Random Formula One World Records I

Alberto Ascari in his Ferrari in the 50's.

I promised you a random Formula One World Records post for today.
Please note that these records were made before the date 13.8.2013. So let's begin!

This first time I shall focus on the "older" guys.

• The longest F1 career: Michael Schumacher - 21 years
• Most GP weekends: Rubens Barrichello - 326 (322 starts)
• Oldest F1 driver to enter a race: Louis Chiron - 58 years, 288 days (Monaco GP 1958)
• Oldest F1 driver to start a race: Louis Chiron - 55 years, 292 days (Monaco GP 1955)
• Oldest GP winner: Luigi Fagioli - 53 years, 22 days (French GP 1961)
• Most races before first victory in F1: Mark Webber - 130th race (German GP 2009)
• Most GP's without a victory in F1: Andrea de Cesaris - 214 weekends and 208 starts
• Most GP victories without a championship: Stirling Moss - 16 victories
• Most pole positions: Michael Schumacher - 68 poles in 308 entries (1991-2012). Ayrton Senna is on second place but his percentage is better than Schumacher's.
• Best pole position percentage: Juan Manuel Fangio - 29 poles in 52 races = 55.77% (1950-1958)
• Most victories in Formula One: Michael Schumacher - 91 victories
• Best victory percentage in Formula One: Juan Manuel Fangio - 24 victories in 52 races = 46.15%
• Highest victory percentage in a season: Alberto Ascari in 1952 - 6 victories in 8 races = 75%
• Most consecutive victories: Alberto Ascari - 9 races although some people say that it is only 7 because Ascari won 7 GP's and did not participate in the Indianapolis500 but won the 2 following races after that.
• Most consecutive victories at the same grand prix: Ayrton Senna - 5 times in Monaco
• Most consecutive pole positions in Formula One: Ayrton Senna and Schumacher - 8 pole positions
• Oldest driver on pole position: Nino Farina - 47 years, 79 days in 1954 (Argentine GP)
• Most pole positions by drivers that have not won the championship: Rene Arnoux - 18 pole positions
• Total of fastest laps: Michael Schumacher - in 77 races
• Highest percentage of fastest laps in a season: Alberto Ascari - 6 of 8 races = 75% in 1952
• Most fastest laps at the same grand prix: Michael Schumacher - 7 at the Spanish Grand Prix
• Most fastest laps by drivers that have not won the championship: Gerhard Berger - 21 fastest laps
• Total podiums: Michael Schumacher - 155 times on the podium
• World champions with fewest career points - Phil Hill with 98 points

I think that here is enough for a little while for you to think about. Maybe I shall post some more statistics and records tomorrow.

Legends of Formula One - Murray Walker

I don't know how familiar you are with Murray Walker but he is a legend in british F1 broadcasting.
If you are british then just press play and watch this for the first time or again.

For you who don't know anything about him - he's been a commentator since 1948 which means that his career is older than Formula One itself!
If this man says something about F1 then you better believe it's true! ..well actually not always because he is also famous for saying weird and funny stuff like this:

"He's obviously gone in for a wheel change. I say obviously because I can't see it"

"With half the race gone, there is half the race still to go"

"Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough?"

"Anything happens in Grand Prix racing and it usually does"

"Alboreto has dropped back up to fifth place"

"As you look at the first four, the significant thing is that Alboreto is 5th"

"I can't imagine what kind of problem Senna has. I imagine it must be some sort of grip problem"

"He is shedding buckets of adrenalin in that car"

"It's raining and the track is wet"

"And there's just a few more corners for Nigel Mansell to go to win the Canadian Grand Prix...and...he's going rather slow....HE'S STOPPING HE'S STOPPING!"

"and this is the third placed car about to lap the second placed car"

[During a F1 race, describing how the leader can see the driver following him] "... Mansell can see him in his earphone..."

Murrary: "What's that? There's a BODY on the track!!!" James Hunt: "Um, I think that that is a piece of BODY-WORK, from someone's car."

"And there's a 600 foot drop on my left..AND we're doing 120 mph... AND we're approaching a hairpin...OH MY GOD we're going to die..."

Murray: "And look at the flames coming from the back of Berger's McLaren"
James Hunt: "Actually, Murray, they're not flames, it's the safety light."

"...and he's lost both right front tyres" (which may have been accurate back in the days of the Tyrrell P34, but it was from 1995!)


Enjoy the short documentary film by pressing play.

McLaren - Honda F1 Documentary

Yesterday I posted a McLaren-Honda/Senna light show. Here is an old documentary from that time period.

Footage with Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Ron Dennis etc.

Honda is coming back to F1 as McLaren's engine supplier in 2015. It will be interesting.