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The 2006 F1 season was a 2-way race. Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher battled it out for the Drivers' Championship and Renault and Ferrari battled it out for the Constructors, no other driver or team was close and the numbers for the season show that clearly!

Alonso won 7 times, finished 2nd 7 times, finished 5th twice and dnf'd twice scoring 134 points.
Schumacher won 7 times, finished 2nd 4 times, finished 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th once each and dnf'd twice scoring 121 points.

Alonso started from Pole 6 times while Schumacher started 4 times
Schumacher started 5 times from 2nd on the grid, Alonso none!
Schumacher had 7 fastest laps while Alonso had 5
Alonso finished on the podium 14 times while Schumacher was on the podium 12 times
Alonso led 463 laps while Schumacher led for 366 laps.
Alonso raced 5,339 kms while Schumacher raced 5,236!

Looking at the team numbers, it is even closer,

Ferrari won 9 races while Renault won 8. Honda was the only other team to win a race.
Both Renault and Ferrari started from Pole 7 times!
Ferrari had 9 fastest laps while Renault had 5
Both Renault and Ferrari had 19 podium finishes!
Both Renault and Ferrari led 520 laps!
Renault raced 10,397 kms while Ferrari raced 10,341!
It isn't surprising then that Renault won the title just 5 points ahead of Ferrari. Both were nearly double 3rd placed team McLaren.
We can clearly say that in 2006 two teams dominated.

Some other interesting numbers for the season:

Of the drivers who competed in all 18 races, Rosberg and Webber raced the least with 3,214 kms and 3,295 kms respectively. Albers was 3rd having raced 3,981 kms.
Williams raced the least with just 6,509 kms. The new Super Aguri was second after managing to race 7,161 kms while McLaren were 3rd with 8,168 kms.


Drivers consistent in their finishing positions (this could help in 8 'n' Pole!):

Alonso and Schumacher - Winner - 7 times
Alonso - Second - 7 times
Fisichella and Raikkonen - Third - 4 times
Button - Fourth - 5 times
Raikkonen - Fifth - 5 times
Fisichella - Sixth - 6 times
Heidfeld - Seventh - 4 times
Heidfeld - Eighth - 4 times.

They are some amazing statistics!!!

You can definitely see why Alonso won but only by a few points. Funny but I don't think I ever picked Heidfeld in my top 8 but when I look at the numbers, I wonder why I didn't. Oh well, hindsight is a great thing.

Thanks for the informative thread ED.

Good stats Ed, thanks.

I was surprised to see Raikkonen consistently finishing 5th and Fisichella consistently finishing 6th.

Also Renault and Ferrari having led the exact number of laps (520) and having the same number of podiums (19)!
Being just 56 kms apart in terms of total race kms shows the two teams were very reliable and their drivers very consistent.

Ed wrote:I was surprised to see Raikkonen consistently finishing 5th and Fisichella consistently finishing 6th.

Also Renault and Ferrari having led the exact number of laps (520) and having the same number of podiums (19)!
Being just 56 kms apart in terms of total race kms shows the two teams were very reliable and their drivers very consistent.

That means we'll have another close race in 2007. I only wish that McL were as reliable so that the race would become a 3-way tie.

With the new rules we will have more reliable cars. There will be no more development on the engines so the failures will be much lower.

So fingers crossed we could have a 3 or even a 4 way tie!

Interesting numbers

Alonso consistently 1st and 2nd, Fisichella consistently 6th
Kovalainen has a big job ahead of him!

But will these will work for 8 'n' Pole next year

Ed wrote:Of the drivers who competed in all 18 races, Rosberg and Webber raced the least with 3,214 kms and 3,295 kms respectively. Albers was 3rd having raced 3,981 kms.
Williams raced the least with just 6,509 kms. The new Super Aguri was second after managing to race 7,161 kms while McLaren were 3rd with 8,168 kms.

Portrait of shame: Williams were behind Super Aguri in total distance! 6500 kms translate to what, 20 full races? Out of 36 possible! Their reliability really suffered.

Here are some number on engine reliability. Below are two tables, the first counts the engine failures for each manufacturer only during a race while the second table adds to that the number of times a manufacturer had to make an unscheduled engine change. The latter is a more acurate measure of how reliable the engines are within the current regulations.

Table 1 - Only failures during the race.

Engine...... Failures.... Races....... Reliability Ratio
Ferrari...... 1.............. 72............ 98.61%
Renault..... 1.............. 36............ 97.22%
Toyota...... 2.............. 72............ 97.22%
Cosworth.. 2.............. 36............ 94.44%
Mercedes.. 2.............. 36............ 94.44%
BMW.........3.............. 36............ 91.67%
Honda...... 11.............72............84.72%

Table 2 - Failures during the race weekend (includes precautionary engine changes)
Engine...... Failures.....Races....... Reliability Ratio
Renault..... 1.............. 36............ 97.22%
Mercedes.. 2.............. 36............ 94.44%
Ferrari...... 7.............. 72............ 90.28%
Toyota...... 8.............. 72............ 88.89%
BMW.........5.............. 36............ 86.11%
Cosworth.. 5.............. 36............ 86.11%
Honda.......16.............72............77.78%

The figures for Renault are amazing. Just 1 engine failure all year!
The Mercedes engine is also impressive however on many occasions their engines only ran for 1 race due to retirement allowing the team to change engines without penalty. They had 13 dnfs compared to 4 dnfs by Renault.

Ferrari, Toyota and Honda each supplied their own teams plus another team (Red Bull, Spyker and Super Aguri respectively). Hence their numbers are double the others.

Very interesting stats. Thanks Ed.

I remember early this year some were raising doubts over the Renault V8 and how many failures they would have this year. Well, they turned out to the most reliable

This isn't too suprising really. 10 years ago they were dominant (1992 to 1997) and that is why Kovalianen may have the best chance of winning the title on debut since Jacques Villeneuve (that is if the McLaren is ultra unreliable )

JayVee wrote:I remember early this year some were raising doubts over the Renault V8 and how many failures they would have this year. Well, they turned out to the most reliable

This isn't too suprising really. 10 years ago they were dominant (1992 to 1997) and that is why Kovalianen may have the best chance of winning the title on debut since Jacques Villeneuve (that is if the McLaren is ultra unreliable )

Perhaps. Then again I cannot bring myself to discount Ferrari. They have a good reliability record as well. Plus in all honesty their drivers are the two wildest fellas around. If the car holds it'll be tough to compete against Kimi and Massa. Fisi just doesn't make the cut to become champion material. Kovalainen is a rookie after all, which means he will make mistakes under pressure. McL is a big question mark yet. And all the others... Well... Be as it may, I believe we'll have a much more exciting and colorful 2007 season.