8 replies to this topic

[Graham Clayton]

Here's a question for all of the statisticians:

Which driver holds the record for the most F1
WC Grand Prix races without retiring, either
due to mechanical failure or an accident?

For the purposes of the question, I consider
a "non-classification" due to insufficient laps
as NOT being a retirement

[fines]

Surely Alain Prost!?

[LittleChris]

I'd have thought Carlos Reutemann would be a good candidate in the early 80's.

[david_martin]

The longest runs of classified finishes I could find was 17, shared by Ayrton Senna from Mexico '88 through to Mexico '89, and Niki Lauda from Monaco '75 through to Sweden '76.

[Timekeeper]

Reutemann record was that he finished in the points in 15 G.Ps in a row from the 1980 Belgian GP to the 81 Belgian GP. That was certainly a record at the time and I suspect it still is. All but two of these were podium finishes. During that period there were also the two races that were declared non championship races. The 81 South African race which Lole won and the 80 Spanish GP which he was leading when he was taken out by Laffite.

[Marcel Schot]

The way I read the question, it's about drivers who never in their F1 career retired. Tricky bit : is not qualifying retiring or not?;)

In case not qualifying is not retiring, the record is shared by Claudio Langes and Emilio de Villota. The former attempted unsuccessfully to get through pre-qualifying 14 times with the Eurobrunn team in 1990, while the latter had his own thread in here 3 times not pre-qualified, 9 times not qualified and 2 finishes also put him on 14 F1 attempts without retirement.

In case not qualifying is regarded as a retirement, there's nothing interesting really. Either the driver got a decent number of races, eventually retiring at least once, or the driver never got past a few starts

[Richard Jenkins]

I may have interpreted the question wrongly but Cesare Perdisa was classified (sometimes shared drive) in all 7 of his GP's which menas he was classified as finishing ALL of his GP's - a record which still stands, some 4 GP's ahead of many others

[mhferrari]

I know its not a record, but Roger Penske finished both his 2 GPs.

[Prostfan]

South African driver Neville Lederle made championship every race he started it was only one but I think this is a record