by VALERIO BARRETTA
A winning grid
Even Oscar Plates he joined the club of winners of a Formula 1 Grand Prix: the Australian – the 115th in history to be included in this list – deservedly obtained first place at the Hungaroring, beating his teammate Lando Norris and a monument like Lewis Hamilton.
Piastri’s victory in Hungary means that the Formula 1 grid at Spa-Francorchamps will be made up of 13 Grand Prix Winners: the #81 has joined – in addition to Hamilton and Norris – Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, George Russell, Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo. If you think this is a common occurrence, you are wrong: only 38 of the 1,114 Grands Prix have hosted 13 drivers who were already race winners at that time. The last was the 1980 Italian GP, held at Imola for the occasion, which featured Mario Andretti, René Arnoux, Vittorio Brambilla, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite, Nelson Piquet, Didier Pironi, Carlos Reutemann, Jody Scheckter, Gilles Villeneuve and John Watson.
Only in ten cases has a GP had more than 13 race winners at the start: with 14 there are the 1977 Dutch GP, the 1977 United States GP, the 1978 Swedish GP, the 1978 French GP, the 1978 Great British GP, the 1979 Italian GP, the 1980 French GP and the 1980 Great British GP. At the top of the list are the 1978 Belgian GP and the 1978 Spanish GP (15 winners).
Who will be the next?
At the moment the only ones on the grid who have never won a GP are Yuki TsunodaNico HulkenbergLance StrollAlex AlbonGuanyu ZhouKevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant. The last three are unlikely to have a seat in F1 in 2025 and unless there are lucky races the others also have little chance. The most “viable” way to get to 14 is Tsunoda, especially if he is promoted to Red Bull. Of course, provided that Perez stays in F1: at the moment it is a big “if”, considering that in Milton Keynes they will decide his future right after Spa.
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