Pole is it really that important?

 How important is pole position when qualifying?”You can’t overtake and nine times out of 10 whoever takes pole position wins.” Luca Cordero di Montezemolo

The above quotation from the Ferrari boss was interesting, he was specifically talking about the new circuits which he thinks are hurting Formula one. I thought lets look at the stats. The interesting thing is that this season has only two new races, Valencia and Singapore. Valencia saw Ferrari win from pole so this must mean that they will be putting a lot of effort in to ensure they have a driver on pole for Singapore (the first night race – cool!!)

Looking at the rest of the results for the season below:

41.67% are won from pole position on the grid 5 out of 12 races thus far

41.67% are won from second position on the grid 5 out of 12 races thus far

16.66% are won from lower 2 out of the 12 races thus far

Statistically you are more likely to win from grid position one or two (83.34% of the time based on the season so far) regardless of the age of the circuit. Interestingly a Ferrari driver is still to win from any further back than front row, where McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has wona race from third place and from fourth place. I think that this is maybe why Luca is really concerned, because his drivers don’t seem to be able to overtake!

I am really looking forward to the rest of the season!