Mercedes make most dominant start since 1992

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix stats and facts

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Lewis Hamilton’s 24th career win means he has tied with Juan Manuel Fangio in tenth place on the list of the sport’s most prolific winners.

Unusually for a driver with so many victories to his name, he is yet to win more than two in a row. This is the fourth time he has done so, following previous back-to-back wins in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

There was no repeat of his Malaysia ‘grand slam’ as team mate Nico Rosberg took the pole position. That was the fifth of his career, giving him as many as his father Keke, as well as Giuseppe Farina, Chris Amon, Clay Regazzoni and Patrick Tambay.

Rosberg also claimed the sixth fastest lap of his career, moving him level with Jose Froilan Gonzalez, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Emerson Fittipaldi, Carlos Reutemann and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

Having scored their first one-two for 59 years in Malaysia, Mercedes added a second just seven days later in Bahrain. It’s the seventh time they have done so and their 16th win, the same number of victories as Cooper. They also marked their 20th pole position.

For the third race in a row every lap was led by a Mercedes driver. That’s the most dominant start any team has made to a season since 1992, when Williams led all of the first five races, plus the first 70 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Sergio Perez scored the fourth podium finish of his career. Force India is the second team he has taken a podium finish with – he also did at Sauber, but not at McLaren.

This was the first time a Force India has been classified in third place. It’s their second podium finish, following on from Giancarlo Fisichella’s second place in the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo scored the best result of his career so far with fourth place – assuming his disqualification from second in the Australian Grand Prix is upheld by the FIA Court of Appeal one week from today.

McLaren posted their first retirement since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix when Kevin Magnussen retired with a clutch problem. As a result Magnussen failed to score for the first time in his three-race career – as did Daniil Kvyat.

This was the first time since last year’s British Grand Prix that there wasn’t a Red Bull on the front row or a McLaren in the points. Meanwhile Ferrari racked up their 70th consecutive race in the points – the last time they failed to score was at the 2010 British Grand Prix.

During practice Felipe Nasr and Robin Frijns made their first appearances in an official F1 session. With Giedo van der Garde also performing practice duties for Sauber this was the first time two Dutch drivers were on track at the same time at a grand prix weekend since practice for the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, when Christijan Albers was racing for Midland and Robert Doornbos drove for Red Bull.

Several milestones were reached in Sunday’s race including the 900th round of the world championship.

Jenson Button marked his 250th grand prix start though he failed to score after suffering a similar problem to Magnussen.

This was also the 400th start for the team which started life as Jordan in 1991 and is now called Force India, having also appeared as Midland (2006) and Spyker (2007).

Review the year so far in statistics here:

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

2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Image © Williams/LAT

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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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78 comments on “Mercedes make most dominant start since 1992”

  1. So far the start of this season reminds me of the 1998 and 1999 seasons when the McLaren was so strong as I recall Hakkinen and Coulthard lapped everyone but Schumacher.

    1. That is exactly what I compared it to @velocityboy. I believe the W05 is the car with the greatest pace advantage since then – so it will be interesting to see if they can maintain it (though McLaren were severely handicapped by the inexplicable banning of their split braking system).

      1. and Ferrari’s ability to test almost 24/7 until they caught up. While the testing ban may save teams a few dollars (which I really doubt), it will severely limit a teams ability to close such a wide gap so I don’t see Mercedes being caught unless someone protests something they’re doing and wins.

      2. I certainly have never seen such dominance in my time (since 2007). They have put together an impressive car.

        Also, for the third race in the row, half point were awarded, this has never happened…..

        1. lol nice one

    2. @velocityboy – yeah! in Oz the Mclarens lapped everyone up to 3rd place (Frentzen) and did the same in Brazil I believe! (Schumacher)

  2. Interesting fact: at every Bahrain Grand Prix this year Gutierrez has rolled his car.

    1. Pastor Maldonado has rolled someone over in every race he’s finished this year

  3. Here are some stats I found
    – As was said in the article Daniel Ricciardo’s 4th place was the best result in his career. Just like Vettel he failed to score points in his first 2 grand prix for Red Bull racing and scored points in the 3rd race.

    – Mercedes have led every lap so far this season, the set the fastest lap in every race, and were on pole every race so far. This is the first time in history this has happened. In 1992 and 1988 there were at least two teams who set the fastest lap of the race in the first 3 races.

    – For the first time since 1999 both Saubers failed to finish for 2 races in a row

    – We already had 20 retirements in the first 3 races of this season. That is four times as much as the 5 retirements we had in the last 3 races of last season

    – Guttierez flip was the first time a Formula 1 car rolled since Mark Webber flew over the back of the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen. Here are all the rolls from the last ten years: Klien Hungary 2005, Albers Imola 2006, Heidfeld Indianapolis 2006, Kubica Canada 2007 and Webber Valencia 2010

    – Red Bull have scored 2.495,5 points to date so next race they can get to 2.500 points, meanwhile Mercedes have scored 992 points to date so they can get to 1000 points in the next race

    – In his 22 GP’s Valtteri Bottas scored 22 points, he drove with 2 different engines had 2 team mates and retired only 2 times.

    – Small note on the article. The last time two Dutch drivers were together on track during a GP weekend was in Brazil 2006, when Christijan Albers finished 14th in a Midland and Robert Doornbos finished his last GP in 12th place in a Red Bull

    1. Enjoying the Merc, retirements and flip stats!

      1. – In his 22 GP’s Valtteri Bottas scored 22 points, he drove with 2 different engines had 2 team mates and retired only 2 times.

        So more Bo22as than Bo77as then? :D

        1. Blooming block quote!

    2. @jlracing Thanks have changed the Doornbos/Albers text.

    3. Mercedes have so far not won any race that they were not on pole.

      1. Thats wrong as FA won China last year when Hamilton got pole.

        1. Reading comprehension please

          1. Lol’ed.

        2. He means that every win has followed a Merc pole. Not that every pole resulted in a win.

    4. Great job. Do you have any statistics regarding how many safety cars there were on each track?

  4. Having scored their first one-two for 59 years in Malaysia, Mercedes added a second just eight days later in Bahrain.

    I guess that should be seven days.

    The only races on this years calender (besides the new Russian and Austrian GPs) where Hamilton has yet to win a race are Spain and Brazil I believe. Within the last 8 days he has won at 2 other races where he had previously not done so. He has never won rounds 4 or 5 of an F1 championship which come next.

    1. *He has won in Japan before, but at a different circuit.

      For previous race, he also never won in France, Valencia specifically, any race called the ‘European GP’, India or South Korea.

  5. This was Rosberg’s 150th GP (and 150th start).

    1. Really surprised that one slipped through, I don’t think I heard that mentioned anywhere in the build up to the race or during it.

  6. Every time Perez has stood on the podium, Hamilton has also been on there (Malaysia 2012 being the only one that Hamilton failed to win).

    Maldonado’s 14th means it was the first time that car no. 13 has finished a race I believe.

    First time since 1999 that Sauber has had two consecutive double retirements, and the first time since 2006 (USA) that both McLarens retired from a race.

    Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso have been at it all season so far, but Bahrain was the first time he has finished ahead of him so far this season.

    Sebastian Vettel finished 6th. His worst classified finish since Brazil 2012, where he won the title. His teammate was also 4th in that race and Nico Hulkenberg was 5th.

    Force India are currently 2nd in the WCC. The highest they have been. Marussia retook Caterham for 10th, thanks to Max Chilton’s two 13th places.

    Nico Rosberg has halved Lewis Hamilton’s lead in the race for the FIA Pole Position trophy, it’s currently 2-1 to the Brit. Max Chilton has still scored as many pole positions in a turbo-powered F1 car as Sebastian Vettel.

    No Ferrari in the top 8 since Britain 2010. No Ferrari powered car in the top 8 since Singapore 2009.

    Force India have become the fourth team to appear on the podium this season, although only one team has won a race so far! Also three different drivers in third place for seven races in a row now (Grosjean, Rosberg, Webber, Alonso, Button/Magnussen, Vettel, Perez).

    Lewis Hamilton has won two out of the first three races for the first time. In fact, before this year, it has taken him 6 races to win two races (2008).

    Hamilton is likely to beat Jim Clark’s record of most poles for a British driver (33) and he could well beat Mansell’s record of most wins (31).

    1. Also three different drivers in third place for seven races in a row now

      D’oh! Should be seven different drivers!

    2. Maldonado’s 14th means it was the first time that car no. 13 has finished a race I believe.

      When you see the number 13, you know you’re out of luck. Although i guess to Gutierrez it looked more like El

  7. Mercedes, as a constructor, has now led more than 1 000 laps : 1 013 exactly.

  8. 1 more record = This is the WORST of Raikkonen’s race performance of his entire career.
    He questioning the Mercedes engines overtaking advantage, like he forgot his Bahrain 2012 performance already. Give him Mark Slade and equal priority please!

    1. I’m pretty sure Raikkonen has finished lower than 10th in his career before. I am sure that Ferrari are running equal priority otherwise Kimi probably wouldn’t have rejoined Ferrari when he had options like Red Bull and McLaren.

      1. Kimi finished 12th in his last race for ferrari in 09

    2. Both drivers have had equal priority. Both drivers have been equal on track: Slow.

      1. Kimi has been stating that he is not able to set the car up to his liking – Kimi is known for being very sensitive to set up changes, which does have the downside that sometimes he struggles to adapt to a new car or to new parts (see Monaco 2012 and 2013 for example, where he wasn’t comfortable with the Monaco spec steering rack and ended up struggling for pace). What Kimi really needs is time to adapt to the car, but that is a luxury that he might not have available to him when races are ticking away.

  9. In the first three races
    Mercedes got 86% of the possible points.
    is the best percentage since 94% of Ferrari in 2004

    first time vettel ending three races in a row without crossing a single lap
    in 2nd place since he came to Red Bull in 2009.

    1. The second stat can’t be right. Vettel had 2 Grand Slams last year, which means he’s been crossing all the laps of those GPs in 1st – meaning he didn’t cross a single lap in 2nd.

      1. @ einariliyev , What I meant is that in three races this year he was not beyond third every lap.
        this had never happened in three races in a row since 2009

  10. * Insert a random Max Chilton stat in an attempt to be funny *

    1. In every one of his 22 starts, Max Chilton has driven a red car

      1. Okay then… Max Chilton has the same amount of points as Mark Webber in 2014. ( Am I doing it right? )

        1. webber isnt even racing this year so your stat is no way funny

          1. It looks like it was an attempt, so I’d say it counts.

    2. @nickf12013
      This was the first time in motorsport history that Max Chilton failed to win the 2014 Bahrain F1 grand prix.
      In other news, Max Chilton has just broken his personal record of consecutive days under the name Max Chilton.

  11. Any idea how many Overtakes there were? It seemed like a lot, or was it just closer / tenser racing?

    I found this database of overtakes, but it hasn’t updated yet:
    http://cliptheapex.com/overtaking/

    1. @The_Pope: Interesting stats, 67 overtakes in Bahrain 2014, but they don’t include overtakes on the first lap and they don’t discuss the period of F1, where the DRS was far too effective. I mean, the DRS driveby’s, are not real overtaking.

  12. When was the last time (before Bahrain) that a Red Bull driver wasn’t on the podium (discounting Australia where Ricciardo did stand up there albeit disqualified)?

    1. Spain last year. Alonso-Räikkönen-Massa top 3.

  13. This was third time since top 10 getting points as only five teams scored points. Previous events were in 2010 at China (McLaren 1-2, Mercedes 3-10, Ferrari 4-9, Renault 5-7 and Red Bull 6-8) and Germany (Ferrari 1-2, Red Bull 3-6, McLaren 4-5, Renault 7-10 and Mercedes 8-9)

    1. I like this stat @bleu

      If Hulkenberg had been able to hold off Ricciardo, then I assume it would have been the first time that the best 5 teams in a race had finished in pairs – Mercedes 1-2, Force India 3-4, Red Bull 5-6, Williams 7-8, Ferrari 9-10.

      1. @georgeod, I was so hoping for that. Because without Maldonado his shunt also the Marussia, Caterhams and Lotusses were driving in pairs at the back. Together with the final DNF from both Saubers, both STRs would also finish behind each other m

  14. This is the first time since the end of 2009 that the No.2 car has failed to score a point in 3 consecutive races, and the first time since the British to Hungarian GPs in 2009 that the No.5 car has failed to score in 3 consecutive races.

  15. Extrapolated to include double points (against my will because I loathe its implimentation, but that’s a separate debate), Mercedes will score 740 points this season.

    To obtain a valid comparison to previous seasons, I will hereby ignore double points.

    In accordance with this, they will score 703 points – 53 more than Red Bull Racing in 2011 (or, in other words, a one-two and a fifth place more), the highest standing constructor’s championship score since the new points system was implimented in 2010.

    Mercedes’ scoring rate stands at 37 points/round. Force India’s (second in the WCC) stands at 14.7 p/r.

    Using these figures, and assuming the rates of the other teams do not increase (a highly unlikely proposition), Mercedes could win the championship at round 13 (they will have amounted 481 points compared to Force India’s 191, with only 258 points available).

    Even in an almost best-case scenario, with Force India securing 3-4’s for the rest of the season, Mercedes would still win on that rate at round 15 (555 vs 368, with 172 points available).

    The basic conclusion is thereby this: Mercedes have quite a good car.

    1. Nice work there. And a great conclusion :)

    2. @vettel1 At this stage. Red Bull already have appeared to have at least caught up in terms of downforce.

      1. @leblep thanks :)

        @craig-o it does appear to be the case, and considering Red Bull have already lost 30 points due to Ricciardo’s disqualification and their pit stop misdemeanour in Malayasia (which you could also argue cost them third in Bahrain – a further 3 points) the statistic isn’t terribly representative. But a 15th round sealing of the constructors championship doesn’t seem to outlandish at this point.

        1. @Vettel1 Could also come down to reliability, with so few power units it could be pretty nip and tuck towards the end of the season!

    3. Nice stats there.
      Also, in the unlikely event that Hamilton and Rosberg finish 1-2 for the rest of the season, Hamilton would wrap up the title after the United States Grand Prix, where he’d have an 87-point lead going into the final two races which offer a maximum of 75 points.

    4. @vettel1
      Sorry, but are you trying to predict the future of the championship based on the result of 3 races, using high school level statistics?

      Im not bashing. But plain statistics fail to include rate of development, human error, reliability, weather and a lot more things.

      2 of the past 3 weekends had wet saw the use of the wet weather tires. That alone has huge implications in the calculations, as we are unlikely to see 2/3 of season ran in wet conditions.

      Sorry, simple stats just don’t work in F1 to predict the future.

  16. Number of finishers so far this season:

    AUS 15
    MAL 16
    BAH 17

    1. @djdaveyp87 Unsure where you got that from, because we had 13 finishers at Australia, 15 in Malaysia and 17 yesterday.

      1. @djdaveyp87 , @djdaveyp87

        Depending on how you measure it, it could be 14, 15, 16 (Bianchi took the chequered flag but was too many laps down to be classified in Australia, Button was classified in Bahrain despite retiring close to the end and not making it to the flag)

  17. I know that I might get slaughtered for this comment but here goes. Don´t get me wrong I enjoyed the Bahrain GP a lot, there was just a lot of that overtaking action we have not seen for far too long time. But after the race I still felt pretty disappointed and realised that for me the missing factor was that after the first corner I knew which team would win it. When I forgot about the Mercedes (which was not too difficult at times, no matter how big TV you were looking the Mercedes cars were not on the same picture), it was just brilliant. I am trying to be honest and maybe it is because my favourite drivers and teams now have to battle to be the best of the rest. If only Mercedes did not have that performance advantage we could potentially have this action throughout the whole season, not for 3rd place but for the win.

    I can not help but think about all the following races this year and the likely outcome. I remember 2009 I felt the same for the first 10 races or so. For all Ros & Ham and Mercedes fans this must be a thriller but now I started thinking for example Alonsos comments and when he said not all races are boring and racing is like football sometimes when some games end 0-0 draw and then you get a 4-3 (I can not remember what he exactly said but the idea was there). Well now we got maybe 5-2 in football but there must be a lot of fans like me who don´t want the same one team slaughtering everyone else week after week, the same fans who don´t want to know the FIFA WC winner after the qualification round (ok bad example). The other year I remember we had like 6 or 7 different winners from the start of the season and that to me was a lot more exciting to see than this. I am going to do some serious rain dancing now and wish that we get rain in every race this year, I mean Mercedes can not always get the strategy right ? And because I don´t want to see some of the drivers having more misfortune than others I am going to hope double rain in the season finale then.

    1. @mattf1f: I already knew which team would win in Bahrain after AUS, what took You so long?;-) – Sorry, couldn’t help it.
      Even if I’m not particularly a Mercedes fan, I don’t mind that someone can demonstrate that it pays of to do Your homework, and I’m glad to see that someone else than Phenomenal Newey can design the winning car. Of course I hope that someone catches up, (probably Neweys design will) but as long as I get to see breathtaking action, I don’t mind that the winning team is decided before the race starts. Rather that than boring races with a change in the Winner every now and then.

      1. @mattf1f @palle

        As hamilton fan it’s been great for me so far this season especially as I consider Hamilton to not have fulfilled his potential so fair in his career.

        But as a Schumacher fan while he was racing I wouldn’t want to watch Hamilton breeze it…I think with Rosberg it will be tight so will be entertaining to watch!

        1. @aledinho: Congratulations then, I’m more a fan of the sport, the engineering competition, and then I amuse myself over (or love to hate) some of the most arrogant and childish top personalities in F1 – no one mentioned, no one forgotten;-)
          I think the RBR, Newey and Vettel era has prevented quite a few drivers to fulfil their potential. The Schumacher and Ferrari domination era is another example.
          That said I’m glad that the shift in domination goes to a team, who hasn’t had it recently. But lets see for how long it goes, the season isn’t over yet and maybe Renault and Ferrari can turn it around a little. And next year McLaren will come with a brand new Honda power unit, and Honda can’t afford to blow it – they have to do their utmost to succeed. So even if Mercedes could’ve lapped the whole field this race, they still only get 25 and 18 points and to be dominant for an era, they have to have a continuous development lead. Brawn didn’t have that, but Newey, RBR and Vettel did, like Ferrari and Schumacher did, probably helped by the Bridgestone tyres.

          1. @palle

            Agreed – I think red bull will be a lot closer by the time the summer break comes around though! And Merc will need to continue the development to stay ahead, i think they have the people there to do that now, which they didn’t nor could afford while they were Brawn but we will see!

          2. The thing is, if we don’t want F1 to be a spec series then there is always going to be the potential for a team to dominate. So even if it would be preferable to always have close racing and never a runaway team, that is hard to achieve, and if anything, with yet another announcement of their inability to instill cost caps, they are going to continue to try to not be a spec series and it will continue to be somewhat a game of who has the biggest budget. Thankfully several teams have big budgets and seem less concerned about capping them…for now.

            Perhaps it helps me that I am pulling for NR, although I haven’t been edge-of-my-seat, butterflies-in-my-stomach passionate about a driver or team since JV left F1 so I’m relatively indifferent.

            But for me this last race was, as has been described by others, a watershed moment. I am hoping that this marks a new era of F1 getting it…getting that even when a team dominates, the drivers being allowed to race is completely night and day different and better than the one-rooster concept that ensures non-racing in the pinnacle of racing.

            If F1 itself has been concerned about what it has done regarding quieter engines and double points and their negative effect, one sure antidote is fantastic racing between two awesome, respectful, sporting teammates with a great comraderie.

            Easy to say I suppose when I’m not sad or mad for my team or driver that is going to struggle for podia this year, but we all saw something impressive and that has been too long coming, and that we need more of, especially if one team is going to dominate.

  18. Both Williams drivers finished in the top eight for the second consecutive race. You have to go all the way back to the 2004 Japanese and Brazilian GPs for the last time they managed this modest achievement.

    Since the 2005 Monaco GP, where they took 2nd and 3rd, Williams have only once had both cars in the top six. And on that occasion, the Australian GP of 2008, there were only six classified finishers…

    Mercedes have taken as many podiums in the last two events as Williams have in the 150 races since they split with BMW at the end of 2005.

  19. That’s the most dominant start any team has made to a season since 1992, when Williams led all of the first five races, plus the first 70 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix

    Because at that point the master of Monaco took over!

    1. …when Mansell had a puncture.

  20. A few from http://magnetimarelli.com/focus-on-racing/F1/20140003:

    First time that the top 4 on the grid were all Mercedes-powered. First time since Europe 2009 that there was no Renault-powered car on the front 2 rows.

    19th race in a row in which only Red Bull and Mercedes have started on the front row (last other was Raikkonen in China 2013). Equals McLaren & Williams’ domination from Britain 1988 to Belgium 1989.

    3rd race in a row that Mercedes have managed pole, win, fastest lap, and every lap led. Last team to do this was Williams in 1993 (Damon’s 3 wins). First team to do this in the first 3 races of a season (Berger managed fastest lap in Brazil 1988).

    First time since France 2008 that a team locked out the front row, led every lap, finished 1-2, and set the 2 fastest laps.

    First team to manage back-to-back 1-2s since McLaren in 2010 (which were also Hamilton’s last back-to-back wins). Amazingly Red Bull have not managed this since 2009.

    2nd race in a row that Massa and Bottas have finished 7th and 8th separated by less than a second.

    Longest Ferrari victory drought since 1995-96.

    First time since Belgium last year that either of the Red Bulls finished the race outside the podium positions (although Webber was classified in Singapore).

    First time since Brazil 2012 that one of the McLarens was not classified.

    First time since Europe 2004 that both McLarens retired due to mechanical failures.

  21. Today marks the 113th day since anyone complained about Tilke designing circuits (subject to verification).

  22. Didn’t Perez lead a lap in a Force India when Hamilton was in the pits?

  23. Another fact:

    Pastor Maldonado has never in his career accepted responsibility for a crash

  24. Jenson Button has appeared in more than 25% formula 1 championship races ever held.

    Michael Schumacher has won over 10% of the Formula 1 races ever held.

  25. If Mercedes takes Redbull place only thing missing is Hamilton raising the finger, unless your are a fan is the same for non Vettel fan.

    If you take mercedes out will be the most contested and closest f1 ever

  26. Here’s a stat from reddit, of all the podiums Perez has had Hamilton has been on all of them and Vettels been on none of them.

  27. Not sure if this has already been mentioned elsewhere, but I’ve just realised so thought I would post.

    Mercedes and Red Bull have now won every race since last year’s Spanish GP – 17 races ago. The last time there was a period this long without a Ferrari or McLaren win was in 1995/96 when 18 races passed between Alesi’s victory in the 1995 Canadian GP and Schumacher’s in the 1996 Spanish GP.

    If Ferrari or McLaren fail to win either of the next two races, it will become the longest streak since 1980/81 when 20 races passed between Villeneuve’s wins in the 1979 USA East GP and the 1981 Monaco GP.

    As far as I’m aware (and I could be wrong!) there has never been a streak longer than 20 races without a Ferrari or McLaren victory in Formula 1 history. That could definitely be broken in Canada if Mercedes’ form continues.

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