29 completely true F1 stats that seem like lies

Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Stats

29 completely true F1 stats that seem like lies

We've checked them all, honestly!

Chris Deeley

Tuesday 7 April 2026 12:57

Right, we're not going to mess you around with a long intro here before you're let loose on the good stuff - we have 29 absolutely wild (but true) F1 stats.

You know why you're here. You clicked the link. It's not a difficult concept to grasp.

Everything you're about to read is, somehow, true.

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F1 stats which seem like lies, but are actually true

Kimi Antonelli (26 races) has more career points than 10 different F1 champions.

After three seasons in F1, Oscar Piastri had more points in his career than four-time champion Alain Prost.

In 1989, Ferrari started 30 races, retired from 19 of them, were disqualified from two more, and then finished on the podium for the other nine.

Andrea de Cesaris once went 18 races in a row without getting to the finish line. He then finished eighth in Mexico, and embarked on a new 22-race streak - including the entire 1987 season - of failing to finish.

De Cesaris still finished the 1987 season with more points than 17 other drivers who started races that year (including Martin Brundle), because when he retired from the Belgian Grand Prix on the final lap while in third place, everyone behind him was a lap down. That meant that he was, despite not finishing, classified ahead of them.

Nico Hulkenberg has more F1 points than Ayrton Senna.

Alex Albon’s 2025 point total would’ve seen him finish three points behind the champion in 1999. He didn't finish a race better than fifth all year.

If Antonelli wins in Miami, he’ll be in the top 50 points scorers in F1 history.

Despite racing in an era when race winners were only awarded eight points, Juan Manuel Fangio is top-15 in F1 history in points per race (5.44).

Michael Schumacher does not feature in that top 15.

Lance Stroll has scored more points per race in his career than five F1 world champions.

One of Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve was on the podium for 16 out of 17 races in 1997. However, not once were they both on the podium at the same race, finishing with eight podiums apiece.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished that 17-race season second in the championship...with 42 points.

Lewis Hamilton has more than eight times as many career points as Ayrton Senna.

Before Kimi Antonelli won in China this year, 89 races had been won by a German driver in an Italian car – but no races had been won by an Italian in a German car.

Stirling Moss won the 1958 Portuguese Grand Prix by five minutes and 12 seconds. If someone had done that at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix, they would've lapped the second placed driver four times.

The top three drivers in 1997 European Grand Prix qualifying (Villeneuve, Schumacher and Frentzen) all posted the exact same fastest lap time, measured down to a thousandth of a second.

Daniel Ricciardo has the 10th most race starts of any driver in the sport's history, despite driving just 11 complete seasons.

Valtteri Bottas (1,797) has more points than all but five drivers in the history of the sport.

Bottas has 231 more points than seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

11 drivers in F1 history have crossed the finish line first, but not won the race. Eight of those 11 are world champions.

The most positions ever gained in a single grand prix is 30, after Jim Rathmann finished second at the 1957 Indianapolis Grand Prix (aka the Indy 500) from 32nd on the grid.

The Indy 500 was an F1 championship race from 1950 to 1960.

Max Verstappen is the only F1 champion to score more than double the points of the second placed driver.

He did so by taking 92.74% of the maximum available points – a record, smashing Michael Schumacher's 84.71% in 2002.

All 14 drivers to complete multiple weekend grand slams (pole, fastest lap, and win after leading every lap) are world champions.

Lewis Hamilton has more than double the points of all but two drivers in the history of F1.

Lance Stroll has more career points than 51% of F1 champions.

Despite famously coming down to the final lap in Abu Dhabi, 29 out of 76 seasons have been decided by closer points margins than Max Verstappen's 2021 triumph.

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F1 Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Michael Schumacher Ayrton Senna Alain Prost