Two new team names finish on the podium together for the first time in over seventy years, the Red Bull junior team take their first two wins at the same circuit and Ferrari endure a home race disaster. Here are some of the more obscure facts and statistics from the 2020 Italian Grand Prix!
Two new team names on the podium
There was an extremely rare occurrence in Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix. Though AlphaTauri and Racing Point have taken podiums previously under different guises, this was the first time that two new team names have finished in the top three in a Grand Prix since the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix – which was only the second race in Formula 1’s 70-year history.
The AlphaTauri team have had three previous podium results as Toro Rosso, including a win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, while Racing Point have previously finished in the top three as Jordan and Force India. But this was the first time that two new team names have appeared on the podium together in the same race since the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, when Alberto Ascari finished as runner-up for Ferrari and Louis Chiron finished third for Maserati. This excludes results from the Indianapolis 500 when it was a round of the World Championship between 1950 and 1960. If you included those, the 1950 and 1956 runnings of the Indianapolis 500 would also be on the list.
Two wins at Monza for the Red Bull junior team
The Red Bull junior team are the first team to take their first two wins at the same venue since BRM won their first two races at Zandvoort in 1959 and 1962. Jo Bonnier took BRM’s first victory at the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix, while Graham Hill took the team’s second victory at the same event three years later. The Red Bull junior team took their second win at Monza twelve years after Sebastian Vettel won for Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. It’s the sixth longest gap between wins for a team.
The only other times that teams have taken their first two victories at the same circuit were in the 1950s, and they were teams who only competed at the Indianapolis 500 – Kurtis Kraft (1950-55), Epperly (1957 & 1958) and Watson (1956, 1959 and 1960).
A new podium combination
According to Formula 1, the 2020 Italian Grand Prix featured the 696th different podium combination in the sport’s history – and it was the first time that the top three has been made up of a French driver, Spanish driver and a Canadian driver.
You don’t have to go too far back to find the last time a French and Spanish driver last finished in the top three together. That was at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, when it was once again Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz in the top three. It has been 23 years since a Canadian driver and a French driver finished on the podium together, with Jacques Villeneuve winning at the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix and Jean Alesi finishing second. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll are the first Spanish and Canadian drivers to finish on the podium together.
Ferrari’s home race disaster
Ferrari have just endured their worst streak of races since 2009. The Italian Grand Prix was always going to be a difficult weekend given their pace deficit in 2020, but the Scuderia probably weren’t expecting their home race to go as badly as it did.
Their problems began on Saturday, when Ferrari recorded their worst ever qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, with neither driver qualifying in the top twelve at Monza for the first time. It was the first time since 1984 that neither Ferrari driver qualified in the top ten at the team’s home event.
Sebastian Vettel recorded Ferrari’s 25th Q1 exit, and the team’s first Q1 exit at Monza, with his seventeenth place being the first time that a Ferrari driver has qualified outside of the top fifteen at Monza since Giancarlo Baghetti did so in 1966. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc failed to reach Q3, making this the first time since the current qualifying system was introduced that neither Ferrari driver qualified in the top ten at consecutive races. The last time Ferrari qualified with both cars outside the top ten at two consecutive races was at the 2005 Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix.
On Sunday, Ferrari’s race was over by the halfway point, as Vettel retired with brake failure and Leclerc crashed out. It’s the first time since 1995 that Ferrari have recorded a double retirement at the Italian Grand Prix, and the first time since 2005 that the team have failed to score at Monza.
The 2009 Australian, Malaysian and Chinese Grands Prix were the last time that Ferrari failed to score at consecutive races, while the last time no Ferrari-powered cars scored at consecutive races was at the 1996 Canadian, French and British Grands Prix.
Grid slot coincidences
Pierre Gasly won from tenth on the grid, Carlos Sainz finished second having started third and Lance Stroll finished third having started eighth. The only other time in Formula 1’s history that the drivers starting third, eighth and tenth have finished on the podium together was at the equally memorable 1998 Belgian Grand Prix.
A stranger statistic involves Lance Stroll, who has now finished on the podium in every race in which he has competed in where there has been a Red Flag – having also finished third in the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. But furthermore, Stroll started eighth in both races and in both the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, the driver who started tenth went on to win!
Read more statistics from the 2020 Italian Grand Prix weekend in our Post Race Statistics article!
