Apart from the Brawn supremacy, one of the features of this season has been the number of times a team has had a 1-2 finish. With Brawn and Red Bull both achieving the feat three times . The six times that it has occurred so far this season has only been equalled three times in the past 20 years (1992, 1996 and 1999) and is greater than the season total for 12 of the last 20 years.

Comparing the 10 year stats against those for 20 seasons has seen a marginal increase of 1-2’s as reliability amongst the front runners has improved. 32% of the last 182 grand prix have finished 1-2 regardless of where the two drivers qualified and, as you would expect, the greatest instance based on a qualifying postion has been when a team have locked out the front row – 28%. When a fastest qualifier has had a team-mate on the second row, 17% of the 70 grand prix have finished 1-2 compared to 12% for a fastest qualifier and a team-mate anywhere on the grid. There’s been a 15% return when one driver has been anywhere on the front row with the other starting a row behind.

When two teams have dominated the opening half of the season, which has occurred in nine of the past 20 seasons, the level of 1-2’s before race eight has remained fairly constant during the second half of the season with the exception of 1992 when there were five by race nine but only one thereafter. Apart from that year, those figures are borne out in the eight seasons when there has been a dominant driver (five wins or more by race eight) and the remaining 1-2’s were taken by his team in 16/17 applicable races.

Look for more 1-2’s especially from Brawn when they dominate qualifying or alternatively sell on the multi-finish index which is likely to be set at around 17 under such conditions, with the maximum finishing position for a driver set at 12.