Age and Experience or Youth and Cunning at Shanghai?

30/10/2014

As the old saying goes: "old age and experience will always overcome youth and exuberance!" Well we are not entirely sure that is the truth in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but the statistics make interesting reading anyway.

The youngest driver overall will be Matthieu Vaxivière at just under 20 years old and the oldest will be Mark Patterson, just shy of 63 years old. And…..bon anniversaire to Stéphane Sarrazin who will celebrate his 39^th birthday on Sunday!

The oldest driving roster is that of No.31 ESM entry at nearly (sssh, whisper it) 143 years (Brabham - 49, Van Overbeek - 41 and Brown - 51) with the youngest three-person crew being that of the No.47 KCMG (Howson - 29, Bradley - 23 and Imperatori - 27) at just a little less than 80 years combined.

Remarkably the combined ages of the Nos.1 and 2 Audis and the No.7 Toyota are all 109 years!

So, will experience or youth win out in the fight for honours at the 6 Hours of Shanghai this weekend? The wait is almost over.

List of 6 Hours of Shanghai drivers ages and experience

Car			Birthdate	Age as of 2^nd Nov	FIA WEC starts
1	Lucas	Di Grassi	11-Aug-84	30.24	9
1	Loic	Duval	12-Jun-82	32.4	15
1	Tom	Kristensen	07-Jul-67	47.35	22
1		total		109.99	46
1		average		36.66
2	Marcel	Fässler	27-May-76	38.45	21
2	André	Lotterer	19-Nov-81	32.9	22
2	Benoît	Tréluyer	07-Dec-76	37.92	21
2		total		109.27	64
2		average		36.42
7	Kazuki	Nakajima	11-Jan-85	29.82	12
7	Stéphane	Sarrazin	02-Nov-75	39	21
7	Alexander	Wurz	15-Feb-74	40.73	16
7		total		109.55	49
7		average		36.52
8	Sébastien	Buemi	31-Oct-88	26.01	15
8	Anthony	Davidson	18-Apr-79	35.56	14
8		total		61.57	29
8		average		30.78
9	Lucas	Auer	11-Sep-94	20.14	2
9	Pierre	Kaffer	07-Nov-76	37.98	16
9	James	Rossiter	25-Aug-83	31.2	12
9		total		89.32	30
9		average		29.77
12	Mathias	Beche	28-Jun-86	28.36	15
12	Nicolas	Prost	18-Aug-81	33.22	22
12	Nick	Heidfeld	10-May-77	37.5	14
12		total		99.08	51
12		average		33.03
13	Andrea	Belicchi	18-Dec-76	37.89	19
13	Dominik	Kraihamer	29-Nov-89	24.93	21
13	Fabio	Leimer	17-Apr-89	25.55	5
13		total		88.37	45
13		average		29.46
14	Romain	Dumas	14-Dec-77	36.9	11
14	Neel	Jani	08-Dec-83	30.91	17
14	Marc	Lieb	04-Jul-80	34.34	21
14		total		102.15	49
14		average		34.05
20	Timo	Bernhard	24-Feb-81	33.7	10
20	Brendon	Hartley	10-Nov-89	24.98	10
20	Mark	Webber	27-Aug-76	38.2	6
20		total		96.88	26
20		average		32.29
26	Julien	Canal	15-Jul-82	32.31	21
26	Olivier	Pla	22-Oct-81	33.04	22
26	Roman	Rusinov	21-Oct-81	33.04	20
26		total		98.39	63
26		average		32.80
27	Maurizio	Mediani	21-Sep-68	46.13	13
27	Nicolas	Minassian	28-Feb-73	41.69	21
27	Sergey	Zlobin	29-May-70	44.45	6
27		total		132.27	40
27		average		44.09
30	Ryan	Dalziel	12-Apr-82	32.57	10
30	Ricardo	Gonzalez	20-Oct-78	36.05	16
30	Scott	Sharp	15-Feb-68	46.73	2
30		total		115.35	28
30		average		38.45
31	Ed	Brown	18-Jan-63	51.81	2
31	Johannes	van Overbeek	14-Apr-73	41.55	1
31	David	Brabham	05-Sep-65	49.18	8
31		total		142.54	11
31		average		47.51
35	David	Cheng	21-Jul-89	25.29	4
35	Mark	Patterson	16-Dec-51	62.91	4
35	Ho-Pin	Tung	04-Dec-82	31.92	3
35		total		120.12	11
35		average		40.04
37	Anton	Ladygin	06-Aug-89	25.25	6
37	Kirill	Ladygin	17-Dec-78	35.89	5
37	Viktor	Shaitar	13-Feb-83	31.73	5
37		total		92.87	16
37		average		30.96
47	Richard	Bradley	17-Aug-91	23.22	6
47	Matthew	Howson	25-Aug-85	29.2	8
47	Alexandre	Imperatori	19-Apr-87	27.55	6
47		total		79.97	20
47		average		26.66
51	Gianmaria	Bruni	30-May-81	33.44	21
51	Toni	Vilander	25-Jul-80	34.28	16
51		total		67.72	37
51		average		33.86
71	James	Calado	13-Jun-89	25.39	5
71	Davide	Rigon	26-Aug-86	28.19	10
71		total		53.58	15
71		average		26.79
75	Emmanuel	Collard	03-Apr-71	43.6	10
75	Francois	Perrodo	14-Feb-77	37.73	8
75	Matthieu	Vaxivière	03-Dec-94	19.92	6
75		total		101.25	24
75		average		33.75
88	Khaled	Al Qubaisi	22-Dec-75	38.88	7
88	Wolf	Henzler	05-Apr-75	39.61	3
88	Christian	Ried	24-Feb-79	35.7	21
88		total		114.19	31
88		average		38.06
90	Matteo	Cressoni	28-Oct-84	30.01	1
90	Gianluca	Roda	06-Jun-59	55.44	21
90	Paolo	Ruberti	22-Apr-75	39.55	22
90		total		125	44
90		average		41.67
91	Jörg	Bergmeister	13-Feb-76	38.73	14
91	Richard	Lietz	17-Dec-83	30.89	19
91	Nick	Tandy	05-Nov-84	29.99	4
91		total		99.61	37
91		average		33.20
92	Frédéric	Makowiecki	22-Nov-80	33.95	14
92	Patrick	Pilet	08-Oct-71	33.08	16
92		total		67.03	30
92		average		33.52
95	David	Heinemeier Hansson	15-Oct-79	35.06	16
95	Kristian	Poulsen	18-Nov-75	38.97	13
95	Richie	Stanaway	24-Nov-91	22.94	9
95		total		96.97	38
95		average		32.32
97	Stefan	Mücke	22-Nov-81	32.95	20
97	Darren	Turner	13-Apr-74	40.57	21
97		total		73.52	41
99		average		36.76
98	Paul	Dalla Lana	01-Feb-66	48.77	11
98	Christoffer	Nygaard	24-Mar-86	28.62	12
98	Pedro	Lamy	20-Mar-72	42.64	16
98		total		120.03	39
98		average		40.01
99	Alex	MacDowall	22-Jan-91	23.78	5
99	Darryl	O’Young	26-Mar-80	34.62	6
99	Fernando	Rees	04-Jan-85	29.84	16
99		total		88.24	27
99		average		29.41

Sam Smith

Photos: 1) Audi Sport Team Joest's Tréluyer, Lotter and Fässler have lots of experience and the same combined age as the drivers in their sister car and those of Toyota Racing in the No.7 entry. 2) Matthieu Vaxivière's youth is compensated by great skill in the cockpit, seen here on the right with team mates Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard.

6 Heures de Shanghai 2014