There were no new winners in Formula 1 last year but we’ve already had two this season: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
But last year now looks like a blip in a sequence of seasons where several drivers have claimed their maiden victories. Carlos Sainz Jnr and George Russell did in 2022, it was Esteban Ocon’s turn the year before that, Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly broke through in 2020 and Charles Leclerc likewise in 2019.
As a result, F1’s 20-car grid is now packed with winners. Piastri’s victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix means 13 of the 20 drivers now have at least one win to their names.
This pushes F1 past the high of 12 seen at the end of 2022. In addition to the drivers who scored their first wins since 2019, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas were already race winners.
F1 has seen similarly strong fields in the past, albeit with larger grid sizes. In the lauded 2012 season finale at Interlagos 11 drivers had previously won races, albeit in a field of 24 cars.
Further back in F1 history, a handful of grids featured even more than 13 winners. That number was last reached at the penultimate race of 1980 in Montreal. Two rounds earlier at Zandvoort the grid included 14 winners on its 24-car grid.
Two years previously, the grid boasted its largest contingent of previous winners. This first happened in the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder, the sixth round of the championship.
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When the season began at Argentina’s Buenos Aires circuit in the middle of January, 13 of the 24-strong entry were prior winners. They included reigning champion Niki Lauda and fellow title winners James Hunt and Emerson Fittipaldi.
The other race winners when the season began included Lotus team mates Mario Andretti and Ronnie Peterson, who dominated that season. Ferrari’s Carlos Reutemann already had five wins to his name and ex-Ferrari driver Clay Regazzoni, now at Shadow, had four. Wolf’s Jody Scheckter had won seven times.
Other drivers had picked up sole wins with an array of different teams. Lauda’s Brabham team mate John Watson gave Penske their only win in 1976. ATS driver Jochen Mass scored the only win of his career for McLaren in grim circumstances the year before when the Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuich Park was cut short when a car was launched into the…
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