Formula One heads to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the traditional start of the European season. Here are all the stats you need ahead of the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix!
?? CATALUNYA RACE WINNERS
Formula One has been visiting the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya since 1991. In 27 races at the track, sixteen different drivers have won the Spanish Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher has the most wins at this track, with six.
It’s Scuderia Ferrari who have the best record at this track, with eight wins to their name.
The race has been won back-to-back on four occasions. Nigel Mansell won back-to-back Spanish Grands Prix in 1991 and 1992, before Michael Schumacher repeated the feat in 1995 and 1996, driving for Benetton in 1995 and Ferrari in 1996. Mika Hakkinen went one better, and won three races at the track in a row for McLaren between 1998 and 2000, before Schumacher then won the race four years in a row with Ferrari beginning in 2001. This was the last time a driver won more than one Spanish Grand Prix in a row.
On the 2018 grid, there are five previous winners of the Spanish Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton each have two wins at the track, while Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen have each taken one victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The longest streak of different winners at this circuit came between 2006 and 2016, where eleven different drivers won each of the eleven Grands Prix – the longest streak of different winners at a track in F1 history.
The smallest win margin here came in 2016, when Max Verstappen took his maiden victory. He finished ahead of Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.616 seconds.
Michael Schumacher had the largest win margin at this track in 1995, when he won by 51.988 seconds. The second largest win margin also came from Schumacher in the following year, when a supreme drive in the wet saw him win by 45.302 seconds.
The average win margin at this track is 16.120 seconds.
?? ON THE PODIUM AT CATALUNYA
In 27 races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 29 different drivers have stood on the podium.
Michael Schumacher has taken the most podium finishes at this track, with eleven top three finishes.
From the 2018 grid, six drivers have finished on the Spanish Grand Prix podium. Fernando Alonso has the most on the grid, with seven podium finishes at his home event. Lewis Hamilton has finished in the top three on six occasions, while Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel have five podium appearances each at this track. The Red Bull drivers are the other two drivers on this year’s grid who’ve finished in the top three here before. Daniel Ricciardo has made two podium appearances here, in 2014 and 2017, while Max Verstappen’s only podium finish here came in 2016 when he took his maiden Formula One victory.
?? CATALUNYA POLESITTERS
Over the past 27 years, there have been fifteen different polesitters at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Michael Schumacher has the most poles here, with seven.
It’s Ferrari who are the team with the most poles at the track, with seven.
Three of the drivers competing this weekend have taken a Spanish Grand Prix pole before. Lewis Hamilton has taken pole on three occasions, Kimi Raikkonen twice, and Fernando Alonso once. This is one of only four tracks on the 2018 calendar where Sebastian Vettel hasn’t yet taken a pole position.
Michael Schumacher holds the record for the most consecutive starts from pole at this track, having started from the front at five consecutive Spanish Grands Prix between 2000 and 2004.
The longest streak of different polesitters at this track was between 2006 and 2010, when a different driver took pole in each of the five events.
Four drivers have taken back-to-back poles at this track. Michael Schumacher was first to do it in 1994 and 1995, before he started from pole every year between 2000 and 2004. Mika Hakkinen took back-to-back poles in 1998 and 1999 for McLaren, while Mark Webber started from the front in 2010 and 2011. Lewis Hamilton is currently on a streak of two consecutive poles at the track, having taken pole in both 2016 and 2017.
The smallest pole margin at this track came in 2012, when Pastor Maldonado took pole – his only pole in his F1 career – by 0.017 seconds. The pole margin has been under one tenth of a second on six occasions at this track.
The largest pole margin at this track is 1.005 seconds, in 1992 when Nigel Mansell took pole for Williams.
The average pole margin at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is 0.297 seconds.
?? SATURDAY TO SUNDAY
Statistically, Qualifying is very important here. The race has been won from pole at 20 of the 27 races held here. That’s a pole conversion rate of 74%.
The race has been won from the front row of the grid 24 times. There have only been three occasions where the race was won from further back than second – Michael Schumacher in 1996, Fernando Alonso in 2013 and Max Verstappen in 2016.
Fernando Alonso is the man who has won a race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from the furthest back on the grid, having started fifth for Ferrari in 2013.
Click for all the information you need for the 2018 Spanish Grand Prix weekend!
?? SUNDAY STATS
The likelihood of a Safety Car here is quite low, with the Safety Car making an appearance in just five Spanish Grands Prix since 1993. There has also been one Virtual Safety Car stint here, in 2017.
The Safety Car has only ever made more than one appearance in a race here once, when it came out on two occasions during the 2008 Spanish Grand Prix.
Only three races at this track have been affected by rain. The most memorable one, in 1996, is the last time rain affected the Spanish Grand Prix.
The longest race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was the rain-hit 1996 event, which clocked in at 1:59:49.307. The shortest was in 2006, when Fernando Alonso won in a time of 1:26:21.759.
On average, 14 cars finish the Spanish Grand Prix, though the attrition rate has improved in recent years. The most number of finishers came in 2011, when all but one of the 22 cars saw the chequered flag. The least number of finishers at this track was in 1996, when just six cars made it to the end of the race.
There has never been a red-flagged race at this track.
?? CHAMPIONSHIP GLORY
There has never been a World Champion crowned at this track, but on fifteen occasions, the winner of that year’s Spanish Grand Prix has gone on to win the championship.
?? MISCELLANEOUS STATS
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is the only track where Pastor Maldonado won a race in Formula One.