2011 F1 Season
19 races · Red Bull RB7
The 2011 Red Bull RB7, Adrian Newey's masterpiece, was one of the most dominant cars in history, with a notable aerodynamic edge thanks to the blown diffuser. Sebastian Vettel turned it into a steamroller.
The German took fifteen poles and eleven wins across the nineteen races of the year, and above all a crushing consistency that let him wrap up the championship with huge margin to spare. Rarely has the title fight had so little suspense.
Aged just 24, Vettel became back-to-back world champion, confirming it had been no fluke and cementing Red Bull's dominance over the first half of the decade.
Drivers' Champion
Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull RB7
Constructors' Champion
Red Bull Racing
19 races
Ver en españolKey moment
"Vettel in Monza: 120 points ahead with 6 races still to go."
The 2011 grid, car by car
The 12 teams that raced in 2011, ordered by how good we rate the car. It is our own judgement, not an official figure: what it is worth is that the same yardstick is applied to every season since 1988, so you can compare eras.
| # | Team | Our rating | Drivers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Red Bull | 98 | Sebastian Vettel · Mark Webber |
| 2 | McLaren | 94 | Lewis Hamilton · Jenson Button |
| 3 | Ferrari | 91 | Fernando Alonso · Felipe Massa |
| 4 | Mercedes | 84 | Michael Schumacher · Nico Rosberg |
| 5 | Renault | 81 | Nick Heidfeld · Vitaly Petrov |
| 6 | Force India | 78 | Adrian Sutil · Paul di Resta |
| 7 | Sauber | 77 | Sergio Perez · Kamui Kobayashi |
| 8 | Williams | 73 | Rubens Barrichello · Pastor Maldonado |
| 9 | Toro Rosso | 72 | Sebastien Buemi · Jaime Alguersuari |
| 10 | Lotus | 67 | Jarno Trulli · Heikki Kovalainen |
| 11 | Virgin | 62 | Timo Glock · Jerome d'Ambrosio |
| 12 | HRT | 61 | Daniel Ricciardo · Vitantonio Liuzzi |
How 2011 actually ended
The official final standings, from Australian Grand Prix to Brazilian Grand Prix. This is the real result, not the simulation above.
| Driver | Points | Wins | Podiums | Poles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Sebastian VettelRed Bull | 392 | 11 | 17 | 15 |
| 2Jenson ButtonMcLaren | 270 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| 3Mark WebberRed Bull | 258 | 1 | 10 | 3 |
| 4Fernando AlonsoFerrari | 257 | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| 5Lewis HamiltonMcLaren | 227 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
| 6Felipe MassaFerrari | 118 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7Nico RosbergMercedes | 89 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8Michael SchumacherMercedes | 76 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Vettel took it by 122 points, which at that distance stops being a fight and becomes a formality. 5 different drivers won across 19 races, and the champion could still afford to retire 1 time.
And was it the most dominant car of all? We measured it by putting the same driver in the best car of every season since 1988: what is the most dominant car in F1 history.
Official FIA standings via Jolpica (formerly Ergast).
What if 2011 had been raced 100 times?
We took the real 2011 grid (every car with its performance and reliability, every driver with his rating) and re-ran the full 19-race championship 100 times.
| Driver | Avg. finish | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| Sebastian Vettelreal championRed Bull | P1 | 100% |
| Lewis HamiltonMcLaren | P2.6 | 0% |
| Fernando AlonsoFerrari | P3.2 | 0% |
| Mark WebberRed Bull | P3.5 | 0% |
| Jenson ButtonMcLaren | P4.8 | 0% |
| Felipe MassaFerrari | P6.3 | 0% |
Sebastian Vettel wins 100% of the simulated championships. Runner-up Lewis Hamilton manages 0%: with that machinery, the real result was very nearly the only one available.
Tags
What if Senna, Hamilton or Alonso had driven the 2011 championship-winning car?
Hypotheses from 2011
Drivers of 2011
Keep reading
What we have measured about 2011 and about what decided it, with our own numbers.
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- 8 min readHow much is pole worth? 709 races say half, and that the circuit hardly mattersPole converts into a win 50% of the time since 1988. The surprise is the other half: a track’s reputation predicts nothing. Monza converts more pol…