There have been 77 occasions when a Formula 1 driver has raced on their birthday. From those 77 occasions, two have won a Grand Prix, six have finished on the podium and 18 have scored points. Here are all the statistics!
Drivers who won on their birthday
In Formula 1 history, there have been only two drivers who have won a Grand Prix on their birthday: James Hunt and Jean Alesi.
Racing on his 29th birthday, Hunt won from second on the grid at Zandvoort in the 1976 Dutch Grand Prix on August 29th. This was Hunt’s fourth of six victories in his title-winning season. 19 years later, on June 11th, Alesi won the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix. It was the only win of his career and came on his 31st birthday.
Drivers who finished on the podium on their birthday
In addition to Hunt and Alesi, four other drivers have finished on the podium on their birthday. Chris Amon, Carlos Pace and Carlos Reutemann all finished as runner-up on their birthdays. Amon did so at the 1968 British Grand Prix, Pace finished second at the 1974 United States Grand Prix and Reutemann finished as runner-up at the 1981 Argentine Grand Prix.
The most recent, and only other, time a driver has finished on the podium on their birthday was in 2004, when Rubens Barrichello scored a third place result.
Drivers who raced at home on their birthday
Reutemann is the only driver who has scored a podium finish at his home Grand Prix on his birthday, but four other drivers have made home race appearances on their birthdays. The first to do so was Toulo de Graffenried at the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix, who finished just outside the points in sixth place.
American Chuck Arnold competed in the 1959 Indianapolis 500 – the penultimate time that it was a round of the Drivers’ Championship – where he finished 15th. It was 19 years before another driver made a home appearance on their birthday. The driver to do so was Bruno Giacomelli, who finished fourteenth at Monza in the 1978 Italian Grand Prix.
Since Reutemann’s podium finish at home on his birthday, there has been only one more driver who celebrated their birthday with a home appearance. Pierluigi Martini raced in the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix on his birthday. Though given the title of ‘San Marino’ Grand Prix, the event was held at the Imola circuit in Italy. Martini drove only six laps before retiring with gearbox problems.
Drivers who started from pole on their birthday
Two drivers have started a Grand Prix from pole position on their birthday. Gerhard Berger did so at the 1995 Belgian Grand Prix and Mika Hakkinen did so at the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix.
On both occasions, neither driver reached the end of the race. Berger retired after 22 laps at Spa in 1995, while Hakkinen – who started from pole for the first time in his career – retired at the Nurburgring in 1997 after 43 laps.
Drivers who took pole position on their birthday
There have been three previous occasions on which a driver has secured pole position for a Grand Prix on their birthday. Rene Arnoux was the first driver to do so, on his 33rd birthday, at the 1981 French Grand Prix. On the day after he turned 33, he finished fourth in the race.
Nigel Mansell secured the 11th pole of his Formula 1 career in qualifying for the 1987 Hungarian Grand Prix on his 34th birthday. He failed to finish the following day, retiring from the race in the closing stages.
The only driver so far this century to take pole on his birthday is Ralf Schumacher, at the 2001 French Grand Prix. On his 26t birthday, it was the first pole position of his Formula 1 career. The following day, he finished as runner-up to his brother Michael. It was the second of five occasions that the Schumacher brothers would finish 1-2 in a Grand Prix.
Drivers who made the most birthday appearances
There are only 11 drivers who have raced on their birthday on more than one occasion. Andrea de Cesaris and Fernando Alonso are the only drivers who have raced on their birthday three times. De Cesaris retired on all three birthday appearances, while Alonso finished in the top ten on all three of his birthday appearances, with a best result of fifth at the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Chris Amon made two birthday appearances, at the 1962 and 1968 British Grands Prix. He could have made a third birthday outing at the 1974 British Grand Prix, but he missed races in the mid part of that season due to illness.
Nelson Piquet, Gerhard Berger, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz are the other drivers who have raced on their birthdays twice.
Youngest and Oldest birthdays celebrated
The youngest driver to celebrate their birthday by racing in a Grand Prix is Lance Stroll, who turned nineteen on the day of the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix. On the other end of the scale, the oldest drivers to start a Grand Prix on their birthday are Reg Parnell and Carlos Reutemann who each turned 39 on the day of the 1950 French Grand Prix and the 1981 Argentine Grand Prix respectively.
Multiple birthdays celebrated in a race
The 1989 Belgian Grand Prix is the only race in which multiple drivers on the grid were celebrating their birthday. On that day, Derek Warwick celebrated his 35th birthday, while Gerhard Berger celebrated his 30th birthday. Warwick picked up a point in sixth place, but Berger retired. It was the Austrian’s tenth retirement in a row.
Drivers who could have raced on their birthdays
There are two drivers who could have raced on their birthday, but failed to qualify for the Grand Prix. The first was Jochen Mass at the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix, who missed out on a spot on the grid by just 0.064s. The second was Aguri Suzuki at the 1991 Italian Grand Prix. He qualified 30th and last in the qualifying session, 0.841s away from the pace which was needed for a place on the starting grid.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen had a particularly unlucky birthday in 2003. After lining up fifteenth on the grid, Frentzen made his way through two formation laps. A faulty launch control for Cristiano da Matta meant that there were three formation laps that afternoon. At the start of the third formation, Frentzen had clutch issues and there was no time to set up the spare car. It meant that Frentzen did not start the race.
Drivers who made their only appearance on their birthday
No driver has made their only Grand Prix appearance on their birthday, but there is one driver who had their only F1 outing on their birthday. That was Channoch Nissany, who made his only outing in Free Practice for the 2005 Hungarian Grand Prix.
On the day he turned 42, he became the first driver from Israel to participate in an F1 weekend. Nissany’s lap times were almost seven seconds off the pace of his Minardi team-mate Christijan Albers. He spun out of the session, and was unable to take the steering wheel out after his spin. That meant that his car had to be recovered with him sitting in it.
The full list of Formula 1 drivers who raced on their birthday:
Below is a full list of drivers who have raced in a round of the Formula 1 World Championship on their birthday.
Header image: Rick Dikeman, Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
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