Pole Sitters in Formula One History, & their
Pole-Position⁄Grand-Prix Ratios 

 

The numbers on the All-time Pole-Positions Table reflect a simple collection of results; that is, they bear an absolute character.

You may enjoy seeing, in addition, some related relative statistics—i.e., the percentage of Pole Positions obtained per Grand Prix raced—at a similar page on an excellent site that I have recently come across (Stats F1—the site is in French, an English language version being available, too).

 

An All-Time Pole Sitter's list, ordered according to the ratio provided at Stats F1, would be headed by Juan-Manuel Fangio (approx. 57%), followed by Jim Clark (approx. 46%), Alberto Ascari (approx. 44%), and Ayrton Senna (approx. 40.5%).

Albeit relatively still quite high (approx. 27.5%), Michael Schumacher's ratio looks quite modest, in contrast with the absolute figures appearing on the All-time Pole-Positions table.

The seven-time World Champion's ratio, however, suffices to maintain him ahead of most other fellow World Champions: 
  • Stirling Moss, not a World Champion, though a true legend, runner-up from 1955 to 1958, is the F1 driver whose ratio comes the closest to Michael Schumacher's (approx. 24.5%).
  • The other World Champions all exhibit ratios below the 20% mark: Damon Hill tops the list, followed by fellow-Briton Nigel Mansel, then current (2006) World Champion Fernando Alonso, and Jackie Stewart, all within a 17%-18% Pole-Position⁄Grand-Prix ratio, in decreasing order.
  • Within the 16%-17% mark we find Jochen Rindt, Allan Prost, and Mika Hakinen, again in decreasing order. James Hunt and Giuseppe Farina fare just above the 15% mark, whereas Mario Andretti and Niki Lauda, just below.
  • Phil Hill and Nelson Piquet, in turn, rate just above and below the 12% mark, respectively, whereas John Surtees (approx. 10.5%) and Graham Hill (approx. 7.5%) are even farther from the outstanding Fangio-Ascari-Senna leading trio.

Despite their undeniable utility, numbers and statistics may require the assistance of factual and contextual information, in order to make full sense.
  • Take, for example, Jacques Villeneuve (a mere 7.98% ratio), or double-Champion Emerson Fittipaldi (a yet slimmer 4.17% ratio), both Indy-500 Winners and both very competitive F1 racers—that is, while they raced in teams in which that competitive driving could naturally be translated into results.
  • But both chose to support starting teams, when at the very apex of their careers (Fittipaldi actually attempting to build and finance his own team from scratch, along with his brother Wilson, also an F1 racer).
  • The many years in a cockpit that did little justice to their driving skills and competitiveness are of course reflected in the meager Pole-Position⁄Grand-Prix ratio figure that goes down in history both for the junior Villeneuve and for the senior Fittipaldi.
  • J.Villeneuve & E.Fittipaldi are of course mentioned to illustrate a point. There have been other more, or less, related situations in F1 history. Can you remember Damon Hill driving a Jordan? (in which team he actually managed a win!...though no poles) And then sitting in an Arrows?!... What would Damon Hill's Pole-Position⁄Grand-Prix ratio have been (instead of his 17.39%), had he remained in a top team?...

Under this same light, one may take a second glimpse at Michael Schumacher's 27.31% ratio, as provided at Stats F1.
  • Like Emerson Fittipaldi, Schumacher, too, took a sharp turn in his career, as he became double-World Champion—the difference, of course, being that Michael Schumacher poured his energies into the most traditional F1 team, where no funding or technical challenges would undermine his efforts.
  • At Ferrari, it was rather a matter of when, not if, even though the Scuderia had indeed slipped into an unsuccessful kind of rut, which had thus far posed a true challenge to those attempting to move the Team beyond that unfortunate status quo, and back to their victorious days.
  • The few years that Michael Schumacher invested in leading the Scuderia to live up to their name and tradition must of course have diluted his Pole-Position⁄Grand-Prix ratio, even if not as extensively as it must have been the case with Emerson Fittipaldi, or Jacques Villeneuve.
  • It is thus reasonable to imagine that, without those special 'investing seasons' at Ferrari, Michael Schumacher's Pole-Position⁄Grand-Prix ratio would have had a shorter gap to the impressive figures exhibited by the leading Fangio-Ascari-Senna trio.

By the same token, Jochen Rindt's, Ayrton Senna's and Jim Clark's ratios, for example, would very likely have been yet more impressive, had their F1 driving careers not been so tragically abbreviated.