Alonso set the record for the longest time elapsed between his first Formula 1 race and his last at the Azerbaijan GP. Specifically, it has been 21 years, 3 months and 1 day, 341 races, that have passed between that historic 2001 Australian GP and the Baku event.
Thus, Alonso left behind Michael Schumacher , previous holder of the record, but… what other drivers are among the first places in that statistic? We review them below.
The drivers with the longest races in Formula 1
| Pilot | Time between first and last run |
first race in F1 |
last race in F1 |
|
| 1 | Fernando Alonso | 21 years, 3 months and 1 day |
Australian GP 2001 |
Azerbaijan GP 2022 |
| two | Michael Schumacher | 21 years and 3 months | Belgian GP 1991 | Brazil GP 2012 |
| 3 |
Kimi raikkonen |
20 years 9 months and 8 days | Australian GP 2001 | Abu Dhabi GP 2021 |
| 4 | Rubens Barrichello | 18 years, 8 months and 13 days | South African GP 1993 | Brazil GP 2011 |
| 5 | Jenson Button | 17 years, 2 months and 16 days | 2000 Australian GP | Monaco Grand Prix 2017 |
| 6 | Graham Hill | 16 years, 8 months and 8 days | Monaco GP 1958 | GP Brazil 1975 |
| 7 | Riccardo Patrese | 16 years, 5 months and 16 days | Monaco GP 1977 | Australian GP 1993 |
| 8 | Luca Bador | 16 years, 5 months and 16 days | South African GP 1993 | Belgian GP 2009 |
| 9 | Philip Massa | 15 years, 8 months and 23 days | 2002 Australian GP | Abu Dhabi GP 2017 |
| 10 | Jack Brabham | 15 years, 3 months and 9 days | Great Britain GP 1955 | Mexican GP 1970 |
| eleven | Lewis Hamilton | 15 years, 2 months and 25 days | Australian GP 2007 | Azerbaijan GP 2022 |
| 12 | Robert Kubica | 15 years, 1 month and 6 days | Hungarian GP 2006 | Italian GP 2021 |
| 13 | Jo Bonnier | 15 years, 1 month and 1 day | Italian GP 1956 | United States GP 1971 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | 14 years 11 months 26 days | United States GP 2007 | Azerbaijan GP 2022 |
| fifteen | Nigel Mansell | 14 years 8 months and 27 days | Austrian GP 1980 | GP Spain 1995 |
A clear aspect can be seen in the table: the top five drivers started or finished their career in the 2000s, which reveals that in the modern era of Formula 1 the careers are longer because they usually start earlier.
In fact, in addition to Alonso, there are two other active drivers in this top 15, and although the stage of at least one of them seems to be nearing its end, both ( Vettel and Hamilton ) will continue adding time until at least November 2022 , so both will finish in the top 10 drivers with the most days between their first and last race.
