Motorsports | Tuesday, July 25, 2023 11:55 AM

Michael Schumacher Leads The Way In The All-Time Leaderboard For Spa-Francorchamps

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bettingexpert Journalist

Spa-Francorchamps plays host to the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend and the track has been a favourite of both drivers and fans alike.

The circuit has been the definitive site of the Belgian Grand Prix since 1950, despite sharing hosting duties with Zolder and Nivelles over the years.

The 2023 Belgian GP will be the 55th at Spa-Francorchamps. The circuit’s contract ends after this year unless the rumoured multi-year extension is not signed.

Since Spa is a circuit where different generations of F1 drivers have made their mark, we looked into creating an all-time leaderboard to see the drivers who’ve been the most successful at the circuit.

Methodology

To bring in a measure of uniformity we applied the current points scoring system to all 55 Belgian Grands Prix held at Spa-Francorchamps.

For example, the 1987 Belgian GP that was won by Alain Prost, the Frenchman scored nine points for the win. If he won today, he would score 25 points for the win.

Also, in 1987, only the first six finishers were awarded points while today, the first 10 finishers are awarded points. So, we awarded the first 10 positions in the 1987 Belgian GP, the points as per the allocation system today.

This was repeated for each Belgian Grand Prix held at Spa and we then created the leaderboard.

The Most Successful Driver At Spa

With 227 points from 14 races, Michael Schumacher is the most successful driver at Spa and it is fitting as the German won his first ever Grand Prix at Spa in 1992. 90 more grand prix wins followed in Schumacher’s illustrious career including five more wins at Spa which included a hat-trick of wins from 1995 to 1997.

Lewis Hamilton is second on the list with 208 points from 16 races followed by Sebastian Vettel and Ayrton Senna. Kimi Raikkonen, who won three straight Belgian Grands Prix (2004, 2005 and 2007) is fifth.

Fernando Alonso is 12th in the all-time leaderboard for the circuit and Max Verstappen, who’ll be looking for a hat-trick of wins here, is 17th.

Alberto Ascari holds the record for the highest average points scored, with 19.75 points per race. The Italian raced at the circuit four times, winning twice and finishing second and fifth in the other two.

Senna has 18.44 points per race and he also shares the record for most consecutive wins at the circuit - four (shared with Jim Clark).

Winners and Podium Finishes

Schumacher leads the way for most wins at Spa, with six wins from 14 races - a win percentage of 42.86 percent. He’s second on the list for most podiums at the circuit with his nine podiums behind Lewis Hamilton’s 10. The British driver meanwhile, holds the record for most third place finishes at Spa (4).

Senna has the best win percentage of the lot - 55.55 percent (five wins from nine races). His famous rival and former teammate, Alain Prost, has the best podium percentage - 77.78 percent (7 podiums in nine races).

Pole Positions

Pole Position and Win?	Count	Poll-to-Win Percentage
No	34	61.81818182
Yes	21	38.18181818
Grand Total	55	100

61.82 percent of winners at Spa were not on pole with none of the polesitters from 1992 to 2000 winning the Grand Prix in their respective years.

From 2015 to 2022, however, polesitters won the grand prix, six times.

11 drivers have a 100 percent pole-to-win conversion rate at Spa but the notable one here is Senna who converted all of his four poles to win. Everyone else had been on pole only once.

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After Senna, the most efficient drivers from pole have been former Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The Brit won three times from his six poles and Rosberg won once from two pole positions.

On the other end, Graham Hill was unable to convert any of his three pole positions to a win.

Fastest Laps And Grand Slams

Alain Prost holds the record for the highest number of fastest laps at Spa with six, followed by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel (both had the fastest lap at Spa four times).

Lewis Hamilton has only had the fastest lap at Spa twice and Verstappen will be looking to equal that number this weekend. The Dutch driver posted the fastest lap at Spa last season.

Only one Grand Slam has been completed at Spa and that was by Jack Brabham in 1960. Niki Lauda is the only other man to complete a Grand Slam at the Belgian GP but that came at Zolder in 1976.