1 World Drivers’ Championship – All drivers
Michael Schumacher won easily, but even with the same car Rubens Barrichello didn’t win a single race and was beaten to second by David Coulthard.
2 World Drivers’ Championship – Battle for the title
Ralf Schumacher lost ground to Barrichello later in the season. Schumacher wrapped up the title in Hungary.
3 World Drivers’ Championship – Points systems 1981-present
Schumacher’s dominance was such that even the revised 2003 points system would have done little to bridge the gap between him and Coulthard.
4 World Constructors’ Championships – All constructors
Nine pole positions for Schumacher – on average two places ahead of his team mate, a significant margin of advantage comparable to the difference between the experienced Ralf Schumacher and newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya at Williams.
Nick Heidfeld, in his second season, outqualified Kimi Raikkonen, in his first – but Raikkonen landed the McLaren drive for 2002.
5 World Constructors’ Championships – Battle for the title
Nine pole positions for Schumacher – on average two places ahead of his team mate, a significant margin of advantage comparable to the difference between the experienced Ralf Schumacher and newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya at Williams.
Nick Heidfeld, in his second season, outqualified Kimi Raikkonen, in his first – but Raikkonen landed the McLaren drive for 2002.
6 Drivers’ Average Start Positions
Nine pole positions for Schumacher – on average two places ahead of his team mate, a significant margin of advantage comparable to the difference between the experienced Ralf Schumacher and newcomer Juan Pablo Montoya at Williams.
Nick Heidfeld, in his second season, outqualified Kimi Raikkonen, in his first – but Raikkonen landed the McLaren drive for 2002.
7 Drivers’ Top 3 Qualifying Positions
Although Ralf Schumacher had a better average start position than Montoya, the Colombian’s superiority later in the season saw him claim three poles to Ralf’s one.
8 Drivers’ Average Position Changes and Participations
Michael Schumacher’s average qualifying position was so high that he lost positions, on average, during the race (but not many!) Jos Verstappen’s race pace for Arrows impressed, just as Alesi drove well for Prost.
9 Drivers’ Points per Round and per Finish
The points per finish bars again highlight the massive disparity in performance between Schumacher and Barrichello. Mika Hakkinen suffered greater unreliability than team mate Coulthard, but Montoya’s was worst of all – finishing highly on the rare occasions he completed a race distance.
10 Drivers’ DNFs (totals)
101 mechanical failures from 374 total participation was far higher than it would be just two years later, once the parc ferme regulations were introduced.
11 Drivers’ DNFs (by driver)
Michael Schumacher’s second mechanical failure of 2001 (Germany) would be his last until Bahrain in 2005! Only Alesi got through every race without a breakdown, and would have finished all of them had he not been caught up in Raikkonen’s crash during has last ever race, in Japan.