Did Formula One Improve in 2018? Part I

In this series, we look at F1 in 2018 and ask if it improved. Our general impression is that F1 was slightly more exciting in 2018 than in the immediately previous years. But the driver's champion didn't change and the constructor's champion probably won't change either, so we have to look deeper to see if this feeling is justified and why.

In this first installment, we look at the diversity of winners since that is a factor in how fans perceive the closeness of the competition. Of course, we only have data through the Mexican GP, so these could change.

Source: Getty Images

2018

• Different winners: 5 (Vettel, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Raikkonen)
• Percentage of races won by champion:  47%
• Percentage of races won by P2:  26%
• Percentage of races won by others:  26%
• Percentage of races won by constructors champion:  47% (assuming Mercedes AMG wins)
• Percentage of races won from pole:  42%

2017

• Different winners: 5 (Vettel, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Verstappen)
• Percentage of races won by champion:  45%
• Percentage of races won by P2:  25%
• Percentage of races won by others:  30%
• Percentage of races won by constructors champion:  60%
• Percentage of races won from pole:  40%

2018 and 2017 are thus pretty similar in terms of diversity of winners. There is one exception, which is in the diversity of winner car makes. In 2017 Mercedes AMG won 60% of the races. In 2018, thus far, Mercedes AMG has won only 47% of the races. Still, it feels like something more than that is going on. We'll look for that in our next installment.