Celebrating Second Place

We’ve heard it all before. Second place is first of the losers – nobody remembers the runner-up – if you’re not winning you may as well not bother. There is little doubt that victory is the most coveted goal in any professional sport, and that is as true of the Formula One World Championship as it is anything else.

Second place is rarely celebrated.

Lots of Grand Prix fans know that Michael Schumacher has the most World Championship victories, but fewer are aware that Alain Prost and Stirling Moss have scored the most second place finishes. Lots of other Formula One fans will know that Giuseppe Farina won the first ever World Championship in 1950, but less will know that Juan Manuel Fangio was the runner-up that year.

Second place in the Formula One World Drivers Championship is an enormous achievement and the list of drivers who have attained a top two finish is impressive. Second place is still something to be admired even if it isn’t remembered.

Multiple top two results are a good measure of a driver’s career.

Sir Stirling Moss is remembered as one of the greatest drivers in Formula One history despite never winning the World Championship. However, he did finish second four times (including once by just a point) and it’s that success that cements his place in the history books. Impressively, Moss also finished third in the championship on three occasions which indicates how competitive he was for many years during the sport’s most dangerous era.

Nigel Mansell is another driver whose second place finishes rank him as one of the greats. Even though he only took one title, Mansell narrowly missed out on the championship on three other occasions.

Michael Schumacher’s statistical dominance is also underlined when you consider he finished second in the championship twice (three times if you include 1997) and would have finished in the top two again in 1999 if he hadn’t broken his leg. That equals four seasons, in addition to his seven titles, that Schumacher was in championship contention. It helps show just how much he dominated the sport during the peak of his career, especially when you consider he also finished third in the championship an additional three times.

Measuring top two results.

If you look at the top ten drivers in the sport, ranked according to championship victories, they are listed as follows:

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Juan Manuel Fangio
3. Alain Prost
4. Ayrton Senna
5. Jackie Stewart
6. Nelson Piquet
7. Niki Lauda
8. Jack Brabham
9. Graham Hill
10. Emerson Fittipaldi

When you change that from ‘championship victories’ to ‘top two finishes in the championship’ the list changes:

1. Michael Schumacher
2. Alain Prost
3. Juan Manuel Fangio
4. Ayrton Senna
5. Jackie Stewart
6. Graham Hill
7. Stirling Moss
8. Nelson Piquet
9. Niki Lauda
10. Nigel Mansell

Stirling Moss and Nigel Mansell enter the top ten, representing the years they were consistently fighting for championships. Alain Prost also leaps ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio thanks to finishing runner-up four times, and Graham Hill moves up the order due to his consistent competitive showing throughout the sixties.

Second place in the Formula One Drivers World championship has been awarded on 62 occasions. On 38 of those, second place went to a driver who was – or who later became – a World Champion. That statistic that helps illustrate just how difficult it is to win the title given the quality of drivers fighting for it.

Second place is no mean feat.

The full list of drivers ranked according to top two finishes is below.

Nine top two finishes
1. Michael Schumacher

Eight top two finishes
2. Alain Prost

Seven top two finishes
3. Juan Manuel Fangio

Five top two finishes
4. Ayrton Senna
5. Jackie Stewart
6. Graham Hill

Four top two finishes
7. Stirling Moss
8. Nelson Piquet
9. Niki Lauda
10. Nigel Mansell
11. Jack Brabham
12. Emerson Fittipaldi

Three top two finishes
13. Jim Clark
14. Fernando Alonso
15. Kimi Raikkonen
16. Mika Hakkinen
17. Alberto Ascari
18. Sebastian Vettel

Two top two finishes
19. Rubens Barrichello
20. Jody Scheckter
21. Giuseppe Farina
22. Jenson Button
23. Ronnie Peterson
24. Damon Hill
25. John Surtees
26. Jackie Ickx
27. Lewis Hamilton
28. Jacques Villeneuve

One top two finish
29. David Coulthard
30. Carlos Reutemann
31. Denny Hulme
32. Bruce McLaren
33. Ricardo Patrese
34. Alan Jones
35. Mike Hawthorn
36. Felipe Massa
37. Jochen Rindt
38. Clay Regazzoni
39. Keke Rosberg
40. Tony Brooks
41. Mario Andretti
42. Jose Frolian Gonzalez
43. Heinz Harald Frentzen
44. Michele Alboreto
45. Phil Hill
46. James Hunt
47. Eddie Irvine
48. Didier Pironi
49. Gilles Villeneuve
50. Wolfgang Von Trips

In the case of drivers having an equal number of ‘top two finishes’, a countback of other championship results has been used to determine the above rankings.

Post a comment