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[mnmracer]

With the championship officially wrapped up now, although it was becoming pretty obvious for a while now, watching the remaining races will no longer be to see who becomes champion. The most interesting driver battle will be Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton duking it out for second in the championship. While Sebastian Vettel isn't fighting anyone else anymore, he is fighting the record books however.

Here is an overview of the formula one records that can still be equaled or beaten this year, as well as some trivia. Records already held and set this year (Vettel, points in a season; Barrichello, race starts; Hamilton, overall penalties) are not included. At the end of the year, I will write one big article with everything that has been rewritten in the (top 10) record books this year.



Korean Grand Prix
At the 2011 Korean Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel added 1 front row start, 53 laps in the lead, 1 victory, 1 podium finish, 1 fastest lap and 25 world championship points to his racing record.

When Vettel missed out on pole position, he also missed the chance to tie this year with Ayrton Senna for the record of most consecutive pole positions, which was 8 in between the 1988 Spanish and 1989 United States Grand Prix. By winning, he will still be able to equal Schumacher's season record of 13 race wins in 2002. While the Japanese Grand Prix put a dent in his chances for catching the record for most lap led in a season, and highest percentage of laps led in the season, the 53 laps he led the Korean Grand Prix put him back in the run. He needs just 43 more laps in the lead to beat the overall record of Nigel Mansell in 1992. To beat Jim Clark's 'percentage laps led in a season' record, he will need to get busy though: he must lead all but 27 laps in the next 3 races to beat that record.

For the record, I included a few more abstract records to make a possible and fairer comparisson between Vettel in 2011 and Schumacher in 2002. I don't actually consider them notable records, but just to shed an interesting light on it, with the different points system.

• Most wins in a season
  Current record: Michael Schumacher, 13 wins in 2004
  Vettel: 10 wins, 13 wins possible
• Most pole positions in a season
  Current record: Nigel Mansell, 14 poles in 1992
  Vettel: 12 poles, 15 poles possible
• Most wins from pole position in a season
  Current record: Nigel Mansell, 9 doubles in 1992
  Vettel: 8 doubles, 11 doubles possible
• Most starts from front row in a season
  Current record: Ayrton Senna in 1989, Alain Prost in 1993 and Damon Hill in 1996, each 16
  Vettel: 15 front row starts, 18 front row starts possible


• Highest percentage of points in a season
  Current record: Michael Schumacher, 144/170=84.71% in 2002
  Vettel: needs to score at least 54 more points, scoring at least 403 out of 475 points to score 84.84%
• Most podium finishes in a season
  Current record: Michael Schumacher, 17 podium finishes in 2002
  Vettel: 15 podiums, 18 podiums possible
• Most laps in the lead in a season
  Current record: Nigel Mansell, 694 laps lead in 1992
  Vettel: 651 laps lead thus far, 837 laps lead possible
• Highest percentage of laps lead in a season
  Current record: Jim Clark, 71.47% of laps lead in 1963
  Vettel: currently 68.74% (651 out of 947), needs to lead at least 159 of the 186 laps left in this season, to reach a minimum of 810 led laps in this 1133 lap season


• Most points between first and second in the championship
  Current record: Michael Schumacher (144), scoring 67 points more than second place Rubens Barrichello (77) in 2002
  Vettel: currently 127 point lead; Vettel can finish seventh every race, behind Button winning every race, to still take this record


• Highest percentage points difference between first and second in the World Championship
  Current record: Rubens Barrichello scoring 46.53% less points than Michael Schumacher in 2002
  Vettel: Currently, Button has scored 37.39% less points than Vettel. While impossible to calculate all the possibilities, Vettel will need to win all the remaining races, with Button scoring just 4 points to beat this record.
• Most points between first and second in the championship (in race wins)
  Current record: Michael Schumacher's 67 point lead over Rubens Barrichello in 2002 equalled 6.7 race wins
  Vettel: Currently has a 127 point lead, which equals 5.08 race wins. To beat this record, he needs to extend it to a 168 point lead in the next 3 races.
• Most finishes in a season
  Current record: Tiago Monteiro (2005), Nick Heidfeld (2008) and Felipe Massa (2010) with 18 finishes. Of these, only Heidfeld finished 100%, but he is not the only one in history.
  Vettel: 16 finishes, 19 finishes possible


• Most team pole positions in a season
  Current record: McLaren (1988, 1989), Williams (1992, 1993) and Red Bull (2010) with 15 pole positions in one season.
  Red Bull: 15 poles, 18 poles possible this year
• Highest percentage of team pole positions in a season
  Current record: McLaren (1988, 1989) and Williams (1992, 1993) with 15 out of 16 pole positions in one season, or 93.75%.
  Red Bull: 15 poles, 18 poles possible. Red Bull needs to qualify on pole position for the remaining 3 races to take the record with 94.7% this year
• Most drive-through or stop-and-go penalties in a season
  Current record: not yet known, but no more than 4
  Hamilton: 3 drive-through penalties, 3 races left

Records that will still stand after 2011:

• Highest percentage of wins in a season
  Current record: Alberto Ascari, 6 out of 8 wins in 1952, or 75%
  Vettel: even if he wins the next 3 races, 13 out of 19 wins is 68.4%
• Highest percentage of pole positions in a season
  Current record: Nigel Mansell, 14 out of 16 poles in 1992, or 88%
  Vettel: even if he qualifies on pole in the next 3 races, 15 out of 19 poles is 78.9%
• Highest percentage of wins in a season
  Current record: Michael Schumacher, 17 out of 17 podiums in 2002, or 100%
  Vettel: even if he finishes on the podium in the next 3 races, 18 out of 19 podiums is 94.7%
• Highest percentage of starts from front row in a season
  Current record: Ayrton Senna in 1989, Alain Prost in 1993 and Damon Hill in 1996, each with 16 out of 16, or 100%
  Vettel: even if he qualifies on the front row in the next 3 races, 18 out of 19 front row starts is 94.7%

Trivia:

• Of all the Formula One champions currently on the grid, Jenson Button is the only one that has never been a runner-up in the championship. This might be his first. His second-best championship result at this moment is his 3rd place finish in 2004 with the BAR-Honda.
• If the only drivers to win the remaining 3 races in 2011 are Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, or Michael Schumacher, this will be the only year in history in which all the races have been won by champions. Although in 1950, 1953, 1963 and 1993, all races were won by drivers that would at some point become champion, but were not yet at the time.
• Sebastian Vettel is most likely the driver with most Grand Prix wins with most different helmet designs, something probably held by Michael Schumacher after adding some stripes in 1994 and switching from blue top to red top in 2000, thus winning races with two helmet designs.

Point system trivia:

• If the 2002 season -in which Schumacher got the most points in one season-record by the old points system- had been driven by the 2011 points system, the record would have been 380 points; to beat that, Vettel needs 18 more points in 3 races. (For those curious, 2004 Schumi would have had 367 points)
• If this season was driven by the 2002 points system, in which the then-record of 144 points was set, Vettel would now have 131 points. If he finishes 2nd once and finishes 3rd twice in the remaining races left this year, he will be able to beat that.
• If this season was driven by the 2004 points system, in which the then-record of 148 points was set, Vettel would now have 143 points. Finishing seventh in the remaining races of this year is enough to beat that.

[killem2]

Bad bottom read. Thanks

[LewEngBridewell]

I enjoyed reading that immensely. It's well worth returning to update this after every race to see how Vettel is doing in his chasing down of the records.

Red Bull may be the first team to have a 100% pole position record in a season! I wonder if they can keep the momentum going to the very end!

[minnie]

This is great. Thanks! Looking forward to seeing how many of the records are still standing by the end of the season...

[Timekeeper]

Thanks for whipping this together! I really appreciate it!

Come on Vettel let's get a couple of those records before Hamilton and co. strike back next season.

[zurich_allan]

That's a great, really informative list there!! From my own perspective though, I don't believe in paying attention to a large number of 'statistics' in the record books. The only ones that I personally would accept as being even partly valid are the ones based on percentage ratios - but even then only partly. Actual number of wins etc. can be clouded by the fact that until about 2000-ish, most seasons had circa 16 races, a couple of decades before it might have been only around a dozen. With now around the 20 mark, a good driver in the best car has so much more opportunity to better the actual numbers from anything over a decade ago. And with entirely different drivers, machinery, rules and pit personnel over the years, I just don't see it as being physically possible to carry out a like for like comparison based on the entire history of F1 - eras yes to an extent, but the whole time, no.

Still, it's an interesting read and I'll still be paying attention just for fun!!

[bud]

Thy said on Speed TV Australia Webber has lost a total of 24 places from race starts this year

[What's Burning?]

Thy said on Speed TV Australia Webber has lost a total of 24 places from race starts this year

So no drag racing career after F1 for Webber?

[andrew]

So no drag racing career after F1 for Webber?

Depends how good he is at running in heels. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was Australian.

[darwin dali]

So no drag racing career after F1 for Webber?

Depends how good he is at running in heels. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wa Australian.

What a great movie

[What's Burning?]

So no drag racing career after F1 for Webber?

Depends how good he is at running in heels. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wa Australian.

What a great movie

I can't believe you blew a perfect opportunity for an Eddie Izzard clip.

[darwin dali]

So no drag racing career after F1 for Webber?

Depends how good he is at running in heels. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wa Australian.

What a great movie

I can't believe you blew a perfect opportunity for an Eddie Izzard clip.

Would have to be a clip from the movie!
Like this:
[youtube]MV-Zzasrky8[/youtube]

[mnmracer]

That's a great, really informative list there!! From my own perspective though, I don't believe in paying attention to a large number of 'statistics' in the record books. The only ones that I personally would accept as being even partly valid are the ones based on percentage ratios - but even then only partly. Actual number of wins etc. can be clouded by the fact that until about 2000-ish, most seasons had circa 16 races, a couple of decades before it might have been only around a dozen. With now around the 20 mark, a good driver in the best car has so much more opportunity to better the actual numbers from anything over a decade ago. And with entirely different drivers, machinery, rules and pit personnel over the years, I just don't see it as being physically possible to carry out a like for like comparison based on the entire history of F1 - eras yes to an extent, but the whole time, no.

Still, it's an interesting read and I'll still be paying attention just for fun!!

I've often considered that, and while it makes it difficult to make direct comparisons, there is no reason to completely ignore it.
If the percentages are similar or higher than the 'old' records, it's very acceptable. If Schumacher had one extra race in 2004, while a 72% chance, it's not certain he would have won that race. Is that 1 race difference than really worth dismissing a record over?

I agree that if someone gets an all-out record in something, but the percentage is off, it's dismissable. For instance, Fernando Alonso has 2 more wins than Jim Clark, but has more than 2.5 times as many races as the Scot. However, if we take the example of most pole positions in a season, now 14 out of 16 by Nigel Mansell in 1992. If Vettel takes pole 5 more times and gets 16 out of 19, that is 84%. Is such a small difference really worth dismissing the record over? Would Mansell have taken all the pole positions if there had been 3 more races in 1992? Possibly, but not most certainly enough to dismiss a record over it.

[McLaren]

Great stats by the way

Again looking at the poles in a season.I hardly think it's that impressive to have 11/14 poles when your in a car that much better than everyone else ,with a no hoper like Webber as a team mate.Don't get me wrong I'm not one questioning is Seb a great driver ,but i do think this is one of the weaker records on his list.

Most records are void to me as people have said before sometimes there were only 6 races in a season, let alone 16 lately and nie on 20 now.

[LewEngBridewell]

Still fun to compare and contrast though! It's the only way to do so across the different decades and generations.