F1 Power Performers: Albert Park

In Power Performers, we re-award points from every race at each track based on the current scoring system, in order to give a fairer representation of which drivers have excelled at each track during their careers. As well as the top five, we’ll also give the full list of points scorers at the end of each article. First up: Albert Park!

1. Lewis Hamilton – 189 points

Lewis Hamilton has scored more points at the Australian Grand Prix than any other driver and he sits at the top of our power performers list for Albert Park. Hamilton has won here only twice, but has had consistent podium finishes in the last five years which have rocketed his adjusted points total up to 189. Hamilton has taken pole at the Australian Grand Prix in every year since 2014, but has won only one of those races. He has finished as runner-up in all of the last four seasons. 2014 is the only year that he has failed to finish at the track in his career, but he was also disqualified from the event in 2009 having found to have been lying to race stewards. Hamilton will be hoping to start his 2020 season off with a third win at the Albert Park track.

2. Fernando Alonso – 175 points

Fernando Alonso won only once at the Australian Grand Prix in his career, but thirteen finishes in the points see him sit second in the Albert Park power performers list. Fernando’s sole Albert Park win came in 2006, the third round of his second championship-winning campaign. Of his sixteen appearances, 2016 and 2017 are the only years that Alonso failed to finish here. If you ask people what they remember of the Spaniard’s races at Albert Park, they’re unlikely to mention his win; rather his huge shunt in 2016 which saw him sit out the following round.

3. Kimi Raikkonen – 163 points

Kimi Raikkonen has won twice at the Australian Grand Prix. He took his first win here in 2007, becoming the seventh driver to have won on debut with Ferrari. The Finn followed that up in 2013 with Lotus, taking the first win since his comeback to the sport. His second win remains the last time that a team other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull won a Grand Prix. From seventh on the grid, that victory is the furthest back that the Albert Park race has been won in the last fourteen years.

4. Sebastian Vettel – 150 points

Having scored 150 points at Albert Park, Sebastian Vettel has scored the second-most points of any driver at the circuit. In our points-adjusted list, the German slips to fourth, behind both Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. The longevity of their careers is what has helped Alonso and Raikkonen in this case, and Vettel could well surpass their totals in the remaining seasons of his career. Vettel has finished on the podium in all but two of the last nine Australian Grands Prix (a DNF in 2014 and a fourth place finish last year). He won here in 2011 and took two consecutive victories for Ferrari in 2017 and 2018.

5. Michael Schumacher – 138 points

Michael Schumacher has more wins than any other driver at Albert Park, having been victorious in four of his fourteen Melbourne outings. But the German sits only fifth in our power performers list, largely due to him suffering six DNFs at the circuit. Other than his wins, Schumacher was not a high points scorer at the track. Schumacher won four out of the five Australian Grands Prix between 2000 and 2004, and while he may have lucked in to his wins in 2000 (with both McLarens retiring) and 2002 (with a first corner crash eliminating some of his rivals), he truly dominated in both 2001 and 2004. In his three comeback seasons, Schumacher scored only one point with tenth place in 2010.

On the bubble

There’s a gap of 26 points between Michael Schumacher and the next driver on the power performers list. Honourable mentions are due for Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello, who are the only other drivers to have scored over 100 points here in our adjusted points totals. Button, Coulthard and Rosberg all won here twice in their careers, with Coulthard claiming the furthest back win at the circuit so far, from eleventh on the grid in 2003.

The Full List of points scorers:

The below list is based on all races at the track using the same scoring system as is currently used in Formula 1 – 25 points for a win, all the way down to a single point for tenth place plus the bonus point for Fastest Lap.