Atlas F1 Magazine: French & German GP Facts, Stats and Memoirs

ATLAS F1 - THE JOURNAL OF FORMULA ONE MOTORSPORT

French & German Facts,
Stats and Memoirs

By Marcel Schot, Netherlands
Atlas F1 Magazine Writer

How many times did the same driver win two F1 races held within a week of each other? How did Alain Prost end up as the winner of Ferrari's 100th Grand Prix? And who was the only driver to start a race despite the fact that he hadn't qualified? Marcel Schot brings these answers and more, in this German and French edition of 'Facts & Stats'

With just a week separating the French and German Grands Prix, it's interesting to have a look at the possibility of both races having the same winner. In the past, 53 races have been held within eight days of the previous event. In just 19 of them the winner of both races was the same driver, which is 36% of all cases. However, in recent history the balance changed significantly. The last four times, the winner was the same in both races. If we look at which drivers have made it two wins within eight days, there's only one driver in the list who never became World Champion and that's Eddie Irvine.

Driver             Both
Nigel Mansell         4
Alain Prost           4
Jim Clark             2
Michael Schumacher    2
Mika Hakkinen         1
James Hunt            1
Eddie Irvine          1
Alan Jones            1
Jackie Stewart        1
Jacques Villeneuve    1
Ayrton Senna          1

If we look at who won the second race of a two-in-a-row sequence, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost rise above once again. Alain Prost won no less than 11 races, while Mansell won eight. Of the current drivers, only Michael Schumacher (3), Jacques Villeneuve (1) and Eddie Irvine (1) have experience in winning races a week after the previous race.

The first race of this year's double is the French Grand Prix. This race, until 1967 known as Grand Prix de l'ACF, has been hosted on seven different circuits. Most of the races have been held at the Paul Ricard circuit, where the event was hosted 14 times.

One of those 14 events was the 1990 French Grand Prix, which proved to be a special race in more than one way.

Alain Prost takes the win in the 1990 French GP Ferrari driver Nigel Mansell grabbed pole in front of the McLarens of Gerhard Berger and Ayrton Senna. However, after two laps both McLarens were ahead of Il Leone and the Ferrari driver was closely followed by Benetton's Alessandro Nannini. Meanwhile, Alain Prost in the second Ferrari lost some ground, but nothing worrying. When drivers started making pitstops around the 30th lap, things got thrown completely upside down. Prost's stop was the most efficient, while Mansell got thrown back behind Nannini and both McLarens dropped completely out of sight. The most surprising, though, were the Leyton House-Marches of Ivan Capelli and Mauricio Gugelmin. Neither stopped for new tyres and their pace so far had been enough to put them in first and second!

Prost closed the gap pretty quickly on fresh tyres, but he was unable to pass Gugelmin until the Brazilian's engine gave up the ghost after a little over 50 laps. A few laps later Prost had moved under Capelli's gearbox. However, as is commonly known in Formula One, getting behind someone is one thing, but passing is something completely different. This proved very true in the 20 laps that followed. However, just three laps from the finish, Capelli's dream was shattered as Prost finally managed to grab the lead. Incidentally, this hard fought victory was Ferrari's 100th.

The following year the race wasn't as eventful, but the McLaren hotel was. Gerhard Berger, always up for a joke, took a bust from the hotel lobby and put it in his teammate Ayrton Senna's bed. With a bunch of pillows under the sheets, things looked very much like someone had taken refuge in the Brazilian's bed. Berger obviously chuckled all night thinking about what Senna's reaction would be and when Senna went up to his room, the entire hotel was able to hear the Brazilian's reaction very well, as well as Berger's laughter...

A remarkable fact about the French Grand Prix in recent years is that David Coulthard has driven the fastest race lap in the last four years, while winning only once. Last year proved to be a Schumacher family party. On Saturday Ralf scored his first pole position, while on Sunday Michael secured his fiftieth win.

Even though the German Grand Prix is still hosted at Hockenheim, it's essentially a completely different circuit this year. After 25 races with relatively small changes, this year's track has been reduced from nearly 7 kilometers to just 4.5.

Besides German drivers Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Nick Heidfeld and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, there are also engine suppliers Mercedes and BMW having their home race next week. Both makes have only scored a single victory at Hockenheim so far - BMW last year, when Ralf Schumacher scored his third victory of the season, while Mercedes' victory dates back to 1998, when Mika Hakkinen steered his McLaren to victory.

Of the 11 German drivers to take the starting lights at Hockenheim over the years, Hans Heyer is without a doubt the most special.

In 1977, the former touring car champion drove for the Penske team as additional driver to their usual one car operation. Despite giving it his best try, Heyer only managed the 27th time and didn't qualify, since only the best 24 were to be allowed in the race. However, when the starting lights malfunctioned and Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni crashed as a result, Heyer took advantage of the short period of mayhem and quickly steered his car out of the pitbox and onto the track, thus becoming the only driver in Formula One history to have driven a race for which he didn't qualify. Sadly for Heyer, the fun didn't last long, as the car broke down after just nine laps.

Past Performance in France by Current Drivers

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Average
Qualifying
Position

Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race

M.Schumacher 1 DNS 1 1 2 1 6 5 1 M 2 1 2.166

Barrichello 10 9 13 M 14 10 1 3 3 3 8 3 8.166

Coulthard 7 6 9 7 3 6 4 R 2 1 3 4 4.666

Raikkonen - - - - - - - - - - 13 7 13.000

R.Schumacher - - 3 6 6 16 16 4 5 5 1 2 6.200

Montoya - - - - - - - - - 6 M 6.000

Heidfeld - - - - - - - - 16 12 9 6 12.500

Massa - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Fisichella 17 M 11 9 9 9 7 R 14 9 16 11 11.166

Sato - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Villeneuve 6 2 2 R 5 4 12 R 7 4 10 M 7.000

Panis 9 7 - - 16 11 3 8 - - 11 9 9.750

Trulli - - 6 10 12 R 8 7 9 6 5 5 8.000

Button - - - - - - - - 10 8 17 16 13.500

Frentzen 12 M 2 2 8 15 5 1 8 7 7 8 7.000

Bernoldi - - - - - - - - - - 20 M 20.000

Irvine 22 M 5 5 4 2 17 6 6 13 12 M 11.000

de la Rosa - - - - - - 19 11 13 M 14 14 15.333

Yoong - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Webber - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Salo 13 10 19 M 19 13 - - 12 10 - - 15.750

McNish - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Past Performance in Germany by Current Drivers

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Average
Qualifying
Position

Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race Qual Race

M.Schumacher 3 4 4 2 9 5 - - 2 R 4 M 4.400

Barrichello 9 6 12 M 13 M 10 M 18 1 6 2 11.333

Coulthard 7 5 8 M 2 2 3 5 1 3 5 M 4.333

Raikkonen - - - - - - - - - - 8 M 8.000

R.Schumacher - - 7 5 4 6 11 4 14 7 2 1 7.600

Montoya - - - - - - - - - 1 M 1.000

Heidfeld - - - - - - - - 13 12 7 R 10.000

Massa - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Fisichella - - 2 11 8 7 10 M 3 R 17 4 8.000

Sato - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Villeneuve 6 3 9 R 3 3 12 R 9 8 12 3 8.500

Panis 12 7 - - 16 15 7 6 - - 13 7 12.000

Trulli - - 11 4 14 12 9 M 6 9 10 M 10.000

Button - - - - - - - - 16 4 18 5 17.000

Frentzen 13 8 5 R 10 9 2 3 17 M - - 9.400

Bernoldi - - - - - - - - - - 19 8 19.000

Irvine 8 M 10 R 6 8 5 1 10 10 11 M 8.333

de la Rosa - - - - - - 20 R 5 6 9 R 17.000

Yoong - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Webber - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Salo 15 9 19 M 17 14 4 2 15 5 - - 14.000

McNish - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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