Button tipped to boost home wins record

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From Moss to Clark (above) to Mansell: British fans have seen 21 home wins

Britain has had more home winners of its Grand Prix than any other country.

And with Jenson Button favourite to win again this year, that record could grow even further this weekend.

British winners in the British Grand Prix

Of the 59 British Grands Prix to date, 21 have been won by home drivers:

Stirling Moss – 1955
Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks – 1957
Peter Collins – 1958
Jim Clark – 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967
Jackie Stewart – 1969, 1971
James Hunt – 1977
John Watson – 1981
Nigel Mansell – 1986, 1987, 1991, 1992
Damon Hill – 1994
Johnny Herbert – 1995
David Coulthard – 1999, 2000
Lewis Hamilton – 2008

No other country has made it into double figures – not even Italy, the only other nation to have held a Grand Prix in every year of the world championship:

CountryHome winsHome winnersHome races
Great Britain211259
Brazil9436
France8358
Germany5255
Argentina4120
Italy4359

Other races with home winners: Austria, South Africa, Canada, Spain, USA.

And had James Hunt not been stripped of his win in 1976 the British total would be even higher.

Jenson Button: the 14th winner?

After winning six of the first seven races, it’s no surprise that Jenson Button is the favourite to win again this weekend.

Bookmakers Paddy Power are giving 8/11 odds on Button to win, 9/2 on Sebastian Vettel and 15/2 on Rubens Barrichello. The chances of a repeat win for Lewis Hamilton? A slender 40/1.

But those of you hoping for anything other than another Button win can take heart from this: I’m going to my sixth British Grand Prix this weekend – and I’ve never seen a home win yet.

Whether anyone will get a chance to win the British Grand Prix in 2010 depends on Simon Gillett’s vision of a race at Donington coming true – or Silverstone pulling something spectacular out of the bag. If it doesn’t happen, at least it’ll give the rest a chance to catch up.

More about British drivers and the British Grand Prix

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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58 comments on “Button tipped to boost home wins record”

  1. Interesting stat, Keith.

    I would like to point out, though, that percentage-wise the difference in home wins between Great Britain (35.6%) and Brazil (25,0%) is somewhat smaller than the absolute numbers imply. Plus, when you take into account the total number of drivers from each country, Brazil is at 14.3% regarding home winners, with Great Britain on 7.8%.

    Additionally, I’d like to see a stat on home wins and home winners with the number of drivers in their respective home races, but I couldn’t find a quick way to extract the number of e.g. British drivers in the British GP from Forix.

    And had James Hunt not been stripped of his win in 1976 the British total would be even higher.

    Oh, and IIRC, Hunt shouldn’t have restarted the race at all, regarding this one… ;-)

    1. thanks for elaborating on the figures.

      i am shocked at the italian numbers. i thought the french would have faired better, too. (you can make your own joke there)

  2. I am keeping my hopes up for Button of course, and this time the media do not appear to have hyped him up the way they usually do with British F1 drivers. Though I have a feeling all may not go according to plan…..

  3. Interesting stat. I guess the Italian numbers may have to do with the small total number of wins by Italian drivers.
    Maybe a stat about constructor home wins would also be interesting…

  4. Hey Keith, can you explain what the difference is between home wins and home winners is please.

    1. I assume Home wins means total number of races won by a driver from that country, whereas Home winners is the total number of drivers from that country to win their home race.

      For Great Britain 12 different drivers have won the British Grand Prix a total of 21 times.

  5. Don’t you mean Button the 13th win?

  6. If ‘home’ were considered country of residence, as opposed to country of birth, how would Monaco fare?

    (@Macca, Jim Clark = 5 home wins, but 1 home winner)

    1. Bet almost every Monaco GP in recent times would have a home win :-D

  7. The figures aren’t that surprising when you consider the number of World Champions from Britain compared with other countries. Also although currently Germany has the most F1 drivers in previous years I think it was usually Britain.

  8. If you take the total number of drivers from each WDC-winning country into account, the list is somewhat different.
    # Country WDCs Drivers Percentage
    1 Finland 4 8 50,00%
    2 Brazil 8 28 28,57%
    3 Austria 4 15 26,67%
    4 Australia 4 17 23,53%
    5 Argentina 5 25 20,00%
    6 Spain 2 12 16,67%
    7 Germany 7 51 13,73%
    8 New Zealand 1 8 12,50%
    9 Great Britain 13 154 8,44%
    10 Canada 1 12 8,33%
    11 France 4 69 5,80%
    12 South Africa 1 19 5,26%
    13 Italy 3 97 3,09%
    14 United States 2 156 1,28%

    1. Well, that looks like cr^p… :(

      1. Doesn’t look like crap to me. It looks like Britain have had 154 F1 drivers and 13 WDCs.

        Admittedly, our percentage success is not very high, but that is largely due to statistical bias that favours countries with fewer drivers.

        As there can be only one WDC each year, having any more than one driver from the same country at any one time will automatically reduce the winning percentage for that country. You will notice that all countries with over 30 drivers are in the bottom half of the table.

    2. Great info bud, but in regards to the American drivers..I presume your 156 F1 drivers includes all the Indy 500 drivers in that 10-year span of involvement. I believe if you take those guys out, we end up with something like 46-48 Americans with at least one GP start to their credit. Not as many as many other nations, but still alot to be proud of.

  9. Wonder how many “Jenson fans” this year were “Hamilton fans” last year

    1. Why can’t you be both?

      I’m a Jenson fan, I’m also a Hamilton fan, I was previously a Coulthard, Davidson, Hill, Mansell, Herbert et al fan.

      I’m British so I support all the British drivers.

      That said, next year, I’ll be supporting Manor as I’m a Yorkshireman and they’re from Yorkshire!!

      1. Yup, I was a Jenson fan last year as much as I was a lewis fan last year. It’s just that one had more to cheer about than the other.

        1. Well said!

      2. Nothing wrong with being both. It’s just most people I know were hardcore Hamilton fans now suddenly don’t like him and love Jenson

  10. I have a question, how come there are 2 winners for 1957?

    I’m sure it’s a simple explanation, but one which I have overlooked!!

    1. Indeed a simple explanation. From Wikipedia:

      The race was won by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, who shared driving duties in a Vanwall.

      1. See, I told you it’d be a simple one I’d overlooked – I only looked at the overall season stats and they listed Stirling Moss as the winner of the British GP and it never occurred to me that more than one driver would share an F1 drive..!!

  11. The figure I’m most surprised with is the Germans. I would have thought Schumi would have won at Hockenheim and Nurburgring more that you have stated? Or have you discounted the European GP as a home GP? I also have 3 German drivers that have won – R schumacher, M schumacher and J Rindt for a total of 7 wins. Am I missing something again?

    1. Jochen Rindt was born in Germany but grew up with his grandparents in Austria. His parents were killed in a bombing raid.
      I think he entered as Austrian.

      1. Wow are you on the ball persempre. Can I ask, if I were to come to your house would I creeped out with the F1 memorabilia strewn across not just the lounge room but also the slightly worrying F1 paraphernalia in the bedroom? But seriously, either I didn’t read that far into the Wiki listing or they didn’t mention what you have pointeed out.

        1. LOL – No, I don`t actually collect much memorabilia. :)
          I might creep you out, though ;)

  12. Then to really pick your stats apart. You have stated that the British have won “x” amount of races but if you’re going to be consistent when you are comparing countries I think it is unfair to group the British drivers when they are clearer from seperate “countries”. So I have the English with 11 of 21. The Scots with 9 of 21 and the Irish with 1 of 21.

    1. Fair comment.
      We only call them Brits when they win, anyway. They`re definitely Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish when they lose ;)

      1. I’m creeping myself out with the appreciation I have for your sense of humour…!
        Finally a F1 Fanatic who isn’t wearing too much of their heart on their sleeve! (Only when his man is winning though)

        1. :O It`s possible to wear your heart on your sleeve but not to have your head in the sand at the same time, you know ;)

    2. Interesting point, but England, Scotland and Wales are all part of the island known as Great Britain. These together form the state known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, usually known as the UK or (somewhat incorrectly) Britain.

      The nationality that appears on an FIA driving licence is the same as that of the driver’s passport. As there is no separate English, Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish citizenship, all F1 drivers from these places are listed as British drivers (although citizens of Northern Ireland can also apply for citizenship of The Republic of Ireland if they so choose).

      1. Except when they’re losing it seems ^^^ lol

        1. We issue passports on the assumption that Brits will win, of course ;)

          1. So why in A1GP is there an Irish team but there is also a Great Britin team. Souldn’t the Great British team be England.

          2. That’s the Republic of Ireland, the southern part, which is an independent country.

  13. Shouldn’t Brazil home winners be 5 instead of 4?

    Carlos Pace, Fittipaldi, Piquet, Senna and Massa.

  14. Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks – 1957

    AND!?

  15. LOL at your personal stat :P…!

  16. I like hamsters.

  17. Hamsters provide me with a source of comfort.

    1. That’s just racist to Gerbils!

  18. Hamsters are God’s gift to the world.

  19. Praise be to hamsters.

  20. There can be no doubt that hamsters are far superior to the British GP, or even rats, mice or other rodents.

  21. Something tells me that Ferrari will be Brawn’s primary threat this weekend, not RBR.

  22. Great info, but I am somewhat suprised that Great Britian had only 154 drivers in F1 history- I would have thought the number would be much higher than that.

    Good to see the list of nations with home wins for their drivers. I remember Andretti won at Long Beach one year, but was there another American who won a race on home soil?

  23. pity finland doesn’t host a grand prix, they’ve had 3 world champions & some pretty decent drivers. dunno why they never got a chance to host. matbe its too cold in finland or maybe its in the polar region & never get good sunlight. are there any good racing tracks in finland? i suppose finland would have given a close fight to brazil.

  24. hope barrichello causes some heart-break. cuz the british are always honeymooning with their drivers. the british i think have had enough british home winners.far too many. i don’t think anyone can catch up with Britain. for the next 50 years. please anyone attending the race would do well to carry ant-max mosley posters,banners & placards.
    i would also suggest burning down his effigy if its allowed inside the track.

    1. I also hope Rubens scores a victory here but it will still be BRAWN GP, so I guess that’s still a British team.

  25. My heart tells me that this is the race that Rubens will finish ahead of Jenson, and probably win it. But, I have absolutely no desire to see that happen.

    That said, I was at Barcelona this weekend for the MotoGP (awesome it was, F1 will never compete as a sporting spectacle) and my heart said that Lorenzo would be hard to beat and would win it… and hard to beat he was, but Rossi did it as only Rossi can… Awesome!

    1. I watched it on TV and the last few laps were just brilliant. Personally it didn’t beat the last few laps of Brazil 2008 for drama simply because that decided the championship.

      I agree that MotoGP is a better sporting spectacle than F1 at the moment, and if I did not already support F1 and came to both sports as a new fan I would choose MotoGP.

      Just compare the way MotoGP riders can celebrate after a race compared with what F1 drivers have to do.

      1. Personally it didn’t beat the last few laps of Brazil 2008 for drama simply because that decided the championship.

        Fair point, and one that is often heard. I was discussing this recently, and agreed it is high because it decided the championship but, and lets be honest here, it was a pretty wishy washy way to do it… slithering past a car that you’re not sure who it is, needing the team to confirm, not really overtaking more the other car going backwards. Compare that with a gutsy move down the inside for the win, on really the last corner of the last lap, that only Rossi could pull off after an awesome race long tussle and a titanic final 3 laps.

        As you said, the only reason Brazil was titanic was because it decided the championship, otherwise nobody would be talking about Lewis getting fifth on the last corner of the last lap… certainly not in any dramatic way anyway.

  26. The Moto GP in Barcelona last weekend was great, I was sure Rossi was holding back and could have overtaken on numerous occasions during the final 10 laps.

    I am very disillusioned with F1 this year; I’ve been an F1 fan since the 1960’s. I have nothing against Jensen Button’s successes, but it just confirms that it’s all down to the car. I used to argue against this before, like 1992 when Mansell dominated in his active Williams. They said at the time a monkey could win in that car, and because I was a big Mansell fan I was outraged! It’s now got me thinking and revaluating those F1 years. Again 1988 McLaren with Senna; was that the driver or the car??

    1. I was sure Rossi was holding back and could have overtaken on numerous occasions during the final 10 laps.

      But that is what is so cool about the ability to overtake in MotoGP. He knew, as did Lorenzo when he was behind, that he could make a move when he needed to and that he could spend some time understanding the weaknesses of the rider in front, make the move and then pull out a gap. Except neither of them could make the gap, it was that close, and because of that the final 3 laps was some of the best motorsport we have ever seen.

    2. Again 1988 McLaren with Senna; was that the driver or the car?

      At least in 1988 Senna had a World Class teammate in Prost, so you can take something from that.

      Wait a minute though, on hear people are always saying Rubens is better than Button and that Rubens dominated Button in the last 3 years, Keith even pointed to it in his post about the British GP that Rubens has beat Button the last 3 years (although again stats don’t tell the full story). So how does that compare with Senna/Prost!?! Is Button really that good, is it the car and Rubens has fallen off this year, are people here disillusioned? Do we care?

      All that should matter is that a British Driver worthy of his place is in front, and we should support him. Formula 1 is not entertaining like it should be, and only freedom to innovate within a tight budget will allow true competition we can enjoy.

    3. I agree. I was a huge Damon Hill fan but I can admit he had easily the best car that year and someone like Schumacher or Hakkinnen were much much better drivers

  27. Even Schumacher couldn’t win in a Force India

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