The two Formula 1 drivers who were born on Christmas

Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio holds the record for being the oldest world champion driver in the category, having sealed his fifth title at the age of 46 years and 41 days at the 1957 German Grand Prix (GP number 62).

In an event unthinkable today, during the weekend of the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix (GP number 58) Peter Collins got to drive four different cars. In free practice he drove a Cooper T43, a Ferrari Dino 156 and a Lancia-Ferrari D50. However, in the race he drove a Lancia-Ferrari 801.

When the Indianapolis 500 was part of the F1 calendar, American Jim Rathmann pulled off the biggest comeback in F1 history from start to finish, climbing from 32nd to second in the race. 1957 edition (GP number 59 of the world championship).

The 1973 Monaco Grand Prix (GP number 226) is the only race in the history of the world championship in which the result of the top six then corresponded in the same order as that year’s championship. Stewart won in the principality followed by Fittipaldi, Peterson, Cévert, Revson and Hulme, just as they finished in the world championship.

On October 6, 1973, François Cévert died on the track during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix (GP number 235). Cévert was regarded as a possible future world champion and was destined to pick up the rest at Tyrrell from Sir Jackie Stewart. Interestingly, on the same date, but 12 years later, France finally had its first world champion, when in the European Grand Prix (GP number 418), at Brands Hatch, “the professor” Alain Prost was consecrated.

The 1985 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami (GP number 419) was the last time a world championship race was run on a Saturday. It is a race also remembered for having been held in a climate of maximum social and political tension in the country due to racial segregation, which led to the non-participation of some teams, drivers and sponsors.

In 1993, driver Marco Apicella contested his only race with the Jordan team at Monza (GP number 545). After qualifying 23rd, he suffered an incident in the first corner, which ended his career in F1, after just 800 meters covered.

Michael Schumacher is the driver who has spent the most consecutive days as reigning world champion: a total of 1,813 days from October 8, 2000 (Japanese Grand Prix, his third title, GP number 662) to October 25. September 2005 (Brazilian Grand Prix, when Alonso won his world championship, in GP number 748).

The 2001 Brazilian Grand Prix (GP number 666) was the first time in history that two brothers occupied the front row of the starting grid with Michael and Ralf Schumacher first and second. Before that, at the 1998 Italian Grand Prix (GP number 628), for the first time they were on the podium together, something that would happen on another 15 occasions, including three times first and second, something they achieved for the first time in Canada. 2001 (GP number 671).

Sebastian Vettel has several historical records, but also an unfortunate one, such as the one suffered in the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix (GP number 764), when as a tester for BMW Sauber, leaving the garage in his first test in a weekend of Grand Prix, he forgot to press the speed limiter button, overtaking it and suffering the fastest penalty in the career of a driver in the highest category.

The 2004 Canadian Grand Prix (GP number 721) is the race with the highest number of disqualifications in world championship history. The two Williams cars of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, as well as the two Toyotas of Cristiano Da Matta and Olvier Panis, were excluded for having illegal brake cooling ducts. All but Panis had finished in the points. Interestingly, Montoya would suffer a second consecutive disqualification at Indianapolis a week later for using the team’s third car after the time allowed before the race. Curiously, they did not sanction him until after more than 50 laps.

The 2011 Canadian Grand Prix (GP number 846) holds two curious marks: the first is the world championship race in which the Safety Car has appeared the most times (6) and also, the race with the longest time to complete , since more than 4 hours passed until the checkered flag. In addition, winner Jenson Button overtook Sebastian Vettel in his McLaren on the final lap.

In 2011, two curiosities were presented, unique in the history of the world championship to date, in which a pilot was sanctioned before, during and after the race. It first happened to Lewis Hamilton at the Monaco Grand Prix (GP number 845) where his best qualifying time was erased, then he was sanctioned in the race for an incident with Felipe Massa and then he was penalized 20 seconds for an accident with Pastor Maldonado .

Curiously, the Venezuelan went through something similar to Hamilton in Abu Dhabi in that same year 2011 (GP number 857): 10 places on the grid for an engine change, a stop and go in the race for ignoring blue flags, and then 30 seconds running for the same reason.

The 2013 Australian GP (GP number 885) had the great coincidence of having a driver who had a world championship on the podium as the winner, a two-time champion as second and a three-time champion at that time as third.

Lewis Hamilton has many records to his name, but he is also the driver with the most wins in a season, ten in 2016, without having won the championship, which he lost to Nico Rosberg, who had one less victory than him that year.

The 2018 Formula 1 season was the first in history in which all drivers starting in Australia made it to the last race, with no changes to team line-ups.