Motorsports Trivia Thread!

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Liquid
Well, that was an AK-47 burst spray but you got it. Brabham (topical) in 1966 with just 5 classified finishes and Alan Jones in 1980 (US election year) with 10, later matched by Lauda in 1984. The only difference for Jones and Lauda was that Jones had 9 points finishes with one outside of the points but Lauda's 10 classified finishes were all in the points.

1950s Farina 1950 (5 classified finishes, 4 in the points) and Fangio 1955 (5 points finishes)
1960s Brabham 1966 (5 points finishes)
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My source indicates Brabham had 6 classified finishes in 1966, same as 1960.
4th at Spa (points later dropped), wins at Rheims, Brands Hatch, Zandvoort and Nurburgring, 2nd at Mexico city.

And in '55 Fangio was awarded points in 6 races, even though he was classified a finisher in only 5.
 
Riccardo Patrese is known for a record gap between successive wins in F1 world championship races - over 6 years between the 1983 South African GP and the 1990 San Marino GP.

So the question is, who holds the record for largest gap (in time, not races entered) between successive pole positions?
 
Rubens Barrichello? 1994 Belgian Grand Prix and the 1999 French Grand Prix.

Only 5 years, but could be more GPs.
 
Patrese and Rubens are both incorrect.

Liquid, we are looking for the record in terms of time between poles, as in years, months, days. The record for gps entered and started between successive pole positions is held by a different driver, who is also yet to mentioned in response to the question.
 
Mario Andretti?

I have a feeling he took a pole position on his brief return to F1 for Ferrari in... '82?, but I couldn't tell you when his previous pole was. I imagine he took a few in his title winning season of '78 but after that I don't know for certain.
 
Andretti is correct but not in the way you're thinking. Andretti put it on pole on his debut in the 1968 US GP, but, partly due to his part time status in the championship, it was another 8 years until he was on pole again (1976 Japanese GP).
 
Last weekend, Kurt Busch became the 5th driver to attempt Double Duty, racing the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Engine failure at Charlotte ended his day early. Only one driver has managed to complete all 1,100 miles; who, when and with what finishing positions?

(If you could quote me so I get a notification that would help, as I might forget to check back because crap memory. Ta!)
 
Roo
Last weekend, Kurt Busch became the 5th driver to attempt Double Duty, racing the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Engine failure at Charlotte ended his day early. Only one driver has managed to complete all 1,100 miles; who, when and with what finishing positions?

(If you could quote me so I get a notification that would help, as I might forget to check back because crap memory. Ta!)
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Tony Stewart in 2001; He finished 6th in the 500 & 3rd at the Coke 600. You can read about it Here.
 
Roo
...is correct. Using Wikipedia is kinda cheating though :P

...although I had to use Wikipedia to find the question in the first place...

Anyway, your go!
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I actually knew it off-hand; I only linked the Wiki article for verification.

As for the trivia question:

Up until this year, the record for the longest gap in between Indy 500 starts was 17 years and held by two separate drivers (Roland Free and Cyrus Marshall, both 1930 and 1947). Who was the name of the driver that broke that record this year and how long was his gap between starts?

Kind of any easy one, but whatever...I wouldn't mind keeping the Indy 500 theme going for a second.
 
Earlier today I asked for the record gap between successive pole positions in terms of time (in F1 world championship history), but because of Andretti's part time status, there were only 46 entries between those two pole positions. So I'll double dip by now asking: what is the record gap in terms of GP entries between successive pole positions?
 
On a technicality, could we argue for Michael Schumacher? Very large amount of GPs between 2006 and his Monaco pole in 2012. But of course, his 5 place grid penalty means he is not officially credited with the pole.

Otherwise, I will nominate Barrichello again.
 
Even if that Monaco pole had stood, Schumacher wouldn't have the record because he didn't enter any GPs from 2007 to 2009.

Hint: Like Andretti, this large gap is between this driver's first and second pole positions.
 
Right okay, so the driver has to have been continuously racing.

Giancarlo Fisichella? I seem to recall him getting pole for Austria 1998 and his next pole can't have been until at least 2005.
 
Correct. Fisichella has the record with 107 GPs entered between his first pole position at the 1998 Austrian GP and his second at the 2005 Australian GP. Over six years there too.

By the way, the driver didn't necessarily have to have been racing continuously, it's just that the missed GPs don't count as entries. Hence a hypothetical gap between the 2006 French GP and a hypothetical pole at the 2012 Monaco GP comes out to only 50 entries for Schumacher, well short of Fisi's mark.

Your turn.
 
So, @SagarisGTB , the question is,

Which driver has the greatest interval between pole-positions in cumulative "Formula 1" race-entries? Things like early Indy 500s count in that, yes?
 
Formula Renault 3.5 newcomer Andrea Roda had to start 22nd in Monaco this year, despite there only being 21 cars in the race. Why?
 
They run a split qualifying session, 10 in one group and 11 in the other. Each group qualifies for one half of the grid, with the fastest single time taking pole position and all else in the same group filling the odd positions. Roda was 11th fastest in the slower group (therefore taking the even grid positions), putting him 22nd.
 
pezzarinho17
They run a split qualifying session, 10 in one group and 11 in the other. Each group qualifies for one half of the grid, with the fastest single time taking pole position and all else in the same group filling the odd positions. Roda was 11th fastest in the slower group (therefore taking the even grid positions), putting him 22nd.
Click to expand...

Yes indeedy. Your turn.
 
After the Spanish Grand Prix I was intrigued by some stats I saw about a season "clean sweep". Looking at any given season of Grand Prix races, a clean sweep is achieved when a driver has won at every circuit raced. We are yet to see the Austrian Grand Prix or the Russian Grand Prix this year, so ignore those currently as they have not been raced by any (current) driver.

Winning the Spanish Grand Prix leaves Hamilton just the Brazilian Grand Prix to win in his career to complete a sweep of the 2014 calendar, should he also win in Austria and Russia as mentioned. Unsurprisingly Sebastian Vettel is also only 1 win away, having yet to finish 1st in Hungary. My question though is aimed at the other German and somewhat of a statistical target to Vettel, Michael Schumacher.

Schumachers' career saw him win a huge number of races, mostly during his dominant years at the Ferrari team. He achieved the season clean sweep for the 2002 and 2003 seasons, and was just 1 win away for many other seasons also. Over his entire career though, there are only 8 races that Michael Schumacher took part in but could not win.

Name those Grand Prix!
 
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