As part of our ongoing series looking at the numbers behind the 2008 Formula 1 season, we’re moving on to retirement statistics. A table, and a couple of pretty pie charts, lead us to some startling conclusions about how the teams performed throughout the year.
The table is available to view here, and I’ve decided not to include it in the blog post itself as it lends itself better to the spreadsheet environment.
It’s a running joke in almost every single conversation about Formula 1 that Mark Webber is the unluckiest man on the grid. If he’s leading a race, his engine will blow up. If he’s in front of his home crowd, he will spin off spectacularly. If he needs the points, he’ll have someone crash into the back of him. If it’s just a regular day, his gearbox will fail.
My heart goes out to the guy, but I’ve been doing some thinking. It seems to me that he has made the biggest mistake of his life by joining Red Bull. The unluckiest man in F1, joining the unluckiest team?
Let’s discuss.
First, I’d like to wow you with some facts and figures.
In 2005, running two cars, RBR suffered 9 retirements. In 2006, it was 12. In 2007, it was up to 14. One race in to 2008 and they’ve already notched up 2. (Yes, alright so did a lot of teams, but stay with me, here.)
Sister team Toro Rosso had 8 retirements in 2006, 17 the following year and 1 so far this year.
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