2011 F1 statistics part one: car performance
2011 F1 season review
29th December 2011 9:00 am by Keith Collantine
40 Comments »
Red Bull's performance advantage was greatest at the Circuit de Catalunya
Red Bull’s performance advantage in 2011 was never as large as it was last year.
But the RB7 kept them ahead of their rivals more consistently than its predecessor.
Compare the performance of all the teams’ cars, plus their reliability and how quick their pit crews were.
Performance
This chart compares the fastest lap time set by each team at each race weekend, expressed as a percentage. The fastest team at each weekend is shown at zero percent, and the other teams’ lap times are shown as a percentage of their time.
As usual you can hover over each data point to see the value and toggle different lines on and off using the control below:
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A few clear trends are visible in the data:
- Red Bull set the fastest lap time at every weekend with two exceptions: Korea and Abu Dhabi
- Although they were never as far ahead as they had been in Hungary last year, Red Bull were the fastest team even more regularly than they had been in 2010
- McLaren cut Red Bull’s advantage over the final races of the year
- Ferrari improved their performance over the first half of the season before dropping back again, presumably as they diverted more resources to their 2012 campaign
- At the beginning of the season Renault were the fourth-quickest team but they dropped back over the course of the year
- Whereas Force India made clear progress throughout the season
- HRT and, to a lesser extent, Virgin, were regularly more than 7% slower than the fastest runners. So why did they not fall victim to the 107% rule more often? This was usually because the quicker teams used hard, slower tyres in Q1.
- See last year’s chart to compare the team’s performance this year and last
Performance: 2011 vs 2010
| Team | Average % deficit to fastest car (2011) | Average % deficit to fastest car (2010) | Change |
| Red Bull | 0.01 | 0.05 | -0.04 |
| McLaren | 0.5 | 0.58 | -0.08 |
| Ferrari | 0.83 | 0.48 | +0.35 |
| Mercedes | 1.5 | 1.15 | +0.35 |
| Renault | 2.2 | 1.18 | +1.02 |
| Williams | 2.76 | 1.53 | +1.23 |
| Force India | 2.51 | 1.81 | +0.7 |
| Sauber | 2.75 | 2.04 | +0.71 |
| Toro Rosso | 3.06 | 2.28 | +0.78 |
| Lotus | 5.18 | 4.82 | +0.36 |
| HRT | 7.86 | 6.68 | +1.18 |
| Virgin | 6.85 | 5.31 | +1.54 |
This table compares each teams’ performance this year and last year.
This reinforces the view that the front-running teams are pulling further away from the midfield. In particular Renault and Williams were more than one percentage point slower than the fastest car this year than they were last year.
Even teams that finished higher in the championship than last year, such as Force India and Sauber, had fallen further back from the front runners.
Lotus reduced the gap between them and the midfield. Here a word of warning about the data: because Lotus rarely progressed to Q2 they will generally have set their lap times in less favourable track conditions. Therefore, the gap between them in the midfield is likely to be slightly exaggerated.
And of course keep in mind this reflects performance over a single flying lap better than it does race stint performance. In Spain, where Red Bull enjoyed their greatest margin of superiority all year, Sebastian Vettel ended the race under pressure from Lewis Hamilton.
Reliability
2011 retirements by team
Formula 1 continues to see exceptional levels of reliability. This year’s European Grand Prix set a new record as all 24 starters were classified.
Some teams have made considerable strides in this area: last year Virgin saw 13 retirements due to car failures, which they cut to five this year.
Had it not been for Sebastian Vettel’s tyre failure in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull might have gone the season without a single retirement due to a technical fault. However they were not without other problems during the year, such as numerous KERS failures during the races, and Vettel’s gearbox problem in Brazil.
Pit stops
This chart shows how each team’s quickest pit stop in each race (in seconds) compared to the quickest pit stop of all in the same race:
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Red Bull and Mercedes were consistently the two quickest teams in the pits. The world champions were fastest in eight of this year’s races, while Mercedes were quickest seven times.
Of the rest, McLaren turned around the quickest pit stops three times, including the last two races, and Ferrari did so just once.
HRT were conspicuously weak in this area: they were only quicker than another team once all year.
2011 F1 season review
- Your 2011 F1 predictions revisited
- 2011 F1 statistics part 3: Stats and facts highlights
- 2011 F1 statistics part two: Vettel's domination
- 2011 F1 statistics part one: car performance
- New 2011 rules produced best racing of last four years
- What F1 Fanatics really thought of the 2011 season
- Sebastian Vettel voted F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year
- F1 Fanatic's article highlights of 2011
- Dominant Red Bull join F1's top teams
- McLaren are runners-up again after troubled start to 2011
2011 F1 statistics part two: Vettel’s domination
2011 F1 season review
30th December 2011 1:27 pm by Keith Collantine
22 Comments »
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Spa-Francorchamps, 2011
Sebastian Vettel ended the season with more points than any driver has ever scored in an F1 season.
But how can we compare his achievement with other F1 champions?
Read on to discover the trends at work in F1 which helped engineer Vettel’s dominance.
Vettel’s dominant season
Vettel ended the year just shy of 400 world championship points – far in excess of the previous record. Does this automatically make him the greatest world champion ever?
Of course not – with changes in the points systems and the number of races per year steadily climbing, there’s no way we can take it for granted. And that’s before we take differences in cars, reliability and so on into account.
But we can adjust for the differences in season length and points very easily. In the table below all the points have been calculated using the 2011 system. We then work out what percentage of the total available points each driver scored.
It reveals Vettel scored a higher percentage than every other world champion with only two exceptions:
| Year | Driver | Points* | % available points |
| 2002 | Michael Schumacher | 380 | 89.41 |
| 1963 | Jim Clark | 212 | 84.8 |
| 2011 | Sebastian Vettel | 392 | 82.53 |
| 2004 | Michael Schumacher | 367 | 81.56 |
| 1954 | Juan Manuel Fangio | 177 | 78.67 |
| 2001 | Michael Schumacher | 327 | 76.94 |
| 1952 | Alberto Ascari | 150 | 75 |
| 2006 | Fernando Alonso | 321 | 71.33 |
| 1962 | Graham Hill | 158 | 70.22 |
| 1992 | Nigel Mansell | 279 | 69.75 |
*Adjusted to 2011 scoring
Reliability
It’s clear Vettel could not have achieved such an impressive season without having a very competitive car and extracting the maximum out of it. He was also aided – as other champions have been – by the astonishing levels of reliability in modern Formula 1.
Car failures have been trending downwards over the last two decades. Last year they crept up slightly – an inevitable consequence of three new teams arriving in the sport at once – but they improved once more this year.
Vettel had just one race-ending car failure all season. Thinking back to the table above, recall that Michael Schumacher finished every race in 2002 without a single breakdown.
This table shows what percentage of starts ended in a classified finish, a mechanical retirement, or some other retirement such as a crash:
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Season data
With the RB7 at his disposal, Vettel broke Nigel Mansell’s 1992 record of starting 14 races from pole position. Since then it’s become unusual to see one driver take ten or more pole positions in a season.
In the era of ‘race-fuel qualifying’ – 2003-2009 – we became used to seeing the driver with the least fuel on board starting from pole position, rather than the driver that was quicker over a single lap. F1 is surely better off without artificial variety like this – pole position is now a meaningful achievement, even if it did get rather tedious seeing Vettel up front all the time.
This year also saw the highest total number of race starters since 1997. In all, 28 different drivers competed in races in 2011
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Vettel’s place among the champions
The final table brings us back where we came in – comparing Vettel with the other world champions.
When the year began Vettel had ten races victories to his name. He now has 21 – more than twice as many – in an F1 career that’s spanned just 81 races.
That gives him the sixth-highest win rate among the world champions of 25.93%. With Red Bull consistently producing race-winners and Mercedes failing to do so, it’s very likely Vettel could surpass Schumacher’s win rate next year. For example, he could do so by winning the next eight races, assuming Schumacher starts them all.
This table compares the results of all the world champions. To rank them, all their points have been converted into the current system, and their average points per finish has been calculated. All mechanical retirements have been excluded from that calculation.
Vettel ranks ninth in this table. He was 12th before the season began.
| Name | Wins (%) | Poles (%) | Fastest laps (%) | Car failures (%) | Points/finish |
| Juan Manuel Fangio | 24 (47.06%) | 29 (56.86%) | 23 (45.10%) | 17.65 | 20.79 |
| Alberto Ascari | 13 (40.63%) | 14 (43.75%) | 12 (37.50%) | 18.75 | 17.15 |
| Jackie Stewart | 27 (27.27%) | 17 (17.17%) | 15 (15.15%) | 32.32 | 16.55 |
| Jim Clark | 25 (34.72%) | 33 (45.83%) | 28 (38.89%) | 29.17 | 16.45 |
| Giuseppe Farina | 5 (15.15%) | 5 (15.15%) | 5 (15.15%) | 15.15 | 15.96 |
| Alain Prost | 51 (25.63%) | 33 (16.58%) | 41 (20.60%) | 16.58 | 14.96 |
| Ayrton Senna | 41 (25.47%) | 65 (40.37%) | 19 (11.80%) | 20.50 | 14.70 |
| Michael Schumacher | 91 (31.82%) | 68 (23.78%) | 76 (26.57%) | 8.39 | 14.66 |
| Sebastian Vettel | 21 (25.93%) | 30 (37.04%) | 9 (11.11%) | 11.11 | 13.38 |
| Mike Hawthorn | 3 (6.67%) | 4 (8.89%) | 6 (13.33%) | 22.22 | 13.37 |
| Jochen Rindt | 6 (10.00%) | 10 (16.67%) | 3 (5.00%) | 55.00 | 13.26 |
| Lewis Hamilton | 17 (18.89%) | 19 (21.11%) | 11 (12.22%) | 3.33 | 12.66 |
| Fernando Alonso | 27 (15.34%) | 20 (11.36%) | 19 (10.80%) | 9.66 | 12.13 |
| Niki Lauda | 25 (14.62%) | 24 (14.04%) | 24 (14.04%) | 34.50 | 11.99 |
| Nigel Mansell | 31 (16.58%) | 32 (17.11%) | 30 (16.04%) | 32.62 | 11.98 |
| Kimi Raikkonen | 18 (11.54%) | 16 (10.26%) | 35 (22.44%) | 19.23 | 11.89 |
| Jack Brabham | 14 (11.38%) | 13 (10.57%) | 12 (9.76%) | 34.96 | 11.74 |
| Mika Hakkinen | 20 (12.42%) | 26 (16.15%) | 25 (15.53%) | 24.22 | 11.33 |
| Denny Hulme | 8 (7.14%) | 1 (0.89%) | 9 (8.04%) | 25.89 | 11.33 |
| Damon Hill | 22 (19.13%) | 20 (17.39%) | 19 (16.52%) | 14.78 | 11.13 |
| Nelson Piquet | 23 (11.27%) | 24 (11.76%) | 23 (11.27%) | 24.51 | 10.96 |
| Phil Hill | 3 (6.38%) | 6 (12.77%) | 6 (12.77%) | 27.66 | 10.74 |
| John Surtees | 6 (5.41%) | 8 (7.21%) | 11 (9.91%) | 44.14 | 10.58 |
| Jody Scheckter | 10 (8.93%) | 3 (2.68%) | 5 (4.46%) | 18.75 | 9.85 |
| James Hunt | 10 (10.87%) | 14 (15.22%) | 8 (8.70%) | 29.35 | 9.68 |
| Emerson Fittipaldi | 14 (9.72%) | 6 (4.17%) | 6 (4.17%) | 25.69 | 9.29 |
| Graham Hill | 14 (8.00%) | 13 (7.43%) | 10 (5.71%) | 33.14 | 9.00 |
| Mario Andretti | 12 (9.38%) | 18 (14.06%) | 10 (7.81%) | 39.84 | 8.71 |
| Alan Jones | 12 (10.34%) | 6 (5.17%) | 13 (11.21%) | 28.45 | 8.52 |
| Keke Rosberg | 5 (4.39%) | 5 (4.39%) | 3 (2.63%) | 38.60 | 8.50 |
| Jenson Button | 12 (5.77%) | 7 (3.37%) | 6 (2.88%) | 13.46 | 7.89 |
| Jacques Villeneuve | 11 (6.75%) | 13 (7.98%) | 9 (5.52%) | 22.70 | 6.77 |
2011 F1 season review
- Your 2011 F1 predictions revisited
- 2011 F1 statistics part 3: Stats and facts highlights
- 2011 F1 statistics part two: Vettel's domination
- 2011 F1 statistics part one: car performance
- New 2011 rules produced best racing of last four years
- What F1 Fanatics really thought of the 2011 season
- Sebastian Vettel voted F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year
- F1 Fanatic's article highlights of 2011
- Dominant Red Bull join F1's top teams
- McLaren are runners-up again after troubled start to 2011
2011 F1 statistics part 3: Stats and facts highlights
2011 F1 season review
2nd January 2012 12:24 pm by Keith Collantine
47 Comments »
No race: Bahrain was dropped
There were supposed to be 20 races on the calendar in 2011, but the cancellation of the Bahrain round cut that to 19. Nonetheless, this equalled the longest calendar ever in F1 – and there are 20 races on the schedule once more in 2012.
Last season saw the arrival of Pirelli and so the first win for an F1 car on tyres other than Bridgestone since Fernando Alonso’s triumph for Michelin at Suzuka in 2006.
But the year belonged to Sebastian Vettel. Had it not been for some uncharacteristic car trouble in the final races his statistical domination of the season would have been even greater.
Here’s a look back on some of the statistical highlights and curious facts from the 2011 season.
Australian Grand Prix
The season began with Lewis Hamilton matching – and then exceeding – Jim Clark’s record for the longest F1 career spent entirely with the same team. Clark started all of his 72 F1 races for Lotus, Hamilton has now been at McLaren for all of his 90 starts.
Rubens Barrichello claimed the final record for career longevity he did not previously hold. By starting the Australian Grand Prix he had now participated in 19 F1 seasons, beating Graham Hill’s previous record of 18.
Paul di Resta became the 70th F1 driver to score a point in his first race. Had Sauber not been disqualified from the results, Sergio Perez would have claimed that distinction.
And Vitaly Petrov scored his first podium finish – and the first for a Russian in Formula 1.
Malaysian Grand Prix
Always the bridesmaid: Heidfeld on the podium in Malaysia
The other Renault driver was on the podium in Malaysia – Nick Heidfeld, who set a new record for most podium finishes without a win. His 13th appearance on the rostrum without making it to the top step exceeded the record held by Stefan Johansson.
Just two races into 2011, Vettel’s lead of 24 points was a greater margin than any championship leader enjoyed throughout 2010.
Chinese Grand Prix
Hamilton became the first driver to win the Chinese Grand Prix twice.
Having failed to score in the first three races of the year, Williams were off to their worst start to a season since 1979.
The race also saw a new record for the most finishers with 23 – but that would be bettered before the season was over.
Turkish Grand Prix
Vettel became the first driver to set pole position in five consecutive races (beginning at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix) since Alonso in 2006. He repeated the feat later in the year between Hungary and Japan, and at the time of writing has set pole position in the last three races in a row.
Jenson Button became the eighth F1 driver to complete 10,000 racing laps.
Spanish Grand Prix
Mark Webber became the first driver to start the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position and not win it since Michael Schumacher in 2000.
Following his disappointment in Australia, Perez finally scored his first career points. The last Mexican to do so had been Hector Rebaque 30 years earlier in the Dutch Grand Prix.
Only four drivers finished the race on the lead lap, the fewest since the 2008 British Grand Prix.
European Grand Prix
The European Grand Prix saw a new record for the most finishers in an F1 race as all 24 starters saw the chequered flag.
Canadian Grand Prix
The Canadian Grand Prix was the longest F1 race ever held. A substantial rain delay meant total race time was 4hr 4’39.537. With the FIA introducing a four-hour time limit on races this year, don’t expect it to be broken any time soon.
Button became the 32nd driver to score ten Grand Prix wins.
Monaco Grand Prix
2001: Schumacher gives Ferrari their last win at Monaco
McLaren became the second team to lead 10,000 laps in Formula 1. The other is, of course, Ferrari.
However Ferrari failed to win the Monaco Grand Prix for the tenth year in a row.
British Grand Prix
Daniel Ricciardo made his F1 debut. Together with Mark Webber it meant an F1 race had two Ausatralians in it for the first time since Alan Jones and Vern Schuppan raced at the Osterreichring in 1977.
Button made his 200th F1 race appearance (but not his 200th start).
German Grand Prix
Vettel had a slightly off weekend at home – failing to start from the front row or finish on the podium.
This meant his streak of consecutive front row starts was halted at 14 – the fifth-highest of all time, but some way off Ayrton Senna’s record of 24.
His streak of podium finishes (11) and races led (13) also ended – he holds the third-longest runs for each of these.
Hungarian Grand Prix
200th start: Button in Hungary
Button became the 11th driver to start 200 F1 races. Appropriately enough, the race was the scene of his 11th Grand Prix victory.
Renault failed to score for the first time since the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix – but not for the last time in 2011.
Belgian Grand Prix
Virgin matched the record for starting the most races without scoring a point. It had previously been held by RAM, who started 31 races from 1983 to 1985 without scoring.
By the end of the year Virgin had started 38 races without scoring. But as they become Marussia next year HRT could soon take this undesirable milestone from them.
Pastor Maldonado finished in tenth place and scored his first career point. He became only the second Venezuelan to do so, joining Johnny Cecotto, who took a point for Theodore at Long Beach in 1983 by finishing sixth.
Nico Rosberg led the 60th lap of his F1 career. Only four drivers have led more laps in world championship races without winning one.
Italian Grand Prix
The top five finishers in the Italian Grand Prix were all previous world champions, something which had never happened before in Formula 1.
Vettel equalled Kimi Raikkonen’s tally of wins and Red Bull matched Tyrrell’s – but both had more wins to add before the end of the year.
Singapore Grand Prix
Vettel led every lap of the race for only the third time in his career – but Button kept him from scoring his first perfect result.
Japanese Grand Prix
42 and he's still got it: Schumacher leads at Suzuka
Aged 42 years and 279 days, Michael Schumacher became the oldest driver to lead a race since Jack Brabham in the 1970 British Grand Prix.
Vettel won the championship with four races to spare. Only on two occasions has the title been decided sooner: Schumacher won in 2002 with six races to spare and Nigel Mansell won in 1992 with five races left.
Lotus finished a race with both cars on the lead lap for the first time since then 1987 Japanese Grand Prix.
Korean Grand Prix
Hamilton became the only driver in the whole of 2011 to beat Red Bull to pole position. He out-qualified Vettel by 0.222s.
The last driver to do so had been Nico Hulkenberg in the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix.
McLaren started their 700th race.
Indian Grand Prix
Having threatened to do so on several previous occasions, Vettel finally scored his first perfect result. He set pole position, led every lap, won the race and set fastest lap. He is the 22nd driver to do so in F1 history.
Felipe Massa started his 150th race (though Ferrari incorrectly claimed he had actually done so one race earlier).
India became the 30th different country to hold a round of the world championship.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Hamilton became the 17th F1 driver to lead 1,000 laps.
There was no Red Bull on the podium for the first time since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix.
Brazilian Grand Prix
Ferrari celebration: But no podium for Massa in 2011
Massa became the tenth driver to start 100 races with the same team. Two other drivers have started more races for Ferrari than him – Rubens Barrichello (102) and Schumacher (180).
However he also became the first Ferrari driver since Didier Pironi in 1981 to complete a season for the team without finishing on the podium.
Vettel broke Mansell’s record for most pole positions in a season with his 15th of the year. However this year featured 19 races, whereas Mansell set pole in 14 out of 16 rounds in 1992.
It was Renault’s 300th and – for now, at least – last F1 start.
2011 F1 season review
- Your 2011 F1 predictions revisited
- 2011 F1 statistics part 3: Stats and facts highlights
- 2011 F1 statistics part two: Vettel's domination
- 2011 F1 statistics part one: car performance
- New 2011 rules produced best racing of last four years
- What F1 Fanatics really thought of the 2011 season
- Sebastian Vettel voted F1 Fanatic Driver of the Year
- F1 Fanatic's article highlights of 2011
- Dominant Red Bull join F1's top teams
- McLaren are runners-up again after troubled start to 2011
Images © Tilke Gmbh, Renault/LAT, Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo, McLaren, Daimler, Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo
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