Ferrari have the most wins at Istanbul Park, while Red Bull have taken pole in three of the last four races at the track. Here’s everything you need to know about each team’s history at the Turkish Grand Prix!
MERCEDES
WINS: 1, POLES: 0, PODIUMS 1
2020 RESULT: HAMILTON 1st, BOTTAS 14th
Mercedes have competed at the Turkish Grand Prix three times, in 2010, 2011 and 2020. Lewis Hamilton recorded Mercedes’ first Turkish Grand Prix victory in 2020. Hamilton’s win was also the first podium for Mercedes at Istanbul Park. Their previous best result was fourth place for Michael Schumacher in 2010. From their two previous appearances, Schumacher’s twelfth place in 2011 is the only entry with which they have failed to score – but Valtteri Bottas added to that in 2020, coming home only fourteenth.
The Brackley-based team have also appeared at Istanbul Park as BAR Honda, Honda and Brawn GP. Jenson Button won here for the latter team in 2009. Honda failed to score at the track in both 2007 and 2008. Rubens Barrichello is the only driver to record a retirement for the team under any of its guises at this circuit. He failed to finish the race in 2009.
Mercedes’ best Turkish Grand Prix qualifying result is third place for Nico Rosberg in 2011. In the rain-hit 2020 qualifying session, Hamilton qualified only sixth, while Bottas was ninth. Both of the team’s cars reached Q3 in both 2010, 2011 and 2020. The team’s best qualifying result prior to that is Jenson Button’s front row start for Brawn GP in 2009.
At the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix, Red Bull became the third team to have recorded a 1-2 finish at Istanbul Park, with Sebastian Vettel winning and Mark Webber finishing as runner-up. That race was a smoother affair than one year previously, when the pair famously clattered into each other, with Vettel retiring and Webber finishing third. 2009 is the only other year in which Red Bull have recorded a podium result at the circuit, with both drivers finishing in the top three. In 2020, Max Verstappen finished sixth, while Alex Albon finished two seconds behind his team-mate in seventh. 2006 and 2007 are the only years where Red Bull have failed to score at the event; with those two years also being the only times a Red Bull car has failed to reach the chequered flag in Turkey (David Coulthard in 2006 and Mark Webber in 2007).
Red Bull took pole position at all of the last three Turkish Grands Prix prior to its hiatus and locked out the front row in 2011. Verstappen narrowly missed out on pole in 2020, lining up on the front row, with team-mate Albon qualifying fourth. Both cars have qualified in the top ten at Istanbul Park in every race here since 2008, while Christian Klien, who qualified tenth in 2005, is their only other top ten qualifier at the track. David Coulthard recorded the team’s worst qualifying result at the venue, and their only Q1 exit here, in 2006.
RED BULL
WINS: 1, POLES: 3, PODIUMS: 5
2020 RESULT: VERSTAPPEN 6th, ALBON 7th
McLAREN
WINS: 2, POLES: 1, PODIUMS: 6
2020 RESULT: SAINZ 5th, NORRIS 8th
McLaren have taken victory at the Turkish Grand Prix twice – with Kimi Raikkonen in 2005, and with Lewis Hamilton in 2010. The team scored a 1-2 finish at the circuit in 2010. McLaren have taken six podium finishes in total at the Turkish Grand Prix. 2009 is the only season in which the team failed to score at the track, while Raikkonen recorded their only other non-points finish with a DNF here in 2006. In 2020, Carlos Sainz finished fifth, with Lando Norris eighth.
McLaren have one pole position to their name at the Turkish Grand Prix, courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen in 2005. They have had a further three front row starts since then, in 2007, 2008 and 2010. The team has qualified with both cars in the top six in four of the last six races at Istanbul Park. The exceptions were in 2009, when Heikki Kovalainen was eliminated in Q2 and Lewis Hamilton recorded the team’s worst qualifying result with a Q1 exit and sixteenth on the grid, and in 2020 – when both drivers were out in Q2. Pedro de la Rosa’s twelfth place in 2006 is the only other occasion that a McLaren driver has failed to reach Q3 in Turkey.
This will be Aston Martin’s first appearance at the Turkish Grand Prix – but the Silverstone-based team have previously appeared at the event as Jordan, Midland, Spyker, Force India and Racing Point. Prior to 2020, the Silverstone-based team scored only once at Istanbul Park, with a ninth place finish for Adrian Sutil in 2010. That year was the first since the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix that both of the team’s cars reached the chequered flag. Both cars scored last year, with Sergio Perez taking the team’s first podium finish at the circuit, while Lance Stroll came home in ninth.
Prior to the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix, the team had never qualified higher up the grid than eleventh at Istanbul Park, with that best result being recorded by Adrian Sutil in 2010. But in 2020, Stroll took pole position in a damp qualifying session, while Perez qualified third. The team recorded double Q1 exits as Spyker in 2007 and as Force India in 2008. 2011 marked the first time that both of the team’s cars reached Q2 at Istanbul Park.
ASTON MARTIN
WINS: 0, POLES: 1, PODIUMS: 1
2020 RESULT: PEREZ 2nd, STROLL 9th
ALPINE
WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 2
2020 RESULT: RICCIARDO 10th, OCON 11th
Team Enstone have recorded two podium finishes at the Turkish Grand Prix, with second place finishes for Fernando Alonso and Renault in both 2005 and 2006. The team has a 100% finish rate at the circuit, with none of their drivers having recorded a retirement. The 2009 Turkish Grand Prix is the only Istanbul Race in which the team has failed to score, though even in that race Alonso finished in tenth place. Last year, Daniel Ricciardo finished tenth, with Esteban Ocon one position further back.
There have been only two occasions on which a driver for Team Enstone has failed to reach Q3 at the Turkish Grand Prix. Both times, that driver was Nelson Piquet Jnr., who qualified in seventeenth in both 2008 and 2009. The team’s best qualifying result here is second place for Giancarlo Fisichella in 2005. Fernando Alonso also qualified in the top three that season. The team’s drivers qualified in seventh and ninth in both 2010 and 2011. Last year, Ricciardo recorded the team’s best Turkish Grand Prix qualifying result since 2006 with fifth place, while Ocon qualified seventh.
After failing to score points in the first Turkish Grand Prix in 2005, Ferrari went on to win the next three races at Istanbul Park, with the team recording double podium finishes in all three years. The team recorded a 1-2 finish in 2007. In the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso scored the team’s first podium at Istanbul Park since 2008 as he finished in third place. In 2020, Sebastian Vettel secured the team’s latest podium finish at the track, overtaking team-mate Charles Leclerc in the final corners. The 2005 Turkish Grand Prix remains the only Istanbul Park race in which Ferrari have failed to score, while Felipe Massa’s retirement from that race remains their only DNF at the track.
Ferrari locked out the front row for the Turkish Grand Prix in 2006, and Felipe Massa went on to take a further two pole positions for the team at the circuit in the following two seasons. Since 2008, Fernando Alonso is the only Ferrari driver to qualify in the top five at the event, doing so with fifth place in 2011. 2005 and 2020 are the only years in which neither Ferrari driver qualified in the top ten for the Turkish Grand Prix. Both drivers were out in Q2 in 2020. 2010 is the only other year when a Ferrari driver has failed to qualify inside the top ten.
FERRARI
WINS: 3, POLES: 3, PODIUMS: 8
2020 RESULT: VETTEL 3rd, LECLERC 4th
ALPHATAURI
WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0
2020 RESULT: KVYAT 12th, GASLY 13th
The Red Bull junior team scored their first points at Istanbul Park at the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix. Sebastien Buemi finished ninth in 2011, beating their previous best result of twelfth, which was recorded by Jaime Alguersuari in the previous season. Buemi’s points remain the only time that this team has scored at the Turkish Grand Prix. From their fourteen entries at the circuit, the team has failed to finish only twice, with a retirement for Vitantonio Liuzzi in 2006 and a non-finish for Sebastien Bourdais in 2008.
A Toro Rosso driver never appeared in Q3 at the Turkish Grand Prix, with the team’s best qualifying result being fourteenth. That result was recorded by Sebastian Vettel in 2008 and Sebastien Buemi in 2010. The team had both cars eliminated in Q1 at the track in 2006, 2007 and 2009. Both cars reached Q2 in 2010 and 2011. In 2020, Pierre Gasly qualified fifteenth, while Daniil Kvyat was out in Q1.
While this is only the second appearance at Istanbul Park for the Alfa Romeo name, the Sauber team competed in all seven previous Turkish Grands Prix. Sauber scored in all of the last five races at the track, with a best result of fourth recorded by Nick Heidfeld in 2007 and Robert Kubica in 2008. From their fourteen entries, Felipe Massa was the only Sauber driver to record a retirement at the Turkish Grand Prix. He was out on Lap 29 in 2005. In 2020, neither of the team’s drivers scored for the first time at the track since 2006. Kimi Raikkonen finished fifteenth, while Antonio Giovinazzi retired.
2011 was the first time that neither Sauber driver qualified in the top ten at Istanbul Park. The team returned to Q3 at the circuit in 2020 under their Alfa Romeo guise. The team also reached Q3 with both cars in 2006, 2007 and 2008, with a best qualifying result of fifth – recorded by Robert Kubica in 2007 and 2008. Kamui Kobayashi recorded the team’s first Q1 exit at the track in 2011 after failing to set a qualifying time. He fought back in the race to tenth place and picked up a point.
ALFA ROMEO
WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0
2020 RESULT: RAIKKONEN 15th, GIOVINAZZI DNF
HAAS
WINS: 0, POLES: 0, PODIUMS: 0
2020 RESULT: MAGNUSSEN DNF, GROSJEAN DNF
In 2020, Haas were the only team with no past experience at the Turkish Grand Prix. The event last appeared on the calendar in 2011, five years before the team joined the sport. Both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were eliminated in Q1 on the team’s first appearance. Neither driver reached the end of the race.
Williams last scored at the Turkish Grand Prix in 2009, when Nico Rosberg recorded the team’s best result at the circuit with fifth place. Rosberg is the only driver to have scored for Williams at Istanbul Park, having also finished seventh in 2007 and eighth in 2008. Williams have recorded five retirements at the circuit, including a double DNF in the first race here in 2005.
2005 is the only season in which both Williams drivers qualified in the top ten for the Turkish Grand Prix, with Nick Heidfeld recording the team’s best qualifying result at the track with sixth place. Since then, the team have qualified in the top ten three times – tenth for Mark Webber in 2006, eighth for Nico Roberg in 2007 and ninth, also for Rosberg, in 2009. Until 2020, Kazuki Nakajima was the only Williams driver to record a Q1 exit at Istanbul Park, doing so in 2008. Both George Russell and Nicholas Latifi were out in Q1 last year.
