Statistical anomalies in motorsports.

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Due to Michael Schumacher's disqualification from 1st place for excessive plank wear at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix, is Damon Hill the only driver to win a race having never led a lap of that race? Schumacher led every lap of the race except lap 29 which Coulthard led.
 
Liquid
Due to Michael Schumacher's disqualification from 1st place for excessive plank wear at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix, is Damon Hill the only driver to win a race having never led a lap of that race? Schumacher led every lap of the race except lap 29 which Coulthard led.
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That was the 7th and so far last occasion it happened.

Statistics Drivers - Wins - Win without led • STATS F1

www.statsf1.com www.statsf1.com
 
Liquid
Thanks. I couldn't think of a time since then and wasn't sure about before.
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I had to double-check because I wasn't sure about Belgium 2008, but Massa did lead 4 laps non-consecutively as Hamilton and Raikkonen did their pitstops earlier.
 
In 1994, the year with 46 drivers, driver changes were so frequent that the British Grand Prix followed by the German Grand Prix were the only two races that year to have the exact same entrants. Every other race that year had a unique entry list.

Notwithstanding 46 different drivers:

JJ Lehto, Andrea de Cesaris, Philippe Alliot and Eric Bernard drove for two different teams.
Johnny Herbert drove for three teams.
Alex Zanardi and JJ Lehto drove both numbered cars of a team; Zanardi the 11 and 12 Lotus, Lehto the 5 and 6 Benetton.

All this brings us to a total of fifty-four different driver entrants in 1994.

Fifty-nine if you want to count Martini and Alboreto driving the Minardi M193B and M194; Zanardi and Herbert driving the Lotus 107C and the Lotus 109 in addition to Zanardi driving the 107C as number 11 and 12
 
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Liquid
Johnny Herbert drove for three teams
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In 3 consecutive races, no less. Other drivers have driven for 3 different teams in a season but I don't know of any who did so over 3 consecutive races weekends.
 
The last two versions of the Singapore Marina Bay circuit for F1 have had their race lap records set by cars that finished the race in 18th place
Kevin Magnussen at the 2018 Singapore GP (1:41.905)
Daniel Ricciardo at the 2024 Singapore GP (1:34.486)
 
Jimlaad43
The last two versions of the Singapore Marina Bay circuit for F1 have had their race lap records set by cars that finished the race in 18th place
Kevin Magnussen at the 2018 Singapore GP (1:41.905)
Daniel Ricciardo at the 2024 Singapore GP (1:34.486)
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That's quite the coincidence!
 
Not so much an anomaly but, since Jake Hill has just won the 2024 BTCC title in car #24, can anyone think of any other instances of drivers winning titles in cars with race numbers matching the year they won the title?

(Aside the obvious, like Schumacher in '01, for instance)
 
I know Gil de Ferran won the CART championship in 2001 in the #1 car, but I am not sure if that was due to a chosen number or a renumbering to follow F1 rules.

(It was a renumbering so this can be disregarded.)

Joey Logano won the Cup Championship in 2022 in car #22.
Bobby Hamilton won the Truck Championship in 2004 in truck #4.
 
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Blitz24
Joey Logano won the Cup Championship in 2022 in car #22.
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Chris Smiley won the 2022 TCR UK title in car #22

Sam Hornish Jr won the 2006 IRL title in the #6 Penske

Paul Tracy was the 2003 CART Champion in car #3
 
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Ferrari started 2002 with last year's F2001 car until the F2002 was ready. At the 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher drove an all-new F2002 but Rubens Barrichello drove an F2001. Strange for two teammates to be running different cars in the modern era.
 
That had me wondering, the last team (barring 2021) to use last year's car at the start of the season was Manor Marussia with the MR03 in 2015.
 
By my reckoning, Jari-Matti Latvala is the only team principal at the top level of motorsport, who has raced his own teams car competitively whilst being the team principal of that team.

He replaced Tommi Makinen in 2021 as the Team Principal of Toyota Gazoo Racing, and in 2023 took the wheel of a Toyota GR WRT Yaris Rally1 in the WRC at Rally Finland, finishing 5th overall and took a power stage point, classifying him as 18th overall in that seasons final WRC standings.

He then entered the 2024 Rally Finland at the wheel of the new Rally2 Toyota GR Yaris, taking it all the way to 2nd in class behind Oliver Solberg and 6th overall, with 4 stage wins. 🤯
 
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The 1987 World Touring Car Championship certainly counts as anomolous in terms of "top-tier" motorsports but Andy Rouse drove for his own team that year.

Edit: I tried thinking about other WTCC and TCR years but that's beyond my capacity.
 
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1728677135633.png

There were a lot of driver/constructors in F1 in the past. I guess this question is more about modern times though.
 
Liquid
The 1987 World Touring Car Championship certainly counts as anomolous in terms of "top-tier" motorsports but Andy Rouse drove for his own team that year.

Edit: I tried thinking about other WTCC and TCR years but that's beyond my capacity.
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So did 1987 Round 1 winner Allan Moffat, and Tom Walkinshaw in his Commodore at Silverstone, later that same year.

I could go on to list many more than took part in the later Rounds at Bathurst (including those that didn't make the grid post qualifying) & Calder Park.
 
Not wishing to jinx Lando Norris but car #4 has never produced an F1 World Champion (at least not since F1 drivers started running the same numbers at every race from the 1973 Belgian GP onwards. Jackie Stewart was close though, he used numbers 3, 5 and 6).

The closest was Eddie Irvine in 1999.

(1974 to 1995 obviously has the excuse of Tyrrell running numbers 3 and 4 and never producing another World Champion after Stewart retired.)
 
This is probably going to be a tough one but what is the highest number of drivers to go into the final round of any motor racing season in any series still in title contention?

(To avoid complicating matters further, I am excluding examples like 2004-onwards NASCAR)

The most I can think of 9 in the 2006 World Touring Car Championship.
 
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Har1MAS1415
This is probably going to be a tough one but what is the highest number of drivers to go into the final round of any motor racing season in any series?

(To avoid complicating matters further, I am excluding examples like 2004-onwards NASCAR)

The most I can think of 9 in the 2006 World Touring Car Championship.
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The 2020-21 Formula E season is the one to beat comfortably. Going into the final double-header, 18 drivers were mathematically able to win the title. In the first of the double header, only 4 drivers were knocked out, meaning 14 drivers went into that final day with a chance of winning the title.
Screenshot_20241015-091825.png

After a start line crash eliminated two title contenders, the race was basically between De Vries and Dennis for the title until Dennis threw it away.

Despite 14 drivers being able to take the title, the championship leader ended up winning it by finishing 8th somehow, as the total randomness of the 2020-21 season reared it's head again and 1st to 5th in the race results were held by drivers not in contention.
Screenshot_20241015-091928.png


For context, De Vries won the title with 99 points out of a theoretical total of 450. The group format for qualifying mixed the grids up massively, and the chaotic racing that the Gen 2 cars encouraged just all reared their heads that season to make consistency impossible and entertaining races.

Gen 2 Formula E was the best era
 
Jimlaad43
The 2020-21 Formula E season is the one to beat comfortably. Going into the final double-header, 18 drivers were mathematically able to win the title. In the first of the double header, only 4 drivers were knocked out, meaning 14 drivers went into that final day with a chance of winning the title.
View attachment 1397634
After a start line crash eliminated two title contenders, the race was basically between De Vries and Dennis for the title until Dennis threw it away.

Despite 14 drivers being able to take the title, the championship leader ended up winning it by finishing 8th somehow, as the total randomness of the 2020-21 season reared it's head again and 1st to 5th in the race results were held by drivers not in contention.
View attachment 1397635

For context, De Vries won the title with 99 points out of a theoretical total of 450. The group format for qualifying mixed the grids up massively, and the chaotic racing that the Gen 2 cars encouraged just all reared their heads that season to make consistency impossible and entertaining races.

Gen 2 Formula E was the best era
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The COVID and the immediate aftermath would have been contributing factors.
 
Har1MAS1415
The COVID and the immediate aftermath would have been contributing factors.
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Not really. The calendar was relatively normal just with a few extra double-headers on some road course circuits than street circuits, but that was merely the start of a trend towards more Permanent Circuits on the calendar. This was nothing like the hastily finished 2019-20 season with the 3-6-9 bonkers effort at Tempelhof to finish the season with 3 circuit layouts, 6 races in total all in the space of 9 days.
 
Jimlaad43
Not really. The calendar was relatively normal just with a few extra double-headers on some road course circuits than street circuits, but that was merely the start of a trend towards more Permanent Circuits on the calendar. This was nothing like the hastily finished 2019-20 season with the 3-6-9 bonkers effort at Tempelhof to finish the season with 3 circuit layouts, 6 races in total all in the space of 9 days.
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I'll rephrase my original comment to "might have", in light of what the Calendar year series would have recently been through at the time, restrictions would have still had to have been in place but I know this would have had no impact on the actual racing.

I had a feeling there had to have been a series with lots of title contenders with one meeting to go. 18 is awesome!
 

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