The numbers that show Carlos Sainz’s impressive consistency in 2021. The numbers that show Carlos' impressive consistency in 2021.

One of the most interesting stories of the 2021 Formula 1 season is the one that involved Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. The Spanish driver, who arrived at Ferrari not without a bit of skepticism on the part of many fans – who would have preferred Daniel Ricciardo in the pre-season polls – was in fact able to adapt very quickly to the environment and the car of the Maranello team, often managing to keep up with the more popular and celebrated teammate Charles Leclerc. Indeed, in the last Grand Prix of the 2021 Formula 1 championship – thanks also to a few lucky moments during the year – Carlos Sainz was able to overtake the Monegasque in the final standings.

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The fifth place finish gave Carlos the ‘best of the rest status’, behind the unrivaled Mercedes and Red Bull. Carlos Sainz’s strength was his performance consistency. The Ferrari driver scored points in 20 of the 22 races which took place this season, missing the top-10 only in Portugal and France at the start of the year. Analyzing the numbers of the season that has just ended, however, there is one stat that deserves to be highlighted: it is the one that concerns the number of laps completed this championship by the Maranello team’s #55. Carlos Sainz in fact completed 1,294 out of 1,297 possible, effectively missing out only three laps over the course of 22 races. An impressive percentage, of 99.77%, which places him in the lead of this particular ranking.

The second in this ranking is Lewis Hamilton, about 25 laps away. These numbers show how lucky Carlos Sainz was not to be involved in accidents, but also good at avoiding mistakes and issues that could have penalized his championship. In recent seasons, the king of continuity had been Lewis Hamilton, who had even completed 100% of the laps in 2019 and 99% in 2018 and 2017. Last year, on the other hand, thanks to the forfeit in the Sakhir Grand Prix of the seven-time world champion – due to Covid – Lando Norris stood out with 97.88%.