Ricciardo crash sees SHOCK driver lead F1 DNF table

A shock driver leads the way for DNFs in Formula 1 this season, perhaps providing reason for their less-than-impressive championship standing.

Williams driver Alex Albon has become the surprising leader in F1's unwanted statistic of most retirements, with the Thai racer notching four DNFs across the 2024 campaign.

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Albon collided with the recently axed Daniel Ricciardo at the Japanese Grand Prix, having taken team-mate Logan Sargeant's chassis the week before in a miserable start to the season for Williams.

Albon’s latest early exit at the Singapore GP marked his fourth retirement of the year, placing him at the top of the F1 DNF standings - a position no driver aspires to hold.

Albon's misfortune

The incident with Ricciardo saw both drivers forced to retire early after colliding on lap one, sending the former Red Bull juniors into the barriers.

The second retirement came at the Emilia Romagna GP, when a botched pit stop saw Albon’s car leave the pit lane with a loose wheel nut.

Despite pitting again to address the issue, a subsequent 10-second stop-and-go penalty left him two laps down. Rather than continue in a hopeless race, the team decided to retire the car on Lap 51.

Albon’s third DNF occurred at the Canadian Grand Prix, after a collision with his future team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Sainz spun off the track but re-entered in reverse ahead of Albon, causing a crash that ended both of their races. Despite swerving to avoid the Spaniard, Albon had nowhere to go and suffered a terminal impact.

Most recently, Albon’s Williams was sidelined at the Singapore GP due to a power unit issue on Lap 17, further compounding the team’s reliability woes this season.

All of these incidents have seen Albon sit down in 13th in the drivers' championship, on the same amount of points as the axed Ricciardo.

Albon leads the way

With four retirements in the 2024 season, Albon leads the DNF standings, edging out Sergio Perez, George Russell, Pierre Gasly, and Yuki Tsunoda, who each have three DNFs.

Meanwhile, his former team-mate Sargeant, who was replaced mid-season by Franco Colapinto, surprisingly had only suffered two DNFs before his exit from the team.

Fans and pundits alike will hope that the Williams team can resolve their reliability issues before the season concludes, allowing Albon to regain form and finish races in a more consistent fashion.

Some interesting statistics between team-mates regarding DNFs 🔥

Who is the most incident-prone driver on the grid? 🤔 😬 pic.twitter.com/mWUAsBiq5I

— GPFans Global (@GPFansGlobal) October 3, 2024

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