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As well as making a huge impression on his Formula 1 debut with the European Minardi team in Australia, Spaniard Fernando Alonso also broke a long-standing record when he became the youngest driver ever to finish a Grand Prix.

At just 19 years and 219 days, Alonso beat a record that has stood since the 1963 French GP, when perennially unlucky Kiwi Chris Amon took the chequered flag aged 19 years and 345 days.



Australia was yet another race in which Ferrari and McLaren shut out the podium places. Since Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996, that's been an ever-increasing scenario.

1996: 0 in 16 races (0 per cent)
1997: 1 in 17 (6 per cent)
1998: 9 in 16 (56 per cent)
1999: 6 in 16 (38 per cent)
2000: 10 in 17 (59 per cent)
2001: 1 in 1 (100 per cent)



Australia marked the 100th race for a McLaren powered by a Mercedes engine. Prior to linking up with the Stuttgart marque, McLaren had enjoyed mixed fortunes with Ford and Peugeot power. In fact, the last truly successful engine partner for McLaren was Honda. So how do the strike rates of the two combinations compare?

Honda with McLaren:
80 races; 699 points (8.7 points per race); 44 wins (55 per cent)
Mercedes with McLaren:
100 races; 590 points (5.9 points per race); 26 wins (26 per cent)

So, advantage Honda...



Nine former GP winners took the start of the Australian GP on Sunday, but the record is some way beyond that.

The 1978 Belgian and Spanish GPs had 15 previous winners on the grid - and another six would go on to win races at a later date.

Back in the days when the Monaco GP only started 20 cars, 65 per cent of the 1980 race's starters (13 out of 20) were previous winners of at least one GP.

The race with the fewest GP winners in the starting field is, naturally, the first ever Formula 1 World Championship GP, the 1950 British race, with zero.

Also quite logically, the second ever race, the 1950 Monaco GP, had only one winner in its ranks - as did the 1952 Swiss GP.

More recently, the 1994 Portuguese GP had only three former winners on its books.



Finn Kimi Raikkonen scored a point for Sauber in his first ever World Championship Grand Prix. Much has been made of him being the 50th driver to do so, but is it actually the case?

Autosport.com's resident 'statto' believes that the 21-year-old is actually only the 48th to join the club. Martin Brundle finished in the points in his debut race, but his Tyrrell was subsequently excluded, meaning nil points, while Bruce McLaren finished fifth in his first GP, Germany in 1958, but was driving in the F2 class and was therefore ineligible for points.

As a bonus, Raikkonen (21 years and 139 days) became the fourth youngest driver to take a point, behind Jenson Button (20 years and 67 days), Ricardo Rodriguez (20 years and 123 days) and Chris Amon (20 years and 308 days).

But surprisingly, point-scoring debutants haven't necessarily gone on to greater things. Of the drivers who have scored points on their GP debut, only 31 per cent have gone on to win at least one race, while only 12.5 per cent have landed the world title.

Thank you...