The importance of pole position.

[The Artist.....]

teabagyokel

Whilst this would be a horrendous thing to try and calculate, if we were to omit the years 1994-2009 (i.e. the refuelling years), then the stats of wins from pole would (likely) be a lot lower - as what I remember from the refuelling years was the car that qualified on pole more often than not won the race!

 

[FB]

Ah, the joys of stats The Artist..... I want to prove something so I'll pick and choose the data I use to calculate the result. You're not advising George Osbourne are you

 

[The Artist.....]

FB - sorry, it was not an attempt at pick and choose stats- more simply because refuelling seemed to artificially lead to many pole positions leading to race wins.... Furthermore, refuelling meant that using those years would not be valid comparisons for the current situation, as the races are not a comparable "type". - a similar comparison group would be to look at wins from pole for the last 3 years!

Quintessentially - JB had at least 3 pole positions where he did not win- Imola '04 and Montreal '05 and Melbourne '06

 

[FB]

I was only teasing The Artist.....

 

[The Artist.....]

(no worries FB - I only get slightly jumpy about stats since I've worked as a professional statistician in the past!) . - but no, I haven't been advising George Osbourne!

 

[Mephistopheles]

Stats stands for So That's Actually Total Shit......

 

[Viscount]

The Artist.....Since refuelling was banned, 48.15% of races have been won from pole in the past 3 years and 74.07% from the front row.

 

[Il_leone]

Viscount you seriously believe refuelling helps mix up the grid then

 

[Il_leone]

Quintessentially

Would you care to say that about Alain Prost who was not qualifying in the top 2 rows from mid 80's onwards often unless he had the fastest car but still came through winning a lot of races

 

[Viscount]

Il_leone I was just showing the stats. Not a fan of refuelling even if it was 100% safe.

 

[Mephistopheles]

The Artist.....Since refuelling was banned, 48.15% of races have been won from pole in the past 3 years and 74.07% from the front row.

Just for the sake of a balanced argument 48% is obviously less than half and 74% is very impressive but you have left out all the relevant data that matters, such as how many were won from the front row when refuelling was allowed did DRS and KERS have anything to do with it? what were the stats when you didn't have to start on the tyres you qualified on and a thousand other variables.

I cannot come to a realistic conclusion simply on "Since refuelling was banned, 48.15% of races have been won from pole in the past 3 years and 74.07% from the front row." alone.....

 

[Viscount]

Just calculating Vettel's winning stats and of his 25 wins so far, 72% were from pole and 92% from the front row. The lowest postion he's started a race and won is P3, twice.

At this point I was going to say that clearly qualifying is important for Vettel's chances to win, but I thought I'd also have a look at Webber's stats. Of his 9 wins 44.44% were from pole and 100% were from the front row.

 

[Viscount]

Mephistopheles I wasn't trying to make any point with those stats, just providing the stats after The Artist mentioned it might be more comparable to the current situation. teabagyokel posted that only 40.16% of all races have been won from pole which kinda shows that pole isn't as important as I first thought.

As for all those other variables, I'm just gonna keep it simple and say pole isn't necessary to win but the better you qualify the greater chance you'll win. Specifically in regards to Jenson, as you said, his race pace may negate the need to be on pole (though we may disagree on his race pace compared to his teammate ).
Unless you're in a Red Bull.

 

[Brogan]

I'm working on some stat's now related to wins and grid position.
It would normally only take 10 minutes but my daughter seems to think making Play-Doh fruit is more important...

 

[Brogan]

Here it is.
It only covers seasons 1981 to 2012 as that's all we have in the OTDB, so bear this in mind when looking at any driver who competed in any seasons prior to 1981.

It also doesn't take into account DSQ's or adjusted positions after the race - this is the actual race finish position.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

The 1st thing to stand out from those figures is there's not much difference between Vettel and Hamilton when it comes to converting a win from a good qualifying position. Both drivers tend to qualify near the front but when they start further back than the 2nd row they haven't been able to convert it to the win.

The other thing that stands out is that the one hit wonders of recent years have all come from the front row. No Panis/Alesi style glory runs.

How did Ralf Schumacher get 6 wins? Did 25 other cars retire on those days?

 

[RickD]

What stands out for me is just how good Schumacher was, the closest to his was prost who could win a race from anywhere near the top of the pile as well as from further back.

The second thing that stands out is that Senna didn't win from lower than 5th!

Then there is the fact that only 2 drivers have won multiple GPs from outside the top 10.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

The second thing that stands out is that Senna didn't win from lower than 5th!

After Senna left Toleman did he ever qualify lower than 5th?

 

[The Artist.....]

After Senna left Toleman did he ever qualify lower than 5th?

Mexico '92- he qualified 6th

 

[Brogan]

I've added starts to the table to provide some reference.
Again, the same caveats apply.