Which team have had the most Melbourne retirements? Which driver has the best finish rate at Albert Park? And who has had the most F1 appearances at this track? Here’s Albert Park in numbers!
2
The highest number of Did Not Starts (DNS) for a driver at the Albert Park circuit is two. That honour goes to Daniil Kvyat, who failed to start the race here on both of his appearances with Red Bull – in 2015 and 2016. In total, seven drivers have recorded a DNS at the track. Damon Hill, Jarno Trulli, Johnny Herbert, Kevin Magnussen, Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas are the other drivers who have failed to start a race here during their careers.
3
Three team names – Ferrari, McLaren and Williams – have competed at every running of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. The 2019 race was the first to not feature the Sauber name.
6
The most number of races entered at Albert Park without a DNF for any driver is five. Valtteri Bottas is the driver with this record. He’s started six races at Albert Park and is yet to suffer a DNF. No other driver with a 100% finish record at the track has competed in more races here. Bottas did, however, record a DNS at the circuit in 2015 after he suffered a back injury in qualifying.
6th
Haas have only seen two of their cars reach the end of a race here once from eight attempts. Both of their cars have retired in both the 2017 and 2018 Australian Grands Prix, while Esteban Gutierrez was hit by Fernando Alonso in 2016 in a dramatic crash and Romain Grosjean retired in 2019. Both times a Haas car has reached the cheqeured flag here, they have done so in 6th place. Grosjean finished 6th in the team’s debut race here in 2016, while Kevin Magnussen finished 6th in 2019.
8
The highest number of failures to finish at Albert Park for any one driver is eight. The record is held by Jarno Trulli, who retired from the Australian Grand Prix seven times throughout his career and also recorded a DNS here in 2010. It wasn’t all bad for the Italian in Melbourne though – he scored a podium finish in 2009.
9
British and German drivers are currently tied for the most wins at Albert Park with nine apiece. Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg have brought home the victories for Germany, while Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Lewis Hamilton, Damon Hill and Eddie Irvine have been Britain’s victors at Albert Park. German drivers have had more podium finishes here, with 22 compared to Britain’s 20.
11
Three podium finishes at Albert Park have come from eleventh on the grid. David Coulthard won the Grand Prix from that grid slot in 2003, while Rubens Barrichello finished as runner-up from eleventh on the grid in 2005 and Ralf Schumacher drove from eleventh to third in 2000.
11.207
11.207 seconds separate the fastest and slowest dry weather pole laps at the Albert Park Circuit. Aside from the 2014 pole time, which was affected by rain, the slowest pole lap at this track is a 1:32.371 from 1996, the race’s inaugural year. By 2018, thanks only to the advance of speed in the cars and very few changes to the actual track, the lap time had plummeted to 1:21.164. The lap time is expected to drop further in 2022 thanks to a reconfigured track layout.
17
Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen are the drivers with the most F1 starts at the Albert Park circuit. They’ve each raced here 17 times. Button won three of those races, while Raikkonen won two. Fernando Alonso will equal the record number of Albert Park appearances at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
18
The highest total of DNFs for a team at Albert Park is 18. Williams are the team who hold that record. They’ve suffered double DNFs on three occasions in the past at the track – in 2001, 2006 and 2011.
19
Ferrari have the most podiums of any team here, with 19. They’ve had podium finishes in five of the last seven Australian Grands Prix.
27.27
The lowest percentage of entrants to reach the end of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park is 27.27%. That happened in 2008 when just six of the 22 starters reached the chequered flag. There has never been a Grand Prix in Melbourne which more than eighteen drivers have finished.
84
2017 saw the shortest race held at Albert Park, lasting just over 84 minutes. It was 1 hour, 24 minutes and 11.67 seconds long, to be exact.
117
Over its 23 year history, 117 drivers have entered a Grand Prix weekend at Albert Park – though the number of drivers who have started a race here is 113. Andrea Montermini failed to qualify for the race in 1996 when driving for Forti, while Vincenzo Sospiri was also unable to qualify the following year due to the terrible pace of his Mastercard Lola car. Will Stevens and Roberto Mehri were unable to compete in their only Australian Grands Prix in 2015 due to the new Manor team being unable to run their cars because of a lack of time to prepare.
340
The largest points total scored by a team at Albert Park is 340. Ferrari currently lead the way, and by quite a margin. The next most successful team here in terms of points is McLaren, who’ve taken 109 less points than the Scuderia.
1,386
1,386 laps of the Albert Park track have been raced in F1 since the inaugural event in 1996.