Statistical anomalies in motorsports.

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Jarno Trulli at Jordan in 2001, started out in car #12 for the first 12 races, moved up to #11 when Jean Alesi joined the team for the last 5 races.
Also Ricardo Zonta in 2004. Took over the #16 Toyota from Cristiano da Matta for 4 races then was replaced by Trulli and took over the #17 from Olivier Panis for the final race in Brazil.
 
Ayrton Senna is the only former Formula One World Champion to die in a Formula One event although five champions (Farina, Ascari, Hawthorn, Clark and Hill) died of unnatural causes before him.

Rindt wasn't a champion when he died.
 
Not sure if it qualifies as an anomaly but I thought it’s a cool one to share.

Kalle Rovanpera is the first back to back WRC champion (‘22, ‘23) not named Sebastian, since Tommi Makinen (‘96-‘99).
 
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I am not suggesting for one minute that this is anomalous, but with Daniel Ricciardo breaking his 2023 F1 points duck in Mexico, this means that we have had more than 20 point-scorers in a single season two years running (21/21) for the first time since 1993 and 1994 (22/25).
 
I am not suggesting for one minute that this is anomalous, but with Daniel Ricciardo breaking his 2023 F1 points duck in Mexico, this means that we have had more than 20 point-scorers in a single season two years running (21/21) for the first time since 1993 and 1994 (22/25).

I guess the anomaly could be that despite every driver scoring points, not every driver has crossed the finish line in the points.
 
I guess the anomaly could be that despite every driver scoring points, not every driver has crossed the finish line in the points.
Same thing happened in 1994 (JJ Lehto promoted to 6th in Canada after Christian Fittipaldi was disqualified).
 
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BBC Article
Max Verstappen is smashing all records this year, and in which on Sunday he took his 17th win, ensuring that he will end 2023 with the most dominant season in F1 history by every possible measure.

Not true; Jim Clark won both of his world titles with 100% of the possible championship points. In Clark's day only the best six results counted and in both 1963 and 1965 Clark scored at least six victories (9pts for a win) for a maximum of 54/54.

Max Verstappen, please don't break that record.
 
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Max Verstappen, please don't break that record.
Well, it's highly doubtful he'd be able to do that, since that rule is no more and there's only like twice as many races in a season. Not to mention sprints and fastest lap points are a thing.

Red Bull would also need to develop a car that can win in Singapore...and not allow Checo to win races.
 
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Adding to the 1994 discussion from the previous page, at the Monaco Grand Prix that year, of the 26 entrants only 3 had won an F1 race before, and those 3 only had 16 wins between them - Berger with 8, Schumacher 5, and Hill 3. I can't think of a time probably since the 50s where there's been that few race winners with that few combined race wins on one grid. Any suggestions?

(There was also a short period in the latter half of 1993 into 1994 where Damon Hill had more race wins than Micheal Schumacher, which seems odd in hindsight.)

Red Bull would also need to develop a car that can win in Singapore...and not allow Checo to win races.

They've managed both before!
 
Well, it's highly doubtful he'd be able to do that, since that rule is no more and there's only like twice as many races in a season.

I wasn't suggesting that he could, my post was more about pointing out the inaccuracy in the BBC article. I had forgotten about the sprints (surprise, surprise) so now thesedays there are actually two different records:

Winning all the Grands Prix in a season
Scoring the maximum championship score possible

The first has never been achieved but the second is currently held by Jim Clark. The second one would be extremely difficult to achieve because you'd need fastest lap as well as every win and I am 100% sure that teams going to softs at the end of the race means it is practicaly impossible to achieve under the current scoring system.

Edit: It's definitely a statistical anomaly that Jim Clark has scored the maximum championship score, twice in fact, without winning all the races in a season.
 
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Verstappen does already hold a record that will never be broken due to the update in rules: taking part in a race at the age of 17.

He also won a GP at 18, which is unlikely to ever be beaten. Last time we got a rookie so young was Lance Stroll, and he was already near the age of Max when he won in Spain.
 
Roo
Adding to the 1994 discussion from the previous page, at the Monaco Grand Prix that year, of the 26 entrants only 3 had won an F1 race before, and those 3 only had 16 wins between them - Berger with 8, Schumacher 5, and Hill 3. I can't think of a time probably since the 50s where there's been that few race winners with that few combined race wins on one grid. Any suggestions?
A good topic for me to idly think about. I have previously posted about 1994 and it being the last time a race had no World Champions on the grid and given that 1994 was the hangover of the Prost-Piquet-Mansell-Senna era, there just happened to be so few other people with race wins. It was strange in itself for having no World Champions, for the first time since 1958 I believe thanks to Farina and Ascari not racing that year and Fangio only twice, but a time with fewer race winners and race wins would be hard to top than the time period you've suggested.
 
It was strange in itself for having no World Champions, for the first time since 1958 I believe thanks to Farina and Ascari not racing that year and Fangio only twice
1959. Hawthorn retired immediately and Fangio was done racing for good that time.
 
1959. Hawthorn retired immediately and Fangio was done racing for good that time.
Yes but there were races in 1958 without a World Champion. Hawthorn wasn't a champion at that time just like in 1994 even without his ban, Schumacher wasn't a champion at that time.
 
Not true; Jim Clark won both of his world titles with 100% of the possible championship points. In Clark's day only the best six results counted and in both 1963 and 1965 Clark scored at least six victories (9pts for a win) for a maximum of 54/54.

Max Verstappen, please don't break that record.
Alberto Ascari also took 100% of the points in 1952.

Dropped points are awful in every aspect. When a driver wins a race and those points don't even count towards the total, then what's the point in giving out any points?

Championships are decided on dropped points - such as Senna's first title which should have been an easy Prost win.
 
Alberto Ascari also took 100% of the points in 1952.

Good one. I seem to forget Ascari a lot in my own personal record bank. It's a record that can be matched but not beaten, obviously.

Dropped points are awful in every aspect. When a driver wins a race and those points don't even count towards the total, then what's the point in giving out any points?

I agree. If only nine races count, then just have nine races.

Championships are decided on dropped points - such as Senna's first title which should have been an easy Prost win.

John Surtees also won the title on dropped scores. Graham Hill should be a three-time world champion.

Surtees 40pts
Hill 39pts (41pts)

As much as John Surtees was a great driver and his two-and-four championship is a mind-blowing achievement I think that one is exceptionally cruel on Graham Hill; ahead by a point and losing by a point.
 
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1988 was Best 11 scores out of 16.
Senna and Prost won all but 1 of those races between them. Dropped scores with the most dominant car of all time* was absolutely cursed. Both dropped the scores of retirements, but Senna then dropped a 6th and 4th placed finish to end of 90/94 points.
Prost had a much better season and had to drop the points from three 2nd place finishes to end on 87/104 points. Prost was a 5-time champion and Senna a 2-time champion.

Can you imagine dropping 5 scores from this season? Verstappen has won 17/20 races this year, with 22 in total. That's utterly bonkers that he'd be potentially just not be collecting points for victories with 2 races to go. At this point, he'd know he has won the 17 races necessary for all his points, so there would literally be no point(s) for turning up to the last two races of the season. All dropped points does is reward drivers who can't keep it on the road as well and punishes consistency. And as well all know...
1699647905435.jpeg
 
As best as some quick research tells me, during the 1991-2000 supertouring BTCC era, John Cleland was the only works driver to finish every event in a season; he did so in 1991. Frank Biela also finished every race in 1996 but was disqualified from the second Snetterton race.
 
Alberto Ascari also took 100% of the points in 1952.

Dropped points are awful in every aspect. When a driver wins a race and those points don't even count towards the total, then what's the point in giving out any points?

Championships are decided on dropped points - such as Senna's first title which should have been an easy Prost win.
It's crazy that Prost in addition to being 4xWDC was second another 4 times. Of those he missed once by 2 points, another time by half a point, and ranked second while scoring the most outright points.
 
It's crazy that Prost in addition to being 4xWDC was second another 4 times. Of those he missed once by 2 points, another time by half a point, and ranked second while scoring the most outright points.
Alonso similarly a few meagre points away from being a four-time champion. And under a system where 1pt has less value.
 
Ayrton Senna is the only former Formula One World Champion to die in a Formula One event although five champions (Farina, Ascari, Hawthorn, Clark and Hill) died of unnatural causes before him.

Rindt wasn't a champion when he died.

Ascari was probably not in the same frame of mind just a few days after his Monaco accident.
It's crazy that Prost in addition to being 4xWDC was second another 4 times. Of those he missed once by 2 points, another time by half a point, and ranked second while scoring the most outright points.

If the points rules from 1991-2002 held throughout the span of his career, Prost would have been an eight-time champion; but...

I think '89 would have went to Senna, since he would have been content with finishing 2nd at Suzuka to wrap up the title, especially after being "denied" in 1988, and due to McLaren's mysterious mid-season unreliability. People talk about how Senna was dominant at times, and other times, made sure he was winning by just enough to get the win (see the Belgian GP as an example).

So a lot of the pent-up drama would have fizzled out. But what would have happened at Suzuka in 1990...?
 
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In doing research for the Classic Motorsport Photos thread, I found some unique trivia about the Honda RA300 and its victory at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix.

It won on its debut, and only took the lead of the race for the first time at the last corner of the last lap. Given that it never won nor even led a race again, it is the only Formula One car to win its sole victory at its first race on the only lap it led.
 
In doing research for the Classic Motorsport Photos thread, I found some unique trivia about the Honda RA300 and its victory at the 1967 Italian Grand Prix.

It won on its debut, and only took the lead of the race for the first time at the last corner of the last lap. Given that it never won nor even led a race again, it is the only Formula One car to win its sole victory at its first race on the only lap it led.

I recall Fangio won the 1953 Italian GP on the last corner, which was the only championship victory for the Maserati A6GCM.

Maybe it lead a lap elsewhere? I'm going off memory.
 
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There are also 7 F1 races where the winner never led a lap. However, these cars did lead and win races other times during the year.

I guess the first three were shared drives. And the last three were due to winners' disqualifications.

That leaves the ill-fated 1978 Italian GP. I recall both drivers on the front row did a jump-start on the second standing start and were each penalized 30 seconds. Weird stat in itself...on top of it being the only race shortened due to darkness until that one-lap processional regatta they supposedly called the 2021 Belgian GP.
 
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That leaves the ill-fated 1978 Italian GP...
Speaking of the Italian GP, this one is a kinda dark coincidence.

Two Americans have won the F1 championship. Both clinched the title at Monza after their teammate was killed during the race.
1961 - Phil Hill won the championship after Wolfgang von Trips had his fatal crash on lap 2
1978 - Mario Andretti claimed the title after Ronnie Peterson's accident at the start (though he died a day later)
 
I recall Fangio won the 1953 Italian GP on the last corner, which was the only championship victory for the Maserati A6GCM.

Maybe it lead a lap elsewhere? I'm going off memory.

The Jordan EJ13 only led one lap, which eventually led to it winning the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Other cars won one race, other cars won by leading one lap. The RA300 is the only car that did it on its debut.

As an aside, although Fisichella was classified as leading one lap, he led at least two laps to be declared the winner on countback. He took the lead on his 54th lap and the race was declared on his 56th lap with the race wound back two full laps, the timekeeping error being they thought he was on his 55th lap.
 
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Ascari was probably not in the same frame of mind just a few days after his Monaco accident.
From his Wikipedia page:

Ascari was not supposed to drive that day but decided to try a few laps [in Castelloti's car]. In his jacket and tie, shirt sleeves, ordinary trousers and Castellotti's white helmet he set off.

Dead on his third lap in casual clothes. Not even a trip into the Monte Carlo harbour three days before had made him circumspect.
 
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I can't leave this thread...

Is Red Bull-Renault the only customer team to beat the works team to the constructors' title?

Without looking it up, I think Lotus won the CC with Coventry-Climax and Ford engines. They ran BRM engines here and there but not significantly.

Edit: In F1, obviously.
 
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