The 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season begins this
weekend with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit in
Melbourne. Twenty cars are entered, including four former race winners: Sebastien
Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.
Here’s a look at some interesting statistics and tidbits heading
into the weekend.
Australian Grand Prix
– Track/Event (Overall)
- This is the 83rd running of the Australian Grand Prix.
Arthur Waite won the inaugural race in 1928 at Phillip Island.
- In total, 51 drivers have won at least one Australian
Grand Prix in the 82 previous runnings of the race.
- Australians have won the Australian Grand Prix 32 times.
Great Britain holds the record for the nation that has produced the most
winners of the race in the F1 era, with 11, followed by Germany’s eight.
- Overall, 11 different nationalities have won the
Australian Grand Prix over 82 previous races: Australia (32); Great Britain
(16); Germany (8); New Zealand (7); Brazil (6); Finland (4); France (3);
Austria (2); Belgium (1); Italy (1); and Spain (1).
Formula 1 Season
Opening Events
- Melbourne has hosted more season-opening F1 races than any
other track in history. Autodromo Juan y Oscar Galvez in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, has hosted the season-opener 15 times, all with the running of the
Argentinian Grand Prix. The South African Grand Prix hosted the season-opener nine
times – eight at Kyalami Racing Circuit in Gauteng, and once at Prince George
Circuit in East London.
- Overall, 13 tracks have hosted the season-opening F1 race.
- Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost hold the record for
most victories in an F1 season-opener with six each, not all of them were in
Australia. Schumacher and Graham Hill hold the record for most consecutive
season-opener victories with three each.
- Overall, a total of 35 drivers have won a season-opening
F1 race, with 21 of them winning two or more season-openers. Of the 35 drivers
to win a season-opening F1 race, 26 of them at one point or another became a
World Champion.
Australian Grand Prix
– As Part of the Formula 1 World Championship
- This weekend’s race marks the 34th Australian Grand Prix
as part of the Formula 1 World Championship. Keke Rosberg won the first
Australian Grand Prix as part of the F1 calendar in 1985, while Sebastien
Vettel won the 33rd and most recent event in 2017.
- This is the 21st time the Australian Grand Prix has opened
a Formula 1 World Championship, including the eighth consecutive year. Bahrain
International Circuit was the last track other than Melbourne to host the F1
season-opener, in 2010.
- Drivers that have won the Australian Grand Prix have won
on to win the Formula 1 World Championship nearly half of the time: 16 times in
33 races. Alain Prost was the first driver to do so in 1986. Nico Rosberg was
the most recent driver to do so in 2016.
- The winner of the Australian Grand Prix went on to win the
Formula 1 World Championship four consecutive years between 2006 and 2009, and
eight times in the 2000s. During this decade, it has happened only three times:
2011 (Sebastien Vettel), 2015 (Lewis Hamilton) and 2016 (Nico Rosberg).
- Other drivers to win the Australian Grand Prix and the F1
World Championship in the same year include: Nelson Piquet (1990); Ayrton Senna
(1991); Damon Hill (1996); Mika Hakkinen (1998); Michael Schumacher (2000,
2002, 2003 and 2004); Fernando Alonso (2006); Kimi Raikkonen (2007); Lewis
Hamilton (2008); and Jenson Button (2009).
- Overall, since the 1985 race, a total of 19 drivers have
won the Australia Grand Prix as part of the F1 schedule.
- The winner of the Australian Grand Prix has won from the
pole position 14 times in 33 previous races, and from the front row 20 times.
David Coulthard started the furthest back of any Australian Grand Prix race
winner – 11th in the 2003 race.
- The shortest race in the history of the Formula 1 World
Championship was the 1991 Australian Grand Prix at Adelaide, which was
shortened from 81 laps to 14 due to torrential rain. The race was stopped after
16 laps but final results were declared following 14 laps.
- The record for most drivers to lead a lap in the
Australian Grand Prix was seven in 2013: Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso,
Sebastien Vettel, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Adrian Sutil.
- A total of 30 drivers have led the Australian Grand Prix
in F1 competition. Sixteen of those drivers have won the Formula 1 World
Championship.
- Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher hold the record for
races led in the Australian Grand Prix with seven each. All of Hamilton’s races
led have come at Melbourne, while five of Schumacher’s were at Melbourne (all
in succession from 2000-2004, a record) and two at Adelaide. Sebastien Vettel,
Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard have each led the Australian Grand Prix on
six occasions.
- Michael Schumacher’s win in 2004 came at a record pace (at
Melbourne) of 219.011 kph (136.081 mph).
- Twenty-seven of the 33 Australian Grand Prix have been won
by the driver who led the most laps. The exceptions were 1986 (Alain Prost won;
Keke Rosberg led most laps); 1990 (Nelson Piquet won; Ayrton Senna led most
laps); 1992 (Gerhard Berger won; Riccardo Patrese led most laps); 1996 (Damon
Hill won; Jacques Villeneuve led the most laps); 2003 (David Coulthard won;
Kimi Raikkonen led the most laps); and 2016 (Nico Rosberg won; Sebastien Vettel
led the most laps).
- Damon Hill led the fewest laps of an Australian Grand Prix
winner, eight, in the 1996 race. Also in that race, Jacques Villeneuve led the
most laps of a non-race winner, 50.
Australian Grand Prix
– Drivers/Manufacturers
- Alan Jones is the last Australian to win the Australian
Grand Prix, when he did so in 1980, as part of Australian Drivers’ Championship
(ADC).
- Australian driver Lex Davison and seven-time F1 champion
Michael Schumacher own a record four victories in the Australian Grand Prix.
Davison’s victories were in 1954, 1957, 1958 and 1961, while Schumacher won in
2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004.
- Schumacher and Jenson Button are the only two drivers to
win the Australian Grand Prix at least three times in F1 competition. Alain
Prost also has three victories in the race, but his 1982 win was not part of
the F1 schedule; instead, it was part of the ADC. Prost is the only driver to
win the race as part of the ADC as well as World Championship schedules.
- Nigel Mansell is the only driver to win the Australian
Grand Prix and the CART-sanctioned Gold Coast race in Surfers Paradise. Mansell
won the CART race in 1993, then, after following his 1994 CART season, returned
to F1 with Williams and won at Adelaide, his final of 31 F1 victories.
- Lewis Hamilton has won the Formula 1 World Championship
both times that he has won the Australian Grand Prix (2008 and 2015).
- Eddie Irvine is the only driver whose first F1 victory
came in the Australian Grand Prix (1999).
- Five drivers have scored their final F1 victory in the
Australian Grand Prix: Keke Rosberg (1985); Ayrton Senna (1993); Nigel Mansell
(1994); David Coulthard (2003); and Kimi Raikkonen (2013). Raikkonen is hoping
to change that this year.
- Defending race winner Sebastien Vettel recorded his 43rd
career victory in the 2017 Australian Grand Prix and his 87th podium. That
victory gave him at least one victory in eight seasons in F1 competition.
- Jenson Button is the last driver to win the Australian
Grand Prix in consecutive seasons, when he did so in 2009 and 2010.
- Sebastien Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen are the only drivers
to lead the Australian Grand Prix in each of the last two seasons. Vettel led a
race-high 38 laps in 2017 and a race-high 32 laps in 2016.
- Nico Rosberg is the last driver to lead every lap of the
Australian Grand Prix, in 2014. Overall, the winner of the race has led every
lap in five Australian Grand Prix; the others were Gerhard Berger (1987),
Ayrton Senna (1991), Michael Schumacher (2004) and Jenson Button (2009).
- Mark Webber is the last Australian to lead the Australian
Grand Prix, when he led two laps of the 2010 race. He also led two laps of the
2006 race.
- Damon Hill holds the record for largest margin of victory
in the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne, at 38.020 seconds (1996). Hill also
set the F1 record in the Australian Grand Prix in 1995, winning by two laps at
Adelaide.
- The closest margin of victory came in 1998, when Mika
Hakkinen led West McLaren Mercedes teammate David Coulthard by 0.702 seconds to
the finish.
- Mercedes/Mercedes-Benz holds the record for most victories
for an engine at Melbourne – 10. Ferrari has seven and Renault has five.
Australian Grand Prix
– 2018 Entry List
- Four former race winners are entered in this year’s
Australian Grand Prix: Sebastien Vettel (2011 and 2017); Lewis Hamilton (2008
and 2015); Fernando Alonso (2006); and Kimi Raikkonen (2007).
- Fourteen countries/nationalities are represented in this
weekend’s race: France (4), Germany (2), Spain (2), Finland (2), Great Britain
(1), Australia (1), Netherlands (1), Mexico (1), Canada (1), Russia (1), New
Zealand (1), Denmark (1), Belgium (1) and Sweden (1).
- Two drivers are making their first career F1 World
Championship debuts this weekend: Charles Leclerc (France) and Sergey Sirotkin
(Russia). Additionally,
- Four French-born drivers are competing this weekend:
Romain Grosjean, Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon. That marks the
most from the country in the Australian Grand Prix since 2013 (also four).
- A Brazilian driver has competed in all 33 of the
Australian Grand Prix, but that will end this weekend as no Brazilian drivers
will compete in the race.
- For the first time since the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix
(615 races), there will be no Brazilian driver entered to participate in a
Formula 1 grand prix. The streak had reached 605 consecutive races in which at
least one Brazilian competed in a grand prix, before last year’s Hungarian
Grand Prix. Felipe Massa was scheduled to race but fell ill after the first
practice and did not compete in the race. The 1982 San Marino Grand Prix had
only 14 cars, with many of the teams boycotting the race due to a political war
between the Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA) and the
Formula One Constructors’ Association (FOCA).
- KimI Raikkonen is the oldest driver entered at 38 years,
five months and eight days (as of race day). Lance Stroll is the youngest
driver entered at 19 years, four months and 25 days (as of race day).
- Daniel Ricciardo (Perth) is the only driver from Australia
entered for this year’s Australian Grand Prix.
- Nico Hulkenberg has the most starts of any F1 driver in this weekend's race without a victory: 135. However, Hulkenberg is also the only driver in the field to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
- Nico Hulkenberg has the most starts of any F1 driver in this weekend's race without a victory: 135. However, Hulkenberg is also the only driver in the field to have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Formula 1 Random
Statistics – Current Drivers
- Lewis Hamilton is the last driver to win back-to-back
races in Formula 1 competition, when he won the Japanese Grand Prix and United
States Grand Prix last October. Valtteri Bottas is the most recent winner of a
grand prix, winning last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November.
- The Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team is the only team
to lead laps in each of the last two F1 grand prix.
- Max Verstappen is the last driver to lead every lap of an
F1 grand prix, doing so in the 2017 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos
Rodriguez.
Upcoming Milestones
- Valtteri Bottas is three races away from 100 Formula 1
grand prix.
- Sebastien Vettel is two races away from 200 Formula 1
grand prix, one podium from 100, three victories from 50 and 12 laps led away
from 3,000 in his career.
- Fernando Alonso is nine races away from 300 Formula 1
grand prix.
- Lewis Hamilton is three pole positions away from 75 in his
career.
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