The 2012 Season

Here's a little graph I knocked together of driving contact and retirements in 2012 so far:
Driver stats 2012-11.webp

Note 1: "Contact" doesn't attribute blame to either party. If two cars made contact, it will be counted on both in this chart.
Note 2: "Mechanical Failure" doesn't include retirements due to body damage caused by contact or punctures. For the race, it is something that causes the car's retirement (not a malfunctioning KERS, for example). For a practice session it means something that stops a car on track or keeps it in the pits for a prolonged period.

Obviously I've had to make a few judgement calls in what to include, or not, but hopefully the results are generally indicative.
 
Galahad, everyone, I have terrible short term memory, when has Alonso had any contact in the races so far? Ditto for Button minus the Karthikeyan collision in Malaysia? I also find Webber's tally surprisingly low, I guess he's had a lot of minor problems that have affected his races but let him finish?

The fact that Raikkonen has kept his nose completely clean in a comeback year is amazing and speaks volumes for his talent (considering how quick he has been as well).
 
sushifiesta:

Alonso touched with Grosjean at the start at Monaco, with no apparent damage incurred. The same two drivers made light contact on the Safety Car restart at Valencia, again with no damage.

As for Jenson, he hit Kovalainen on two separate occasions at Monaco, trying to find away around the Caterham he'd been stuck behind seemingly forever.

Webber has had KERS problems in qualifying at Melbourne, in the race at Bahrain, while the front wing became damaged in the Spanish GP, and his DRS stopped working in qualifying at Valencia. The only contact I have for him is being sandwiched between Hulkenberg and Vergne at the start in Australia.

(I also have terrible memory for this stuff, hence now keeping a record!)
 
If I stick this in to a league table form then, we get:

1) Raikkonen (0 incidents)​
2) Hamilton (1 incident)​
=3) Alonso, Webber, Hulkenberg, Vergne (2 incidents)​
=7) Rosberg, de la Rosa, Glock (3 incidents)​
=10) Vettel, Button, Di Resta (4 incidents)​
=13) Massa, Ricciardo, Kovalainen (5 incidents)​
16) Petrov (6 incidents)​
=17) Schumacher, Pic (7 incidents)​
=19) Kobayashi, Perez (8 incidents)​
21) Karthikeyan (9 incidents)​
22) Senna (10 incidents)​
=23) Grosjean, Maldonado (11 incidents)​

Some of the stand out features for me are the Lotus drivers being poles apart, the Williams drivers both having very dirty noses, the Sauber drivers being neck and neck, and Hamilton keeping out of trouble more often than Button, and even Alonso (which speaks volumes for how much McLaren have cost him at times this season). As always, stats don't tell the whole story though.
 
All I did was read stuff off Galahad's post, don't give me any credit!! I would also be interested to see 2011 though...

I'd also be interested in seeing something along the lines of simply a count of a number of races in which a drivers has either retired, or had to make a pit-stop, due to any contact or mechanical reason. So that would then put Alonso at 0, and Hamilton at 2 (Maldonado crash, Germany puncture/retirement) by my reckoning, for example.

These things take a lot of work though, and Galahad in particular has his fingers in many pies, but if I catch a fish then all for the better!
 
teabagyokel - I don't have any of these stats for 2011 I'm afraid. Re: Hamilton though, I'm sure someone has listed them on here somewhere, probably more than once...

sushifiesta - a comprehensive data gathering of driver errors, collisions, mechanical problems, unscheduled pit stops etc. would be a valuable resource; it is a task way beyond my capacity at the moment. This is a good place to start for anyone who fancies it:

http://live.autosport.com/
 
Really interesting stats in that table Galahad - I think it probably deserves its own thread in the stats section. Shows us quite a few things.

If you look at the fact that Nico Rosberg has the least amount of race incidents/retirements of anyone(level with Lewis I know) it really does show how awful a season both he and Merc are having.

Whilst his qualifying has been awful Jean-Eric Vergne has managed to keep his nose much cleaner than any of the other rookies

Force India seem to have gone for reliability not speed this year

Williams are managing at least one race incident a Grand Prix

and poor old Charles Pic has had the most broken car of anyone.
 
On a similar note to Galahad's previous post, another look at consistency in the championship post-Spa. but this time in terms of the number of points finishes.

Finishes outside the points by drivers from the top 5 constructors:

1 - Alonso (Belgium), Webber (Spain), Raikkonen (China)

2 - Vettel (Malaysia, Valencia)

3 - Hamilton (Valencia, Germany, Belgium)

4 - Button (Malaysia, Bahrain, Monaco, Canada), Rosberg (Australia, Malaysia, Britain, Belgium)

6 - Grosjean (Australia, Malaysia, Monaco, Valencia, Germany, Belgium), Massa (Australia, Malaysia, China, Spain, Valencia, Germany), Schumacher (Australia, China, Spain, Monaco, Canada, Hungary)

Finishes inside the points by drivers from the bottom 7 constructors:

6 - Hulkenberg (Malaysia, Spain, Monaco, Valencia, Germany, Belgium), di Resta (Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Monaco, Valencia, Belgium), Senna (Malaysia, China, Monaco, Valencia, Britain, Hungary)

5 - Perez (Australia, Malaysia, Canada, Valencia, Germany), Kobayashi (Australia, China, Spain, Canada, Germany)

2 - Maldonado (China, Spain), Vergne (Malaysia, Belgium), Ricciardo (Australia, Belgium)

0 - Petrov, Kovalainen, Glock, Pic, Karthikeyan, de la Rosa


A few things that stood out for me:
  • Senna has scored points at six races! Maybe he isn't so useless after all...
  • Rosberg has only finished outside the points at four races. The good form of Mercedes seems a long time ago.
  • Force India, Sauber and Toro Rosso team-mates evenly matched.
  • Force India more consistent than Sauber.
  • Bad luck. None of Alonso or Hamilton's finishes outside the points, for example, are their own fault.
I'm sure there's some more that can be learned from it, but I'll leave that to others!
 
teabagyokel It was a race winning car at Spain, although it would probably have been 2nd if Hamilton hadn't been sent to the back of the grid. I have my doubts whether it has been anything other than a midfield car at all the other races, but the drivers haven't made it easy to tell. I just didn't realise that Senna had so many points finishes, I thought he was busy spinning and finishing 15th all the time.
 
sushifiesta - There have been signs. Maldonado has looked like he had found exceptional pace in that car on a number of occasions before he bounced it off various animate and inanimate objects and retired or fell down the pack. Take the third place he butchered in Valencia or the 3rd-on-the-grid that disappeared in Spa.
 
He found so amazing speed off the line in Spa!

Have to say I agree with TBY and that Pastor is making Bruno look good. I'd even go as far to say that Williams is probably a better all round car than the Merc. Certainly better than the Sauber. I bet there are a few drivers (glock, Kovi, petrov, Hulk) who wish they could have that car!
 
Red Bull are the only team out of the top four (McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus) to score no points at a race so far this year.

Or to put it another way, the only double retirement.
 
Something to consider going into the last Grand Prix of the season. Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have never won the Brazilian Grand Prix whilst Kimi Raikkonen and Seb Vettel have only won in the same year they've won the title. Means we could be in for an interesting final round.
 
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