Motorsports Trivia Thread!

[Liquid]

Are there any other drivers left who competed in Formula One in the 1950s?

The only one I can think of off hand is Bernard Charles Ecclestone, who DNQed at Monaco in 1958.

 

[Dotini]

Are there any other drivers left who competed in Formula One in the 1950s?

The only one I can think of off hand is Bernard Charles Ecclestone, who DNQed at Monaco in 1958.

There are probably several. Tony Brooks comes immediately to mind.
If you count the Indy 500, then AJ Foyt.

More:
Hans Herrmann <--- This guy is really, REALLY old
Bruce Kessler
Sir Leslie Marr
David Piper
Fritz d'Orey
Keith Greene
Mario Cabral
Paul Goldsmith
Don Edmunds
Kenneth McAlpine
Hermano da Silva Ramos <--- This guy has the best name!
Peter Ashdown
John Barber
André Milhoux

 

[Carbonox]

Hans Heyer's illegitimate start at Germany 1977 is pretty mainstream information by now, but a fact that had eluded me for the longest time until this year was that Leo Kinnunen's only career start, at Sweden 1974, also would never have happened had rules been followed to the letter.

He was 25th fastest while 24 cars would be admitted to the race, but being on good terms with local motorsport circles allowed him to start as an extra. (Vern Schuppan also rolled up on the grid in 26th, but his start was considered illegal and he ended up with a DQ after the race was over.) It was also effectively a start-and-park effort for Kinnunen and the AAW Racing Team since they knew the car wouldn't last the whole distance, so it was more of a press run, trying to show off the car's capabilities before the inevitable mechanical failure. He did pass 5 cars while the thing lasted, but that effort evidently never materialized into more career momentum for the team, as the rest of their 1974 efforts consisted of DNQ galore.

 

[Pete05]

The Indy 500 scored points for the World Championship from1950 through 1960. It's an incredibly tough race to finish well due to its speed (sustained high rpm), great distance, ambient heat and 33 competing racers.

By my count:
Jim Rathmann scored points in 6 Indy 500's, 1st, 3 2nds, 5th, and 2 fastest laps. He accumulated a total of 29 championship points.
Sam Hanks scored in 4 500's, 1st, 2nd and 2 3rds
Bill Vukovich scored points in 4 races, 2 wins and two only for fastest lap.
Jimmy Bryan finished 3 times in the points, 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
Tony Bettenhausen scored in 4 500's, never winning.
Paul Russo finished 4 times in the points, including 2 shared drives and a fastest lap, never winning.
Jack McGrath finished 3 time in the points, never winning.
Duane Carter finished 3 times in the points, never winning.
Johnny Thomson finished 3 times in the points, never winning.

Rathmann dominating at Monza

I only found out about the Indycars at Daytona a few days ago when spending some time on YouTube.

At first I thought it was an innocent mistake made by the person uploading the race. A little Googlesearch soon set me straight & I’ll be watching that very soon, along with the Monza race.

 

[Roger the Horse]

How many occasions have there been where every time a driver has scored points during a Formula 1 season the points have come from a victory? I was looking at Monaco Grand Prix winners and noticed that while Olivier Panis' famous shock 1996 win was accompanied by 2 other points scoring rounds (a 5th and a 6th), Jean-Pierre Beltoise's 1972 win was his only points score that season.

Surprisingly Gilles Villeneuve also took a 4th and a 3rd during 1981 alongside his two famous wins at Monaco and Jarama that year.

Of course, Jim Clark won 7 races in 1963 when only a driver's best 6 results counted towards the championship, so arguably he can also be counted in that regard.

 

[Carbonox]

Every Indy 500 winner from the 1950's for starters.

As a matter of fact, unless you count a solitary fastest lap from a DNF, Fangio in 1950 had only wins for results, and so did Ascari and Rindt in their 1952 and 1970 title-winning runs, respectively.

For Jim Clark there's also the tragic tale of 1968, where a win in Kyalami remained his only point-scoring finish before his untimely death.

Jean-Pierre Jabouille managed to complete two full seasons in 1979 and 1980 where all his points came from a single win. The turbo-powered Renault was still at the stage where it was fast enough to contend on most tracks while it lasted, but way too unreliable to be a match in the title battle.

Giancarlo Baghetti, famous for winning his first career start, accumulated no additional points in the same 1961 season, though he did only start 2 other races. Similarly, Ludovico Scarfiotti (possibly the GP winner with the shortest ever career?) only started twice in 1966, won one and DNF'd from the other. It seems like he may have been one of the last "wild card" drivers to actually win an F1 race.

 

[Liquid]

Off the top of my head, I don't know if Maldonado scored any more points in 2012 but going down to 10th, he probably did.

Fisichella in 2003 did score a few more points after his win in Brasil. I seem to recall Jordan having 13pts in the CC that year and Firman not scoring any.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Maldonado scored points in China, Japan, Abu Dhabi and USA as well as his win in 2012. He was clearly fast enough otherwise, he really should have got podiums in Valencia, Singapore and Abu Dhabi - with Valencia being the only one of those three podium losses that was self-inflicted.

Fisichella scored 2 points in USA 2003, and Firman got 1 in Spain that year.

 

[Liquid]

Across his professional racing career, name the world champions Michael Schumacher was teammates with.

Future world champions do not count, as he was not partnered with a world champion, but drivers who went on to win world championships that season do count as he will have been partnered with that year's champion in the championship winning year.

I count four in total but there could be more if you know when/where they were teammates.

No cheating!

 

[ScottPuss20]

Across his professional racing career, name the world champions Michael Schumacher was teammates with.

Future world champions do not count, as he was not partnered with a world champion, but drivers who went on to win world championships that season do count as he will have been partnered with that year's champion in the championship winning year.

I count four in total but there could be more if you know when/where they were teammates.

No cheating!

Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

 

[Liquid]

Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

They aren't teammates.

 

[ScottPuss20]

They aren't teammates.

I know that, but I was listing them as team mates to Michael Schumacher at one time or another.

 

[Liquid]

No.

 

[-Fred-]

There's Piquet that is obvious, but I'm struggling with the other three.

Edit: Mercedes won the 1990 WSC, so technically Schlesser and Baldi would be two others, right?

 

[daan]

Martin Brundle was world sportscar champion in 88 and partnered Schumacher at Benetton in 1992.

 

[Liquid]

There's Piquet that is obvious, but I'm struggling with the other three.

Edit: Mercedes won the 1990 WSC, so technically Schlesser and Baldi would be two others, right?

Martin Brundle was world sportscar champion in 88 and partnered Schumacher at Benetton in 1992.

Ding!

Very well done.

Jean-Louis Schlesser - 1990 World Sportscar Champion
Mauro Baldi - 1990 World Sportscar Champion
Nelson Piquet - 1981, 1983, 1987 Formula One World Champion
Martin Brundle - 1988 World Sportscar Champion

Spoiler

I umming and aaahing about his future world champion teammates. Nico Rosberg is obvious but Bernd Schneider is a debatable one; Schumacher had a few guest drivers in the DTM with AMG-Mercedes in 1990 and 1991 and Schneider was one of his teammates. Schneider would go on to win the 1995 International Touring Car Championship but it is debatable whether this has true "world" status.

Next question please.

 

[Dotini]

In which F1 race did there appear the highest percentage of past, present or future world champions?

 

[Roger the Horse]

Would guess it'd most likely be during 2012 but I'm not certain. Unless the 2005 US GP or some similar circumstance is sufficiently anomalous if we're talking percentages.

Or if we're just talking F1 races there could easily have been some non-championship race in the 70s where the entire starting lineup consisted of Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Mario Andretti or something similar to that.

 

[Roo]

2011-12 had the most past and present (Schumacher, Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Button, Vettel) and also included Nico Rosberg, so 7, out of 24 cars on the grid.

I guess there would've been races in the early to mid 80s that included Prost, Senna, Lauda, Mansell, Keke Rosberg, Piquet and perhaps Alan Jones, but from a grid of... 26?

Or maybe the mid - late 60s when grid sizes hovered around 18-20, with Graham Hill, Stewart, Clark, Surtees, Brabham, Hulme and Rindt? Possibly Fittipaldi too?

I'd have to hit Wikipedia for specifics but it's a long way past my bedtime.

And if we're including world champions of categories other than F1, well... I don't have anywhere near enough phone data to research that.

 

[Pete05]

In which F1 race did there appear the highest percentage of past, present or future world champions?

For the purposes of clarification, are we talking about the number of titles held or, the number of individuals?

 

[Dotini]

For the purposes of clarification, are we talking about the number of titles held or, the number of individuals?

Your question is brilliant! I had not thought about the number of titles. It should be answered immediately.

 

[Liquid]

The 2005 USGP had 1 World Champion from 6 starters which is 17% of the grid.

A typical race from 2010-12 had 7 World Champions from 24 entries which is 30% of the grid.

Those were my immediate first thoughts simply due to calculating the 20 titles shared by the 7 drivers in the 2010s.

I think it still might lie earlier though. Eras with multiple-title champions, particularly back-to-back champions, dilute the possibility of more individual champions. The period of 1961-1985 saw no driver retain his title so there is more likely chance to have a field with, say, Brabham, Hill, Surtees, Andretti, Hulme and Stewart with Rindt and Fittipaldi adding to it either side of 1970. With fewer entries there should be a higher percentage somewhere.

 

[Carbonox]

The period of 1961-1985 saw no driver retain his title so there is more likely chance to have a field with, say, Brabham, Hill, Surtees, Andretti, Hulme and Stewart with Rindt and Fittipaldi adding to it either side of 1970. With fewer entries there should be a higher percentage somewhere.

All those drivers were present for the British and German rounds in 1970, and with Hockenheim being the slightly less populated race with 21 starters, that makes it 8/21 and 38%.

 

[Roger the Horse]

Also if we're talking world champions are we just counting F1 world driver's champions? Germany 1970 for example would also have Jacky Ickx in there as a World Sportscar Champion (1982 & 1983).

Not sure when Buemi last raced in F1 but would he boost the figures for 2010-2012?

 

[Dotini]

All those drivers were present for the British and German rounds in 1970, and with Hockenheim being the slightly less populated race with 21 starters, that makes it 8/21 and 38%.

You are so far the only respondent who cited a specific race and percentage. Accordingly, you are the only possible winner unless there are further entries. The race you cited ranks 8th on the list I am keeping, although I make no claim it is complete.

Non-championship races? I am inclined to accept them, although I have not investigated them except for one, which is not included in my reckoning.

@Roger the Horse
My question does not include champions from other disciplines of the sport. But the question you raise would be good material for another trivia question in the future. I might be inclined to include Indy car and Can-Am champions, as well as other 1st rank international sports car racing champions.

The bottom line question we are just beginning to explore here is what is the "greatest race ever", i.e., the one with the highest proportion of true champion drivers of all kinds.

 

[Jimlaad43]

SOUTH AFRICA 1969 HAD 9/20 at 45% Stewart and Surtees were entered twice, so 7/18 at 38.89%.

Thus making the answer to this quiz...
Spain 1969 had 6/14 at 42.8%


Netherlands 1966 and USA 1967 had 7/19 at 36.84%
Monaco 1966 had 7/20 at 35%
France 1965 had 6/18 at 33.33%
Portugal 1960 had 5/16 at 31.25%
Monaco 1965 had 6/19 at 31.57%

 

[Dotini]

SOUTH AFRICA 1969 HAD 9/20 at 45% Stewart and Surtees were entered twice, so 7/18 at 38.89%.

Thus making the answer to this quiz...
Spain 1969 had 6/14 at 42.8%


Netherlands 1966 and USA 1967 had 7/19 at 36.84%
Monaco 1966 had 7/20 at 35%
France 1965 had 6/18 at 33.33%
Portugal 1960 had 5/16 at 31.25%
Monaco 1965 had 6/19 at 31.57%

By my reckoning, Spain '69 ranks equal #5 together with Germany '69, also with 6/14. Although as a technicality of the way I worded the question, Germany could be 7/14 since Surtees "appeared" (qualified) at the race, though he was a non-starter. The F2 race I consider a separate race run concurrently with the F1 race.

 

[Dotini]

Hint:

This car, driven by an F1 World Champion, passed half the entire field in less than one lap of an F1 Championship Grand Prix.

 

[Liquid]

Passing half the field in half a lap makes me think of the 1951 (I think) Monegasque Grand Prix when a tidal wave flooded Tabac and almost everyone crashed out on the first lap. It could have been a backmarker but obviously, that's not a 1951 car going by the picture.

 

[Dotini]

I give up. We can move on to the next trivia question now.