If you want to win hire a... #Blogpost

Finn. At least that’s how the saying goes. But statistically speaking, how true is that? Which country has produced the most successful racing drivers?

The first step in answering this question was to work out how to answer it. I decided the best way was to use FIA world championships. Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship, World Rally Championship, World Touring Car Championship and World Sportscar Championship. I’ve restricted it to world championships, because national l championships are more often than not biased towards citizens of their country. Even IndyCar, with a large number of foreign drivers, has been won by American drivers nine out of the 20 years it has been run Although, with America’s large population, it would probably help Sweden, New Zealand and Australia more than the US.

Formula One

Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen give Finland three champions. A small population puts Austria into second with Niki Lauda and Jochen Rindt. Denny Hulme is New Zealand’s only champion, winning it 50 years ago in 1967.

World Endurance Championship

Switzerland has the most WEC champions per million people. Marcel Fassler, Sebastein Buemi, and Neel Jani have one each. New Zealand and Denmark are equal second with Brendan Hartley and Tom Kristenesen respectively.

World Sports Car Championship

The UK had six champions in the WSCC, but it’s population means the lead over second placed Belgium is small.

World Rally Championship

The WRC is where Finland really dominates. If we were counting the number of championships rather than champions, things would be different. Frenchman Sebastien Loeb has nine WRC titles.

World Touring Car Championsip

In this often forgotten world championship, New Zealand comes out on top. Paul Radisich may be their only champion, but he’s all New Zealand needs with a population of 4.8 million.

Results

No surprises here, Finland is number one. Finland is so dominant that they have three times the number of champions per million than second placed New Zealand. Switzerland, the UK and Austria completing the top five.

Finland dominates rallying,so what happens when you take rallying out of the equation? Maybe New Zealand, with no WRC champions, is better at circuit racing. Repeating the total number of champions without rallying does put New Zealand on top, but only just.

I wasn’t done there. What happens when you include Le Mans and Dakar, or the Blancpain Endurance Series? Bathurst? The list of non-Australian winners is too short. Same goes for the Indy 500 and Americans.

Blancpain Endurance

One Monegasque, Stéphane Ortelli, wins the Blancpain GT series and puts Monaco on top because of the city state’s tiny population of 37,500. But I will not say if you want to win, hire a Monegasque. Because he was born in France. Also his junior racing career would have taken place entirely outside of Monaco.

Dakar

Nasser Al-Attiyah’s win in 2016 gives Qatar the most Dakar Rally wins per million people. Dakar also gave Belgium a massive boost, thanks to Jackie Ickx’s 1983 victory.

24 Hours of Le Mans

I left Le Mans for last. The sheer number of winners over its long history would take time to process. Before running the calculations, it looked like Le Mans might give Belgium, Italy Austria, Australia and the US a chance to deliver an upset, or salvage some dignity. The US has done better at Le Mans than anywhere else, but their population keeps them close to the bottom. New Zealand, again, has the most winners per million people, Earl Bamber, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. The UK also had it’s best result, with 32 winners.

Results

Finland is still on top, but New Zealand has closed the gap somewhat. Belgium made the biggest gains over the world championships only results, jumping from 11th to fourth. Most of Finland’s results come from rallying and Dakar, New Zealand is still the best performing country in circuit racing, as shown below.

Now what happens when you break the UK apart.

There are Northern Irish or Welsh, 44 English and six Scottish champions. Scotland is a much smaller country than England, so they sit third, while England is fourth.

From these results, we can draw a few observations. One thing you’ll notice is a lack of Amercian or Canadian champions in traditionally Euro-centric international motorsport. North America is big enough to sustain its own top level motorsport across multiple disciplines, so North American drivers rarely have to venture out of North America. The southern hemisphere is also under-represented. New Zealand does well per capita, but there are still few antipodean champions. Money and distance is likely to be the reason. Many Australians have gone to Europe and run out of money before making it to F1. Drivers like Marcos Ambrose, Craig Lowndes and Will Power all displayed a high level of talent in Europe, but the cost of living in a foreign country while also funding a competitive F3 operation is too hard to sustain. Lately IndyCar has become a second preference for drivers who don’t make it to F1. There have been a number of non-American champions since the reunification of American open wheel racing, including Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, New Zealander Scott Dixon and Brazilian Tony Kanaan.

What do the more successful countries have in common? New Zealand, Finland and Scotland have small populations, meaning they need fewer champions for a high per capita score,but that also means fewer potential world champions. There are geographical similarities between the three countries. All are small with cold climates. Scotland and New Zealand have large mountainous areas with many great driving roads, giving drivers somewhere to practice. Finland, however, is very flat. What Finland has is a very strong car culture. Driving a car as fast as possible is a rite of passage in Finland. Finnish racing drivers begin practicing illegally on public roads as teenagers, giving them greater car control than drivers from other nationalities. Finns are also known for having a temperament well suited to racing. Stubbornly determined, they work hard to achieve their goals. They’re also calm and relaxed under pressure, very helpful in racing.

Second overall, New Zealand has a comfortable lead in circuit racing, where Finland slips to third. New Zealand has a similar car culture to Finland. Kiwi racing drivers grew up driving anything and everything as fast as possible. New Zealand has a lot of dirt roads and not many motorways. They have a strong car culture, and motorsport is very popular in the land of the long white cloud. Pukekohe is one of the most popular sprint rounds on the Supercars calendar and New Zealand was a regular feature in World Rally Championship until 2012. Not bad for an isolated country of five million. The superhuman car control that Shane van Gisbergen possesses is a testament to the environment he was raised in. What holds New Zealanders back is geographic isolation. They’re over 2000km from Australia. They’re about as far away from Europe, the home of international motorsport, as it’s possible to get..

The UK are the best performing “big” country on the list. On absolute numbers they’ve produced more champions than any other country. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the number of racing circuits they have. Following the second world war, the UK had a large number of surplus airfields, which they turned into race tracks. The UK is also home to seven out of the 10 teams in F1. Scotland, per capita, is better than England at racing.

What about Belgium? It shouldn’t come as a surprise that home of Spa Francorchamps and the Blancpain Endurance Series breeds talented racing drivers like Jackie Ickx and

So if you want to win, hire a Finn. Statistically, you’re more likely to find a champion. For circuit racing, try a Kiwi, Scot or Belgian.