prost was not even competent enough to do it right…Senna won that race and had to be subsequently disqualified by Prost’s pall, Jean Marie Ballestre to complete the trick (in one of the most bizarre cheats in F1 history). But lets have the numbers for ’88 and 89′:
            -32 races
            -Race Wins: Senna won 14 of them, Prost 11 (this is flattering for Prost, because, on performance, Senna should also have won Monaco ’88, Italy ’88 and Japan ’89 – so 17 to 10 would have been a more representative score)
            – Poles: Senna had 26 while Prost managed the grand total of 4
            – Retirements/Disqualifications: To the Frenchman’s luck, Senna had no less than 10 (7 in 1989), while Prost only had 5. Thus, out of the 22 races Senna finished in those years, he won 14 of them , while Prost won 11 out of 27 finished races.
            So mate, in my and a lot of other people’s book, Senna beat Prost really big in those years.

            But most bizarre is comparing Webber favorably to Berger….have you even watched F1 in the late 80’s, early 90’s? Webber is one of the most mediocre drivers ever drive a top tier F1 car – right there with D. Hill, J. Villeneuve, R. Barrichelo and N. Rosberg. And by the way, putting that phrase “submission and loyal services” between quotes, suggesting it comes from some source when these are your words and yours alone, is a little…well.. cheap, IMO.

          2. Give truth a chance m8, Prost was never able to beat Senna in 1989 whenever Senna finished the race

      2. Vettel had a car which was the class of the field for at least two more, possibly three more seasons than Senna.

        No, he did not. In the six seasons 1988 – 1993 McLaren won 49 of 96 GP’s, or 51% of the time.

        In the six seasons 2009-2014 Red Bull won 50 of 113 GP’s, or 44%. Claims that Vettel’s RB’s enjoyed unusual dominance have no basis in fact.

        Reliability in Sennas time was not a factor in this comparison, because every driver in that era had to deal with it. In other words Senna may have lost lost some victories to reliability problems, but he also inherited an equal number due to other drivers reliability issues, so it all evened out.

        1. I wouldn’t include McLaren’s 1993 in their era of dominance as Senna was the only McLaren driver who looked like winning a race that season (Michael Andretti was poor and although Hakkinen was definitely better there was still no real doubt who was top dog at that time). The car was probably better than Andretti made it look, but Senna forced some fantastic performances out of it. So if we ignore those 16 races McLaren won 44 GPs out of 80, which is actually 55%, an impressive level of dominance.

          If Vettel wins five races this season in the Ferrari (could yet happen, don’t forget he’s always tended to do well in the autumn flyaway races), then that will be a very impressive achievement and comparable to Senna’s ’93 campaign IMO.

          In a way 1990 and 1991 were comparable to some extent to the Vettel-Webber situations in 2011 and 2013 where the McLaren/Red Bull cars were capable of winning races but the superior driver (Senna/Vettel) took nearly all of the victories, although I think the Red Bulls of 2011 and 2013 were probably better than the 1990 and especially 1991 McLaren cars (however, the 1988/89 cars were among the most pre-eminent machines of the F1 era, more so than the RB7 and RB9).

          1. if we ignore those 16 races McLaren won 44 GPs out of 80, which is actually 55%, an impressive level of dominance.

            How does your emphasizing McLarens dominance while Senna drove for them help your argument that Senna had worse cars than Vettel? He clearly did not.

            If Vettel wins five races this season in the Ferrari (could yet happen, don’t forget he’s always tended to do well in the autumn flyaway races), then that will be a very impressive achievement and comparable to Senna’s ’93 campaign IMO.

            That would be an achievement comparable to somebody in a non-McLaren having managed five wins in 1988 against the MP4/4. The 1993 Williams was not nearly as dominant as the W06.

            I think the Red Bulls of 2011 and 2013 were probably better than the 1990 and especially 1991 McLaren cars

            I think so too, though I don’t really see the point in comparing the very best of Vettels RB’s to some of the weaker of Senna’s McLarens. As you say yourself, the proper comparison is to the 88/89 Maccas.

        2. Exactly my thoughts. Very well stated.

        3. RM I see your point regarding reliability but in the case of Senna reliability definitely affected his race win total negatively.
          Remember when his car broke down he was invariably leading or in a position to win, his contemporaries were usually behind him when they broke down!

          1. You can also say the same thing about Vettel though. Not that I am really comparing the two, I find that notion to be absurd tbh, but Vettel may very well be THE contemporary driver to lose out the most from the lead due to technical issues.

          2. I agree with yogart it is absurd to try and compare Senna and Vettel.

            However the fact of the matter is Senna suffered FAR more than Vettel from unreliability so the argument still stands that if you do try to compare them you have to take into account reliability.

          3. According to Wikipedia:

            Senna had 47 retirements during his F1 career
            Vettel has had 17.

            After a quick look through the race reports I’d guess that Senna would have won roughly 10 more races, Vettel possibly 4 more but I’m going to do a more in depth study. Watch this space.

          4. Will you take into account the technical issues that cost the lead but not the race? I mean finished but not in the lead because of issues.

            I would love to know how many of Alonso’s wins were inherited by the way. Not that I am looking down on his success, far from it, but, I’m really curious anyway…

        4. I don’t know @rm, the way I see it, RB had a completely dominant car in 2011 and 2013. In 2012, it was at least level with Ferrari, if not a notch higher – faster but less reliable. The jury is out on 2010. In my own opinion, RB was also dominant in that year but suffered the effect of a below par set of drivers. Don’t get me wrong, Vettel was already very talented, but he was too young and pron to errors (Whitmarsh got to call him the “crash boy” for a while). Regarding Webber…. well, he was a mediocre driver in a good car…no more, no less. Let me put it this way, if RB had Ham and Alo in 2010, they would have cruised to championship glory.
          In the end, having seen both men’s carriers, I believe Senna is better than Vettel by some margin, but the German driver is certainly very good – one of the best of his generation, right there with Hamilton, Alonso and Ricciardo.

          1. @antifia
            Vettel made mistakes in 2010, but also had unreliability at bad times- Bahrain, Australia & Korea, losing him 63 points (and handing Webber/Alonso more points).

          2. I’m late to the Party but I’ll say it anyway.
            SV made no more mistakes than FA or LH that season. Remember China, Monza, Singapore etc? Funny how people allways forget about all that.

    2. On topic with the ‘era of young drivers’……
      It has been amazing to see the younger drivers hone skills quicker in junior series. Mark Webber(who’s opinion I take seriously) said on leaving the sport that there was a problem of F1 being a ‘finishing school’ for drivers who are not ready.

      But then you see these young men perform right out of the box in a back marker F1 team and not only catch the attention of the senior teams but also obtain the financial backing and risk of plopping them into a seat…….sink or swim.

      Perhaps F1 might rethink the age and experience point system.

    3. @dragol – Things didn’t go fast at all to Senna, compared with how things go today (see LH and Seb’s careers) Senna didn’t have a car that could be expected to be a front runner (or thereabouts) untill his 5th season in F1. In fact one of the things that impressed me most about him is the fact that in those first 4 years he won 6 years in cars that had no business being at the front (and he was 2nd in Monaco in his 1st year in a Toleman!)… The Toleman was the equivalent of a Sauber today and the Lotus was something like the current Red Bull.

      1. i meant, he won 6 races..

  3. Quite a few streaks ended then, that is a good thing for the sport, as diversity makes it more fun.

    1. @bascb And some records should just remain as they are now until someone really specials comes along. Not that I think we will have any team racking up 53 podiums or a driver with 91 wins anytime soon.

      Most interesting is that despite being on pole Hamilton his run of leading races has come to an end so the record hasn’t been broken by a massive margin.

      1. Agree, its always better if a record gets improved upon only by a bit, not the gigantic leap between Schumacher’s win tally and Prost in second for example @xtwl

        And records should not be broken too often

  4. Seb is a very special driver. It’s great that he’s doing this in his second team and without Newey. Lewis is gonna catch him tho :)

    And it was great to see Nando and McLaren making progress. It’s a privilege to watch these three awesome talents in this era.

    1. @lockup Fourth team (Sauber, STR, RBR, SF).

      1. Yes OK @davidnotcoulthard, second top team I should have said. It was what he needed anyway, to dispel doubts that he was a one trick pony who could only drive a blown diffuser, after last year. And he’s doing it in some style.

        1. He’s an excellent driver, but I doubt anyone can match him with a blown diffuser.

        2. It’s a little known fact, but the blown diffuser was banned after the 2011 season.

          1. some of the fuel/air mixture finds its way into the exhausts to create post combustion – which blows hot exhaust gas under pressure down through the diffuser to create rear end downforce.

            http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/07/the-red-bull-renault-engine-map-controversy/

            There was more controversy about in in 2013. It only fully disappeared in 2014 and what happened then? That’s why Seb needed to switch and succeed somewhere else.

          2. @lockup

            what happened in 2014? Renault built an underpowered embarrassment.

            Vettel’s close friend and mentor was in a coma.
            Vettel had his first baby.
            The power-delivery was horrible and he had more rear tire issues than Danny Ric.

            Now he’s winning races in the 3rd best car on the grid (Hungary)

          3. Yes sure @uan, I’m not trying to put him down whatsoever. Still, Ricciardo beat him on merit even if reliability made it look worse than it was, so there were doubts about his class without a blown diffuser, with that off spell in 2012 too when the maps were changed. Now I’d say nobody can have those doubts, reasonably.

            I don’t know about the third best car on the grid in Hungary tho. Rosberg couldn’t keep up with Kimi, after all.

          4. @lockup

            The engine mapping you mention was banned, so I’d love to know how it could have helped Vettel win the 2012 and 2013 WDC’s.

            Ricciardo beat him on merit

            No, he really didn’t.

          5. rm
            He did, you might as well admit it. Not that I (and likely you) think it would happen again, with 2014 being an off-form year for the reasons uan mentioned above.

          6. David-A, if your idea of beating somebody by “merit” consists of beating them because their car fails then sure, DR beat him by merit. I suppose you’d also claim that DR is beating Kvyat by merit this season and not by virtue of team orders and superior reliability.

          7. @lockup

            Ferrari on the options and heavy fuel were quick, but at the end of the race, the Mercedes and Ferrari on the primes, the Merc was a bit faster — or else Rosberg wouldn’t have been able to stay within a second of Vettel lap after lap.

            The RB with Ric was faster than the Merc on the options, but not quite fast enough to get a consistent run on Ros.

            As for 2013, some unlucky pit calls for Vettel (Canada) and badly timed SC (Hungary, and it was unlucky for Rosberg as well), Vettel could easily have won 2 races last year.

            Where Ricciardo had the measure of Vettel was in making his tires last longer, especially the rears. Vettel never got the hang of putting down the power cleanly out of corners (probably a combination of a more fragile rear tire, which isn’t the case this year and with the brake by wire, the drivability of the Renault engine and the software that governed how well it put down the power). We saw this issue really clearly early on this year with the RBs. There was a lag in applying pedal pressure and power being applied. Also, it can be a problem if the power isn’t evenly – or predictably – distributed throughout the application.

            Also, folks are wanting their cake and eating it too – folks are rating Ricciardo highly, among the top drivers on the grid right now (last year was his 4th year in F1, though many like to say he was a “rookie”), at the same time, trying to use Ricciardo having the measure of Vettel to show Vettel was overrated.

            Ricciardo could be the next Hamilton – no one questioned Alonso’s class when he was beaten by a genuine rookie in 2007.

            One area Ric needs to work on is his starts. Horrendous. And it can’t be blamed on favoritism towards the star #1 driver (since he’s the star #1 driver on the team lol).

          8. Yes fair enough @uan, Rosberg was quicker at the end. And Vettel had adjustments to make last year.

            Personally I don’t see Ricciardo as quite on Vettel’s level in spite of last year. He has some great moves, but that car does lend itself to them with its grip and braking.

            Anyway I don’t see much daylight between Lewis, Nando and Seb, personally; they can each have good and bad weekends and there’s a good bit of ‘the last race’ in people’s minds atm. Seb’s drive was flawless, I felt ‘third best car’ was a bit of an exaggeration though. The Ferrari was looking amazing.

          9. Maybe 2nd best joint with Red Bull. They were definitely not faster than Red Bull though. But you would think Red Bull would be faster, especially in 2nd sector, comparing the chassis of Ferrari and Red Bull. Same in Monaco, and Silverstone with Red Bull aero.

    2. (@lockup) (@uan)
      The excuses trotted out for Vettel’s 2014 performance remain cringe inducing.

      – He fluked the 2008 Monza win thanks to only Toro Rosso bringing brembo brakes, and the TR that year was hardly slow (Ferrari powered and Newey designed).
      – Webber was beating him in 2010 until his shoulder injury, and then was hopeless on the Pirelli tyres (and given awful strategy/equipment the few occasions he was matching him, just look at Suzuka 2013).
      – He was crushed in 2014 the moment he had an actually competitive teammate
      – And then fled to another team where he would once again be given preferential machinery, treatment and strategy to a once good, but now ageing and far past his prime teammate.

      Why do you think he’s pushing to keep Kimi so hard? He knows one more semi-rookie beating him will finish his reputation off once and for all – no matter how many stats he’s accrued with dominant cars or luck.

      1. I agreed with your first sentence, but from there on you just went completely off. You are not better than those people who keeps talking about those excuses. Only Vettel knows what happened, I also think it was a particularly off year, but no point in either pretending to know what happened, or bashing him for being average. I don’t think anyone who watched last GP in Hungary can say “he is average”. That was a quadruple world champion performance.
        This year’s STR is as least as good as 2008 and probably even better than that in comparison to the competition including the sister team. His performance there was also brilliant. I would have loved to be the engineer who designs cars for him, you automatically get all the praise for his success. Very good job.

      2. Salty,…

        What a fitting name.

        “– He fluked the 2008 Monza win thanks to only Toro Rosso bringing brembo brakes, and the TR that year was hardly slow (Ferrari powered and Newey designed).”

        He still beat his teammate with 9 tenths. At Monza. And the Torro Rosso wasn’t slow. But it wasn’t the fastest either. McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW were all faster. Besides that he scored more points than the other 3 Red Bull cars combined. That’s no fluke.

        “– Webber was beating him in 2010 until his shoulder injury, and then was hopeless on the Pirelli tyres (and given awful strategy/equipment the few occasions he was matching him, just look at Suzuka 2013).”

        Webber’s car was more reliable. Which is what kept Webber in contention until the very end. How many races did Vettel lose the victory that year? 3?
        Sure, Vettel made several big mistakes and yeah Webber beat him fair and square a couple of times. But Webber was never good enough to beat Vettel over the course of the season.
        And your “Webber got 2nd hand equipment” argument is just a joke. It’s been proven many times that Webber and Vettel ‘enjoyed’ the same reliability over their time together at Red Bull. The statistics are readily available for anyone to read.

        “– He was crushed in 2014 the moment he had an actually competitive teammate”

        Ricciardo’s car did almost all the work there, or rather Vettel’s car didn’t. Whereas Vettel’s car broke down at some point almost every race Ricciardo’s car only suffered problems a couple of times over the course of the entire season…
        People like to say Vettel got beaten in the same car by Ricciardo but, in reality, Vettel didn’t even have a fighting chance last year.
        There were a couple of weekends where Vettel had no problems though. And odly enough, he finished most of those in front of Ricciardo.

        “– And then fled to another team where he would once again be given preferential machinery, treatment and strategy to a once good, but now ageing and far past his prime teammate. ”

        Yep, just like Schumacher fled to Ferrari in 1996…
        I’m guessing you’re one of those people that said Vettel would never win a race again after last season.
        Last Sunday must have hurt like hell for you. And that’s the 2nd victory this year in what’s clearly not the best car on the gird. Hell, looking at Friday and Saturday morning it might as well have been the 3rd best car…

        1. He still beat his teammate with 9 tenths. At Monza. And the Torro Rosso wasn’t slow. But it wasn’t the fastest either. McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW were all faster. Besides that he scored more points than the other 3 Red Bull cars combined. That’s no fluke.

          Not only that, but specifically about the Monza win itself, it had no reliance on attrition or lottery like conditions. It was nowhere near a fluke, such as Brazil ’03, Belgium ’98 or Monaco ’96.

      3. I notice that the people trying to argue that SV did not have many more car problems than DR in 2014 are the same people who argue that Webber had a much more unreliable car than Vettel. That level of disconnection from reality is frankly rather disturbing, a bit like encountering people who sincerely believe in orcs and goblins.

      4. Salty, that’s one of the biggest pieces of garbage I’ve ever read on this site. The “excuses” for 2014 are “cringe inducing” then you come out with all that nonsense?

  5. Vettel has just equalled Alonso’s carreer points tally record, they currently both have 1778 points.
    (even if it’s a bit meaningless as Alonso spent much more time in the previous points system, and Schumacher would be ahead of both)

    1. Tom (@11mcgratht)
      27th July 2015, 16:22

      Does anyone know how all the greats would compare if they were adjusted to the current system? How much would Schumacher have – and how far off are Vettel, Hamilton et al?

      1. @11mcgratht I don’t keep running totals on this but I do tally them up for the champions at the end of this year. Here’s the data from the end of last season:

        The 2014 season in stats: The year in context

      2. Found a nice website comparing all time driver’s points adjusted by today scoring system

        formula1.markwessel.com/alltime

        1. Bernie Eclestone 749th

        2. Nice find. Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel really close together.

          Of course, Hamilton will streak away a bit with the car he has atm. But Raikkonen vs Vettel will be interesting. Vettel at 58 points behind. He could get really close at the end of the season.

          1. Tom (@11mcgratht)
            28th July 2015, 15:51

            Wow that’s really interesting. I suspect the closest challengers to Schumacher’s haul must be Vettel and Hamilton, with Alonso fast running out of time. It’s good to see Button up there too as, unlike poles, wins etc. this measurement rewards consistency above all else. Though, what with more races and better reliability the points are rather skewed: Massa and Webber are clearly among company they don’t really deserve to be with.

  6. Jelle van der Meer
    27th July 2015, 12:56

    Max, only 10 races into his career, can tell his dad he has scored more points than him (Max 22 and Jos 17), Jos participated 107 GP weekends with 106 starts.

    Adjusting Jos points to today’s point system Max still has a while to go to reach the 117 of his dad. If Max keeps scoring he might just beat dad’s first season score of 44 points (2x 3rd, 1x 5th and 1x 8th).

    1. He might also beat Vettel’s season of points in STR, even though it’s a different points system. I think Vettel would have been 91 points adjusted to new system, but it was 34 at the time.

      1. 93 points, as there was an extra 9th place in Shanghai.

  7. I think what is fascinating is the number of points Senna had considering that back then he was racing for 9 or 10 points for a win where as Vettel has mostly raced when 25 has been available for a win

    1. No, Senna ‘only’ had 610 points during his career. The 1881 points we are talking about are adjusted to the current scoring system

      1. ahhh I see, thanks.

  8. First double points finish for a Honda engine since the 2006 Brazilian GP when Jenson Button was 3rd and Rubens Barrichello was 7th.

    Also, first time I’ve watched an f1 race live on a plane. I’d just about come to terms with missing the race, glad I didn’t miss that! Go Lufthansa! Lol

    1. What I find most amazing is that a manufacturer team didn’t manage to finish both car in the points for two whole seasons (2007/2008), I knew they were poor seasons, just not that poor!

      1. @npf1 One could argue though that Honda could’ve done it twice in 2007 (GBR & ITA) under the current system – points given to the top 10 instead of top 8 – and McLaren couldn’t have done it under the old system. :p

  9. Another couple: This is the first time since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, McLaren has scored more points than Mercedes

    Also it is the first time in the history of F1, McLaren-Honda (together) has gotten more points than the Mercedes Benz factory team.

  10. @keithcollantine Two key stats you missed Keith. This was Vettel’s first ever win in Hungary, which was the only track that had been on the calendar throughout his career which he had not yet won at. The only tracks missing from his list now are Austria, Russia and Hockenheim (assuming it returns next year), but obviously he hasn’t had as many chances to win them!

    The second is that it was Ferrari’s first win in Hungary since 2004, one of their longest losing streaks. This is one of the few tracks that has been on the calendar for more than a few years where Ferrari do not hold the record for the most wins (they’re 3rd behind McLaren and Williams).

    The Hungarian GP winner is cursed, no-one has won the Hungarian GP and the WDC in the same year since Schumacher in 2004.
    2005 Raikkonen wins in Hungary, Alonso wins WDC
    2006 Button wins in Hungary, Alonso wins WDC
    2007 Hamilton wins in Hungary, Raikkonen wins WDC
    2008 Kovalainen wins in Hungary, Hamilton wins WDC
    2009 Hamilton wins in Hungary, Button wins WDC
    2010 Webber wins in Hungary, Vettel wins WDC
    2011 Button wins in Hungary, Vettel wins WDC
    2012 Hamilton wins in Hungary, Vettel wins WDC
    2013 Hamilton wins in Hungary, Vettel wins WDC
    2014 Ricciardo wins in Hungary, Hamilton wins WDC
    2015 Vettel wins in Hungary, I think it’s safe to assume this streak will continue for another year!

    1. it was pointed out somewhere that the previous 10 hungarian grand prixes had been won by either british, finnish or australian drivers. the beginning and end of that streak was marked by a german driver winning in a ferrari!

      1. Vettel will be world champion come the end of this year, mark my words.

        1. That would be mind blowing, but I really don’t have any hope for such an exciting 2nd part…

        2. yeah, I guess if Merc keep blowing their starts Vettel has a chance. At least Merc are gracious enough to offer unreliability to keep the season interesting, when Vettel was winning RBR made sure he had the car/setup to do it, and keep winning and winning, and his teammate was a clear #2. I am sure Vettel has a chance, but Merc will have to hand it to him on a silver platter.

          1. Amongst the 5 WDCs on grid, Vettel has had the least reliable cars so far in his career after Raikkonen.

        3. Based on what evidence? I’m probably the biggest Vettel fan on here, but even I am realistic. If Ferrari could somehow find half a second in quali, maybe, but the trend of them starting behind Merc will continue, and they won’t be so lucky that Merc have bad starts all the time.

          1. @ho3n3r

            Spa will be interesting – no team help on setting the clutch etc for the starts. It’s all on the driver.

            This should make things interesting. I wonder who’ll be in the simulator practicing starts (and I wonder if that helps or not?)

          2. I think it will be total lottery, even more independent of driver.

        4. i have a feeling off that too mate!

    2. Vettel is not out of it just yet. He is only 42 points behind Hamilton. And a paltry 21 points behind Rosberg. I am not writing him off just yet.
      Sure it is unlikely, and it would take either Mercedes reliability problems, driver errors by Hamilton and Rosberg or an upgrade in performance from Ferrari to allow it to happen but still. Much stranger things have happened…

      1. Though doing a great job in the Ferrari he has had a few races where he hasn’t been quite on the ball, the odd mistakes and just not in the groove (better than 98% of the drivers on a bad day though i may add!). But just imagine what Alonso would of done in that car., as you know he would of maxed every chance.. i don’t think he would be leading the title but he would probably of had the Merc boys worried!

        1. Sorry. I DEFINITELY don’t agree with you there.

        2. @q85

          But just imagine what Alonso would of* done in that car., as you know he would of* maxed every chance.. i don’t think he would be leading the title but he would probably of* had the Merc boys worried!

          After 10 races Alonso in 2012 led the championship beautifully by 34 points in 2012.

          But he also trailed the championship lead by 47 points at the same stage in 2010, and by 39 points in 2013 despite his cars being much closer to the other frontrunners than Ferrari is now to Mercedes (in 2013 RBR only pulled out to Merc 2014/15 levels after the summer break).

          1. No offence but the Ferrari is a lot closer this year than it was in 2013!!

            Seb is doing a great job like I’ve said, 2 wins is brilliant and he has maxed most of his chances. But Alonso was about 3 tenths or so faster than kimi than what seb is. Kimi may of raised his game, tho if he has its only a little bit as he is still suffering in the same ways as he did last year its just the car is faster so its less noticeable & there has been less competition as RBR have not been at the races and williams blows hot and cold more than british summer

          2. “But Alonso was about 3 tenths or so faster than kimi than what seb is.”
            That’s way off mark. It’s a bit silly thinking Raikkonen’s performance over two season is unchangeable. But even if that was true, what you are saying wouldn’t be true.
            Man, considering it looks like Button might have the edge over Alonso in quali, do you really believe Vettel is slower than Button?

          3. @q85

            No offence but the Ferrari is a lot closer this year than it was in 2013!!

            No it isn’t. Mercedes are as far ahead as they were last year. Watch the first 10 races of 2013 taht I’m referring to- RBR struggled with the tyres until the mid-season changes in reaction to the Silverstone farce. There were otherwise several races in that period that they struggled, and Lotus, Mercedes and Ferrari were able to show up with similar or better race pace.

            Alonso also crashed out of a possible podium or win in Malaysia, and was anonymous at Monaco, Germany and Hungary. So yes, Vettel is doing much better now to be the same distance in the standings.

        3. Lol. He had one bad race at Bahrain. The rest were team/pitstop/car related. And he looks like a racing superstar now if you compare his worst race(Bahrain) with the Mercedes boys’ worst race(Hungary).

          1. People keep talking about Bahrain. Man, he just went a bit off the track and hurt his front wing which dropped him 2 places. He should have avoided it, mistake there. But there was like 0 chance that he would have finished ahead of Raikkonen with their respective strategies anyway… I think it’s because they kept showing him locking tyres and being overtaken by Rosberg that people think he had an even worse race than he did while everyone else was also locking tyres and actually Hamilton might have locked tyres more both in Canada and Bahrain than Vettel did in Bahrain. That isn’t to say he had a good race really. But not horrendous by any means. Well, maybe for his standards, especially for this season, you can think of it as the aberration lol.
            Most of the time he was stuck behind drivers who were supposed to be faster than him (really weird if you think) or team let him down. Looking at the performances from top 8 drivers, who also have had the opportunity for race wins, he’s been clearly THE BEST so far. Ferrari was at least second or probably the third best car in Hungary.

      2. In Spa and Monza Williams will blow Ferrari away

        1. They definitely should! If they don’t there is either operational or driver mistakes. They shouldn’t be slower than Ferrari/Red Bull in those races!

        2. Spa maybe, but I’m not sure about Monza – Ferrrari’s bringing a new engine with more hp I believe.

    3. Yeah, the only Hungarian GP winner who has won the WDC in the last 15 years was a German driving a Ferrari in 2001 and 2004. So, if someone can break that jinx, it is Vettel.

    4. This is one streak I would looooove to see broken this year.

    5. Playing devil’s advocate here, the fact that Ferrari haven’t won here since 2004 and also it was the last year the eventual champion won wouldn’t stand true if Massa’s engine held together for 3 more laps in 2008…

      Also now that Ferrari won at Hungarroring There are only 5 tracks left that they haven;t won for at least 9 straight years since Schumacher days: Monaco last won 2001, Canada last won 2004, Suzuka last won 2004 (6 appearences, 2 in Fuji the 9th due in October) Nurburgring last won 2006 (4 appearences in the last 9 years) and Austria with only 2 appearences in 9 years last won in 2003.
      It is a thing of wonder how they continue to fail year after year in the same venues when Ferrari has won 31gp since Schumacher departure.

    6. Michael Brown
      28th July 2015, 3:09

      Also include the Mexican GP as a track he hasn’t won at yet, but then again none of the current grid has raced there in F1

  11. if hamilton takes pole in the next race he would win the pole trophy!

  12. Maldonado said in the interview with the latin american broadcast that the stewards “have changed their view towards racing compared to the rest of the season”.

    The guy never learns…

  13. Not only did Vettel scored the same number of wins in less races than Senna, but he also did it with fewer poles.
    (Vettel 45 poles, Senna 65 poles)

    1. That’s funny statistics related to a guy who supposedly always wins from pole. :)

      Btw, does anyone know what was the lowest starting position for Vettel and Hamilton to win a race before 2014? I think it was the same row or something? Which would be funny considering Hamilton “the racer”.

      1. 2nd row. 4th position for both I think.

      2. Vettel never won from further than third on the grid. Both in his RB and in his Ferrari days.

        For Lewis I don’t know.

      3. Neither Vettel nor Hamilton ever won starting lower than 2nd row. Same for Senna, IRC. But they’re all excellent qualifiers, so it’s hardly surprising they rarely started lower when they had fast cars.

        1. Not true, Hamilton has won from the 3rd row before (6th place, British GP 2014).

          1. I meant before 2014. The OP asked before 2014. And Hamilton never won starting lower than 2nd row until the British GP 2014 (and even then he just qualified lower than he should have in such a dominant car and inherited the win after Rosberg DNFed, so that occasion is hardly something to write home about).

    2. “Vettel took 149 races to score his 41st win….Schumacher took his 41st win in the 2000 Italian Grand Prix, which was his 140th start”
      Ahh, he’s falling behind Schumacher though… At least he’s younger :P

      1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
        28th July 2015, 4:59

        It’s for his terrible 2014… things will be better stats-wise when (if) Seb keeps racing the same number of races as MercSchum. There make sure Seb will blow the stats away!
        Of course, Seb point of reference must always be before Schum’s first retirement. Considering MSC’s stint at Mercedes to do the maths would be unfair and disrespectful IMHO.

        1. Why would that be unfair and disrespectful? He came back and he raced. Counting it is simple enough from where I’m standing.

    3. What’s the record for a driver to go without accidents btw? Are there stats related to that one? Vettel is one of the least accident prone drivers amongst both drivers on the grid and the champions of all time. “Crash kid” to you Whitmarsh….

      1. Knock on the wood btw.

    4. Has this been Vettel’s best first 10 race in points total after 2011?

    5. What’s the longest streak for a national anthem? Germany still keeps going strong…

  14. First podium finish for car # 26 since the Australian GP 1995
    First time since the Brazilian GP 2006, a Ferrari’s driver leads 68 laps or more
    17th race in a row with double podium

    1. “First time since the Brazilian GP 2006, a Ferrari’s driver leads 68 laps or more” WOW

      1. To be fair there are only a few races each season with that many laps, Monaco, Hungary, Brazil and I guess Austria now

        1. Yeah but you would think they would have won one of those for the last 10 years, at least once.

  15. Max Verstappen’s 4th is Toro Rosso’s best result since Sebastian Vettel’s 4th place in his final grand prix for the team back in Brazil 2008.

    1. Vettel made quite an overtake on that day :^)

      1. LOL on Lewis yeah? It was unbelievable, Hamilton almost lost the championship!

      2. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
        28th July 2015, 5:01

        @strontium that day I became a true fan of Vettel, I thought the move was going to give Massa the title! The same day I became a true anti-fan of Timo Glock. And find out what “Timo” means in Spanish…

      3. Vettel’s been the bane of their existence for all the champions on the grid for some time. Especially Alonso, Hamilton, Button…. Every one of them had a sorta grudge against him at some point. Came and dared to try get in the way of their championships, like Hamilton did with Alonso. 2007-2013 had some epic grudge matches…

  16. It seems pretty evenly matched between Vettel and Ayrton’s first 150 odd races. The only difference being that Ayrton had 33 mechanical retirements as compared to Seb’s 14, and the fact that Ayrton took more podiums despite more retirements. Also, as good as Seb is at qualifying, the fact that Ayrton took 20 poles more than he did is just simply an awesome stat.

    1. Awesome -except for the win/pole ratio.

    2. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
      28th July 2015, 5:07

      @todfod yes, it’s awesome, but as somebody explained above, Senna had:
      1. A car far superior from the rest AND sometimes weak teammates. (That’s what Lewis is having right now, so no surprise he is about to collect the pole’s trophy next race).
      2. About the wins (and honestly I don’ have the stats, but) Senna had many retirements, yes, but also his rivals, so that must played a part on the wins as well.

      Having said all that, I’m not trying to play Ayrton down (that’s sacrilege), only stating that these records had their own story and that’s why it’s hard to compare what was done before and what is being done now.
      As Schum said, he could not compare himself to Fangio. Impossible to know if Schum was better or “worse” than Fangio. Things were so different between their times.

      1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
        28th July 2015, 5:07

        @todfod Oops. I may “edit” just realizing that Webber was also a “weak” teammate for Seb.

    3. @todfod

      Actually Vettel can match Senna for the same number of podiums if he gets 7 more in the next 9 races. Senna got his 80 podiums in 158 races (and the last 3 of his wins came in races 156, 157, 158). So Vettel was actually far ahead win wise to Senna at the end of 2013. And definitely on pace with wins with Schumacher.

      Hamilton has 78 podiums in 158 races (the same number of races Senna got through the end of 92. In 93 he had 3 poles and 3 DNFs. We all know the story of the last one).

  17. You really cannot compare though, as Senna also had much more formidable competitors in equal equipment in the way of Prost and Berger, and also stronger opposition.

    1. Berger lol.

    2. Right, Bergers’s 10 wins and 12 poles (in 210 races) show him to be a much more formidable competitor than Webber with his measly 9 wins and 13 poles in 217 races.

      And it’s far from obvious that Mansell, Piquet, and Prost were stronger opposition than Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Raikkonen.

      1. good points, but you are forgetting that Prost was on the SAME team for awhile in what was the greatest on-track rivalry in F1 – it makes Hamilton v Rosberg look like two kids in the playground.

        1. Did having Prost as a teammate really cost Senna a lot of wins though? In their two seasons together Prost won a race while Senna finished second just three times. Even if you add Japan 1989 to that we’re still talking a bit less than a handful.

      2. Mansell, Piquet were way, way, way better than Button and Raikkonen.
        Especially Piquet. It’s absurd to compare him with Button and Raikkonen.

        As for Berger, he was better than Webber. Cold numbers doesn’t tell the history. Webber only won races with great cars. Berger won his firts race with a Bennetton in 1986. Won 2 races in 1992 in car far inferior than the Williams. Won 2 races in 1987 in a Ferrari, where the Williams were far better. Won his last race in 1997 in a Benneton, again not the best car. Berger in the begining of his career was expected to be on the Senna league, but didn’t happened.

        1. Mansell, Piquet were way, way, way better than Button and Raikkonen.

          How very, very, very unpersuasive.

  18. Another stat borrowed from twitter. Russia has a perfect ratio between the number of drivers that participated in F1 and the number of Russian drivers that appeared on a podium: Kvyat and Petrov are the only 2, and they both finished in the top 3 at least once. Appart form Poland because of Kubica being the first and only Pole to race in F1, I cannot think of another country with such ratio.

    1. Have any other Venezuelan drivers score two podiums? Pastor Maldonado has one for his win in Spain.

      1. Johnny Cecotto didn’t score a podium, nor did Ettore Chimeri who raced in the 60s.

    2. @fer-no65 Ok this got me thinking and I did a spreadsheet from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_drivers

      In terms of ratio I think Finland is next up with 9 drivers representing, and 7 of those reaching the podium at least once (78%).

      Making the table:
      =1. Poland 1:1 & Russia at 2:2 (100%)
      3. Finland 9:7 (78%)
      4. Sweden 10:5 (50%)
      5. New Zealand 8:3 (38%)
      =6. Columbia, Monaco, Venezuela 3:1 & Mexico 6:2 (33%)
      10. France 70:21 (30%)
      =11. Italy 98:28, Australia 17:5, Brazil 31:9 (29%)

      Selected others:
      UK 160:39 (24%)
      US 157:36 (23%)

      1. @tonyyeb Uhm, how about Belgium?

        1. @xtwl Nope, forget that. Never really looked into Belgian F1 drivers beyond Ickx and Boutsen. Even forgot D’Ambrosio…

      2. What about Germany?

        1. @sare Germany was just above UK but didn’t include East/West so didn’t know what to put for it

  19. A stat from twitter

    Top 4 – Seb, Daniil, Daniel and Max: these four guys have SomeThing Rosso in common… #GOTOROROSSO ;)

    Looks like RBR Junior Program is doing something right. Now I wish Carlos wouldn´t have retired from race and have ended 5th.

    1. “something red in common” lol

      1. that’s just a bunch of bull ;)

    2. It’s good to know the 2017 STR Reunion Formula E championship will have some good drivers then!

  20. Different times. Senna lost a bunch of races running out of fuel or simply retiring while leading.
    Vettel too, but Senna on way more occasions.

    If this says something good about someone, it’s about Senna.
    Vettel enjoyed huge success between 2009 and 2013 and still took this long to get to Senna’s mark.
    Schumacher 15 years ago also won his 41st close to Senna’s number of races, with 142 GPs.
    And Hamilton, probably later this year, too.

    Interesting.

    1. How many races did the drivers DNF from lead or inherit the lead? Are there stats related to that? I remember amongst the current drivers Vettel being the one with the most DNF from lead and Alonso the most inheritance of lead at some point. Though Raikkonen coming back might have changed that now that I think about 2005. I also read somewhere that amongst the current champion drivers Raikkonen had the least reliable cars, followed by Vettel and then Button. Hamilton had the best reliability followed by Alonso.

      1. of the top of my head, I think Vet retired from the lead in 6 or 7 races. I know Alonso picked up two of those for victory. While he didn’t retire, Vettel also had engine trouble in Bahrain 2010, and Alonso picked up his first win with Ferrari and Vettel finished 4th.

        So at least 3 of Alonso’s wins, courtesy of the man he doesn’t rate lol.

        Hamilton I know retired from the lead at least twice I can remember (in 2012).

        1. It depends if you are only including reliability problems. Hamilton retired from the lead at Singapore 2012 (gearbox issue), Abu Dhabi 2012 (fuel pressure issue), Brazil 2012 (hit by Hulkenberg). There are also a couple of times where a problem cost him the lead and then later caused his retirement:

          Abu Dhabi 2009, Hamilton was dominant in qualifying but had a rear brake problems from lap 1, which caused him to be leapfrogged by Vettel and retire from 2nd place on lap 18. Arguably the rear brake problem cost him the lead as well as causing his retirement.

          Australia 2014, where Hamilton lost an engine cylinder on the formation lap, thus losing engine power before the race even began. He started on pole but was significantly down on straight line speed, dropping to third by turn 1 and retiring on lap 2. This probably doesn’t count since he didn’t actually lead the race before his problem (he simply started on pole).

          Canada 2014, where Hamilton had a rear brake failure while leading the race. He dropped down the field and then retired.

          Spa 2014, where Hamilton got a puncture while leading. He trundled around near the back of the field with severe floor damage for a while before retiring later on.

      2. In 1989 alone Senna retired from the lead for mechanical failures in 4 races.
        In 1985 he had a great number of retirements for mechanical issues and fuel starvation, some of them from the lead. In 1990 I remember he had a slow puncture who cost the win in Mexico.
        Vettel in 2010 retired from the lead 2 times (3 if we count Bahrain but he didn’t retired), in 2011 and 2014 none. In A2011 in Abbu Dahbi he had that puncture but it was the first turn. In 2012 one time, in Valencia. In 2013 one time, in Silverstone.

        1. OmarR-Pepper - Vettel 41 wins!!! For Jules (@)
          28th July 2015, 5:15

          @edmarques but, do you have the stat of how many races Senna “inherited”? I mean, he was second and the 1st guy abandoned, for whatever reason may have been (mechanical or accident).

          1. Indeed, because it does even out as well. However, reliability did prevent a lot of overall finishes back then, so looking at the wins vs finishes ratio would be a better comparison than wins vs starts.

          2. @omarr-pepper I didn’t look for the stats, what i wrote was from memory. From what I remember Senna inherited the lead in Monaco 1987, Spa 1991 and Monaco 1993. I think only these 3. Theres also 1989 Germany, but he lost the lead for no fault of his own, recovering when Prost lost top gear.

        2. Both Vettel and Hamilton have a right to feel aggrieved about the 2013 British GP, with Hamilton being the most high profile victim of the catastrophic tyre failures while leading the race (though it didn’t end his race, vaguely similar to Vettel in the 2010 Bahrain GP) and Vettel retiring from the lead with engine failure. It’s debatable as to which man was more unfortunate. Nico would not have won the race had those two not suffered those issues which were not of their own doing.

          On the whole I’d say both have had their share of bad luck while leading. Vettel would probably have won 2010 before the final round had it not been for his car failures while leading, and I think Hamilton would have won the title in 2012 were it not for his ill fortune (It’s shocking to me that he only ended that season only 2 points ahead of Jenson, Lewis was clearly the faster of the two that year). He lost at least three potential wins and a number of other points scores too, like when Maldonado crashed into him in Valencia.

          1. Yeaaa… Recently I heard Vettel talking about Korea’10. He talked about how much that hurt. It was incredible that he was clearly the fastest but nowhere near the top… Well until the end of last race I guess.

  21. James (@jamesjames123abc)
    27th July 2015, 16:04

    The Mercedes drivers didn’t lead a single lap of the race, the first time that this has occurred since the 2013 Brazilian GP.

  22. Because the field was ordered to go through pit lane twice during the safety car period, the race was listed with 96 pit stops, which is more than record set in Hungary 2011. Where a total of pit stops was listed for each driver, the number goes up to 100 as four of five retired drivers ended their race in the pits.

  23. Daniil Kvyat scored his first podium finish and the best-ever result for a Russian driver

    In Formula 1 yes, but not in Grand Prix racing. In fact, there were (if I’m not mistaken) three Russian drivers who have won a Grand Prix. The first one was Pavel Belyaev, who won the first Grand Prix held in Russia, in 1898. In fairness, there was only one non-Russian starter, but nonetheless Belyaev completed the 41 km quickest, in a time of 93 minutes.

    The second driver is Georgy Suvorin, who won the inaugural Russian GP of 1913, driving a Benz. The GP was held on a street circuit in St. Petersburg, which was unusual at the time. It was so unusual, that several competitors stopped after one lap, since they hadn’t quite understood the race would last seven laps, instead of just one.

    And finally there was Boris Ivanowski, winning the first Irish Grand Prix in 1929. He was quite a well-known driver in his time, winning the 1928 Spa 24 Hours and finishing second at Le Mans in 1931.

    1. “…competitors stopped after one lap, since they hadn’t quite understood the race would last seven laps, instead of just one.” LOL
      After what happened at Wimbledon, I’m happy that Lewis didn’t race back then. He seems maybe prone to such misunderstandings.

      1. And after what happened at Monaco…

        1. It was really funny in Silverstone, on radio when Hamilton said something like “has stopped”, his engineer went on defensive “no, no, no one stopped” when Hamilton meant the rain has stopped, not the people.

  24. Daniel Ricciardo has set the fastest lap for the second time this season – the same amount as Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Rosberg. Oddly enough, Sebastian Vettel has zero.

    Both Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher equalled Ayrton Senna’s tally of 41 race victories whilst driving for Scuderia Ferrari in subdued circumstances.

    Force India suffered its third double non-finish at Hungary in a row. Oddly, they have only ever been in the points once – Paul Di Resta in 2011.

    Prior to the summer break last year, the win distribution was as follows (after 11 rounds):
    Hamilton – 5
    Rosberg – 4
    Ricciardo – 2

    This season (10 rounds)
    Hamilton – 5
    Rosberg – 3
    Vettel – 2

    Max Verstappen’s fourth place surpasses his own record for the best result by a teenager in Formula One.

    First time Kimi Raikkonen has suffered two non-finishes due to mechanical problems since his comeback. 2009 was the last time, where he DNF’d twice.

    McLaren, Mercedes and Toro Rosso all scored 12 points at Hungary.

    Lotus have finished seventh in exactly half of the races so far this season. Annoyingly they’re sixth in the championship.

    Red Bull’s first podium since Suzuka, where unfortunately Jules Bianchi’s tragic accident took place. Sebastian Vettel was on the podium both yesterday and on that day too.

    1. “Red Bull’s first podium since Suzuka, where unfortunately Jules Bianchi’s tragic accident took place. Sebastian Vettel was on the podium both yesterday and on that day too.”
      WOW that’s very interesting. I found it also poetic that he equaled Senna’s 41 wins this weekend for Bianchi.

      Fastest laps nowadays are more dependent on race strategy than anything else. Doesn’t really mean much imo.

  25. Vettel is a true great. of the current drivers, i feel Alonso is his equal, both are Senna-esque for speed, but different era have not allowed similar results (ie Alonso has rarely had a qualifying quick car). Hamilton has cocked up too many times in his career and not shown the same race speed, so is 3rd best of current era. the extra long seasons give Hamilton a chance of making history this and next year, most wins and most poles in a season.

    1. If one goes simply by numbers, as the above article does, then one cannot deny Hamilton’s place among the greats. Plenty of great drivers have cocked up lots and lots of times. Prost had some pretty miserable performances in the wet, including one bewildering one at Interlagos where he stayed on slicks. Great rewards do not come without great risks taken. The people who accomplished the greatest things throughout history have also tended to be the ones who experienced the most failures. The greatness comes in the perseverance and the trying, and the ultimate success. The mistakes along the way don’t matter one iota. Where would we be today if Fermi, Marconi, Edison, Einstein, Tesla, or Oppenheimer, hadn’t failed over and over and over again? Your analysis is pedantic and lacks vision. Hamilton will be considered among the greats and deservedly so.

    2. I disagree, I think there is little to split those three drivers, Vettel has his share of mistakes and whatever the excuses for Vettel’s weak 2014, neither Alonso or Hamilton have been spanked in that way by a team-mate. Alonso you can argue is a weaker qualifier than Vettel and Hamilton, but is at the absolute pinnacle as a racer.

      We are lucky to have three drivers of this calibre racing at the moment, let alone the quality of the next tier of drivers below.

      1. Michael Brown
        29th July 2015, 3:46

        i disagree. 2011 was miserable for Hamilton, even if he won the same number of races as Button.

      2. 2011 for Hamilton alone matches last year for Vettel and there was no change in regulation, unequal reliability or something to justify the results. His quali form last year was nowhere. Even in his worst year ever Vettel was closer to his teammate in quali than Hamilton was that year.
        They also both had seasons where they probably underperformed a bit with rather faster cars.
        And they clearly had years at the beginning of their careers below their current form, which is to be expected.
        Pretty standard story for 2 drivers, 2 sportsmen….

  26. With neither W05 finishing on the podium, they failed to take a record-breaking tenth double podium finish in a row.

    When was nine-in-row accomplished? The only time I can find that it happened was for Ferrari over the 1952/53 seasons. That’s not a fair comparison though since back then Ferrari (and other teams) ran more than two cars in a race. In the French GP of 1952 Scuderia Ferrari drivers occupied all three of the podium spots.

    In the modern era of two cars per team I believe the most consecutive double podium finishes (prior to Mercedes this season) was five.

  27. in my opionion Vettel is the BEST DRIVER THE SPORT HAS EVER SEEN!!
    i think he will definetelt CRUSH ALL THE F1 RECORDS

    1. @sameercader You must’ve mistaken the facts and stats for ‘my opinion on’. Even though he might be the best there ever was it is very unlikely he will ever score 50 more wins…

      1. @xtwl when Schumacher achieved the same record he was 31 years old
        Vettel did at 28
        so i would say he has got a long career ahead and should be able to overhaul Schumacher’s record of 91 wins

        1. @sameercader So Vettel is going to win 50 races in three to four seasons? Yes, very likley indeed.

          1. Well he can win 60 in 6 seasons then :P If he had 100 GP wins, percentage would be maybe a bit less important…

          2. Considering this is his 8th and a half season in F1, Schumacher at this point had 35 race wins and Vettel has 41. He’s not really much behind Schumacher. More like, Ferrari are expected to give him 2000-2005 cars for the next 5 years to get to the same level.
            Btw, does people consider the fact that Schumacher had less race entries and maybe wins because he was banned or had accident and couldn’t participate in races for a serious number of races?

          3. He means Vettel has 41 wins by the age of 28, and Schumacher had 41 wins by the age of 31, not 91 wins by the age of 31.

          4. Vettel will not only equal Schumacher’s records but will surpass them! @xtwl

  28. if we use the counting system of Senna’s era the results is the same ?

  29. I’m sure someone else has pointed this out already, but if you go by number of races COMPLETED, then Senna still comes out ahead: 41 wins in 128 races finished, VS 41 wins in 135 races finished for Vettel. All arguments aside, I doubt history will say anything OTHER than that Vettel is one of the greats of F1. And we live in a period filled with them. Hamilton will go down as a great as well. So will Alonso. And Raikkonen and Button may not go down as all-time greats, but they will go down as champions. Pretty stellar time we live in.

    What I wouldn’t give to see all these drivers battle each other in the SAME car.

    1. To be honest I do hope Raikkonen will be remembered in the way Mansell is; rather than ‘oh, he had only 1 world championship’ (such as perhaps Keke Rosberg, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, depending on who you ask), but that he fought for more. It’s crazy to think of how good Raikkonen was between 2003 and 2007 and how he’s perceived now.

  30. Ben Edwards said Vettel is now the driver with most points behind his name.

    1. I think Alonso equalled him by coming a surprising 5th. Very interesting that last race Vettel finished ahead of Kvyat who could have gotten the podium and managed to keep his youngest podium scorer record intact. At the moment Kvyat is the second youngest podium scorer. Sainz has til Mexican GP to take the record. But Verstappen has til almost the end of 2018. One would think it’s now impossible for Vettel to hold that record.

    2. Yes, but so is Alonso. They have exactly the same number of points at the moment.

      @xtwl

      1. @mike-dee Well, who ever would expected to see him in fifth.

  31. Riiciardo has still never finished (and kept) a 2nd place finish.

    1. When he’s 2nd he goes for 1st, when he’s off-podium he goes for podium, half the time succeeds half the time fails, generally overaggressive. Not that I think he shouldn’t go for better results. Just overaggressive really.

  32. “The top four drivers in the race all drove for Toro Rosso at some stage in their careers.”
    And the fifth driver across the line drove for Toro Rosso’s predecessor team Minardi. Happy days in Faenza.

  33. Vettel has 1 more race to go to match Senna’s deserved tally ;)

  34. Tracks where Vettel has raced but not won: Red Bull Ring, Magny-Cours, Hockenheim, Sochi, Indianapolis.

    Having started on pole, Hamilton finished 3 places lower than he managed last year starting from the pit-lane.

    First race which Hamilton has not finished on the podium since Belgium 2014, and the first race in which he hasn’t led a lap since Germany 2014. First race without a Mercedes on the podium since Brazil 2013 (also the last race in which they failed to lead a lap).

    Lotus have had 5 7th-place finishes this year without finishing higher.

    First time that Stevens has started last (excluding Malaysia where he failed to start).

    All of the top 5 managed their best results of the season (joint best in Vettel’s case).

    Still no driver has finished 8th more than once this season.

    1. Michael Brown
      28th July 2015, 3:21

      Didn’t Hamilton retire from the Belgian GP last year, meaning he didn’t finish?

      1. Yes. Belgium 2014 was the last time he didn’t finish on the podium, which is what @paulgilb said.

        1. What I mean is the last race Hamilton finished that wasn’t on the podium

  35. @keithcollantine

    A thought with the comparison stats table between Senna and Vettel.

    Some of the numbers for Senna are career numbers. You basically could reduce Starts by 3, poles positions by 3 and DNFs by 3 as well.

    Interesting to note, folks were saying before Hungary, if Lewis won 3 of the next 4 races, he’d match Senna’s total in the same number of races. But Hungary was Lewis’s 158th race, the same number it took Senna to win 41.

    1. Do we deduct Vettels half season? I dont see the logic…..

  36. Michael Brown
    28th July 2015, 3:14

    Not only has Vettel won in Hungary the first time, he also won a Grand Prix in July for the first time – his birth month.

    1. Not quite, it’s the second time- the first being the 2013 German Grand Prix.

      1. Both long awaited victories then…

  37. One key aspect of being a world champion is to make sure you are in the right team at the right time , Vettel is very good at this.

    1. What people forget is the fact that this guy is barely 28 years old, and he’s been racing for 7-8 years now. LOL

      1. *racing for ONLY 7-8 years now

    2. Vettel seems to coincide with teams going to the top, rather than joining the best team, though. Don’t forget Toro Rosso and Red Bull weren’t exactly powerhouses when he joined then and Ferrari hadn’t won a race for nearly 2 years when he won Malaysia. Perhaps he’s the opposite of Jean Alesi, who managed to move to teams when they were losing ground (Ferrari in between the semi-successful period with Albereto/Berger/Prost/Mansell, Benetton as they lost their way and key staff, Sauber after their progress seemed to halt, Prost GP as they lost all French backing).

  38. This event included the slowest recorded qualifying laps since whenever it was they stopped racing on 20 mile courses.

    I say this because after Alonso’s stoppage in Q2 brought out the red flags, the timing computer didn’t clear the current laps, thus when drivers exited the pits and got around to start their next laps, the computer registered a lap time. I don’t have the exact numbers, but I remember seeing it say “Hamilton +315” (ish). Appropriately Maldonado took the record with +550ish.

    1. Yeah I saw that. Doesn’t that count as mistake though?

  39. Hamilton’s streak of leading 18races have ended.. or not?
    He did lead the extra formation lap.. it counts as lap1 of the race if I’m not mistaken.. so technically I think he led that lap.
    Depends how that is counted I guess..

    1. That lap didn’t count as it was actually deducted from the total number of race laps.
      The race started on lap 1 of 69, not 2 of 70.

    2. @solidg

      He did lead the extra formation lap.. it counts as lap1 of the race if I’m not mistaken

      Afraid not – the extra formation lap is just another formation lap, and the race distance was reduced by one lap. It’s not the same as, for example, the race starting behind the Safety Car, where the cars pulls away from the grid and it’s immediately lap one.

  40. Please don’t compare senna and vettel.it is a great injustice to the legend of senna.compare senna with Alonso or Hamilton still no match but at least didn’t look odd.but vettel absolute nonsense .

    1. Your comment is absolute nonsense. Like it or not, the achievements of currents greats like Vettel (and Hamilton) will warrant these comparisons to past greats like Senna.

  41. Donlijez (@)
    29th July 2015, 11:22

    Prost had Lauda, Senna and D. Hill
    Vettel had Bourdais, Webber, Ricciardo and now Raikonnen.
    Hamilton had Alonso, Kovalainen, Button, Rosberg (same age).
    Alonso had Trulli, Fisichella, Hamilton, Massa and now Button.
    Senna had D. Hill, Prost and Berger.
    Schumacher had no. 2 drivers.
    I’m a real sports fan, I want the best drivers in the same cars fighting it out. Shumacher and Vettel are not on the “greats” list for me (my opinion). I actually rate Vettel more than I rate Schumacher, as he’s paired with a fellow world champion while Schumacher hasn’t. In order for Vettel to join Alo and Ham in my list of “greats”; he needs to pair with Hamilton at the end of his Mercedes contract.
    The battle between these two will be great to watch especially in qualifying.

  42. Evil Homer (@)
    30th July 2015, 15:09

    @elio

    I am a bit late in on this one mate but to say Senna NEVER beat Prost is a bit of a laugh to be honest, as some of the responses and stats will tell you. Senna beat Prost in their time in McLaren and then when he went to Ferrari as well- you need to look at the car when Prost dominated in 1992- it was no contest- but psychologically he SMASHED him over the years!! Alain Prost is one of the best of the best for all time- but Senna was the only guy that could get into his head a bit and mess him up!! A young fast punk beat him!!

    To compare Berger and Webber? That’s a hard one- I am a BIG fan of both. Mark Webber would have been WDC if had not crashed in Korea in 2010 – its as easy as that! His mistake :( Gerhard Berger was played a different hand in F1 – he played with Senna, Prost, Mansell & Piquet! Gerhard was an exceptional F1 driver that had to race against 4 of the all time best- easy a WDC in some other time IMO but certainly not just ‘yes man’ to Senna!

    1. Evil Homer (@)
      30th July 2015, 15:22

      @elio
      Having said that I was in Long Beach in LA in April with my lad for the Formula E- it was great to see and chat to many ex F1 guys but my 9 y.o. keeps telling the world “I had a photo and got to speak with Formula One Champion Alain Prost” -we went to Disneyland and many other things, but if meeting a 4 x WDC is his highlight I am happy with that :)

  43. One other thing I’ve just noticed – the podium featured 2 drivers with variants of the same first name (Daniil and Daniel) – when did this last happen? Neither Sebastien Bourdais nor Sebastien Buemi managed a podium, Michael Andretti’s only podium did not feature Michael Schumacher, and Mika Hakkinen did not feature on either of Mika Salo’s podiums.

    One example I can find is John ‘Jack’ Brabham and John ‘Jackie’ Stewart in South Africa 1970.

    1. @paulgilb
      There’s Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx who raced together between 1967-1973.

  44. Toro Rosso never won a race before Vettel came or since. Red Bull never won a race before Vettel came and so far since he left. Whether he is one of the great drivers or not in my mind he is the best setup driver, maybe ever.

    The difference between him and other drivers is that he can communicate with the designers and mechanics as to what is amiss. That is why Ferrari wanted him. Alonso maybe faster but he is not a plus in improving the car.

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