Which drivers have never failed to score at the Catalunya track? What’s the lowest grid slot a driver has taken a podium finish from at this circuit? Which current team has recorded only three DNFs in Spain? Here’s the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in numbers!
All photos © Andrew Balfour / motorsportguides.com
1
Pastor Maldonado only ever scored points at the Spanish Grand Prix once. That result was his unexpected 2012 victory, a race weekend where he became the only Venezuelan to start from pole, lead a race, finish on the podium and win a Grand Prix in Formula 1 history.
2
There have only been two races at this track where none of the top three qualifiers featured on the podium. It happened in 2013 and 2016.
3
Three drivers have been disqualified from a race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Andrea de Cesaris was disqualified from the 1993 event for receiving a push start, Mika Salo was black-flagged after fifteen laps in 1996 for illegally starting the race in Tyrrell’s spare car and Rubens Barrichello was excluded from the result in 1999 for a technical infringement.
5
Five drivers have scored points in every race they’ve entered at this track, including two drivers on the current grid. Alain Prost took a second place and a win on his two appearances at this track in 1991 and 1993, while Michael Andretti and Ralph Firman finished in the points on their only Catalunya outings in 1993 and 2003 respectively. Firman’s eighth place finish marked the only time he scored a point in F1. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc are the drivers on the current grid who’ve scored in every Spanish Grand Prix they’ve entered. Sainz is yet to fail to score points in his home Grand Prix after four appearances, while Leclerc scored points for only the second time in his F1 career at this track in 2018.
The longest streak of DNFs at this track is five, which Ukyo Katayama recorded between 1993 and 1997. The Japanese driver recorded four of his DNFs with the Tyrrell team and his final one in 1997 with Minardi. He also failed to qualify for the 1992 event when driving for Larrousse.
6
Olivier Panis and Kimi Raikkonen have recorded the most DNFs at the circuit with six retirements each. Rubens Barrichello has had more non-classified participations at the track, though. In addition to his 1999 disqualification, he also failed to start the Spanish Grand Prix in 2002 due to gearbox issues.
9
Sebastian Vettel is the only driver to have scored points in every Spanish Grand Prix so far this decade. He’s scored points in all of the last nine races at Catalunya. Michael Schumacher is the only other driver who has scored points in every race during a decade here, having scored points in all nine of the Spanish Grands Prix held at this track in the 1990s.
12
No driver has finished on the podium here from further back than twelfth on the grid. A driver has finished on the podium after starting twelfth here twice previously. Olivier Panis was the first to do it when he finished just over five seconds behind race winner Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. The only other time this has been done is by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2001.
14
The 1993 Spanish Grand Prix holds the record for the three drivers with the most number of Drivers’ Championship victories to share a podium. Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher shared six titles between them on their podium appearance here but by the end of their careers, the trio had won 14 championships between them.
19
Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello currently share the record for the most races entered at the Catalunya track, with them each entering a race weekend here nineteen times. However, only Schumacher started nineteen races, as Barrichello recorded a Did Not Start (DNS) in 2002.
58
58 different drivers have scored a point at the Spanish Grand Prix over its 28-race history at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
89.29
Red Bull have the best finish rate of any current team at the Spanish Grand Prix. Their cars have reached the end of the race 89.29% of the time – or 25 times from their 28 entries. The team have had only three retirements here. Vitantonio Liuzzi spun out of the race after nine laps on Red Bull’s first appearance here in 2005 and Mark Webber retired with hydraulic problems in 2007. It wouldn’t be until 2017 that the team recorded their next DNF at the track – Max Verstappen crashed out of the Grand Prix on the first lap.
113
The largest lead in the Constructors’ Championship after a Spanish Grand Prix is 113 points. This happened in 2014 when Mercedes had amassed that many points more than their nearest rivals after just five rounds of the championship.
137
Sebastian Vettel has scored the most points of any driver at this track, with 137 points. He’s scored eight more points in Spain than Lewis Hamilton. Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher are the only other drivers to have scored more than 100 points at the Catalunya circuit.
153
Since it first held the Spanish Grand Prix in 1991, 153 drivers have entered a Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 145 of those drivers have started a Grand Prix at the track, while 117 of them have finished a race here.
345
Ferrari have scored the most points of any team at this track. With 345 points from 34 finishes, the Italian team have scored almost 100 points more than their nearest rivals. Red Bull have scored 238 points here, while Mercedes have scored 194 – the latter being particularly impressive as their cars have only finished a Grand Prix at this track fourteen times.