Driver DNF data

[Richard]

edit - Slight update to the numbers, % shifted by 1%

A comment in one of the threads prompted me to do a quick check on how many drivers fail to finish races.

Note that the attrition rate is a lot less than it used to be. Cars are much more reliable nowadays. Here's a summary of how many cars made it from the starting line to the finish line in some sample seasons. This shows how hard it is to compare the DNF for a driver in 2006 to a driver in 2009.

1984: 54%
1989: 51%
1999: 45%
2003: 32%
2006: 30%
2008: 24%
2009: 20%
2010: 25% (or 20% if we exclude new teams)

viewtopic.php?p=128058#p128058

Anyway, onto the detail for the last 4 years. I have looked at seasons 2077 to 2010 included retired, disqualified and those who get points but fail to reach the finish line.

Button & Webber are surprisingly bad, but of half of their DNFs occurred in 2007. If we only use the last 3 years then their average improves to 13%.

Code: Select all

 	TOTAL (2007 to 2010)		
                   %DNF	   Races	DNF
Luca Badoer           0%    20
Nick Heidfeld        11%	57	 6
Michael Schumacher   11%	19	 2
Felipe Massa         13%	64	 8
Fernando Alonso      13%	71	 9
Lewis Hamilton       14%	71	10
Nico Rosberg         14%	71	10
Rubens Barrichello   14%	71	10
Robert Kubica        17%	70	12
Kazuki Nakajima      19%	36	 7
Kimi Räikkönen       19%	52	10
Jenson Button        20%	71	14
Mark Webber          20%	71	14
Sakon Yamamoto       21%	14	 3
Nico Hülkenberg      21%	19	 4
Heikki Kovalainen    23%	71	16
Takuma Sato          24%	21	 5
Timo Glock           23%	52	12
Alexander Wurz       25%	16	 4
Jaime Alguersuari    26%	27	 7
Romain Grosjean      29%	 7	 2
Sebastian Vettel     27%	62	17
Giancarlo Fisichella 23%	52	12
Sébastien Bourdais   30%	27	 8
Jarno Trulli         30%	71	21
David Coulthard      34%	35	12
Vitaly Petrov        32%	19	 6
Ralf Schumacher      35%	17	 6
Christian Klien      33%	 3	 1
Anthony Davidson     38%	21	 8
Sébastien Buemi      36%	36	13
Kamui Kobayashi      38%	21	 8
Nelson Piquet, Jr.   39%	28	11
Adrian Sutil         39%	71	28
Vitantonio Liuzzi    41%	41	17
Karun Chandhok       40%	10	 4
Lucas di Grassi      42%	19	 8
Pedro de la Rosa     43%	14	 6
Bruno Senna          50%	18	 9
Christijan Albers    56%	 9	 5
Markus Winkelhock   100%	 1	 1
Scott Speed          70%	10	 7

[HampusA]

It´s still somewhat pointless though since it doesn´t say much about the driver and how good he is at keeping the car on track.
It would be better to change the drivers to teams instead.
Or separate crashes to car failures.

[Richard]

I agree it is a limited broad brush approach and we can't read too much into it. It simply shows that drivers do not have miraculous powers to avoid DNFs. The top drivers are all sitting on 12%-ish, regardless of reputations for being super-smooth or super-aggressive.

I've used the results from wiki, it doesn't differentiate the causes of DNF. It would be interesting to separate crashes and mechanical failure. Does anyone know where I could get this data tabulated for a season?*

Yes, teams do have an influence because one would expect drivers with top teams to have more reliable cars that are easier to drive and tend to be at the front of the field away from the mid field squabbles. I;d thouht of ding that as the next step, it should be simple to compile.


*Edit to add - the wiki page for each race does list the cause, but individually copying data for 373 DNFs will take a while!

[vall]

The top drivers like Alonso, Hamilton, Kimi, Massa, make un-forced, driver-error crashes very rarely. Since 2007, I can remember each of the above 4 drivers did it only once... Then LH had same collisions with other drivers that let to DNF.

[HampusA]

True but then you have have the scenario where starting at the front is way safer then starting right in the middle.

There is just to many variables to consider to say that this driver is this safe and this driver is only this safe etc.

[HampusA]

Pretty interesting stuff, especially Ferrari leading the bunch in terms of reliability.
Mclaren in second together with Williams which should in some way confirm that the longer you stay in F1 the more "control" or reliability you have due to sheer knowledge.

[Richard]

Found the glitch in my team data so here are the correct numbers ...

Mercedes includes Brawn & Honda
Force India includes Spyker

Note Red Bull's poor results due to a bad 2007 season. The data for 2008-2010 is:

. Races DNF %DNF
Red Bull 108 20 19%

Of course there are multiple factors at play, just like there are for the WDC and WCC as well.

Code: Select all

	TOTAL (2007 to 2010)		
            %DNF    Races    DNF
Ferrari      14%	142	20
McLaren      15%	142	22
Williams     17%	142	24
Mercedes     18%	142	25
Toyota       20%	104	21
Sauber       20%	142	29
Renault      23%	142	33
Red Bull     24%	142	34
Super Aguri  31%	 42	13
Torro Rosso  37%	142	53
Force India  37%	142	53
Lotus        39%	 38	15
Hispania     39%	 38	15
Virgin       42%	 38	16

[Richard]

Just look at Vettel! Appalling DNF rate. Even if we only look at 2009 and 2010, his number are:

26 Races
8 DNF
31 % DNF

Webber in the same period and same car:

26 Races
4 DNF
15 % DNF

[HampusA]

What happened with Ferrari? I thought they only had 12% and stodd by themselves?

I was actually doing the 08 season, writing down the different failures and if it was driver error or getting caught up in a wreck like Kimi/Hamilton Canada etc.

that year Ferrari had "alot" of engine problems. Similar to RBR while Mclaren apart from some mishaps like Kovalainens rim etc BMW was pretty much rock solid. (engine wise)
Kubica had one fault from what i could remember.