2020 Styrian Grand Prix F1 stats and facts – RaceFans

For the past four years, the top three places in the constructors’ championship has been the exclusive domain of three teams: Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.
When the chequered flag fell yesterday at the Red Bull Ring, only Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes team mate and the two Red Bull drivers finished within a minute of the race winner. It would be a surprise if either of them fall out of the top three by the end of the year.But Ferrari are in the mire. Charles Leclerc may have salvaged a brilliant second place eight days ago, but yesterday he wiped both the team’s cars out at the start.
Perhaps more worryingly for the team, there was little sign the updates they brought for the SF1000 significantly improved it. The highest position a Ferrari achieved in any session all weekend was Leclerc’s ninth place in second practice.
The season may be only two races old, but Ferrari are languishing in fifth place with what may not even be the fifth-fastest car. Ahead of them in the points standings are McLaren in second – over-performing as they lead Red Bull – and Racing Point. The latter have the outcome of yesterday’s protest by Racing Point to worry about, but if it is upheld then McLaren will move even further ahead of Ferrari.
A new track will join the calendar
There’s no doubt Ferrari are too strong a team not to bounce back from this. But how quickly they can do that is vital, especially in this unusual season. What was supposed to be a championship of record-breaking length has turned into an unprecedentedly compact season, with races coming in three week blocks with one week off, a level of activity more akin to a regular NASCAR season.
This is one affect Covid-19 will have on the history books. The other is the creation of three new races so far, and potentially more to follow. Yesterday Hamilton became the first (and probably only) winner of the Styrian Grand Prix. Perhaps not wishing to give the impression it had conferred a round of the world championship on strife-torn Syria, F1’s social media team decided to keep using the ‘AustrianGP’ hashtag for a second week running.
The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone and Tuscan Grand Prix Ferrari 1000 at Mugello have also been added to the 2020 F1 calendar.
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Hamilton already held the record for most wins in different races and his latest victory increases that tally to 24. He also scored his 85th career F1 win, and is now six shy of matching Michael Schumacher’s record of 91. With eight further confirmed races on the calendar, more likely to follow, and the W11 looking every bit as potent as its predecessors, it’s ‘game on’ for Hamilton to equal that record before the year is out.
Hamilton stunned in qualifying
Valtteri Bottas missed his opportunity to become the first F1 driver to win back-to-back races at the same track, something which had never happened before. However he did stand on the podium in the same country two weeks running, which was previously achieved by Schumacher in the 1995 grands prix at TI Aida and Suzuka.
Hamilton has now won races in 14 consecutive seasons. If he adds another next year, he’ll equal another record held by Schumacher.
For the second race in a row a different driver set fastest lap, and they were a McLaren driver. This time it was Carlos Sainz Jnr’s turn. The last time McLaren had consecutive fastest laps in a race was nine years ago.
Hamilton’s pole position was notable less for being his 89th – already a record by a long way – than for the manner in which he took it. His crushing, 1.216 second margin is the biggest gap between the top two drivers in qualifying since Nico Rosberg took pole position for Mercedes at Silverstone in 2014 by 1.62s.
Over the first two races of the year at the same circuit, 15 drivers have already scored points. That leaves Kimi Raikkonen and the Haas and Williams drivers yet to get on the board.
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Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Styrian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
2020 Styrian Grand Prix
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