2017 F1 preview: statistics

Teams

Mercedes

First team entry 1954
Races entered 148
Wins 64 
FLs 47
Poles 73 
Driver titles 5
Position last year 1st

Mercedes’ task has to be to make the transition from Paddy Lowe to James Allison a seamless one that doesn’t interrupt the superb integration between the engine and chassis teams, while adapting to a new driver dynamic. Only if Allison can take over where Lowe left off and Bottas can take the challenge to Hamilton as effectively as Rosberg did will things be as they were.

Red Bull

First team entry 2005
Races entered 224
Wins 52 
FLs 52
Poles 58 
Driver titles 4
Position last year 2nd

As well as hoping that Renault Sport has made significant inroads into the Mercedes power unit superiority, Red Bull trusts that its Adrian Newey-led aerodynamic vision has benefited from the big change in aero regulations. The recent questioning of the legality of Red Bull’s heave spring may have put a spanner into its works. F1 needs Red Bull to challenge Mercedes on level terms.

Ferrari

First team entry 1950
Races entered 929
Wins 225 
FLs 236
Poles 201 
Driver titles 15
Position last year 3rd

One senses a fragile equilibrium at the Scuderia right now. The management has got behind the existing technical team and reiterated it doesn’t need any big names to replace James Allison. But that calm could evaporate if the new car is not a contender. If the management responds by firing people, then the team’s gradual drifting away from its great years will continue.  

Force India

First team entry 2008
Races entered 171
Wins 0 
FLs 4
Poles 1 
Driver titles 0
Position last year 4th

Just to keep doing what it has been doing in the last couple of years would be the perfect scenario for this team. But its challenge will be to retain its relative competitiveness in a season of big aerodynamic regulation change. Such circumstances invariably play to the bigger teams that can research several different directions, but Force India has surprised us in the past. 

Williams

First team entry 1978
Races entered 670
Wins 114 
FLs 133
Poles 128 
Driver titles 7
Position last year 5th

Big changes behind the scenes. A major new investor with his son as a driver, a new technical chief, new aero chief, new chief of vehicle dynamics, new project manager, new team manager. Getting all that working efficiently while adapting to new regulations is going to keep everyone very busy. The real challenge is going to be putting solid foundations down for future success.  

McLaren 

First team entry 1966
Races entered 801
Wins 182 
FLs 154
Poles 155 
Driver titles 12
Position last year 6th

Fernando Alonso himself has said it: there’s probably a bigger question mark around McLaren coming up with an aerodynamically competitive car than there is around Honda delivering a competitive power unit in 2017. The new aero regulations are essentially McLaren’s proposal, so the team should be in good shape. They need to convert  that probability to certainty.

Toro Rosso

First team entry 1985
Races entered 206
Wins 1 
FLs 1
Poles 1 
Driver titles 0
Position last year 7th

In 2015, the Red Bull junior team conceived a very aerodynamically effective car. It needs to get that momentum back after a 2016 season compromised by a late call on engine choice and that engine being frozen in 2015 spec. Those restrictions haven’t applied to the latest car and it should be good enough to have Sainz and Kvyat regularly embarrassing bigger teams.

Haas

First team entry 2016
Races entered 21
Wins 0 
FLs 0
Poles 0 
Driver titles 0
Position last year 8th

The difficult second album? First time around Haas had the luxury of conceiving its car without also competing at the same time. Further, it was able to take advantage of not being restricted on wind tunnel hours. Both factors were significant in giving the team such an impressive rookie season. But now that it’s in the same boat as everyone else, can it continue to punch above its weight?

Renault 

First team entry 1997
Races entered 321
Wins 20 
FLs 13
Poles 20 
Driver titles 2
Position last year 9th

It’s one thing to target a progressive move up the grid for this team still in the early stages of rebuilding, but quite another to achieve it. Last year was about maintaining a presence while planning the badly needed upgrades of the factory. That’s still a work in progress and as such the realistic target must be flashes of promise that suggest light at the end of the tunnel.

Sauber

First team entry 1993
Races entered 332
Wins 1 
FLs 5
Poles 1 
Driver titles 0
Position last year 10th

Sauber’s target – now that it is financially out of peril – must be to avoid being the perennial tail-end charlies in the absence of Manor. Although the team’s facilities are good, it simply doesn’t have the staff numbers to exploit them properly. This year especially, at a time of major technical regulation change, that could be a very difficult problem to overcome.

Drivers

Lewis Hamilton

First GP Australia 2007
Races entered 188
Titles 3 
Wins 53
FLs 27 
Poles 61
Position last year 2nd

Valtteri Bottas

First GP Australia 2013
Races entered 78
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 1 
Poles 0
Position last year 8th

Daniel Ricciardo

First GP Great Britain 2011
Races entered 109
Titles 0 
Wins 4
FLs 7 
Poles 1
Position last year 3rd

Max Verstappen

First GP Australia 2015
Races entered 40
Titles 0 
Wins 1
FLs 1 
Poles 0
Position last year 5th

Sebastian Vettel

First GP USA 2007
Races entered 179
Titles 4 
Wins 42
FLs 25 
Poles 46
Position last year 4th

Kimi Räikkönen

First GP Australia 2001
Races entered 253
Titles 1 
Wins 20
FLs 41 
Poles 16
Position last year 6th

Sergio Perez

First GP Australia 2011
Races entered 116
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 3 
Poles 0
Position last year 7th

Esteban Ocon

First GP Belgium 2016
Races entered 9
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 23rd

Felipe Massa

First GP Australia 2002
Races entered 251
Titles 0 
Wins 11
FLs 15 
Poles 16
Position last year 11th

Lance Stroll

First GP n/a
Races entered 0
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year n/a

Fernando Alonso

First GP Australia 2003
Races entered 274
Titles 2 
Wins 32
FLs 21 
Poles 22
Position last year 10th

Stoffel Vandoorne

First GP Bahrain 2016
Races entered 1
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 20th

Carlos Sainz

First GP Australia 2015
Races entered 40
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 12th

Daniil Kvyat

First GP Australia 2014
Races entered 59
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 14th

Romain Grosjean

First GP Europe 2009
Races entered 104
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 1 
Poles 0
Position last year 13th

Kevin Magnussen

First GP Australia 2014
Races entered 41
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 16th

Nico Hülkenberg​

First GP Bahrain 2010
Races entered 117
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 2 
Poles 1
Position last year 9th

Jolyon Palmer

First GP Australia 2016
Races entered 21
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 18th

Marcus Ericsson

First GP Australia 2014
Races entered 56
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 22nd

Pascal Wehrlein

First GP Australia 2016
Races entered 21
Titles 0 
Wins 0
FLs 0 
Poles 0
Position last year 19th