What did Niki Lauda do for the only time in his career in Monte Carlo? Which strange Monaco statistic links Jean Pierre Beltoise and Jochen Rindt? And how many drivers have only raced one lap in the principality? Here’s the Circuit de Monaco in numbers!
0
James Hunt never finished a Monaco Grand Prix in all seven of his appearances. The Brit was known as ‘Shunt’ for a reason! He was particularly furious with Patrick Depailler after the two came together in the 1975 Monaco race. Wolfgang von Trips is another driver who failed to finish the Monaco Grand Prix, retiring from all five of his race starts at the circuit.
1
Jean Pierre Beltoise and Jochen Rindt share the same statistic at Monaco. Both drivers only finished the Grand Prix here once in their career; in both cases, they took victory! Beltoise entered eight Monaco Grands Prix between 1967 and 1974, failing to qualify on his first attempt and then failing to finish the race in every year after that except 1972, where he won by almost 40 seconds. Similarly, Rindt entered the race five times, but his only finish was on his final appearance in 1970, where he took victory.
Niki Lauda recorded the only DNQ (Did Not Qualify) of his Formula 1 career at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1983. Neither Lauda nor team-mate John Watson could set a time fast enough to qualify for the race, with the McLaren cars being five seconds off the pace in Thursday’s qualifying session. Rain on Saturday prevented them from improving their times, so the pair sat on the sidelines for the Grand Prix.
5
Piercarlo Ghinzani failed to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix more than any other driver. He was unable to set a lap time fast enough to join the grid on five separate occasions. All of his non-qualifications at the track were with the Osella team. The Italian did at least make the grid three times at Monaco, but failed to score on all three attempts, finishing a best of seventh for Osella in 1984.
7th
Since 2013, no Mercedes driver has finished below seventh in the Monaco Grand Prix. They’ve reached the end of the race with both cars in all of the past six seasons, winning four of those six races. Seventh places for Nico Rosberg in 2016 and Lewis Hamilton in 2017 are their lowest finishes in recent years.
10
For ten seasons between 1984 and 1993, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were the only two drivers to win the Monaco Grand Prix. During that time, McLaren won nine of the ten races, with Senna’s 1987 Lotus victory being the only non-McLaren win. Nigel Mansell was the only driver other than Prost and Senna to take pole during that period too.
16
There are sixteen drivers who’ve raced at Monaco and scored a solitary point from all of their appearances. The list of drivers to have done this includes Heikki Kovalainen and 1958 Champion Mike Hawthorn. In total, 153 different drivers have scored points at the Monaco Grand Prix.
18
No more than eighteen cars have ever reached the end of a Grand Prix in Monaco. The only time eighteen cars reached the chequered flag was in 2007. Anthony Davidson finished eighteenth on that day, two laps down on the winner.
19
Rubens Barrichello has started more races in Monaco than any other driver, with nineteen appearances on the grid. Kimi Raikkonen will become the joint-third most experienced racer at Monaco in 2019, with his seventeenth appearance, equalling Graham Hill and Riccardo Patrese’s tally of starts in the principality.
150
No driver has scored more points in Monaco than Sebastian Vettel, who has taken 150 points at the track. Lewis Hamilton trails him on 137. Ayrton Senna and Graham Hill are the only drivers to remain in the top ten points finishers here who did not to race in Monaco under the newest points scoring system, where 25 points are on offer for the win.
315
That’s the number of drivers to have completed a racing lap of the Monaco Grand Prix in F1’s history. Bruce Halford, Johnny Cecotto and José Froilán González completed only one lap of the Grand Prix during their careers. Six drivers – Cuth Harrison, Domenico Schiattarella, Esteban Tuero, Franco Rol, Luigi Fagioli and Toulo de Graffenried – started a race here but never completed a full lap.
399
While 321 drivers have started the Monaco Grand Prix in F1, 399 drivers have entered a race here. That list includes Bernie Ecclestone, who failed to qualify for the 1958 event. With Alexander Albon, Antionio Giovinazzi, Lando Norris and George Russell competing here for the first time in 2019, that figure will surpass 400 in 2019.