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Formula 1 spends much time looking at the most successful drivers of all time, most successful drivers in a season and many other stats. So here at Formulanerds, we thought we’d take a look at the statistics, crunch the numbers, and reach a judgement as to the worst driver of the 2020 season (to make a fairer judgement we have not included Jack Aitken or Pietro Fittipaldi in these lists).
The worst qualifier award: This one in a million award goes to……… Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian had an average qualifying position of 18.88th on the grid – ouch.
In second place we have: Romain Grosjean, with an average a position of 17.00 on a Saturday
And taking the Bronze medal: Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. In a spectacular tie for third, both these drivers averaged a position of 16.88. Could be better, could be worse.
Of course we have to mention the best qualifier of the season. Lewis Hamilton gets the nod with an average position of 1.69. Nice job Lewis.
The worse race results award: All the drivers aim to avoid this award, but someone has to win it, and this award also goes to Nicholas Latifi. The William’s driver’s average finishing position of 15.43 lands him at the back of the field.
Coming home in second: Kevin Magnussen. The Dane avoided the top spot but has the second worst position with an average of 14.73. Poor K-Mag
And third goes to: Romain Grosjean. An average finishing position of 14.67 means he sits just above his teammate, earning him the bronze medal.
Needless to say, Lewis Hamilton takes the best race result with an average position of 1.88. Well done Sir Lewis once again.
Most DNF’s of the year: While it’s not an award anyone wants, it is one we’ve given out anyway. The driver with the most DNF’s of the season was Kevin Magnussen, 6 DNF’s saw Kevin at the top of the list, but his DNF in Monza led us to arguably the greatest race of the season, so we’ll let him off.
Silver medal: Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll. These drivers tie for second with 5 DNF’s each. Interesting fact for fact-fans: Max was a DNF in every race in Italy this year.
And the final podium place: George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon.Yet another tie sees these 3 share the bronze medal with 4 DNF’s a piece, top stuff.
Special mention to Lewis Hamilton here, who was the only driver to finish every single race of the campaign (aside from the one he missed due to COVID-19), top marks to him and the Mercedes engine for its consistency.
These are the three main categories we will use to judge the worst driver of 2020, and on ability alone we have to give the award to Nicholas Latifi but an honorary mention must go to K-Mag both for his poor results but also dreadful reliability meaning he finished on the leaderboard in 2 out of 3 of our categories. Lewis Hamilton was of course statically the best in every category, a true GOAT.
image: F1.com
info: statsf1.com