What is the ideal F1 driver age?

There was a time when it was not unusual to see the odd 50-year-old driver on the grand prix grid. A time when drivers in their late 30s or even 40s won world championships.

But today, any driver over 30 risks being perceived as having one foot in the retirement grave. This reflects the trend across many sports of top-level athletes getting younger.

The Formula 1 grid has, quite literally, never been younger than during the 2014 season, with the season-opening Australian Grand Prix the only race in F1's history that has featured an average age of starters below the 27 mark.

Partly thanks to the arrival of Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat, the 22 drivers who started that race averaged just 26 years and 358 days.

In fact, the opening six races of the 2014 are the six 'youngest' world championship races ever staged, with grands prix from this season and the early stages of last year locking out the top 10.

By contrast, the 10 oldest grands prix were all staged in the first two seasons of the world championship in 1950 and '51. The trend is unmistakable.

The below graph plots the average age of grand prix starters for each season in world championship history. To achieve this, the average age of starters for each individual race is calculated, with the year's figure an average of that.

The most obvious feature of this is how quickly the average age plummets by a decade between 1950 and '61. This is partly a consequence of the interruption to motorsport caused by World War II, which meant that many of the drivers were ageing pre-war racers.

Since, then, the overall trend has been less dramatic. Over the ensuing 63 years, the average age has dropped by an average of four years to its current all-time low, falling from what was a 13-year high in 2012, largely thanks to the fact 40-somethings Michael Schumacher and Pedro de la Rosa, as well as Rubens Barrichello, were still around.

Juan Manuel Fangio won his fifth title at the age of 46 © LAT

This year, the average age of starters has been 27 years, 62 days. But in order to generate a fair comparative figure, for the above graphic it is assumed that the current 22 drivers will see out the season, giving a predicted average age of 27 years, 120 days.

Of the current drivers, Sebastian Vettel is the closest to the average age. Today (Monday), he is 27 years and 39 days. You could therefore suggest that he currently has the ideal blend of youth and experience, even though the results in 2014 don't necessarily bear that out.

But Vettel is also emblematic of what has now become the established path for young rising stars. One of only eight drivers to start a world championship race while still in his teens (the latest being Red Bull stablemate Kvyat), he shows that those with the career momentum to climb to the top quickly generally do so rapidly.

Of the world champions on the current grid, Vettel and Fernando Alonso made their bows at 19, Jenson Button at 20, Kimi Raikkonen at 21 and Lewis Hamilton at 22. A clear sign that so thorough is the education top drivers receive in karting, often from as young as eight, and the lower formulas, it is possible to perform at the highest level at an age where the likes of Damon Hill had yet even to race a car.

This is reflected in the way that the average age of drivers has dropped as the decades have gone on, although things have stabilised more in recent years, with the rise in the 2010s partly down to the veterans who raced into their 40s skewing the figures.

But this is likely only to be a blip in the trend and the average could yet creep a little lower. There are now only five 30-somethings left on the grid. Raikkonen and Button are hardly pensionable at 34, with Felipe Massa and Alonso both 33 and Sauber driver Adrian Sutil 31.

It's conceivable that F1 might lose one or two of those by next season, raising the possibility that the 2015 season-opener could eclipse this season for lowering the average age.

Then again, it's conceivable that as the years go on, drivers like Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton will continue into their late 30s, which will keep the average relatively steady.

This year's Australian Grand Prix was the 'youngest' in F1 history © LAT

There is also the fact that so many drivers need to bring a budget in order to race compared to the previous decade. During the manufacturer era, junior driver schemes were ten-a-penny, meaning that it was easier for rising stars of genuine ability to put themselves in a position to bump the more experienced incumbents.

Given the current economic climate, it is now possible for older drivers with funding either to force their way in, or to hang around for longer than they otherwise would.

Equally, these financial conditions will make it more challenging for young drivers with the greatest potential to make it to F1 at all, meaning that the wunderkinds that we have become accustomed to might become more scarce in the coming years.

It's certainly hard to see the record for the youngest-ever podium average age being broken any time soon. That came in the 2008 Italian GP, when Vettel led home Heikki Kovalainen and Robert Kubica, with an average age of just under 24 years.

F1's YOUNGEST PODIUMS

1 Italy 2008: 23 years, 356 days
1 Sebastian Vettel; 2 Heikki Kovalainen; 3 Robert Kubica

2 Germany 2008: 24 years, 220 days
1 Lewis Hamilton; 2 Nelson Piquet Jr; 3 Felipe Massa

3 Hungary 2003: 24 years, 231 days
1 Fernando Alonso; 2 Kimi Raikkonen; 3 Juan-Pablo Montoya

F1's OLDEST PODIUMS

1 Switzerland 1950: 46 years, 274 days
1 Giuseppe Farina; 2 Luigi Fagioli; 3 Louis Rosier

2 Belgium 1950: 45 years, 87 days
1 Juan-Manuel Fangio; 2 Luigi Fagioli; 3 Louis Rosierg

3 Britain 1950: 44 years, 294 days
1 Giuseppe Farina; 2 Luigi Fagioli; 3 Reg Parnell.

What catches the eye about the youngest drivers records is that they are both from times when there was an influx of new talent.

While drivers such as Kovalainen and Piquet didn't ultimately make the grade, they were part of the same generation that produced some of the standout drivers of the 21st century.

The average age might not have too far further to fall, but keep an eye out for youth filling the front of the grid for a sign of when the next golden generation might be on the rise.

For now, all this is a warning not to write off Vettel. He might have had a tough year so far, but with four world championships and only a few weeks off the age average, it's reminder that there is plenty of time to weather the storm and still win more world championships.

By definition, he should be in his prime.