Drivers passing their age in wins/poles/f-laps/podiums

[mnmracer]

Sebastian Vettel was not the only one to fill in his own record sheet at the 2013 German Grand Prix, winning his 30th Grand Prix, in his home country (1st time) and in July (1st time). Lewis Hamilton, at 28 years old, set his 29th pole position, surpassing his own age in pole positions. I had a look to see which drivers passed their own age in victories, pole positions and fastest laps.

Victories > age
- Alain Prost (total 51 wins) matched his age (33) winning the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix. He passed his own age winning the 1988 Spanish Grand Prix. His win count caught up 13 years after his retirement.
- Ayrton Senna (total 41 wins) matched his age (31) winning the 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix. He passed his own age winning the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix. His win count caught up 7 years after his death.
- Michael Schumacher (total 91 wins) matched his age (28) winning the 1997 Japanese Grand Prix. His age caught up again when he turned 29 in 1998, but matched his win count in the 1998 Argentine Grand Prix. He passed his own age winning the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix. He might naturally outlive his win count, which surpasses him in 46.5 years, in 2060, 48 years after his retirement.
- Sebastian Vettel (now 30 wins) matched his age (25) winning the 2012 Korean Grand Prix. He passed his own age winning the 2012 Indian Grand Prix. His current win count will catch up in 4 years.
- Fernando Alonso (now 32 wins) matched his age (30) winning the 2012 German Grand Prix. His age caught up again when he turned 31 later that year, but he matched his win count in the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix. He passed his own age winning the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. His current win count will catch up next year.


Pole positions > age
- Jim Clark (total 33 pole positions) matched his age (31) setting the pole position for the 1967 Italian Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting pole for the 1967 Mexican Grand Prix. His pole position count caught up 1 year after his death.
- Ayrton Senna (total 65 pole positions) matched his age (28) setting the pole position for the 1988 Japanese Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting pole for the 1988 Australian Grand Prix. His pole position count will catch up in 2025, 31 years after his death.
- Michael Schumacher (total 68 pole positions) matched his age (31) setting the pole position for the 2000 Malaysian Grand Prix. His age caught up again when he turned 32 in 2001, but matched his pole count at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting pole for the 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix. His pole position count will catch up to his age in 2037, 25 years after his retirement.
- Sebastian Vettel (now 39 pole positions) matched his age (24) setting the pole position for the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting pole for the 2011 Italian Grand Prix. His current pole position count will catch up in 13 years.
- Lewis Hamilton (now 29 pole positions) matched his age (28) setting the pole position for the 2013 British Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting pole for the 2013 German Grand Prix. His current pole position count will catch up next year.


Fastest laps > age
- Alain Prost (total 41 fastest laps) matched his age (34) setting the fastest lap in the 1989 Italian Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting the fastest lap in the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. His fastest lap count caught up 3 years after his retirement.
- Michael Schumacher (total 77 fastest laps) matched his age (28) setting the fastest lap in the 1997 British Grand Prix. His age caught up again when he turned 29 in 1998, but matched his fastest lap count in the 1998 San Marino Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting the fastest lap in the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix. His fastest lap count will catch up to his age in 2046, 34 years after his retirement.
- Kimi Räikkönen (now 38 pole positions) matched his age (28) setting the fastest lap for the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix. He passed his own age setting pole for the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. His current fastest lap count will catch up in 4 years.


Podium finishes > age
- Michael Schumacher (155 podiums, matched & passed his age at 25)
- Alain Prost (106 podiums, matched & passed his age at 30)
- Fernando Alonso (91 podiums, matched & passed his age at 23)
- Ayrton Senna (80 podiums, matched & passed his age at 28)
- Kimi Räikkönen (74 podiums, matched & passed his age at 25)
- Rubens Barrichello (68 podiums, matched & passed his age at 29)
- David Coulthard (62 podiums, matched & passed his age at 29)
- Nelson Piquet (60 podiums, matched & passed his age at 33)
- Nigel Mansell (59 podiums, matched & passed his age at 37)
- Niki Lauda (54 podiums, matched & passed his age at 28)
- Lewis Hamilton (52 podiums, matched & passed his age at 24)
- Sebastian Vettel (52 podiums, matched & passed his age at 23)
- Mika Häkkinen (51 podiums, matched & passed his age at 30)
- Jenson Button (49 podiums, matched & passed his age at 30)
- Gerhard Berger (48 podiums, matched & passed his age at 34)
- Carlos Reutemann (45 podiums, matched & passed his age at 38)
- Jackie Stewart (43 podiums, matched & passed his age at 33)
- Damon Hill (42 podiums, matched & passed his age at 35)
- Mark Webber (37 podiums, matched & passed his age at 36)
- Felipe Massa (36 podiums, matched & passed his age at 27)
- Emerson Fittipaldi (35 podiums, matched & passed his age at 29)
- Jody Scheckter (33 podiums, matched & passed his age at 29)
- Jim Clark (32 podiums, matched & passed his age at 31)

[aral]

I am trying to work out the relevance of all this. As drivers become younger and younger, it will become more common for wins to exceed age. But what about some of the greats who actually began racing at far more advanced ages, and with fewer races to count?

[mnmracer]

To quote a well-respected member, "this stat is what you call a "fun fact" stat - something not meant for conclusion-drawing, nor for any inferences."

[aral]

Still stumps me!

[raymondu999]

Still stumps me!

mnmracer's point is it has no real-world relevance. It's just an entertainment fact that's "fun to know"

[Tim.Wright]

furthermore, I'd guess that more number crunching effort went into this thread than all of the race threads combined.

Do you compile all these manually? Or do you use excel or Matlab to do some of the leg work? Quite a job either way, so I'm interested in know how you go about it.

-T

[tim|away]

[Jon_S]

Yeah, having less podiums than Coulthard must be painful for Vettel...
Nice try tho.

Will be interesting to see who is the one to get 60 of them earlier, Lewis or him.

Nice stats, some will be hard to beat unless some top team hire another young talent...

[mnmracer]

furthermore, I'd guess that more number crunching effort went into this thread than all of the race threads combined.

Do you compile all these manually? Or do you use excel or Matlab to do some of the leg work? Quite a job either way, so I'm interested in know how you go about it.

-T

Yep, good ol' manual labor.


When I come across something which I think is interesting, I look up if and how they apply to the current drivers (got the race results linked in a bookmarks folder per year, so I can instantly open them), and if it looks like a possible relevant thing, I delve further into history.

In this case, it was relatively easy to sort through the possible candidates, by excluding everyone with fewer than <23 wins/poles/f-laps/podiums (Seb and Fred (who hold 'young x records')'s minimum) and then just manually counting back the stat with the age.

[PlatinumZealot]

It's the car.