This is a new idea I've had for my blog. Hopefully I'll have a new person up every Friday morning with stats about them. First up, thanks to Top Gear, is impossible-to-spell Rubens Barrichello.
Name: Rubens Goncalves "Rubinho" Barrichello
Date of Birth: 23rd May 1972
Place of Birth: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Sport: Formula 1 racing
Car number: 9
Team: Williams
Number of F1 races so far: 294
Best finish this season: 4 (Valencia)
Worst finish this season: 18 (Monaco – retired)
Points this season (up to Silverstone): 29
Points in whole career: 636
Best career finish: 2nd (2002 - 77 pts, 2004 - 114 pts)
Top Gear lap time: 1:44.3
Rubens Barrichello is the oldest driver in F1, and has had more races than anyone else in the sport ever. If all goes to plan, he will race his 300th race in Japan on October 8th. His points tally of 636 is the fourth-greatest of any F1 driver, just behind Michael Schumacher (1405), Alain Prost (798.5) and Fernando Alonso (675).
His most recent achievement was on Wednesday 7th July 2010, when he raced the Top Gear test track in the old reasonably-priced-car, which is kept for Formula 1 drivers to compare times. Quite a few F1 drivers have taken this test: including Button (1:44.7), Hamilton (1:44.7) and Webber (1:47.1 Very Wet). The Stig – Top Gear's 'tame racing driver' – managed 1:44.4 – but somehow Barrichello managed to beat them all. So I suppose we have to conclude that he's the best racing driver in the world, at least until Michael Schumacher does a proper lap.
16/07/2010
15/07/2010
FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings July 2010
The rankings have been adjusted, and Spain are the best football team in the World. Now that you know how it's all worked out, let's look at how the World Cup has affected the international standings of the teams. There've been some big movers – up and down. Surprisingly, England have maintained their good position, but that's probably thanks to several other teams losing out – and their great qualifiers for the cup.
The fastest risers
The top three World Cup teams to rise in the rankings are:
The fastest risers
The top three World Cup teams to rise in the rankings are:
- New Zealand. They rose 24 places from 78 to 54. They are, in fact, the most improved team worldwide since May.
- South Africa. Since France had such a good world ranking (9) their defeat of the team shot them up 17 places from 83 to 66, although they are still the second-worst team in the competition (ahead of North Korea).
- Paraguay. Escaping from the group stages and beating Italy lifts them 15 places from 31 to a comfortable 16.
- Cameroon. The Africans failed to live up to expectations by losing badly. They dropped a massive 21 places from 19 to 40.
- France. Unsurprisingly, the World Cup finalists from 2006 lost a lot of points from their defeat by South Africa. They dropped 12 places from 9 to 21.
- Nigeria. They tried, but they still fell from 21 to 30.
- Italy only dropped six places, from 5 to 11.
- England rose a place, from 8 to 7.
- North Korea went up two places, from 105 to 103.
- Portugal dropped 5 places from 3 to 8, probably caused by other teams rising rather than their falling (although North Korea's terrible ranking wouldn't have given them many points from that game)
World Ranking Calculation
The World Cup is over, and the world rankings have been readjusted as of yesterday (14th July). Unsurprisingly, Spain are top of the rankings with 1883 points. But how are the points calculated? FIFA has a simple formula based on several factors:
1 – Whether the match was won or drawn (M. The usual values apply – 3, 1, or 0. If the match is won in penalties, the winning team gets 2 points, and the losing team gets 1.
2 – The importance of the match (I)
Friendly: 1.0 points
World cup/continental qualifier: 2.5 points
Continental finals (eg: Euro) or FIFA confederations cup: 3.0 points
World Cup finals: 4.0 points
3 – The strength of the opponent (T)
Calculated by the following formula: [200 – position of opponent]/100 taken from the most recent FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Any team ranked below 150th gets an automatic rating of 0.5
4 – The continental confederation factor of the opposing team(C)
UEFA: 1.00
CONMEBOL: 0.98
CONCACAF: 0.85
AFC: 0.85
CAF: 0.85
OFC: 0.85
Then the final points are calculated as P = M*I*T*C*100
The maximum possible points from a World Cup match is 2,400.
Let's look at the World Cup final to show how this works.
Spain beat Netherlands outside of penalties, so for Spain, M=3. For Netherlands, it's equal to 0 so they get no points from the final.
The importance of the match is I=4.
The strength of Spain's opponent (Netherlands) = [200 – 4]/100 = T=1.96
And there's a continental confederation factor of C=1.00, as both teams are in Europe.
So in total, Spain's points from the World Cup final are:
P = 3*4*1.96*1*100 = 2352
That's only 48 points from the most you can achieve in a game!
Obviously, the actual FIFA ranking isn't calculated only from the last game a team played. If that were the case, Netherlands wouldn't have any points! Instead, and I'm not clear exactly how this works, the matches over the past four years are taken into account. Games in the last year are worth 100% of their points, 50% for those 1-2 years ago, 30% for those 2-3 years ago, and 20% for those 3-4 years ago.
(Source: Fifa.com This is a PDF so make sure you have Adobe Acrobat reader. It's free, so I'm not making them any money by telling you this.)
1 – Whether the match was won or drawn (M. The usual values apply – 3, 1, or 0. If the match is won in penalties, the winning team gets 2 points, and the losing team gets 1.
2 – The importance of the match (I)
Friendly: 1.0 points
World cup/continental qualifier: 2.5 points
Continental finals (eg: Euro) or FIFA confederations cup: 3.0 points
World Cup finals: 4.0 points
3 – The strength of the opponent (T)
Calculated by the following formula: [200 – position of opponent]/100 taken from the most recent FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Any team ranked below 150th gets an automatic rating of 0.5
4 – The continental confederation factor of the opposing team(C)
UEFA: 1.00
CONMEBOL: 0.98
CONCACAF: 0.85
AFC: 0.85
CAF: 0.85
OFC: 0.85
Then the final points are calculated as P = M*I*T*C*100
The maximum possible points from a World Cup match is 2,400.
Let's look at the World Cup final to show how this works.
Spain beat Netherlands outside of penalties, so for Spain, M=3. For Netherlands, it's equal to 0 so they get no points from the final.
The importance of the match is I=4.
The strength of Spain's opponent (Netherlands) = [200 – 4]/100 = T=1.96
And there's a continental confederation factor of C=1.00, as both teams are in Europe.
So in total, Spain's points from the World Cup final are:
That's only 48 points from the most you can achieve in a game!
Obviously, the actual FIFA ranking isn't calculated only from the last game a team played. If that were the case, Netherlands wouldn't have any points! Instead, and I'm not clear exactly how this works, the matches over the past four years are taken into account. Games in the last year are worth 100% of their points, 50% for those 1-2 years ago, 30% for those 2-3 years ago, and 20% for those 3-4 years ago.
(Source: Fifa.com This is a PDF so make sure you have Adobe Acrobat reader. It's free, so I'm not making them any money by telling you this.)
11/07/2010
The World Cup Final
Too many yellows
Howard Webb was a very lenient referee, but even so he gave out fourteen yellow cards to thirteen players in today's World Cup Final. That's nearly half the players (including substitutes) and probably more than one Dutchman should have been sent off.
But Spain won. So they now have two competitions to defend - Euro and World. I was backing them since England went out (you can check this blog) so I'm glad I was right.
More to follow.
Howard Webb was a very lenient referee, but even so he gave out fourteen yellow cards to thirteen players in today's World Cup Final. That's nearly half the players (including substitutes) and probably more than one Dutchman should have been sent off.
But Spain won. So they now have two competitions to defend - Euro and World. I was backing them since England went out (you can check this blog) so I'm glad I was right.
More to follow.
Formula 1 Race Ten: Race
Vettel – Started in pole, then a puncture from just after the start put him back into last place. A fantastic drive overtaking most of the field put him up into 7th place, finishing in the points. He wins my Driver of the Day award, and is doing okay at fourth in the rankings.
Alguersuari – Started low, and fought through to get as high as fifth at one point, but ended up going out. He gets my Worst Retirement award. It's his first retirement of the season.
Button – Started in fourteenth after a bad qualification, and with no car troubles pushed himself up to fourth. He remains second in the points behind Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton and Webber – both good races. Hamilton got into second behind Webber from the start, and stayed there. When they pitted, they were both so far ahead of the other drivers that they remained in their positions. Hamilton is top of the driver's league so far, and Webber is third.
Alonso – he had a terribly bad race. After a reasonable start, he clashed with Kubica and was deemed to have unfairly overtaken him by cutting the corner. Then Kubica went out, but Alonso was still forced to do a drive through penalty. But before he could take it, Sutil clashed with De La Rosa, and cast debris on the track. The safety car came out, and Alonso had to wait until after the car had gone back in to take his penalty, leaving him at the back of the field. His only consolation is that he got the fastest lap of the race: 1.30.874
Massa – like Vettel, he got a puncture in the first lap, but Vettel managed to overtake him during the race, and more tyre problems left him finishing fifteenth behind Alonso. It's been an unlucky season for Ferrari.
Barrichello and Kobayashi – continued to do well, finishing fifth and sixth. They've improved a lot this season.
Best of the New Teams is Lotus with Kovalainen and Trulli finishing 16 and 17 ahead of Glock, Chandhok and Yamamoto.
Alguersuari – Started low, and fought through to get as high as fifth at one point, but ended up going out. He gets my Worst Retirement award. It's his first retirement of the season.
Button – Started in fourteenth after a bad qualification, and with no car troubles pushed himself up to fourth. He remains second in the points behind Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton and Webber – both good races. Hamilton got into second behind Webber from the start, and stayed there. When they pitted, they were both so far ahead of the other drivers that they remained in their positions. Hamilton is top of the driver's league so far, and Webber is third.
Alonso – he had a terribly bad race. After a reasonable start, he clashed with Kubica and was deemed to have unfairly overtaken him by cutting the corner. Then Kubica went out, but Alonso was still forced to do a drive through penalty. But before he could take it, Sutil clashed with De La Rosa, and cast debris on the track. The safety car came out, and Alonso had to wait until after the car had gone back in to take his penalty, leaving him at the back of the field. His only consolation is that he got the fastest lap of the race: 1.30.874
Massa – like Vettel, he got a puncture in the first lap, but Vettel managed to overtake him during the race, and more tyre problems left him finishing fifteenth behind Alonso. It's been an unlucky season for Ferrari.
Barrichello and Kobayashi – continued to do well, finishing fifth and sixth. They've improved a lot this season.
Best of the New Teams is Lotus with Kovalainen and Trulli finishing 16 and 17 ahead of Glock, Chandhok and Yamamoto.
Formula 1 Race Ten: Qualifying
Sakon Yamamoto of Japan replaces Bruno Senna for this race, giving him his first time on track this season. The last time he raced was in 2006!
The usual teams went out in the first round of qualifying, along with Alguersuari. He usually qualifies around this position, but finishes higher in the rankings, with an average qualification position of 16, and an average finish position of 12. His best qualification was 12th.
Despite their problems in practice – and having to scrap their new diffusers – MacLaren seem to be doing okay in qualification. They've done well to catch up with Red Bull and the other teams after being a day behind. Sadly, Button qualified quite low, but Hamilton makes 4th.
Liuzzi held up Hulkenberg during a flying lap in Q2. He has been relegated five places down to twentieth, putting him below Glock and Kovalainen. Will this be an issue for the stewards? Neither made it to Q3, but Hulkenberg might have been able to do better if Liuzzi hadn't been there. However, Rubens Barrichello and Pedro De La Rosa both made it through to Q3, which is a nice surprise.
It was also a good qualification for Kobayashi, especially after having been out in Q1 for the past two races. Today he's twelfth.
It's interesting to watch the Formula 1 live timing on their website, because usually they're a few seconds ahead of the BBC. This means that you see who has the fastest lap before it's on the TV.
I'm going to give 'awards' each race: Worst Retirement, Surprisingly Bad Driver, Surprisingly Good Driver, Best of the New Teams, Best of the Rest, Surprisingly Good Qualification and Surprisingly Bad Qualification.
The Surprisingly Bad Qualification goes, indisputably, to Button. He's only managed to make 14, which is far behind his team-mate in a similar car.
The Surprisingly Good Qualification goes to De La Rosa, who has never before made it into Q1, but today makes 9.
The usual teams went out in the first round of qualifying, along with Alguersuari. He usually qualifies around this position, but finishes higher in the rankings, with an average qualification position of 16, and an average finish position of 12. His best qualification was 12th.
Despite their problems in practice – and having to scrap their new diffusers – MacLaren seem to be doing okay in qualification. They've done well to catch up with Red Bull and the other teams after being a day behind. Sadly, Button qualified quite low, but Hamilton makes 4th.
Liuzzi held up Hulkenberg during a flying lap in Q2. He has been relegated five places down to twentieth, putting him below Glock and Kovalainen. Will this be an issue for the stewards? Neither made it to Q3, but Hulkenberg might have been able to do better if Liuzzi hadn't been there. However, Rubens Barrichello and Pedro De La Rosa both made it through to Q3, which is a nice surprise.
It was also a good qualification for Kobayashi, especially after having been out in Q1 for the past two races. Today he's twelfth.
It's interesting to watch the Formula 1 live timing on their website, because usually they're a few seconds ahead of the BBC. This means that you see who has the fastest lap before it's on the TV.
I'm going to give 'awards' each race: Worst Retirement, Surprisingly Bad Driver, Surprisingly Good Driver, Best of the New Teams, Best of the Rest, Surprisingly Good Qualification and Surprisingly Bad Qualification.
The Surprisingly Bad Qualification goes, indisputably, to Button. He's only managed to make 14, which is far behind his team-mate in a similar car.
The Surprisingly Good Qualification goes to De La Rosa, who has never before made it into Q1, but today makes 9.
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