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The most inspired teams - rookie drivers
Formula One facts and figures

The most inspired teams - rookie drivers

i About facts-figure section.

Every season, drivers debut in Formula 1, but how inspired are the teams' choices regarding debutants.

Some debut for a team and then perform for other teams and others stay with the same team. For example, Sebastian Vettel debuts at BMW Sauber but performs for McLaren, and Jim Clark spends 9 seasons at Lotus.

Which team made the best choices when they chose the debutants? To make a test we will generate reports for each pilot, but we will attribute all performances to the team he debuted with. Even if Vettel had only one race for BMW Sauber, replacing Kubica after the accident in Canada, in this case we will add four drivers' championship titles to BMW Sauber.

Rookies

38Lotus
28Kurtis
23Minardi
23Cooper
19Williams
19Ferrari
17Brabham
17Gordini
15McLaren
15Tyrrell

Entrances

1923Williams
1815Lotus
1510Minardi
1325Jordan
1300Sauber
1145McLaren
954Tyrrell
848Toro Rosso
589Ferrari
530Shadow

Victories

171McLaren
126Lotus
112Jordan
81Williams
54BMW Sauber
46Minardi
44Sauber
41Toleman
38Toro Rosso
33Owen Racing Organisation

Pole positions

144McLaren
138Lotus
100Williams
88Jordan
68Toleman
58BMW Sauber
55Sauber
43Minardi
35Alfa Romeo
25March

Front row start

283McLaren
230Lotus
227Williams
175Jordan
114Sauber
105BMW Sauber
101Minardi
91Toleman
63Brabham
63Ferrari

In points

866Williams
686Sauber
594McLaren
535Jordan
521Lotus
518Minardi
400Toro Rosso
266BMW Sauber
237Tyrrell
191Ferrari

Points

6809.50Williams
6229.00McLaren
5329.00Sauber
3730.00Minardi
3643.00Toro Rosso
3374.00BMW Sauber
2854.00Jordan
2435.00Lotus
1340.00HRT
805.50Tyrrell

Podiums

353McLaren
302Williams
284Lotus
281Jordan
213Sauber
180Minardi
134BMW Sauber
101Toro Rosso
100Ferrari
99Tyrrell

Champions

12McLarenAlain Prost, Jody Scheckter, Lewis Hamilton
11LotusEmerson Fittipaldi, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Mario Andretti, Mika Hakkinen, Nigel Mansell
7JordanMichael Schumacher
6Alfa RomeoGiuseppe Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio
4BMW SauberSebastian Vettel
3CooperJack Brabham
3EnsignNelson Piquet
3MarchNiki Lauda
3WilliamsJacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg
3TolemanAyrton Senna
3Owen Racing OrganisationJackie Stewart
2BrabhamDamon Hill, Denny Hulme
2Toro RossoMax Verstappen
2MinardiFernando Alonso
2FerrariAlberto Ascari
1Ecurie BonnierPhil Hill
1Harry Stiller RacingAlan Jones
1Rob Walker RacingJochen Rindt
1Leslie HawthornMike Hawthorn
1TheodoreKeke Rosberg
1SauberKimi Raikkonen
1HeskethJames Hunt

Lotus is first in the number of rookie drivers and second in the number of future champions: Graham Hill, John Surtess, Jim Clark, Marion Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen, of whom Jim Clark stayed with Lotus all career winning twice the title of drivers' champion and contributing in the two seasons to the title of constructors' champion.

Williams occupies first place in the number of participations, races finished in points and total points collected in Formula 1, helped by 7 drivers with over 100 participations. It is present in the top 10 in all categories.

McLaren is in first place in the rest of the rankings. In terms of championships won by drivers, they were propelled to first place by choosing to debut with Lewis Hamilton(7), Alain Prost(4) and Jody Scheckter(1).

Minardi is a team present in all categories in the top 10 except world champions. It should be mentioned that Fernando Alonso made his debut at Minardi in 2001, who would win the championship in 2005 and 2006 at Renault.

We have several teams where a future champion made his debut but they failed to win a single race: Theodore, Sauber, Leslie Hawthorn, Harry Stiller Racing, Ecurie Bonnier, Minardi, Toleman and Ensign.

Ferrari, although a long-lived team in Formula1 is missing from many tops, it seems that the 19 drivers who debuted did not really help the team from this point of view. They are present at the championships won with two by Ascari who obviously debuted for Ferrari at the first race in 1950. The last driver who debuted with Ferrari is Arturo Merzario in 1972, this explains why an old team with presence every season doesn't really is present in this tops.


If we were to choose a podium with the teams that were the most inspired to debut drivers, they would be in alphabetical order Lotus, McLaren and Williams, teams present in the top 10 of all rankings.

It seems that McLaren was the best choice to debut drivers in Formula 1, being in the top 3 in all categories except the number of debutants and participations, but the rest of the categories brought performances including champion titles. The first driver to debut for McLaren was Peter Gethin, at Zandvoort in their 5th F1 season. In the same season, Nanni Galli also debuted for McLaren.

Among the other two teams constantly present in the top 10, we will put Lotus in 2nd place, considering the 11 titles brought compared to 3 for Williams. Besides these, Lotus is above Williams in terms of victories, pole position and front row starts

About facts-figures section

All the articles in this section follow the statistical data.

In this section, I'm just trying to find some pattern from a statistical point of view compared to the results from Formula1.