The two halves of the 2013 championship: Drivers

2013 F1 season review

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In a previous article we looked at how the mid-season changes in tyres and tyre use affected the teams.

This table gives the same data broken down by driver, showing how many points they scored before and after the changes to the tyres, and shows whether their average points haul at each race rose or fell after the British Grand Prix:

DriverRds 1-8Rds 9-19Rounds 1-8 avg.Rounds 9-19 avg.DifferenceTotal
Sebastian Vettel13226516.5024.0946.00397
Mark Webber8711210.8810.18-6.43199
Fernando Alonso11113113.8811.91-14.19242
Felipe Massa57557.135.00-29.87112
Jenson Button25483.134.3639.3073
Sergio Perez12371.503.36124.0049
Kimi Raikkonen*988512.259.44-22.94183
Romain Grosjean261063.259.64196.62132
Nico Rosberg828910.258.09-21.07171
Lewis Hamilton8910011.139.09-18.33189
Nico Hulkenberg6450.754.09445.3351
Esteban Gutierrez060.000.556
Paul di Resta36124.501.09-75.7848
Adrian Sutil2362.880.55-80.9029
Pastor Maldonado010.000.091
Valtteri Bottas040.000.364
Jean-Eric Vergne1301.630.0013
Daniel Ricciardo1191.380.82-40.5820
Charles Pic000.000.000
Giedo van der Garde000.000.000
Jules Bianchi000.000.000
Max Chilton000.000.000

*Did not start last two races

Nico Hulkenberg and Romain Grosjean gained the most after the tyres were changed.

Most pairs of team mates responded to the change in tyres in a similar way: the Force India and Toro Rosso drivers scored worse, the Sauber and McLaren drivers scored better.

But Lotus were a major exception to this rule. While Kimi Raikkonen’s points-scoring rate fell (even taking into account the fact he didn’t enter the last two races), Grosjean’s went through the roof. That allowed Grosjean to catch and pass Felipe Massa for seventh in the drivers’ championship.

Red Bull’s gains from the tyre changes was more modest than, say, Sauber’s, but it was entirely accounted for by Sebastian Vettel, as Mark Webber’s points-scoring rate fell in the second half of the season.

Who do you think gained and lost the most after the tyres were altered? Have your say in the comments.

2013 F1 season


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Image © Lotus/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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13 comments on “The two halves of the 2013 championship: Drivers”

  1. Does this take in to account Webber’s mechanical issues?

    1. @pscarros It doesn’t take anyone’s retirements for any reasons into account, it’s just the points they scored.

    2. Why should it only take Webber’s issues into account?

  2. Very interesting insight Keith! Vergne and Riccardo’s comparison is very interesting, seeing Vergne taking didderly squat in the 2nd half.

    1. Yep and that shows beter the evolution of team score and how drivers picked up or lost form …

  3. Relatively speaking in the driver pairings, Mercedes were the most consistent with their drivers.

    1. Wrong: it’s the Marussia and Caterham drivers @aveenr. ;)

      To borrow one of BadF1stat’s facts: both Marussia and Caterham have impressively scored exactly the same number of points in every race since the 2010 Bahrain GP! :o

      1. @vettel1 not just that, they also tie in the amount of times they changed the team’s name ! 1-1. And also the amount of drivers that drove for each outfit. 7-7

        So it’s really neck and neck all across every single topic! :P

        1. Amazing similarities! :o And they’ve also been having trade-off’s for 10th place @fer-no65!

          1. @vettel1 And they promised the battle will continue for next year, champagne !!!

          2. @vettel1 and they both fitted Pirellis this year ! :O

  4. Very nice analysis @keithcollantine . Especially considering the unprecedented tire changes that certainly did have an effect on the season as statistically demonstrated here. I think some of the stats show a progression or regression by certain drivers individually as well as the progression or regression of the car as effected by the tires. Grosjean, for example, progressed individually. Hulkenberg progressed more individually while both Sauber cars progressed as a team in the second half. Telling stats for an unusual situation that I hope never repeats.

  5. Vettel was the best in the first half and the best in the second half, and yet some people try to make it look like he was helped only by the tyre changes. He was the best driver this season, period. Phenomenal consistency.

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