Mercedes’ dominant start is record-breaking

2014 Chinese Grand Prix stats and facts

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Lewis Hamilton’s 25th grand prix victory was also the first time he has won three grands prix in a row.

This is a feat which has only been achieved by his fellow world champions with one exception: Stirling Moss, who won the last two races of 1957 and the first of 1958.

With 25 wins, Hamilton has now edged the great Juan Manuel Fangio out of the top ten race winners and moved level with Jim Clark and Niki Lauda.

Hamilton’s 34th pole position puts him on his own in fourth on the all-time list. Ahead of him are Sebastian Vettel (45), Ayrton Senna (65) and Michael Schumacher (68).

As Hamilton also led every lap, the only thing keeping him from his second ‘grand slam’ was the fact Nico Rosberg took fastest lap. That was the seventh of his career, putting him level with Jacques Laffite.

However Hamilton did become the first driver to win the Chinese Grand Prix three times. The only other driver to have won it more than once is Fernando Alonso, the 2005 and 2013 winner.

Alonso can lay claim to an unusual statistic at this track: he remains the only driver to have completed every lap of all 11 Chinese Grands Prix. Of course due to an error this race only ran to 54 laps instead of 56, though it should be noted Alonso also completed the two laps that didn’t count.

Jenson Button has been classified in every Chinese Grand Prix, but unlike Alonso hasn’t gone the distance in every race. He has completed 612 laps to Alonso’s 614, having finished a lap down in 2011 and again this year.

For Mercedes this was their 17th race victory, giving them as many as BRM and putting them equal tenth in the all-time winners list.

They have dominated the first four races of the year in a manner never before seen in Formula One: they have taken every pole position, fastest lap and race victory, and led every lap. The Mercedes W05 has achieved something the Ferrari F2004, Williams-Renault FW14B, McLaren-Honda MP4-4 or any of F1’s other great cars did not do.

It was their eighth one-two – only Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Red Bull have more – and their third in a row. One more would equal their 1955 achievement of four consecutive one-two finishes. Those were scored by Moss, Fangio and Piero Taruffi.

Mercedes engines also notched up their 100th consecutive points finish, a streak which began at the same race in 2008.

At this early stage in the season with sophisticated new engines, we already had 20 our of 22 cars classified at the finish – a remarkable achievement by F1’s teams.

Among them was Max Chilton, who on the day before his 23rd birthday extended his record streak of consecutive finishes at the start of an F1 career to 23 races.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

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

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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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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114 comments on “Mercedes’ dominant start is record-breaking”

  1. “Lewis Hamilton’s 25th grand prix victory was also the first time he has won three grands prix in a row.

    This is a feat which has only been achieved by his fellow world champions with one exception: Stirling Moss, who won the last two races of 1957 and the first of 1958.”

    Wow? So statistically, if you can win three races in a row in a season and you’re not a champion. You’re likely to be at the end of that season. That is a very cool statistic.

    1. Can Hamilton also become only the fourth (Ascari (Germany–Holland 1952), Clark (France–Germany 1965) and Vettel (Singapore–Korea 2013)) to get two Grand Slams in a row?

      1. Well, he’ll have to get it sometime in the later rounds then as China wasn’t one.

    2. There are occasions where driver has won three races in a row during the season and not won the title that year, although they have won the title some other year: Jones 1979, Senna 1989, Prost 1990, Mansell 1991, Hill 1993 and 1994, Schumacher 1998 and 2006.

      1. @bleu, that is why I added ‘and you’re not a champion.’

        1. But in several of those cases they weren’t champions yet, nor did they gone on to become one by the end of that season.

          1. @matt90 I did not really write it out or calculate it but I guess that it would still see a very high corelation. Maybe in if next race is boring too, I’ll grab a pen and paper an do the math.

    3. Yeah.
      With current point system including double point at last race, HAM can win 15 race in a row but ROS still the get the WDC if HAM got DNF at last 3 races!

      1. That’s a very uncomfortable thought!

  2. A rapper now has the same number of wins in F1 as a farmer and an elderly fan.

    1. More than a hostage, too!

    2. LOL!

      Lewis is a wannabe rapper, he ain’t no rapper! :) Good for him he can race.

      1. Well he’s black, so… it’s normal to wanna be a rapper I guess… :)

  3. One might say that Max’s record streak of consecutive finishes at the start of his f1 career, is largely in part to being at the back of the grid and obviously not over compensating for lack of machinery.

    1. @dragoll One might also say that his contemporaries have similar statistics and they’re not doing anywhere near as well.

      It says a lot for Marussia’s reliability and Chilton’s ability to stay out of trouble, be it fighting for position (when it happens) and not getting involved with faster cars lapping him.

      1. I’m impressed with Chilton’s consistency. Let’s not forget you have to be supremely talented just to drive an F1 car near or at its limit.

        Max hasn’t demonstrated raw speed at any time but a safe pair of hands for sure. I’d say he’s setting himself up as a permanent test driver. Not a bad job by any stretch but I’m sure any F1 driver would swap it for even just a Marussia/Caterham seat…

    2. All he has to do is get out of the way of front runners. I can also fully understand how he has avoided confrontation.

  4. The last race to be cut short was the 2009 race at Sepang, and similarly to that race, half points were awarded. This has been the fourth race in a row that half points have been awarded, a record, beating the previous record set in 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix.
    #Badstats

    1. @mateuss

      If that is not a COTD then I don’t know what is! XD

      1. @full-throttle-f1 How about a copy and paste of the @badF1stats Twitter account. They have been reporting this since Malaysia as consecutive races where half points are awarded.

        1. Have they?

    2. @mateuss I believe it was either the 2012 or 2013 Singapore GP was shortened due to reaching the 2h time limit; it was shortened some 2-5 laps if I recall correctly.

      1. Ahh, yes, sorry, my memory failed me.
        It was Singapore 2012 that was cut to 59 from of 61 laps.

        Though I am quite sure about the half points streak being a record, as I went trough the whole history of results to check.

  5. Interesting to know that the W05 is in some statistical respects better than those famous cars before it.

    Rectification: Jenson Button finished a lap down in the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix instead of the 2011 one.

    1. In fact, the W05 remains unbeaten in any race this season, and led every single lap.

      Another quite unusual stat: The race in China was won by three different drivers in the last three years, all of which stood on the podium on sunday (2014 Hamilton, 2012 Rosberg, 2013 Alonso). Last time that happened was last year in Silverstone (2013 Rosberg, 2012 Webber, 2011 Alonso).

  6. I just hope they won’t dominate even more than RB did. But I’m afraid they will due to engine development freeze.

    1. @spoutnik I think it is much more than RB ever did in the last 4 years. There were a few races where Vettel was as far ahead as the Mercedes are now, but these were exceptions.

      The other major difference is indeed the engine freeze. RB had their advantage due to good aerodynamics. In principle, all teams could copy most of the inventions as they were often visible. And to some extent this also happened. This year, a large part of the advantage seems to stem from the Mercedes engine. If so, it will be very hard if not impossible for Renault and Ferrari to catch up.

      1. The other Mercedes teams should be able to catch up though!
        Williams, Force India & McLaren should all be challenging Mercedes for the top spot, especially McLaren.

        re fuel consumption, that Ferrari doesn’t look too bad. I expect they’ll be the number 2 team at the next race.

      2. It is incorrect to assume that a large part of Mercedes’ advantage this year comes from the engine. The next Mercedes engine powered car after the WO5s was almost a minute behind at the finish line. (Nico Hulkenberg – +54 seconds)

        I think credit is due to their engineers for a job well done on aerodynamics and tyre usage after the rapid tyre degradation we have witnessed in the last couple of years.

    2. The difference is there are two drivers who can demonstrate a win with this car – this is a Senna/Prost event, not a Vettel runaway.

  7. Each of Hamilton’s victories this year has some vague significance. Malaysia was his first win either at that track or the 2nd round of a season. Bahrain was his first win at that track. China was his first win at the 4th round of a season.

    Spain and Brazil are the only countries on this year’s calender where he has raced before but never won (although his win in Japan was at a different track). Vettel is the only current driver with a more complete record, having never won in Hungary.

    1. @matt90 Hungary, a track where Hamilton has a very strong record. How funny would it be if Vettel were to win it this season.

    2. What about Austria and Sochi?

      1. As I said, countries where he has raced before. Neither Hamilton or Vettel have been to either country for an F1 race before.

    3. Alonso, despite having more total victories, has a much less complete record (not helped by having raced in Austria before, but too early in his career to have a proper shot at it). He hasn’t won in Austria, USA, Brazil, Belgium or Abu Dhabi.

  8. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    21st April 2014, 12:59

    Hamilton didn’t win 3 in a row. It was the engineer who built the car.
    Didn’t lots of people say that cliche all last year about Seb?

    1. Hamilton has been saying the car is what lets him win,
      he would not win if it wasn’t for the car? pretty simple really.
      if Seb could jump in this car he would likely win,
      if Alonso jumped in this car he would win,
      no point in going on about it anyone of those 3 drivers would win in this car,
      but Hamilton is the driver and he will win.

      1. @lethalnz
        Vettel wouldn’t win, because Dan would outqualify and outrace him, so he’d still come up short. :)

      2. @lethalnz Someone made the comment in the last year or two that the best driver in the worst car couldn’t catch the worst driver (on the grid) in the best car. Said person predicted there may only be a 1s gap between best and worst driver in equal machinery whereas best and worst car could be 3s or more per lap.

        1. If you don´t count some Pay-drivers at the end of the field, and if you are able to give the drivers a setup to their liking, it might be half a second maximum between worst and best paid driver. The difference between best and second-best machinery seems double as big, not to mention the worst. However, drivers are not only responsible for speed, but also for overtaking, not getting overtaken, and keeping the car intact through the race.

    2. Jean-Christophe
      21st April 2014, 14:00

      How many drivers are there in the Mercedes team? Why is it that Rosberg didn’t win? Unlike Mark Webber who’d sometimes see several drivers between Seb and him, Hamilton had Rosberg just behind. And if it were not for Lewis, despite their huge advantage, Mercedes would only have one pole this season. So the engineers built the car and Hamilton drove it to victory. It’s a shame he had to retire in Australia. He’d have 4 in a row.

      1. others would say Alonso would have won all 4 miles ahead of Rosberg, or that Vettel would have 4 poles and 4 dominant wins by now. Hamilton and Rosberg is like a Montoya/Ralf Schumacher driver partnership to me, they wont get the best out of the car every single weekend, but will win when they have the fastest car, and that is what they are doing now.

        1. Alonso was beaten when he was paired with Hamilton. Not to mention in his rookie season.

          Wake up.

      2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        21st April 2014, 14:29

        How many drivers are there in the Mercedes RedBull team? Why is it that Rosberg Webber didn’t win? Unlike Mark Webber who’d sometimes see several drivers between Seb and him (was that Esb’s fault?), Hamilton had Rosberg just behind. And if it were not for

        Lewis

        Seb, despite their huge advantage, Mercedes RB would only have one zero pole this last season. So the engineers built the car and Hamilton Vettel drove it to victory.

        1. Just like Hamilton all of a sudden wasn’t trash because Button was able to keep up with him, too bad Seb can’t keep up with Aussie Grit 2.0

          1. cmon, i love jenson but he did not keep up with hamilton, he scored similar amounts of points but as the first 4 races of the season between the two merc drivers has shown, points do not accurately represent performance.

            The qualifying record between hamilton and button was fairly embarassing for the latter.

      3. And if it were not for Lewis, despite their huge advantage, Mercedes would only have one pole this season.

        This

      4. Unlike Mark Webber who’d sometimes see several drivers between Seb and him, Hamilton had Rosberg just behind.

        Erm, doesn’t that just underline how utterly dominant car Hamilton has? Besides, even Rosberg would have 4 wins in a row, if he didn’t have Lewis as a team mate.

        No, I’m not trying to take anything away from Lewis. He’s been overshadowing Rosberg and capitalizing with Mercedes’ dominant car brilliantly. But at the same time we should remember that he’s indeed driving a super dominant car. He’s basically just racing against his team mate.

        1. He’s basically just racing against his team mate.

          … and winning.

    3. Not to an extent where they tried to claim that Vettel didn’t actually win. So no. And people who did bandy about that cliché don’t understand F1 and are/were best ignored.

    4. @omarr-pepper Like you said, many people were used to attack Seb claiming he was EBD dependent and his titles were all down to his car (I completely disagree) but his current form is gold for “haters” because the 4xWDC is being beaten by Ricciardo and Seb must change that ASAP; otherwise, the words of Fernando Alonso (last year) will be sound like prophecy:

      He is 26 years old, so when he will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1. When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles even in a worse manner than they are doing now. So there are interesting times for Sebastian coming.

  9. Too bad Ross Brawn isn’t around to see the fruits of his labor

    1. yeh, this could end up being the most dullest year ever, many fans wont care because they hate vettel so much and just like the change, but the engine advantage Mercedes have over Ferrari and Renault is ridiculous. Hamilton said last year he would not like to be in a overly dominant car, and said fans find it boring and its bad for the sport, yet today he is quoted as saying he is happier then he has ever been…

      1. sorry put reply to wrong comment.

      2. @kpcart
        Lewis mentioned on Thursday that he’d be happy for others to challenge

        Hamilton welcomed a resurgent Ferrari and also highlighted the pace of the Williams, adding: “We want a fight.”

        He was always going to be on a high after winning a third race in a row, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t relish a challenge. I wouldn’t be surprised if he enjoyed his win in Bahrain more than the one in China

        1. he should want the others to catch up. With ferraris redbulls and mclarens (lol wishful thinking on the last one maybe) snapping at mercedes heels it’s going to take more points off rosberg who will fall into their clutches more readily

          As it stands merc is so domanant now that even outperforming rosberg significantly still lets rosberg come second and be a threat if hamilton has more mechanical dnfs.

          Hamilton wants the merc to be just good enough that he can win consistently with it but his teammate occasionally struggles to get on the podium

  10. For the second time in his career, Pastor Maldonado has finished two races consecutively in the same position (alongside with Italy and Singapore in 2011, in 11th place. He has finished two races in a row in the 2014 season in 14th place).

    First race since Britain last year that McLaren have failed to finish in the top 10 in either qualifying or the race.

    First time since 1985 that the Enstone-based team (Toleman/Benetton/Renault/Lotus) have failed to score points in any of the first four rounds. It should be noted that only one car for one race was entered in the first four races that year. In 1983 however, two cars were entered in the first four races and no points were scored.

    Only four drivers, Rosberg, Alonso, Hulkenberg and Bottas have scored points in every race so far this season. Only the first two have finished on the podium.

    Longest wait for a podium for Alonso since 2011 from the first race of the season. Strangely, he has the same number of points at this stage as he did that year.

    Adrian Sutil recorded his third retirement in a row. This has not happened since 2008 (Singapore, Japan, China); he has never had four in a row.

    Nico Rosberg has already equalled the most number of podiums in a season for him, with four, the same number he scored last season.

    For the first time since 2004, Kimi Raikkonen has failed to achieve a top-6 finish in the first four races.

    1. Sorry but I’m going to be picky here @craig-o:

      I don’t remember Raikkonen being in the top six in ANY race in 2010 or 2011 ;)

      1. @bradley13

        He was there in spirit :-)

      2. But don’t forget that Sutil didn’t finish at all in 2012, @bradley13

    2. Fernando Alonso has completed all laps in every Chinese Grand Prix

  11. Has anyone ever won 3 races in a row and not ended up in the lead of the championship? It’s unusual enough to get the wins…

    1. Yes, Schumacher in 1998 (CAN, FRA, GBR), 2003 (SMR, ESP, AUT) and 2006 (ESP, MON, GBR).

      1. I think you need to proof read your stats…

  12. So…who thinks Hamilton can beat Vettel’s pole position count by the end of the season? I’m not sure.

    1. I’ve gone on the record here saying yes. I haven’t put any money down, though.
      Hamilton has dominated his teammates in qualifying, except for Alonso. But Rosberg is no slouch, and the team is committed to giving him every bit of data from Hamilton’s side of the garage that he wants. (Will this stop after Hungary or so?) Also mechanical gremlins could pop up. I say he has a 50/50 chance.

      1. @dmw Statistically speaking, everything is a 50/50 chance.

        1. I don’t think statistics would be a field of maths if that was the case.

        2. Just because there are only two options doesn’t mean they’re equally likely.

        3. cannot tell if you’re serious, really hope for your sake you’re not ;)

    2. Assuming RBR don’t get any pole positions this year, Hamilton would need eleven over the remaining fifteen grands prix just to equal Vettel’s record. Seems like a tough task, although with the pace of the Mercedes it’s not impossible.

      1. seems like an easy task at the moment, he just has to drive at his speed. the car will do the rest.

      2. If RBR does get a pole, at this rate, it’s not likely to be by Vettel anyway.

        1. Because Malaysia is so long ago…

    3. It’s gonna be an epic battle between Hamilton and Vettel in the next few years to climb the record tables!

    4. It’s Hamilton’s chance this time, to beat all Vettel records except for the “youngest” ones. Hamilton is equally best driver on the grid, and deserved more than his statistics.
      Pole Position, and even Number of wins, fastest laps, hat-tricks of Vettels all can be broken only this season, till Merc has dominant car.

      He has won 3 already, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he get at-least 10 / 19 this year. And 10+ pole positions.

      Hamilton is really good driver, even Alonso admitted that according to him the best driver on the grid from the rest. Don’t forget Hamilton won at-least once in every car he’s driven since start of his career. Rookie season is something different as well.

      1. And also if it’s dry most races, he can definitely beat pole positions of Vettel.
        Fastest Laps of Vettel, and Wins of Alonso. Let’s see…

    5. @george, well, to beat Vettel’s record he’d have to score 12 more pole positions this season, which means that he would have to beat Rosberg 15-4 in qualifying, at least. Last year he 11-8 up on Rosberg, so this year he would have to do considerably better (and Rosberg worse).

      At this point in the season, it may be tempting to completely write off Rosberg, but consider:
      – Nico is leading the championship,
      – he outqualified Hamilton in the only dry session this year,
      – he was faster in the race in Bahrain as well.

      Strictly speaking, only the second point is relevant to the pole position discussion, but my general point is that I expect them to remain closely matched.

  13. Second time that Hamilton, Rosberg and Alonso stood together on the podium since 101 races ago at the 2008 Singapore GP.

    15th time that a race was held on catholic Easter day, the first time since 2010, and the first time in China.

    Brazil had the most Easter races with 5, then Malaysia 3, San Marino and Argentina 2, China, Britain and Europe (Donington) 1. The first time a race was held on Easter was the 1985 Brazilian GP.

    The last 5 Easter races were won by different drivers. Michael Schumacher has (of course) the most wins on Easer with 3, the last one at the 2003 San Marino GP, exactly 200 races ago. Alain Prost has two wins , no other driver has more than one.

    1. So, the first time they’ve stood on the podium together legitimately..

    2. So the only races in which Hamilton, Alonso and Rosberg have shared the podium have been ones in which Massa has had a catastrophic pitstop.

  14. Is this the first time in F1 history that the guy who’s won the 3 out of the first 4 races isn’t leading the championship? I’m relying on you F1 fanatics !

    1. That’s actually good spotting, and it seems quite likely.

    2. Under most points systems (10-6-4…and 9-6…) it wouldn’t be possible to win 3 out of 4 and not lead the championship. The previous two systems (10-8-6… And 25-18-15…) make it possible.

      1. The 1950-1960 system also made it possible (especially if the winner of the 3 races had car shared and thus only received half points).

  15. Since the beginning of last season there were 9 qualifyings affected by rain, but only one wet race (’13 Malaysia).

    1. And even Malaysia 2013 was more damp than wet so everybody was on slicks by lap 10 or so.

  16. Lewis Hamilton pass the bar of 1 500 laps in lead

  17. I feel Mercedes record breaking start is not in the same league as the other cars mentioned, because of one thing – ENGINE HOMOLOGATION – the stupidest thing you can do for a new engine formula. in the v8 era it worked as they just cut 2 cylinders off and the engines were very close to parity. in the older eras, engine development was allowed. now, we are locked into a Mercedes domination – I am not looking forward to this. YES- engine homologation saves money, but after 12 days testing it was far too early to lock in the new engines. F1 is changed now for ever, not longer will we see the best car win, we will see the best car – powered by Mercedes win – which is team Mercedes at the moment. OK – Some people will say “but it is the whole package” – but this year it is not, as previously the engines were pretty much on parity – so the “package” was building the best car – and car developing is allowed over the whole season. NOW – the package is dominated by the engine – and the engines are not on parity and can not be developed throughout the season. F1 has shot itself in the foot. they wanted to get away from one teams dominating the championship, but now one team will dominate more then ever before – mark my words, the only thing that can prevent Mercedes from winning all the races now is retirements.

    1. F1 is changed now for ever

      The homologation is only in-season. There are some limits, but an awful lot can be changed for next season.

    2. You can’t just cut two cylinders off. The shift from the V10s to the V8s was actually very expensive.

      1. That is certainly true – the manufacturers sold the idea to the FIA by claiming that development would be cheap as they’d just be cutting two cylinders off the engine, but only Toyota did anything vaguely like that (and even they slightly modified the cylinder bore and stroke).

    3. The best car is winning. The engine is a component of the car – other teams have the same engine yet aren’t doing as well. And there is still work that can continue on the engine – just not the hardware. Getting the software to get everything to work together has massive scope for improving the engines.

      F1 has saved itself with these engines. They are now the pinnacle of motorsport technology, instead of archaic “MOAR POWAR” (even though they had less) V8s. I love the sound of V8s, but sound does not make a race car.

      And if the pace of a car is purely down to the engine, kindly explain how Red Bull are fighting amongst a bunch of Mercedes powered teams, and beat all bar one of them last race.

  18. This was first time since Chinese GP 2012 as Vettel finished directly behind his team-mate.

  19. I was thinking, we’ve been hearing the German national anthem for a few Grand Prix in a row, 18 times consecutively in fact (with either Mercedes/Rosberg/Vettel winning), but where does this run compare to previous years…

    I’ve been scouring the history books and found that Germany’s current run is sixth in the “record number of consecutive airings of a national anthem on an F1 podium” stat. :D

    6. 2013 Monaco GP – 2014 China GP
    Germany: Deutschlandleid: 18 times
    Constructors: Mercedes
    Drivers: Rosberg, Vettel

    5. 1962 British GP – 1964 German GP
    UK: God Save the Queen: 21 times
    Constructors: Brabham, BRM, Lotus
    Drivers: Clark, Hill, Surtees

    4. 1972 Austrian GP – 1974 South African GP
    UK: God Save the Queen: 22 times
    Constructors: Brabham, Lotus, Mclaren, Tyrrell
    Drviers: Stewart

    3. 1968 British GP – 1970 Belgian GP
    UK: God Save the Queen: 25 times
    Constructors: Brabham, BRM, Lotus, March, Mclaren)
    Drivers: Hill, Stewart

    2. 1985 Austrian GP – 1987 Mexican GP)
    UK: God Save the Queen: 37 times
    Constructors: Benetton, Lotus, Mclaren, Williams
    Drivers: Mansell

    1. 990 Japan GP – 1994 British GP
    UK: God Save The Queen: 58 times
    Constructors: Benetton, Mclaren, Williams
    Drivers: Hill, Mansell

    1. The thing I distinctly dislike about these new age teams, is that they pretend to be German or Austrian, and yet, their team has nothing to do with it. It’s just the money. 4/5 of personnel is British, with no more than 1% probably from the “home” country.
      Mercedes has both chassis and engine factories in Britain. Red Bull has chassis in Britain and engine in France. Last team that had chassis made in England, but had a different anthem that still made sense, was Renault, since they had their engine manufactured in France, so it was just as legit to choose the French anthem as the British one.

      1. It just mean british are better factory workers than drivers ! ; )

        1. ouch !!!!!

          1. Truth does that :)

    2. Excellent stats here @calum
      Out of curiosity, do you have the number of times the Italian anthem was heard consecutively? With the Ferrari and Michael, I think there could be a record or something.

      1. It was often Williams, McLaren or Renault breaking Ferrari’s streak, so I don’t think it’ll be much longer than any consecutive Schumacher run of wins.

      2. @1abe Between the 2003 Italian Grand Prix and the 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix (16 races), that was 15 wins for Ferrari, and 1 for Jarno Trulli.

        1. Thanks @craig-o! The way it is now, I don’t think this is going to happen again…atleast not in the next few years.

    3. It’ll inevitably climb upto 3rd [with Merc, Rosberg, Vettel, Hulkenberg on the form]

  20. This is 54th (or may be 53rd?) time Alonso started the race in 5th position, the most by anyone

    1. In that case, there can be a possibility that he may again start 5th for the 55th time in the 5th race of the season in his 5th year with Ferrari!

      1. haha.. good one, looking forward Spanish GP!

  21. This is the first time a rookie has broke front wing in three gp in a row

    1. Wow that’s impressive considering Maldonado had a shot at it!

  22. Every Ferrari team principal has start career with a podium finish

    1. Stefano had a disastrous start to his career actually. Both Massa and Raikkonen retired from the first race of 2008 although Kimi scored a point or two because there were so few drivers who finished the race!

  23. First Chinese GP in which Ricciardo has finished in a different position to which he started in.

    First time since 2004 that an independent Sauber (i.e. not BMW Sauber) has competed in the Chinese GP and not finished 10th.

    Alonso keeps alive his run of at least 1 podium every year since 2003, and keeps alive Ferrari’s run of at least 1 podium every year since 1981 (a record).

    3rd race in a row that the Marussias have started 19th and 21st (Bianchi higher in each case).

    Rosberg and Vettel are both ahead of their team-mates in the championship despite having only outscored their team-mates once this season.

    3rd year in a row that Vettel has missed the podium at China – first time he has managed this at any circuit since joining Red Bull.

  24. They have dominated the first four races of the year in a manner never before seen in Formula One: they have taken every pole position, fastest lap and race victory, and led every lap. The Mercedes W05 has achieved something the Ferrari F2004, Williams-Renault FW14B, McLaren-Honda MP4-4 or any of F1′s other great cars did not do.

    Although Bahrain produced a good race…the above quote is quite scary in terms of the seasons prospects. Unless Adrian had done some good groundwork back in England to get some new stuff to Spain, this is going to be brutal. People who complained about Vettel dominating last year or Schumi dominating in 2002 and 2004 should take an year off from F1 !!!!!

  25. This is not the first time a race has had its final lap voided – not only the various red-flagged races, but also Canada 1995, which according to Wikipedia had its result declared at the end of lap 68 of 69 due to the crowd invading the track after Alesi won (with Gilles Villeneuve’s #27 Ferrari) but before others had finished. The countback caused Luca Badoer to lose his 7th place (which he achieved due to Mika Salo having to stop to avoid spectators) – however, points were only awarded down to 6th place in those days, so Badoer’s career total of 0 points was unaffected by this.

    Thankfully Alesi had taken the lead before the final lap…

    Some more stats from magnetimarelli.com:

    First team to manage 3 consecutive 1-2s since Ferrari in Europe-Canada-USA 2004.
    Only 1 team has led laps in the first 4 races – this time last year we had had 11 leaders from 7 teams.
    First time Alonso has finished ahead of Vettel in a race where both have finished since Spain 2013.
    First time since Germany-Hungary 2012 that Vettel has gone 2 races in a row without an official podium finish. First time since Canada-Europe 2012 that Vettel has gone 2 races in a row without standing on the podium.
    3rd race in a row that the higher-classified Williams has finished in 7th.
    Despite Mercedes’ domination, we have had 5 different teams on the podium this year – 1 more than in the whole of 2013.

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