Ask The Apex

[Wombcat]

Didn't Senna win Suzuka 1988 when he had pole, but stalled his engine and at the restart had to start from the back of the grid (technically the 27th position)?

Edit: looked it up, and no, he didn't, he just had a bad start and was 13th in the first lap.

 

[The Artist.....]

Wombcat- you were partially correct; his car did stall, but because the grid slopes downhill at Suzuka he managed to bump start it,... But you're right, he was down to 13th!

 

[Jos the Boss]

I bet a Mercedes could win from 20th this season!

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Only if the other Merc fails to finish!

 

[RasputinLives]

I bet a Mercedes could win from 20th this season!

I bet it couldn't. Maybe a podium. The amount of time it would have to spend cutting through the field would cut its advantage to much. Maybe if there were a couple of safety cars.

I remember seeing Schumacher win from 16th in Spa in a Benneton that wasn't even the quickest car in the field. That was mighty impressive.

 

[soccerman17]

Can anyone tell me who won and when from those spots way down on the grid?

 

[sushifiesta]

Click on the numbers in the table: http://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/pilote/victoire/grille.aspx

 

[RasputinLives]

Interesting read.

Lewis has never won a race from lower than 4th on the grid and Vettel never from lower than 3rd.

Jenson, Alonso and Kimi seemed to have cut their way through the grid quite often though. I'm guessing the fact the formers are better qualifiers than the later has something to do with it but then if you look at the stats it appears that the wins from back in the pack get less frequent post 2009.

 

[LifeW12]

Those graphs and table really shows that qualifying is everything in road racing series, not just F1.

76.5% of all the F1 races have been won from the top 3 on the grid. That is extraordinary.

 

[Brogan]

It stands to reason though.

They line up on the grid in order of fastest to slowest.
So it's no surprise that races spread out very quickly and a driver from the top two rows wins.

 

[FB]

Some of the freak results are also from the days of qualifying tyres. If you look at the two results where Wattie "won from the back" the Michelin Q tyres were crap compared to Goodyear but the Goodyear race tyres were crap compared to MIchelin. There were also quite a few problems with the reliability of the turbo cars in the early 80's.

 

[Wombcat]

What amazes me is that are 8 victories from 10th place, but only 4 from 9th place.

 

[teabagyokel]

FB - That was in 1983, wasn't it? McLaren didn't even get on the grid at Monaco, but finished 5th in the Championship!

 

[LifeW12]

Some of those deep in the field wins was probably Alain Prost and Niki Lauda

 

[Galahad]

How many times in their history have McLaren had both cars finish a race and be classified outside the top 10?

 

[The Artist.....]

Galahad

Officially, 5 times, although two of those, one of the cars had actually retired

(Canada 1993, Britain 2013).

The other 3 were: Turkey 2009, Canada 2013, China 2014

 

[LifeW12]

lol 3 of them with Sam Michael in the payroll

 

[Bill Boddy]

And plenty of other personnel as well.

 

[LifeW12]

Sam Michael is a tornado who leaves destruction where ever he was or currently is.

 

[The Artist.....]

LifeW12

You cannot blame a sporting director for the poor design of a car! I really despair when individuals are paraded in what is essentially a team sport!