Formula One Analysis
Ian Myers
5/13/2021
This report will focus on analyzing Formula One in many different ways. From race location, trend statistics, driver records, and an analysis of the Hybrid Era, this report hopes to add discussion and facts to the Formula One community.
Formula One is the highest class of international auto racing for single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). From the first 1950 race in Silverstone, England, the sport has had races in 32 different countries. Formula One is adapting and changing based on technological advancement, safety, and competitive spirit. Formula One is a data-heavy sport as the cars become more technologically complicated and analytics are used to gain advantages.
The Formula One dataset used in this report is from Kaggle.com from the user Vopani. The dataset is found here. This dataset includes Formula One information such as drivers, constructors, results, lap times, pitstops, qualifying times, seasons, and much more. Also used in this analysis was another dataset from data.un.org, in order to find the Gross Domestic Product per capita for each country. This dataset was used to compare the location of the races to the GDP of the country they are located.
This report was analyzed using R and Tableau. R was used to organize the datasets and Tableau was used to visualize the data. The R code and other files used in the process are located on Github at this link https://github.com/ianmyers11/FormulaOne.
Analyzing Formula One Race Locations
Worldmap
Location & Prevalance of Formula One Races
As Formula One is an international sport, there have been many hosts of races throughout the years. While most of the races are based in Europe, more and more races have taken place across the world. Italy’s Autodromo Nazionale Monza racetrack has hosted the most Formula One races with a total of 71 races. Monza has hosted a race in every Formula One season except for 1980 when it was held at a different location in Italy. Monaco is not far behind Monza as it has hosted 67 races. The Monaco Grand Prix is known as one of the most infamous sporting events worldwide, as celebrities and the world’s wealthiest flock to the city-state for the festivities.
GDP Comparison
Comparison of Formula 1 Race Host Countries and Non-Host Countries GDP per-capita
Formula One is very wealthy as major sponsors and massive companies are backing the sport. Each Grand Prix event is a spectacle event, with large crowds, firework displays, and festivities for the fans. For this reason, it might be assumed that most of the Grand Prix events are hosted by wealthier countries. A good measurement for the wealth of a country is the Gross Domestic Product per capita. When comparing the GDP of Formula One Race Host countries and non-race countries, there was a clear difference between the two. Formula One race host countries have an approximate average GDP per capita of 40,946 U.S. Dollars while the other countries are 15,145 U.S. Dollars. Race host countries have almost 2.73 times GDP per capita, which is significant. This result makes sense as wealthier countries have more capital to build these racetracks as well as bring in paying fans. One other reason that the race host countries’ GDP per capita is so high is due to outlier countries such as Monaco, which has a GDP per capita of approximately 185,000 U.S. Dollars. These outliers were important to include as it still shows that the wealthiest countries are hosting the events.
Analyzing Formula One Trends
Lap Times
Average Laptimes from 1996-2019
Laptimes are extremely important in Formula One as they are heavily affected by changes to rules and regulations. For this analysis, the races chosen were Races with consistent data from 1996-2019 and did not change the circuit as it can affect lap time. It was very interesting to see that there was no developed pattern except for extreme dips and rises. While there did not seem to be a pattern out of the six races, the British Grand Prix saw faster lap times. Most likely due to technological advancement combined with regulations, the cars fluctuate between having faster and slow times, and currently, it seems that Formula One is in a faster moment. Britain is the outlier as they seem to have increased since 1996, but there is a major outlier in the data, which could be causing this result. This outlier was for the 2014 British Grand Prix as there was a red flag crash causing slower lap times.
Pitstop Times
Average Pitstop Times from 2012-2019
One of the most stressful times during a race is pitstops. There are many opportunities for things to go wrong, such as fires, tire mixups, and crashes as seen here. While many things can go wrong, it also gives the possibility of undercutting opponents for fresher tires or making uptime with a faster pitstop. When looking at the average pitstop times, it was interesting to see that there was again no clear trend in the overall data. This data was filtered to only include races that occurred on the same track from 2012-2020. The only trend is that since 2012 pit times have generally increased or stayed the same. While in the past rules changed such as the pit lane speeds and banning of refueling during the race, no major changes have occurred since 2012. There must be an outside unexpected factor affecting this data, but it still shows an interesting trend.
Fastest Lap Speeds
Fastest Lap Speeds from 2004-2020
Formula One Racecars are some of the fastest in the world. While they are extremely fast in a straight line they gain an advantage in speed from other types of cars when turning. This video shows just how fast the Formula One cars are. Lap Speed in motorsport racing is the average speed of a car during a race lap. Lap Speeds in Formula One have changed over the years based on different rules and regulations put into place limiting engines, increasing downforce/traction, and overall technological advancement. In the data, it was interesting to see the fastest lap speeds from 2004 to 2020. It might be thought that it would increase over time, but this is not true. From 2004 to 2014 the lap times of the cars decreased and since 2014 it has increased dramatically. There are a few explanations for these results, which include rules changes. 2004 is called the peak of raw performance in Formula One. There was a tire war between Bridgestone and Michelin causing the tires to increase in speed for years. This combined with limited restrictions on aerodynamics and loopholes, created these extremely fast cars. The cars were so fast there were campaigns to make the sport safer and to have a more equal competition. With that said, since 2004, there have been numerous restrictions on all parts of the car to slow them down. This slow down got to the point where there was a 17 km/h difference in the fastest lap speed from 2004 to 2014. After all these changes, one of the largest in sports history was the switch from V8 engines to turbocharged V6 power units. This change was made for many reasons, including that Formula One wanted to be more relevant to road cars and the engines were more environmentally friendly. While initially, this change caused the cars to have slower fastest lap speeds, with increases in technology the cars skyrocketed to speeds similar to 2004. While Formula One is now planning to reduce the speed again with an increase in safety features, including the Halo, it has allowed for the faster cars to be safer. If there was a projection line for the future, it would be decreasing similarly to 2004 through 2014.
Analyzing Most Successful Countries
Race locations are not the only worldly thing about Formula One as the drivers and constructors are from across the planet. This part of the report is going to analyze the most successful countries in Formula One. This will be done by analyzing race wins and podium finishes by the driver as well as race wins and podium finishes by the constructor.
Driver Analysis
Analyzing Driver Wins & Podium Finishes by Country
When analyzing the country with the highest number of driver race wins, it is clear that British drivers stand out from the rest. Britain is known as the birthplace of Formula One, and with this has come extreme success including one of the greatest drivers of all time Lewis Hamilton. With almost 300 race wins and 698 race podiums, the British have dominated Formula One since it was created. In second for driver wins and podiums is Germany as they have also produced some of the greatest drivers in the world, including Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. While they are still behind the British, they lead the next closest country by a decent margin. When looking at other driver statistics, it is interesting to find smaller countries such as Finland doing so well in both categories. This is most likely due to successful Finnish racers, including Kimi Räikkönen, Mika Häkkinen, and Valtteri Bottas, who all have had a lot of success. While there are currently no Americans in Formula One, the U.S. ranks 10th on the driver wins list and 8th on the driver podium list.
Constructor Analysis
Analyzing Constructor Wins & Podium Finishes by Country
Similarly to the driver championships, the constructor that leads both categories is Britain. This is because of the historical involvement of British teams from the start of Formula One as well as continued success from teams, such as McClaren. While far behind Britain, Italy is in second in both categories. While multiple contractors contributed to this number, Ferrari can take credit for most of the success. As one of the first Formula One race teams, Ferrari has had extreme success throughout history as it has 16 world championships compared to the next closest team with 9. While in recent years Germany has had extreme success with the Mercedes racing team, they have not been around as long as other Formula One teams. Surprisingly there has not been any additional country to have a constructor win since Ireland in 1998.
Retirements/Did Not Finish (DNF) Analysis
Over the years, Formula One has banked on the flashiness of the cars to bring in fans and viewers. One other variable that brought in fans was the danger and thrill that goes along with driving at fast speeds. With this danger comes crashes which are very prevalent even in modern Formula One racing. As these drivers and constructors are pushing to the extremes to win, this can cause crashes, malfunctions, and other mistakes that lead to drivers not finishing the race. Referred to as Did Not Finish (DNF) or retirement, some cars fail to finish almost every single race. This next part of the report plans on analyzing different variables related to DNFs.
DNFs Per Year
Number of DNFs per year from 1950-2020
Starting with analyzing the number of DNFs per year throughout Formula One’s history helped gain a perspective on the issue. The trends of the graph seem to fluctuate year to year but start by increasing from the 1950s until reaching a peak in 1985. After 1985 the DNFs seemed to decrease until the present day. Some of these trends might be explained by an increased amount of reliability in engines after 1983, resulting in fewer engine failure DNFs. By 1994 the safety and rules of Formula One had started to increase after many fatal crashes. This caused the cars to slow down and lead to fewer crashes. Now in 2020, the DNFs have reduced to the lowest amount of all time.
% of Lifetime DNFs
Driver Percentage of Lifetime DNFs
Continuing with analyzing DNFs, the chart below shows the average amount of DNFs. All of the drivers did not finish more than 53% of the races they started in. The top driver with the highest percentage of DNFs was Jean-Pierre Jabouille, who raced in the late 1970s and 80s. While some of these drivers have had success, only one, Jochen Rindt, was a world champion.
Driver-Fault DNFs
Top 25 Drivers with Driver-Fault DNFs
Many of the DNFs that occur in Formula One are due to engine failures and other types of mechanical failures, but sometimes drivers can be blamed for the DNFs. Crashes, Accidents, and Collisions are just some of the reasons for DNF that can be caused by driver error. Interestingly the drivers were different from the average DNFs. There are some more modern and famous names in the list, including David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Nelson Piquet, Ralf Schumacher, Jenson Button, Roman Grosjean, and Martin Brundle. Generally, these drivers pushed the boundaries on driving, which led to on-track incidents.
Hybrid Era Analysis
In 2014 Formula One went through a huge change. They changed from the V8 engine to the turbocharged V6 power unit shaking up the constructors and drivers. Since then, there has been Mercedes dominance as they have been the leader in power unit creation.
Drivers Analysis
Drivers Analysis in the Hybrid Era
This graph shows the Mercedes dominance as the top two drivers both drove for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton has dominated the Hybrid Era as he has over 47 more race wins than his next closest competitor. When it comes to pole sitters, the chart again shows Mercedes dominance as the top three drivers are all from Mercedes.
Hybrid Era DNFs Analysis
Hybrid Era DNFs Analysis
When analyzing the Hybrid Era DNFs at the top of the list is Romain Grosjean. Grosjean was known to get in many accidents throughout his time in Formula One. This included a scary crash in 2020 where he lost control and went through a safety barrier. Another big issue in the Hybrid Era is the reliability of the power units. There have been many races where the power unit failed, causing a DNF. This is shown in the second chart, and interestingly Toro Rosso has the most amount. This could be because of the multiple different power unit providers they have used during the hybrid era.
Conclusion
When analyzing Formula One data the goal of this report was to show and explain some facts that are not always thought about. Analyzing the locations of races, trends, most successful countries, DNFs, and the Hybrid Era combined together to create a cohesive report on Formula One. The report found new trends and analysis that can hopefully be added to the dicussion of Formula One.