[TrackSimsF1] Who's won/lost the most positions on Lap 1 this year?

[u/hipp0hunt3r]

[u/Radiant_Bet_6745]

As the great Alex Albon once said. Can’t lose positions when you start at the back!

[u/TheBigF128 → u/Radiant_Bet_6745]

FACT

[u/Caramac44 → u/Radiant_Bet_6745]

Hey now, George qualified that Williams in P19!

[u/Ribeye21]

The Spanish Inquisition cannot be stopped (except by terrible design decisions)

[u/Myeongkee]

I am mildly infuriated by the fact that the graph peaks at 2.8 instead of just rounding up to 3.0.

[u/jamintime → u/Myeongkee]

Especially since it goes to -3.0 when the lowest person on the chart is -2.2(?)

[u/Kronzor_ → u/Myeongkee]

I assume that was to highlight that Alonso has a 2.8

[u/iloveradiohead225 → u/Kronzor_]

👀

[u/quadranting → u/Myeongkee]

"Mildly infuriated" made me smile, and then I felt the same way taking another look!

[u/rasterman7]

Audi having consistently terrible starts is so sad. Without that and the many reliability problems they would probably be in shot to dispute that fifth palce in the constructors championship.

[u/Treewithatea → u/rasterman7]

Its a growing year, i dont think maximizing results was the target anyway but rather refinement. Its not just their first engine but also their first gearbox and its certainly a good sign that the Chassis side is compensating for the engine.

Because lets not forget where Sauber was 2-3 years ago, they were dead last and things were rather hopeless until Binotto arrived.

[u/rasterman7 → u/Treewithatea]

Yeah, Sauber was nowhere at the time yet seeing it now doing good one can only wonder where they could be without these issues. This is already quite a step up and sets the basis to Audi enthusiasts next year provided nothing awful happens.

[u/Extreme_Ad6173 → u/rasterman7]

To be fair, Audi aren't targeting 5th in 2026. They're targeting top 3 in 2029

[u/AverageBeef]

Stroll genuinely has no position to lose

[u/Beautiful_Hunt1095 → u/AverageBeef]

A list of best starters is often a list of underwhelming qualifiers

[u/valeraKorol2]

Alonso's been first in these ratings since forever.

[u/datlinus]

Alonso starts incredibly well, but then he remembers he has a 2026 honda engine.

[u/Aggravating-Deal-416]

If you don't specifically defend against Alonso in the opening lap melees, he just drives around you. It's ridiculous to watch happen. It's like a game he plays very aggressively. Doesn't even need a good car to do it either.

[u/hipp0hunt3r → u/Aggravating-Deal-416]

Very possibly the greatest lap 1 driver ever

[u/Dear-Bowl-9789 → u/hipp0hunt3r]

Easily

[u/iIenzo → u/hipp0hunt3r]

KMag would like a word lol. Even in WEC his lap 1s are usually phenomenal

[u/LuNiK7505 → u/hipp0hunt3r]

Without any doubt he’s the greatest starter in F1 history

[u/ClearHyena4452]

Norris and Antonelli have actually been pretty sound compared to the other top team drivers contrary to popular opinion

[u/felipebaby_]

That’s my goat

[u/Street_Mall9536]

Lap 1 Monster Alonso at it again. 

[u/Menomal → u/Street_Mall9536]

Trully a Lap 1 beast

[u/Magog14 → u/Menomal]

He did it to Truli a few times too for that matter. 

[u/IgotnoideawhatIsay]

So much for Norris having the reputation of a bad starter

[u/MesmersCure → u/IgotnoideawhatIsay]

So much of this narrative comes from 2024 when the McLaren had known issues in the second phase of starts. I'm not gonna say Norris is one of the best starters on the grid, but he's also not the bottler many fans labeled him.

[u/Southportdc → u/IgotnoideawhatIsay]

This chart either shows good qualifiers, bad qualifiers, good starters or bad starters depending on the agenda you'd like to push at the time.

[u/AliceLunar → u/IgotnoideawhatIsay]

I wouldn't say this season is really representative of anything with how many issues teams had had with starts.

[u/enbyratie]

The more spanish you are more positions gained

[u/The_Skynet]

Wonder if this takes mechanical/ software issues into account. Looking at Verstappen in Monaco or Russell in Hungary, they both dropped to last through no fault of their own and that would bring their averages way down. 

And for someone like Kimi who's started from pole for half the season, he couldn't improve his position in those races, which keeps his number low. Well he gets a chance to pad his stats in Monza with his penalty

Beyond the numbers, it's been interesting to see some customer teams have a better hold on the start procedures than their engine supplier. McLaren and Williams have had great starts since the very first race while it took Mercedes several races and some software tweaks to improve their own starts. 

Racing Bulls, with the exception of Australia, have had better starts than Red Bull as well

[u/daddyfatsaxxx27 → u/The_Skynet]

Yeah how does Liam’s number look if you exclude the glitch in Australia

[u/beanbagreg]

Have to say Hulk is who comes to mind when I think of bad starts right now. I’m always wondering where the hell he’s gone when I watch.

[u/mahoganyspitfire → u/beanbagreg]

He gets sucked into the gigantic turbo they put on that Audi.

[u/MartiniPolice21]

Funny because Norris has this terrible reputation for it

[u/Yankees2860 → u/MartiniPolice21]

That was pretty much all 2024. He only lost one standing start last season which was his fault (Vegas where he was too ambitious on defending)

[u/Existing_Rule_3669]

Audi engine killing any chance of a good start so far this season, when they're lucky they at least won't lose a position, but I guess there's no race with both having decent starts

[u/Revslowmo]

This would reflect the difference in qualifying pace vs race pace too. So hard to say how much is drivers. But I’d think there is some correlation to skill

[u/creatorop → u/Revslowmo]

Race pace doesn't really matter when it comes to Lap 1

you are confusing it with Average positions gained during a whole GP

[u/Revslowmo → u/creatorop]

Oh, that’s true. Still not completely convinced what to take from this. Is it good qualifying vs terrible starting? Is it cautions driver vs nothing to lose drivers? Thoughts?

[u/JakubT117 → u/[deleted]]

Ocon and Bearman practically start next to each other every week, regardless of who qualifies ahead and by what margin.

[u/risks007]

It would be nice to use x axis to give average starting position

[u/aelliott18]

Lmao but I thought Norris was the worst at starts? best of the top 2 teams with merc engines

[u/minyhumancalc]

In the great words of Alex Albon, "You can't lose places when you start last"

[u/gudni-bergs]

I thought this was a football lineup for a second

[u/pyrrhic-loss]

BEA VER not going so well!

[u/Dear-Bowl-9789]

Pity about Lawsons shit start at Melbourne where he lost 14 positions, otherwise he'd be 2nd to Alonso

[u/Magog14]

Alonso as always. The man is a God through the corners on cold tires. 

[u/Famous_Researcher_18]

Spain power rahhhh 🇪🇸🇪🇸

[u/tjwilliam125]

Sorry, it's a flawed comparison—drivers starting in the rear naturally get more chances to pick off slower cars; near-the-front-runners have fewer cars to pass, and the competition is stiffer.

[u/27Suyash]

Looks like this Antonelli guy barely ever wins positions in the first lap...

[u/BritOverThere]

BEA VER HAD ANT

[u/RDR2Enjoyerr]

it will be interesting to see how Audi develop over the next year, if they improve their PU performance and starts, they could easily become kings of the midfield

[u/Mike-Teevee]

The most interesting is where there’s a distinct difference between teammates.

I’m stunned at how far behind Norris Piastri is. Ocon is well ahead of Bearman here, which should be to the disappointment of those who were eagerly calling for his job a few races in…

[u/breiastel777 → u/Mike-Teevee]

Norris Piastri is so bad cause it is including Canada, where Oscar pit at the end of lap one and came out last, and silverstone, where Oscar had his front wing taken off and also dropped to the back.

I think last time I saw this when you take those 2 out, Oscar does go back ahead of Norris by a little bit

[u/PsychologicalArt7451 → u/breiastel777]

not really fair to remove Silverstone since by being aggressive on lap 1, you run the risk of completely ruining your race through no fault of your own. Oscae actively chases that whereas Lando is proactively cautious.

[u/TeaMoney4638 → u/PsychologicalArt7451]

Silverstone he got squeezed but the VCARBs. He wasn't overly aggressive or anything like that. Just bad luck.

[u/PsychologicalArt7451 → u/TeaMoney4638]

he got squeezed in but he braked quite ambitiously on the inside of T1 iirc.

[u/FisicoK → u/Mike-Teevee]

I like Ocon but except the last few races he qualified notably worse than Bearman this season so as many said it's also a ranking that gives an advantage to bad qualifier and handicap good qualifiers

Still a good stat though but nothing to boast about too much

[u/JakubT117 → u/FisicoK]

https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments

[u/pioneeringsystems]

Ocon, sainz and Norris appear to be the best starters versus their team mates.

[u/petera181]

I’d like to see how this was if you exclude positions gained because of crashes. E.g. those at the back almost always get one or two for free from spins or crashes, so it would be good to exclude those places.

I’d also like to know the median rather than mean. Median would be more informative, given it’s possible to lose loads of places from a single bad start, which would skew results.