Was wondering whether the next race will set a record of participating WDC titles at the start: I'm counting 13 and have the feeling never in F1's history were more at the start of a race. I didn't look it up, just a hunch. If Kimi comes back will even have possibly 14 next year.
I like to think so too. Obviously it became possible with Schumacher's comeback. Another unique thing of the next race: The sheer number of World Champions (I'm counting five). That probably was matched at some point in F1 history. Would be nice if somebody went through the trouble of checking these stats out. I'm too lazy.
Another amazing stat... active driver wins: 195 Michael Schumacher 91 Fernando Alonso 27 Sebastian Vettel 19 Lewis Hamilton 16 Jenson Button 12 Rubens Barrichello 11 Felipe Massa 11 Mark Webber 6 Jarno Trulli 1 Heikki Kovalainen 1
Whats also pretty amazing is Schumacher has more world championships than all the other current champions put together.
13? MS, Vettel, Alonso, Button and LH = 5 participating WDC's. Why count duplicates? Can't start the same race more than once, or in multiple cars Anyway the reason the 1.5 litre formula was so good in the early 60's is because they had many WDC's racing against each other ... and Moss as well. But it was also good because any one of them could have won, now we have only Button or Vettel . Pete
Rose tinted specs here I believe...... A quick look at the Wiki tells us during the 1.5L era (61-65) we had: Year...# of races...# of different winners 61...8...4 62...9...4 63...10...3 64...10...5 65...10...3 Hardly "any of them winning". Note also that in each case one guy won just a single race. Furthermore, whereas we now have the majority of the field finishing on the lead lap, back then it was often just the first two or three that ran the distance. We tend to remember "the old days" the way we want to rather than the way it really was. F1 is more competitive now than it's ever been. (IMO ) Sure, Seb has dominated this year and that's fine with me - If it was all down to the car Mark would be in a solid second spot....... Cheers, Ian
Most WDCs or not, i'm just hoping for a wet Korean race like last year! Was a bloody awesome race last year...
You're not buying into the conspiracy theories are you Steve? *Should* he make a blistering start in Korea, it was all down to him getting screwed by the team? I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it - As I've said before, Christian & the boys would love nothing more than seeing Seb 1 and Mark 2. Cheers, Ian
Well not quite, but you have to look at the driver, can he/you/me handle giving it your real best bestest of the best knowing you have to finish behind your team mate. IMO Last year the fight was on, till someone pulled the rug on Webber, this year it all seems a little different.. I'm no fan of team orders I suppose. I do tend to agree about Redbull wanting a 1-2 however the number 2 has his incentive reduced somewhat.
Considering how few drivers win races in a given year lately, it's easy to forget that in 1982, there were eleven different race winners, and world champion Rosberg won only once! Now that was a season!
While statistically you are correct, I wouldn't be touting my horn too loud about that year. There was a reason for why those statistics were so skewed and that reason was the tragic loss of Gilles.
Mexico 1970 had 5 champions starting. Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, John Surtees and Denny Hulme. Together they combined for 10 titles. Also in that race was eventual 1970 champion Jochen Rindt.
I hope the track is dry for the weekend, I only see a chance for rain on Friday. This is an interesting track with S1 being completely simple while S2 and S3 are monsters with lots of everything. Plan on a bare knuckle Mclaren vs Red Bull here here as this track is insanely technical and DF dependant yet also very mechanically dependant which Mclaren definitely has the upper hand regarding. I hope Ham pulls out a win.
+1. Mark's bogging down at the start of almost every race (until the last one) did not seem right. I'm not necessarily saying I buy into a conspiracy, but I will be quite curious to see if this veteran driver suddenly learns how to start after Vettel has won the WDC.
