Pre-race Statistics of the Australian GP

It’s been a while since I’ve done the pre-race stats, hope I haven’t forgotten how! The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit is a 5.303km circuit with 16 corners. The race will be a distance of 307.574km long after 58 laps. In the last five Australian GPs, three have been won from pole position, and three wins from Jenson Button.

Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver at Melbourne, winning four times and racing there 14 times. The most successful driver at the circuit that’s still racing in 2013 is Jenson Button, having won there three times in 2009, 2010 and 2012. Melbourne has hosted the Australian GP 18 times from 1996 to 2013, with 11 different drivers having won the race.

In the 17 races that have taken place eight of them have been won from pole position and just three from second place. The lap record at the circuit was set by Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari in 2004, a time of 1:24.125 with an average speed of 227kph or 141mph.

The Silly Stats

I’ve missed my weekly bit of silliness, it’s Australia so of course you are all dying to know how many kangaroos can lie head to feet around the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit right? 3,479 kangaroos, weighing a total of 190,979kg, the weight of almost 300 F1 cars at the (new) minimum weight of 642kg.

A red kangaroo, with a speed of around 30kph, would take 10:36.360 (10 minutes, 36 seconds) to complete one lap of the circuit, almost the same speed of a HRT car.

For some more stats on Australia see my mini-stat page