Quickest penalty, podium droughts: Top 5 unwanted F1 driver records

Records in F1, or any other sport, are meant to be broken. Having said that, some records are good, others are, well, bad. Every F1 driver will be happy to hold on to the good ones they achieve but would absolutely love to get rid of any bad ones they manage to break.

Let's take a look at some of these bad ones as we share the top 5 unwanted driver records in F1:

#5 Shortest time before receiving an F1 penalty (Sebastian Vettel: 6 secs)

The recently-retired F1 great is the first name on this list. Vettel made his full F1 debut at a very young age in 2007 but even before that, he made his first appearance in the sport a year earlier in 2006. The appearance was during a Free Practice session of the Turkish GP. Vettel, just 19 years of age at the time, got his first-ever penalty for overspeeding in the pitlane on the very first time he stepped out on the track in his BMW Sauber. He made a strong impression that day as well, as he ended up topping the timesheets for the Hinwil-based squad.

#4 Most F1 World Championship runner-ups without a title (Stirling Moss: 4)

Stirling Moss is considered a legend of the sport by many and plenty of the sport's purists term him the greatest driver to never win a title. What didn't help Moss was being the teammate of one of F1's greatest talents in Juan Manuel Fangio. From 1955 to 1958, Moss finished second in the championship, thrice to Fangio and once to Mike Hawthorn.

Even though the British driver was a sensational talent and won as many as 212 races out of the 529 races he competed in, the ultimate glory eluded him as he could not win the Formula One Championship even once.

#3 Most F1 races without leading a lap (Martin Brundle: 158)

Martin Brundle is now viewed as a seasoned veteran of the sport and someone whose opinions hold ground. He's also made quite the name as the host of the grid walk before the F1 race the last few years. Having said that, Brundle was quite an able driver as well in his heyday.

Martin Brundle at the Mille Miglia 2014

The former British driver was teammates with some of the fiercest talents ever seen on the F1 grid during his time. He teamed up with Ayrton Senna in his junior career and battled with Michael Schumacher as his teammate at Benetton, competing in 158 races in his career.

In a career where he scored as many as nine podiums, Martin was unable to lead even a single lap in a race. A rare statistic considering he had a very competent car at Benetton under him and Michael Schumacher having been able to win a few races with it as well.

#2 Most starts without a podium (Nico Hulkenberg: 181)

Nico Hulkenberg was a highly touted talent when he made his debut in the sport in 2010. His performances in his maiden season turned heads, like when he secured pole position in Brazil for Williams. Two years later, he almost won the Brazilian GP in a Force India car in treacherous conditions.

Despite so many things going his way, it never quite worked out for Hulkenberg. A Ferrari future seat never materialized, McLaren went for Perez and dropped him soon after, Red Bull had their own academy to recruit from and Mercedes had an all-time great in Lewis Hamilton.

A career that promised so much never took off and Hulkenberg was unable to achieve the kind of success that many would have envisioned for him. To make things worse, the German failed to score a single podium in his career even though he came close multiple times.

With a 181-race stretch without a podium, a seat at Haas for 2023 could give him another shot at breaking the streak, although everything would need to go his way on a particular weekend for that to happen.

#1 Most F1 driving penalties in a season (Pastor Maldonado: 10)

Looking back, it's hard to fathom the kind of career Pastor Maldonado was able to put together if we look at his race weekend in the 2012 F1 Spanish GP in isolation. The Venezuelan was a GP2 champion before making his way to the sport with Williams. Even at Williams, he kept all shenanigans aside for his one race win in Barcelona, holding off a prime Fernando Alonso in a very competent Ferrari.

As it turned out, that Barcelona weekend was one of the very rare highs that Maldonado achieved in his career. His on-track antics were unnecessary and turned him into a menace for fellow drivers. In 2014, he accumulated an extensive list of 10 driving penalties over the season, thie highest ever. It is safe to say that the driver would have found it hard to survive a season if penalty points deductions were a factor back then.