Finishing at the bottom of the standings is never a good feeling. But Pierre Gasly would not mind this one. He has not bothered the scoreboard in the unofficial ‘World Destructors’ Championship’ that keeps a record of the car damage repair bills of F1 drivers.
The 2024 season has been the most competitive of the ground-effect era. And there have been several crashes in many rounds of the campaign. After 21 rounds, Gasly has not had a single incident. Not even a tire puncture.
If he manages to have a clean triple-header, Gasly will become the first full-time driver in F1 history to have cost his team $0 in damages. With many drivers binning and beaching their cars every other weekend, this is a staggering stat that has escaped the attention of even hardened F1 fans. Barring a few data nerds who pointed it out on social media.
Pierre Gasly is set to become the first full-time driver in F1 history to not cost his team a single dollar in damages over an entire season.
Not even a single puncture, cracked chassis, or broken wing in 2024.
This is an insane stat that isn’t being spoken about pic.twitter.com/y8bvE10kBR
— ۟ (@hamiltonprop_) November 17, 2024
In contrast, Gasly’s teammate Esteban Ocon has cost Alpine more than $1 million. He could be adding more. Ocon’s races have mostly been incident-free, but a near collision with Gasly in Monaco resulted in a crash into the barriers. That incident pushed his damages bill into the million mark.
Out of the 23 drivers who have driven in 2024, Gasly is, understandably, last in this Destructors’ Championship. The next full-time driver above him is Valtteri Bottas, who has made Sauber pay $125k so far.
At the top, there are the usual suspects. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez has not been able to contribute to the Milton-Keynes-based team’s Constructors’ title tally this season. But he will likely finish P1 in the Destructors’ race. With $4.8 million spent in crashes, Perez leads Alex Albon in this unwanted list by around $200k.
