CUE Research · Study 13

Formula One Drivers and Their Wins

Every Formula One driver since 1950, by head count and by the Grand Prix wins behind them.

The question: Do race wins cluster on any number, sign or birthday?

What stands out

  • Clear difference · Birth quarter

    Born since 1950: Jan–Mar appears 96 times against about 67.0 expected (1.43×).

Worth watching, not enough to claim

  • Sun sign

    Born since 1950: Sagittarius appears only 8 times against about 22.3 expected.

  • Birth month

    Born since 1950: Jan appears 37 times against about 23.0 expected (1.61×).

  • Sun sign

    Every driver: Sagittarius appears only 45 times against about 69.3 expected.

  • Birth quarter

    Born since 1950: Oct–Dec appears only 48 times against about 68.3 expected.

  • Birth month

    Born since 1950: Mar appears 36 times against about 23.0 expected (1.57×).

  • Birth month

    Born since 1950: Dec appears only 11 times against about 23.0 expected.

Every driver: every birth quarter is within normal variation of random birthdays from the same years.

Every driver Expected, random birthdays 1896–2007 Clear difference Worth watching

Context What explains it

Most drivers never win a race, and a few win dozens. The wins view asks where the victories sit, and can be dominated by a handful of champions such as Hamilton, Schumacher and Verstappen.

Drivers now start in karting as children, where classes are often set by calendar-year age. The early-year excess among drivers born since 1950 matches the relative age effect found in other youth sports.

Source The data

  • Formula One drivers, 1950–today. Retrieved 2026-09-28. View source
  • Every driver to start a Formula One World Championship race since 1950, with their Grand Prix wins, from the Ergast/Jolpica motor racing database.
  • Verification: 844 of 881 included. A driver is included when the database and a Wikidata racing driver with the same surname agree on the birth date.
  • Expected values: every day of the years each group was born in, weighted by how many people were born in each year, run through CUE’s engine. Weighting matters for Chinese signs and Life Paths, which depend on the year.
  • A difference is called clear only in groups of 50 or more and at least three standard errors from expected. Because each study tests about a hundred values, a clear difference needs 3.5 standard errors; 2.5 to 3.5 is only “worth watching”.

Reproduce it: the raw data snapshots and build scripts are in CUE’s code repository (scripts/data and scripts/build-*-study.mts).

Further reading

  • Ergast / Jolpica motor racing database