Statistical anomalies in motorsports.

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HaydenFan69
Where they their generation’s field filler? The Reed Sorenson, Ty Dillon.
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It's very hard to call Cecil Gordon a field filler. In 1971 he had more points than Bobby Allison and finished 3rd in the Championship. In 1973, he beat out Petty AND Allison while finishing 3rd. Half of the top 10 in points in 1973 never finished on the lead lap (Gordon, James Hylton, Walter Ballard, Elmo Langley and McDuffie). Keep in mind it was different points system and cars were overall less reliable (Gordon was running at the end of 23 of the 28 races. Petty, despite 6 wins, only finished 18). It also didn't help that the season's most dominant driver, David Pearson with 11 wins, only ran 18 of the 28 races.
 
To my understanding, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa had at least 5 collisions in the 2011 season. However, both of them never DNF'd in the same race. I didn't exactly follow things at the time, but it would be interesting to know what their relations were like as a result of that.
 
Lewis Hamilton has not had a winless season in Formula One.

Edit: With that said, he (14) still needs two more victorious seasons in 2021 and 2022 to break Michael Schumacher's record (15) of consecutive seasons with at least one win.
 
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On my 10 year GTP anniversary, I've got the most anorakish of all anorakish statistics for you.

Jim Clark is the only driver in the history of Formula One to break the record for most Grand Prix wins but not extend that record; in winning the 1968 South African Grand Prix, Jim Clark won his 25th race and broke Juan Manuel Fangio's then record of 24 Grand Prix wins. Clark did not win another race until his death and thus never extended his record.

Every other driver who has held the record (Farina, Fangio, Stewart, Prost, Schumacher and Hamilton) won at least one more race.
 
Liquid
On my 10 year GTP anniversary, I've got the most anorakish of all anorakish statistics for you.

Jim Clark is the only driver in the history of Formula One to break the record for most Grand Prix wins but not extend that record; in winning the 1968 South African Grand Prix, Jim Clark won his 25th race and broke Juan Manuel Fangio's then record of 24 Grand Prix wins. Clark did not win another race until his death and thus never extended his record.

Every other driver who has held the record (Farina, Fangio, Stewart, Prost, Schumacher and Hamilton) won at least one more race.
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Man, that's an impressive level of anorak. Love this thread. Happy 10 years man!
 
adamp93
Despite not finishing a race in 2020, Marc Márquez scored the most points in the 2019 and 2020 MotoGP seasons combined.
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I love Marquez. But that just shows you how close the competition was without him in 2020. Taking points of each other at all the races
 
I do have to question the degree to which the United States West and Abu Dhabi races aren't national Grands Prix. That feels like logic which could extend to saying "the British Grand Prix" isn't a national Grand Prix because Britain refers to a geographic area and not the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With Abu Dhabi there's a stronger case to be made since that's de jure a sub-national entity, although ultimately since all nations are just a product of the collective imagination anyway it's very hard to create a concrete definition. The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix is notably non-geographic in nature though.
 
British is the correct adjective for the United Kingdom. It is not disputed even though the noun Britain has different meanings. There's no such thing as Great British as a demographic adjective nor is there such a thing as United Kingdomish. British Grand Prix counts. This one isn't worth the semantics.
 
Roo
Over the course of their careers Michael Andretti lead 2 laps more at the Indy 500 than Rick Mears, yet Mears won 4 times and Andretti never did.
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Most of the 500's I remember from when Michael was driving, he was either in the lead, battling for the lead, or speaking from behind the pitwall after another early retirement.
 
Roo
Over the course of their careers Michael Andretti lead 2 laps more at the Indy 500 than Rick Mears, yet Mears won 4 times and Andretti never did.
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Mears combined with Penske was virtually unstoppable. Together, they had a 4:1 IQ advantage over Andretti.
 
Carbonox
One thing that popped to my mind about Gabriele Tarquini is that he may just be the only driver to finish first and dead last in consecutive seasons of a world championship, but that's kinda finnicky since the new WTCR doesn't have championship status anymore.

Still, he won that title in 2018 while being classified all the way in the bottom of the 2017 WTCC with a double disqualification to his name.
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I was about to waltz in here and be like "holy crap, I said this in the middle of the 2020 MotoGP season only for Marc Marquez to come in last place as a defending champion" but there apparently was a Garrett Gerloff who withdrew from one race, technically making him the true last place finisher, assuming someone who never started a race is even classified in the standings the same way as someone who has at least that one retirement on his record.
 
After going down a little bit of a rabbit hole:

In the 1987 Formula One season, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell finished the same race eight times. Mansell finished ahead of Piquet seven times in eight races but Piquet still won the title.

I wonder if there are any other cases, in Formula One or elsewhere, of a driver lagging so far behind in dual finishes yet still coming out on top?
 
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Liquid
After going down a little bit of a rabbit hole:

In the 1987 Formula One season, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell finished the same race eight times. Mansell finished ahead of Piquet seven times in eight races but Piquet still won the title.

I wonder if there are any other cases, in Formula One or elsewhere, of a driver lagging so far behind in dual finishes yet still coming out on top?
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In 2016, Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate 10 to 9 (I don’t count the double retirement in Spain, nor Lewis’ retirement in Malaysia). Lewis also won 10 wins opposed to Nico’s 9. While not the 15 point gap in the points (while you also failed to mentioned Mansell missing the final 2 GP’s while on a two race winning streak), Nico with the inferior stats did managed to squeak by Lewis for the title.

Again, not as significant trouncing as Mansell did on his teammate in ‘87, but Lewis’ retirement in Malaysia ultimately is what let the other guy win.

Maybe a better example is in MotoGP in 2006. Nicky Hayden only managed to beat Rossi 4 times all season in races they both finished (13/17), as well as only scoring 2 wins opposed to Rossi’s 5.

Note: I spent about an hour looking at the last 20 years of motoraport to find something similar. And while Gil de Ferran’s 2000 and 2001 titles came from very mediocre seasons, no one driver had a strong dominate run (though a reliable Montoya would’ve ran away with the 2000 CART season). Same with looking at the DTM. Parity never really allowed anyone to more of less blow a championship.

Thanks for giving me a reason to visit wikipedia and do some fun research way too late in the night.
 
Chris Amon led a record 183 laps and never won a single race. In comparison, 1961 champion Phil Hill led 171 Grand Prix laps.

Mario Andretti
If Chris Amon was an undertaker, people would stop dying.
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The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix is the only Grand Prix with no official fastest lap.
 
Williams won their first F1 race in 1979.
Since then, only 10 Constructors have won a race for the first time, three of them in the last 2 years! And the four previous were in 2008-09 too.
 
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Jimlaad43
Williams won their first F1 race in 1979.
Since then, only 10 Constructors have won a race for the first time, three of them in the last 2 years! And the four previous were in 2008-09 too.
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True. But what constitutes a constructor? Seeing as two in that group are effectively name changes (AT and Alpine).
 
HaydenFan69
True. But what constitutes a constructor? Seeing as two in that group are effectively name changes (AT and Alpine).
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They're mostly all name changes. The second youngest team on the grid after Haas, depending on how you count it, are either Mercedes (formerly Brawn, Honda, BAR and Tyrrell, although the only carry over from Tyrrell was the company registration number) or Red Bull (formerly Jaguar and Stewart).

In terms of race winners since Williams, the names grouped by actual team are:

  • Jordan and Force India
  • Stewart and Red Bull
  • Toro Rosso and Alpha Tauri (formerly Minardi)
  • Benetton, one of the Lotus names, and Alpine (Renault's first victory came in the race before Williams', but that Renault was a different team)
  • Honda and Brawn
  • BMW Sauber

So 10 (or 11) names. Only 6 actual teams, but what's counted as a constructor is the name.
 
Roo
They're mostly all name changes. The second youngest team on the grid after Haas, depending on how you count it, are either Mercedes (formerly Brawn, Honda, BAR and Tyrrell, although the only carry over from Tyrrell was the company registration number) or Red Bull (formerly Jaguar and Stewart).

In terms of race winners since Williams, the names grouped by actual team are:

  • Jordan and Force India
  • Stewart and Red Bull
  • Toro Rosso and Alpha Tauri (formerly Minardi)
  • Benetton, one of the Lotus names, and Alpine (Renault's first victory came in the race before Williams', but that Renault was a different team)
  • Honda and Brawn
  • BMW Sauber

So 10 (or 11) names. Only 6 actual teams, but what's counted as a constructor is the name.
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I thinks it's different when let's say Brawn became Mercedes (as its due to the team geing brought and regrouped just with some of the old assets) than Toro Rosso became Aplha Tauri or Renault became Alpine (which are the exact same team, only changed due to marketing)
 
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Liquid
Every Williams drivers' title was a championship double.
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If a double means that they also won the constructors, then nope. Keke Rosberg took the 1982 drivers' title in a Williams but the constructors' title went to Ferrari.
 
Team Kuminitsu Drivers won the Super GT GT500 Championship last year at the final round after the Championship Leader suffered an unforeseen circumstance.

That's how they lost the Championship this year albeit a different circumstance.
 
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