Edit. Just to reiterate. This is an attempt to catalogue the more significant incidents that have affected these six drivers, that have mostly been out of the drivers' control. I.e. Mechanical failure that they had no part in, accidents that they could not have prevented, unforseen weather at critical points in race or quali. My info is sparse, and the list is incomplete, I know. Kubica or Rosberg are not included and they probably should be.

I have compiled a brief list of the (mostly) preventable incidents that have plagued the two McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari drivers this year so far. Of course the list is not fully comprehensive, but I am interested in peoples opinions and any things that I may have left out. I'm trying to be as impartial as possible for this.

Just seeing who has had the worst run of luck this season.

Bahrain..

EDIT... Webber, Oil issues on first lap, dropped back a little.

Vettel, Lost lead near end of race, dropped to forth. Spark plug.

Australia. Alonso involved in first lap incident, rejoins at back of grid.

Vettel, drops out of race in the lead. Brakes.

Maylasia. Hamilton, Massa, Alonso quali 19th, 20,th and 21st due to bad weather and team advice.

Alonso's car has issues, and he retires from 9th.

China. ...

Spain. Lewis is running third when a puncture and blowout finish his race.

Monaco. Button retires with mechanical issues on 2nd lap from 9th I think. Difficult to say where he might have placed.

Turkey. Webber Vettel colision. Hard to call this one bad luck, as both drivers could have avoided the incident.

Canada. Webber has five place grid penalty for changing gearbox. Hamilton runs out of fuel in quali and is lucky to escape punishment. Vettel has gearbox issues, and maybe costs him a few places.

Valencia. Hamilton gets drive through, but it does not affect his finish position. Alonso is unluckily affected by safety car.

Silverstone. Vettel gets puncture on opening lap from 2nd place. Massa has puncture from 7th. Alonso has drive through, but is unlucky with the timing that ruins his race. (but could have avoided it.)

Germany ....

Hungary. Hamilton retires from firth position. Gearbox.

Spa. Alonso is caught out by rain in quali. Webber gets terrible start due to anti-stall, that loses him six places. Button is collected from third, by Vettel.

From this I conclude that Massa has had the least amount of bad luck. Vettel has lost two wins due to circumstances out of his control. Some of Alonso's bad luck is actually preventable.

Webber finished 8th in Bahrain, he didn't DNF on the first lap. It looked like an engine failure, it was just an overfill of oil being burned off out of the first corner. Basically just a brief smokescreen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Bahrain_Grand_Prix

Thanks. I don't know how I missed that as I was reading from the same wiki page. Must have been tired last night..

I think you are a Macca fan huh? Didn't even mention Mark driving superbly to get 2nd spot at Spa. Just mentioned his bad start and you mention the Macca drivers the most lol so be it..

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. This is a list of incidents, that are mostly beyond the drivers' control (hence the word LUCK), that help or hinder them during the season. To be honest I think lots of people drove superbly at Spa, but that's not what this thread was meant to be about. As far as I know, Webbers bad start was not his fault at all, but out of his control. And actually if you had bothered checking your facts, you would know that I mentioned 9 RB incidents, 8 Ferrari incidents and 7 McLaren incidents.

I'm trying to get a picture of where the driver standings would be if all random factors were taken away. (I know it's a fairly pointless excercise.)

If you're counting Malaysia and team strategy failures as "luck", might as well put Webber's strategy in Australia which cost RBR a 1-2.

Or Vettel's strategy that coz RBR a 1 2 at Turkey.

That's hardly bad luck in my opinion. But whatever.

You forgot Heidfeld. He was set to get the 2nd seat in the team that just had won both championships. Now his career in F1 is pretty much over. Poor fellow.

Yes, you are right. But it affected their races massively, and I think that it was probably beyond the drivers control. I'm sure there are quite a few problems with my list. That's what this thread will hopefully sort out.

Schumacher, Rosberg and Webber left it just as late and still got through. The difference being that they didn't spin in the rain. The drivers have to take some responsibility for what happened in that session.

I think hamilton retired from 2nd and 4th not 3rd and 5th (pedantic I know!)

I assume we're not including how others have benefitted from others bad luck? E.g. alonso in bahrain, button in australia, hamilton in turkey?

ones to add (if this is hamilton centric I apologies, it's not bias, it's just because I know more about what's happened to him!...

australia -

hamilton hit by mark twice, probably lost 2 positions, I'm assuming crap strategy doesn't cut it as bad luck?

malaysia -

alonso has gear and engine issues

China -

alonso's penalty for jump starting is reduced by the SC
hamilton et al benefit from the SC closing up the field (hamilton and alonso made the most of that luck in fairness whilst others didn't).

Spain -

button has steering wheel issues

Monaco -

SC massively reduces the effect of alonso's crash in practice (although also good strategy on ferrari's part...)


Valencia -

You mention alonso but omit the fact that massa was much more royally stuffed
button jumped places thanks to SC

Spa -

Others were also saving their tyres for the second run so I don't count that as bad luck for alonso...getting punted by rubens is a different story though!

Yeah, that strategy commed out to be a total disaster, but still, worth trying, no risk no gain.