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In these days of 20-plus race Formula 1 seasons, it’s astonishing that any driving career from the 10-Grands-Prix-per-year era – in Jimmy Clark’s case, only for seven complete seasons – could amass statistics that still stand strong in the F1 history books.
After all, Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes-Benz, Sebastian Vettel with Red Bull and Michael Schumacher with Ferrari have enjoyed long periods of dominance in the 21st century and have had several more opportunities – both in terms of numbers of races per season, and in career length – to take advantage of their preeminence.
Schumacher competed in 306 Grands Prix, Vettel in 299, and Hamilton in 313 so far – and yet Jimmy Clark, with just 72 GPs to his name (just three-and-a-half-season’s worth by recent standards) remains in several ‘Top 10s’ …