2010 in a Statistical Nutshell

teabagyokel

#dejavu
Valued Member
A few statistics I hope to illuminate the 2010 season for you:

Felipe Massa's form was (sort of) better after Germany than before it

Undermining my point in my own driver review :rolleyes:, Felipe Massa scored an average of 7.375 points in the 8 races after the German GP and 6.7 points in the 10 races prior to his calling over. However, I can get away with it, because his German second place would make his form before the team-orders slightly better at 7.72 points per race before the swap (and 8.3 if you chalk up a win). However, his form was poor in both regards.

At the bottom, reliability is better than speed

HRT never outqualified both Virgins. But when the chips were down and sheer reliability would ensure a finish in the P14/15 range, HRT gobbled it up and Virgin were almost always part of the high unreliability problem. If the HRT was a bath on wheels, at least the wheels kept rolling.

Even with the new points system, 109 points is a lot

109 points is the deficit suffered by Vitaly Petrov to Robert Kubica at Renault. Only Felipe Massa returned a similar lack of points (108) and even then proportionately it is significantly less. Petrov scored only 19% of the points his team-mate did (Massa - 54%). Whether that was due to Kubica being excellent or Petrov poor, we don't know, but you must suspect it is a bit of both.

Pick your old drivers wisely

Not Mercedes, but Sauber. In 5 races, Nick Heidfeld scored as many points as Pedro de la Rosa did in 12. De la Rosa scored 6 points (Kobayashi 21), as did Heidfeld (Kobayashi 9). This suggests that Sauber was foolish in letting Heidfeld go early in the season. Could Nick have done a better job than Schumi at Mercedes? I'll leave that question up to you to decide.

Just outside

It is extremely galling to be just outside the top 10. So its time to feel for Jaime Alguersuari (5 times in 11th, 3 times in 12th and 3 in 13th). However, the Spaniard was impressive this year, and consistent despite finishing the worst driver of the 'old' teams. Buemi being ahead of Alguersuari was mainly due to the Swiss' 4 points on a crazy day in Canada, and were the most well matched team-mates of the year.

How close were we to a 3rd best car World Champion?

Lewis Hamilton finished 16 points down on the field at the end of the season. Much has been said of how Alonso got so close to the World Title in a worse car than Vettel, but even with his gear problems in Japan and his retirements in Hungary, Italy and Singapore, Lewis would have taken the title had he not crashed with a failure 2 laps from the end of the Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso could not justifiably have the same story - would he be in the picture without the points he unarguably inherited? (7 in Bahrain, 3 in Spain, 7 in Germany, 7 in Korea) His modus operandi from 2005 almost worked again this year!

Not technically Schumi's worst season

Schumacher's worst WDC placing was 14th when he raced 6 races. Other than that, even a prolonged absence in 1999 could not prevent him hitting the top 5 (except in 1997...) 9th in the Championship is comfortably his worst ever result when he's had a full season.

Master of the Midfield

So who was king out of Williams, FI, Sauber and Toro Rosso? It is the aged Rubens Barrichello, who finished on 47 points, tied with Adrian Sutil, but arguably in a worse car for most of the season. He was the only 4th placed finisher of the aforementioned teams (at Europe) and became F1's first triple-centurion. His team-mate may have hit the pole in Sao Paulo but Rubens had a good season, as he so often does when little is at stake.

Not Bad for a Number 1 driver

If you're bad at close combat, then just get to the front and don't get into a combat situation. Seb Vettel lead a third of the season, more than the last 3 World Champions. Alonso was in 4th, leading 126 laps, Hamilton lead only 100. Button was hence in 3rd!

As for Vettel deserving to win the World Championship bearing in mind his mistakes, its not unheard of for a first time champion to err in his Championship year. Think Hamilton rear-ending Raikkonen in Canada or Schumacher getting thrown out of 2 races in 1994. Even those with a championship under their belt can make mistakes, like Hakkinen's 2 driver errors in front of the tifosi in 1999 or Schumacher getting lapped (as a 7 time champion) by his team-mate in China in 2004!

No WDC leader won a race

All this says to me is how contested the front of the pack was. Just time your run, Vettel won 3 of the last 4 races and it should have been 4. It means, incidentally, that Turkey 2009 is the last time a WDC leader won a race. The season ebbed and flowed, but this statistic would be buried had Red Bull elected not to play silly buggers at Istanbul, or perhaps gone with the options in Montreal...
 
Nice stats TBY. You have to feel sorry for poor old Felipe don't you (urrmm, no). Also shows F1 is a young man's sport.
 
FB said:
You have to feel sorry for poor old Felipe don't you (urrmm, no).

I do, I mean if you're in bad form, the last thing you need is to win one and then have it stolen by your own corner.
 
Good stats, and interesting to see about Massa, although I'm not sure I believe how representative the numbers are in this case... I didn't realise that Petrov was quite that poor in comparison to Kubica and it does suggest Renault maybe should look elsewhere - could it depend on the replacement of Russian money with Malaysian?

Did Alonso not inherit more in Spain? I thought Vettel had a brake problem and Hamilton crashed... He would have gained 6 not 3 points.
 
teabagyokel said:
How close were we to a 3rd best car World Champion?

Lewis Hamilton finished 16 points down on the field at the end of the season. Much has been said of how Alonso got so close to the World Title in a worse car than Vettel, but even with his gear problems in Japan and his retirements in Hungary, Italy and Singapore, Lewis would have taken the title had he not crashed with a failure 2 laps from the end of the Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso could not justifiably have the same story - would he be in the picture without the points he unarguably inherited? (7 in Bahrain, 3 in Spain, 7 in Germany, 7 in Korea) His modus operandi from 2005 almost worked again this year!

Not sure I agree with you, if you play the "what if" game then just about anyone could have won. Hamilton could have gone on to win in Italy, simarly Alonso may have passed Vettel in Korea. Whilst the Mclaren was probably 3rd best for the longest, there are several factors determining "best". Lets just say that the best Car/Driver combination won in the end.
 
Just shows that Stats do tell the story:

Massa my fave driver was poor all the way through
I feel that with Petrov it's a little unfair, as Kubica is such a good driver, it's like chalk & cheese, though Petrov did show a good last GP.
3 strong teams which is good, though I fear unless 2011 regs shake up the grid again RBR will sort out their 'shooting themselves in the foot' and romp both titles.

By the way my counter says just over 98 days to go.....
 
tooncheese said:
Not sure I agree with you, if you play the "what if" game then just about anyone could have won. Hamilton could have gone on to win in Italy, simarly Alonso may have passed Vettel in Korea. Whilst the Mclaren was probably 3rd best for the longest, there are several factors determining "best". Lets just say that the best Car/Driver combination won in the end.

Oh, I can, but its obvious how close Alonso was to the title, I'm just pointing out how surprisingly close Hamilton was.

I agree the best Car/Driver combination won in the end, since this is self-evident. I also would like to point out Alonso's knack of being the guy behind when someone has a problem - possibly he's worrying them more than other drivers do. Thats how he won 2005, and thats how he nearly won 2010!

I don't want to play the 'what if' game too much, so I haven't assumed much. Having said that, I think Ferrari may have covered Hamilton in Abu Dhabi if he led.
 
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