Pre-GP Stats Analysis: Australia

Back-to-back wins

Kimi Raikkonen is attempting to achieve something that has been done 17 times in the history of Formula One: winning the last race of a season and the first of the following one.

This is the list of back-to-back winners so far:

• Alberto Ascari 1952-1953 (won the title in both years)
• Juan-Manuel Fangio 1953-1954, 1955-1956 (the first 1956 win was shared with Musso, Fangio won the title in 1954, 1955 and 1956)
• Stirling Moss 1957-1958, 1960-1961
• Bruce McLaren 1959-1960
• Graham Hill 1962-1963 (won the title in 1962)
• Jim Clark 1967-1968
• Niki Lauda 1975-1976 (won the title in 1975 and lost the 1976 one largely due to his Nurburgring accident)
• Alan Jones 1980-1981 (won the title in 1980)
• Alain Prost 1984-1985, 1986-1987 (won the title in 1985 and 1986)
• Damon Hill 1995-1996 (won the title in 1996)
• Mika Hakkinen 1997-1998 (won the title in 1998)
• Michael Schumacher 2000-2001, 2001-2002 (won the title from 2000 to 2002)
• Fernando Alonso 2005-2006 (won the title in both seasons)

250 and 500

The Australian Grand Prix will be the stage for two significant milestones.

Rubens Barrichello will celebrate his 250th Grand Prix start in Melbourne. The Brazilian is only seven races short of reaching Riccardo Patrese at the all-time top spot.

Also, the Williams team will start its 500th race. The only two teams that have already passed this mark are Ferrari, which leads the chart with 758 and McLaren, with 630.

Regarding Williams race starts, it must be pointed out that the count refers only to Williams cars (coded 'FW' from 1975 onwards) and not to other cars run by Frank Williams (Politoys, ISO Marlboro, March, Brabham and De Tomaso) from 1969 to 1977.

A Young Field

The average age of the entrants for the Australian Grand Prix is 28 years, and is the third-youngest at the start of a season in 59 years.

The youngest field recorded at an opening race was set a few years ago, in 2004, when the average of the entrants was 27.68 years. The second value of all times was recorded in 2001 with 27.91. The oldest value belongs to the opening race of the 1951 season, when the average was 39.63 years.

The values were generally very high in the early years of Formula One, then gradually decreased: the first time the average went below 30 was in 1962. That was a one-off though, as the values rose again and the first time there were two back-to-back seasons with an average of less than thirty years was in 1981-1982.

The values were pretty stable until 1994, when for the first time the value went below 29, with 28.89.

From that year on, only twice the average age at the start of the season went over 29, in 1995 (29.18) and 1999 (29.04).

The youngest driver in Melbourne will be Sebastian Vettel at 20 years, 8 months and 13 days, while the oldest will be David Coulthard, who will be 37 on the 27th of March.

Moments to remember in the Australian Grand Prix

1998 - McLaren domination

During the winter tests the McLaren cars had recorded amazing lap times and at the first race all the eyes were on them. In some cases these eyes were a little too close as Wilhelm Toet, Ferrari's aerodynamicist, was caught taking photographs inside the McLaren garage ...

The testing performances were confirmed in Australia: the silver arrows lapped the entire field, their success made even greater by the retirement of Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) after a handful of laps.

There was controversy after the race as the McLaren drivers swapped places following team orders after Mika Hakkinen mistakenly entered the pitlane after mishearing a radio call. The FIA consequently banned the use of team orders for the season.

1999 - The McLarens fail and Eddie wins his first one

In qualifying Mika Hakkinen (McLaren) stunned everyone, leaving Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 1.3 seconds adrift. But it was a case of performances versus reliability: both McLarens were out after few laps, leaving Eddie Irvine (Ferrari) the lead.

Irvine was able to control easily Frentzen (Jordan) and Ralf Schumacher (Williams) to take his first win. Irvine is the only driver in F1 history to have recorded his maiden win in Australia. Michael Schumacher had a troublesome race, starting from the back and suffering from gearbox problems.

2000 - The McLarens fail again

History repeated in Melbourne: a silver front row and, like the year before, a double retirement for Hakkinen and Coulthard after a few laps. This time, Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) was ready to take the lead and the win in front of his new team-mate Barrichello.

2001 - And for the third time in a row...

The Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were able to conquer the front row of the grid, but at the start Mika Hakkinen (McLaren), grabbed the second spot, putting pressure on Schumacher.

After a handful of laps, a big accident between Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and Jacques Villeneuve (BAR) sadly claimed the life of a marshal. The race was neutralised by the safety car, and at the restart Michael Schumacher was able to keep Hakkinen in check.

After some laps Hakkinen went off due to a suspension failure, retiring for the third time in a row in Australia and leaving the German the win. David Coulthard (McLaren) was able to take second from Barrichello when the Brazilian made a mistake while lapping the Minardi of a rookie - Fernando Alonso.

2002 - The big accident

The race was heavily influenced by a big accident at the first turn caused by Ralf Schumacher (Williams) missing his braking point and hitting Barrichello (Ferrari). This generated confusion behind them, and a total of six cars collided and were out of the race.

After the intervention of the safety car, Coulthard (McLaren) took the lead, while Trulli (Renault) held up Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) and Montoya (Williams). However Trulli soon spun out, requiring the safety car to go out again.

When the race resumed Coulthard went out with a gearbox problem, leaving Montoya the lead. A memorable duel with Schumacher ensued with the German taking the top spot, banging wheels with the Colombian. After this battle Michael was free to pull away, taking his third-straight win in Australia.

2003 - It's all about mistakes

The new qualifying system, which for the first time forced the drivers to load the fuel for the first part of the race, produced an odd grid, with some big names well down the order.

There was a wet track at the start, and this added confusion as first Barrichello (Ferrari) and then Firman (Jordan) spun out, causing two safety car interventions.

When the race finally got under way, Raikkonen (McLaren) took the lead, followed by Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), David Coulthard (McLaren) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams). The one with the best strategy was Montoya, who had the highest fuel load and was able to keep the same pace as the drivers in front of him.

When the pit stops were over, Juan Pablo was in the lead and in the position to win, helped by the fact that Raikkonen (speeding in the pit lane) and Michael Schumacher (off-track excursion) made costly mistakes. But Montoya wasn't able to keep his cool and spun at the first corner on the 49th lap. Coulthard was able to pass him while he was recovering and won in front of the Colombian.

2004 - The nightmare begins here

The Australian race was an indicator of the season to come: two Ferraris in front of everyone by an enormous margin, so much that they could even slow down considerably in the last part of the race and still win at a canter.

Bernie Ecclestone's words during the weekend clearly described the situation: "Ferrari's performances are a disaster for Formula One".

2005 - Random grid effects

During qualifying it started to rain, and since the drivers were out on their single lap one by one, with the big names towards the end of the session, the grid featured some oddities - such as world champion Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) in 19th place, Fernando Alonso (Renault) in 13th and Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) in 10th.

The man on pole was Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), who took advantage of the bad luck of his colleagues to score a rather easy win in front of Barrichello and Alonso.

2006 - Radio killed the race stars

The 2006 Australian GP was an easy win for Fernando Alonso - so easy that he and his team boss, Flavio Briatore, were happy to tell everyone over the radio in live broadcast.

During the race, Alonso told his pit that he was "relaxed", even if he had Kimi Raikkonen behind him. After the race Briatore giggled on Italian television and said that he was embarassed by the gap Alonso was able to pull out over Raikkonen in the first part of the race.

Another radio incident featured Giancarlo Fisichella, Alonso's team-mate, as the main character: his race engineer told him in front of the world audience that with the same fuel load of his team-mate, he couldn't be two seconds per lap slower ...

2007 - Kimi on his own

The first race with Ferrari for Kimi Raikkonen was a triumph: he recorded a hat-trick scoring pole, win and fastest lap, and led practically the whole race.

An interesting figure summed up his performances: he was able to put 1m079s between his fastest race lap and the one recorded by Fernando Alonso (McLaren), who came second. A worrying figure, but Ron Dennis said that he had a plan to recover that gap, without specifying how.

Australia personal scoreboard

• Kimi Raikkonen scored four fastest laps in Australia, and is only one short of reaching Michael Schumacher's record as the driver that scored the highest number of fastest laps in Australia.

• Felipe Massa's best result in Australia was a sixth place in 2007. Three times out of five the Brazilian retired, twice due to race accidents. Massa's best result in qualifying was a ninth place in his debut race in 2002.

During the last three qualifying rounds in Melbourne, Massa was hampered by the rain in 2005 and he had to start 18th, he made a mistake in 2006 (15th) and last year his gearbox broke (22nd, last in grid).

• Nick Heidfeld was classified fourth three times (2001, 2006 and 2007) and retired four times in his last seven appearances in Melbourne.

• Fernando Alonso is on a streak of four consecutive podium finishes started on 2004. The Spaniard won here in 2006.

• David Coulthard scored in Melbourne two wins in 1997 and 2003. The one scored in 2003 is the last win to date for the Scot.

• Mark Webber scored his first points in his debut race at his home track, finishing fifth with a Minardi/Asiatech in 2002. He repeated this result in 2005 but wasn't able to record better performances. He has had three retirements and a 13th place.

• Jarno Trulli retired six times out of eleven starts. His best result is a fifth place in 2003.

• Jenson Button made it inside the top ten only once out of eight starts, finishing sixth in 2004. His worst result was recorded last year - 15th. Jenson recorded his last pole to date in Melbourne in 2006.

• Rubens Barrichello recorded his worst result in Australia in his debut year, in 1993 on the Adelaide track, and last year (11th). He was on the podium four times and retired six times out of 15 starts.

• Giancarlo Fisichella's only podium appearance out of 12 starts was his win in 2005.

• Lewis Hamilton scored his first podium in his debut race in Australia last year.

• McLaren is the team that has scored the highest number of wins in Australia with eight, followed by Ferrari with seven. But the Woking-based team scored its last win in Melbourne in 2003 (D.Coulthard).

• Williams recorded its last win in Australia in 1996 (D. Hill) and its last podium in 2003 (Montoya, 2nd).

Match balls for Fernando

Fernando Alonso is about to reach some milestones, and in Australia he has the first 'match ball' for the following:

• He is only ten points short of scoring his 500th point of the career.

• He misses only one win to reach Mika Hakkinen in eleventh place all-time and score his 20th win.

• He is only one podium short of his 50th career podium.

Something from last year

These are the relevant sequences that were active at the end of 2007 and that could continue in 2008:

• Kimi Raikkonen is running a streak of seven consecutive podium finishes (since Hungary), and he also won the last two races of 2007.

• McLaren was able to put its cars on the podium in every race of 2007 and it is running the third-longest podium streak in the history of Formula One. The record belongs to Ferrari, which put together 53 podium finishes in a row between Malaysia 1999 and Japan 2002.

• Ferrari is running a streak of 32 races in the points (since San Marino 2006), only one race short of the second-best of all times, set by Ferrari itself from San Marino 2003 to Malaysia 2005. The absolute record also belongs to Ferrari, from Malaysia 1999 to Malaysia 2003. BMW Sauber is also running a good streak, with 17 races in the points.

How long since...

In Melbourne the wait for a fastest lap recorded by an Italian driver will be 50 races, as the last one was set by Giancarlo Fisichella in Barcellona, 2005.

If Giancarlo Fisichella doesn't retire from a mechanical failure in Melbourne, he will clinch the second-longest string of races without mechanical troubles in the history of Formula One. The absolute record was set by Michael Schumacher from Hungary 2001 to Malaysia 2005, with an impressive 58 straight races without failures. That helped him to win the titles from 2001 through to 2004.

The second-best was set by Ayrton Senna, running from San Marino 1987 to Mexico 1989 for a total of 35 races, and by Felipe Massa, who registered the same amount between Italy 2005 and Hungary 2007. Fisichella currently counts 34 races without retirements from mechanical failures - the sequence started in Malaysia 2006.

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