Formula 1 2022 - So it begins

I found last year's format worked really well for summarising my feelings, so I've stuck with it for this year. 

This year started well in pre-season.  

I ask for very little from Ferrari (and expect even less) but one of the things I ask for is for the car to look good. Even if it drives like a lemon, the Ferrari should be the prettiest car on the grid. 

 And oh, the F1-75 is a stunner. Look at it!  

I mean, that car I could forgive being a lemon. But it's not.

   

Very much not a lemon. 

Not just glorious Ferrari victory, but glorious Ferrari 1-2. 

After the race, people were discussing the fact that this broke Ferrari's second longest win-drought. As someone who remembers the great 1990-1994 failures (although at least that Ferrari was the prettiest car on the grid and sounded amazing - when the engine didn't explode), this feels different, because even as an under 10, I knew the 1994 Hockenheim was a one-off, relying on things happening to other cars. This was not that. 

There is hope! And smiley faces.

Formula 1 - Did the fastest lap points make any difference in 2021?

When I last looked at whether the fastest lap bonus points made any difference to anything from 2009 to 2020, the answer was a resounding no. 

Then we come to 2021 – the closest F1 season in years, decided by the forces of chaos made manifest. Surely, if having fastest lap bonus points was going to have an effect, this would be the year. 

The fastest lap points winners for each race can be found below:  

Seven different drivers, driving for four different teams, won points. 

How did this affect the Constructor's Championship?  

It had no effect. 

How about the Driver's Championship?  

*Although removing the fastest lap points results in Norris and Leclerc having the same number of points, Norris stays in 6th because of better highest place finished (3rd). 

So basically, it changes nothing in the Driver's Championship either. 

If the fastest lap points don’t make a difference in a year like this, which came down to the last race, they’re not going to make a difference most years. 

But, I thought, let’s go further. Formula 1 introduced the sprint race points this year, maybe the effect of those masked anything from fastest laps. 

The sprint race points were as follows:  

If we remove those too, does it have any effect on the Constructor's Championship?

   

No. 

How about the Driver's Championship?  

Also no. 

Neither of Formula 1’s most recent attempts at shaking things up have done a thing, either individually or together, to change the result. 

Maybe, just maybe, the problem is in the design of the cars that are too wide to allow any overtaking. 

I am hopefully, if not expectant, that this year’s aerodynamic regulation changes might lead to something of a shake-up. I don’t necessarily mind Mercedes (or Red Bull) winning everything, it’s the fact that I know no other teams stand a chance of even a race win unless those two teams crash that I mind.

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Summary

In total, there were 213 point-scoring moments. Wales had the most with 46, Italy had the least with 16. The ranking by point-scoring momements doesn't quite match the final ranking of the teams. Wales and Italy are top and bottom yes, but Ireland "underperformed" the points they scored and France overperformed theirs. 

178 players were present for at least one point scoring moment. Wales used the most players with 34, England used the least with 27 players (you can't say Eddie Jones doesn't know his team). I was expecting France to be the team that used the most players since France were the team with a COVID outbreak.

The point-scoring moments were reasonably well spread out in time, with interesting peaks at 18 and 65 minutes.

   

No minute had a point scored by all team, but several had points scored by 4/6 teams - including the 18th but not the 56th minute.

   

(Sorry about the slight colour clash) 

The percentage version of the previous:  

Comparing who scored the points for the 6 teams is interesting:  

All the teams are dependent on kickers, as expected. It's possible that Scotland's is less skewed towards Finn Russell than it might be otherwise because of the game time Stuart Hogg got, due to injury or Russell being sent off. 

Ireland are that badly skewed towards Sexton even though Sexton missed a match. This does not bode well for when he retires. 

Players who were on the pitch at the same time:  

This is the players who were on the pitch for more than 28 point scoring moments each. Yes, Rees-Zammit and Tipuric stand out even in this field.

   

Showing which players are on the pitch for point-scoring moments just highlights that the ones on for most are those who don't get swapped off. 

I tried to make a dendrogram of all the teams. To make the labels readable, you need to reduce it to only those players on the pitch for at least 25 point-scoring moments.  

Unfortunately this removes all the Italian players. 

To include any Italian players, you have to drop the cut-off to at least 13 point-scoring moments. 

The same is true for the heat maps. Below is one where the labels are legible (all players were present for at least 25 point-scoring moments)  

Below is the one that includes any Italian players.  

Comparing the heatmaps for the different teams is interesting:  

They're such different patterns. I mean, there's some similarity between all of them but, for instance, the Scottish one is much less dense, while the colouring for "on the pitch at the same time" is tightly packed in one corner for Wales. For Ireland it's packed, but less tightly. England is packed, but more in the middle-ish. I'm reasonably sure I've seen a carpet with the same pattern as France's and Italy's would make a good start for an artwork. 

Conclusion: This has definitely been worth doing, not just from a "learning how bits of R and json work" point of view. Visualising the data has revealed some interesting patterns, which I think reflects things about the teams. It would be interesting to see how things like this look in sports with rolling subs (odd that there's a Rugby League World Cup this year that might fill that gap ;) ) 

Other possible future work could include doing the same thing but looking at which players are on the pitch when points are conceded (although that could be unfair to Italy), or looking at attacking play again, but in the 2022 Six Nations, because there's only been one coaching change in the interim (Italy) and it'll be interesting to see how many of the patterns repeat - Ireland's reliance on Sexton, the very centralised England core, France not scoring (many) late tries. This analysis may be affected by England's enforced change of kicker due to Owen Farrell's injury.

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Wales

Team: Wales 

Number of point scoring occasions: 46 

Number of players present for at least 1: 34 

Who scored the points? 

   

Wales were another team where the kickers scored most of the points, but tries were reasonably evenly spread. 

When were the points scored?  

Wales's points were well spread over time 

Who scored when? 

 

Percentage version of the previous  

The spread of point scorers is borne out when the points per minute chart is coloured in by scorer. 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Louis Rees-Zammit and Justin Tipuric were the only Wales players present for all point-scoring moments. 

 

The "who was on the pitch when for points" line chart shows Wyn Jones, Tomas Francis, Josh Navidi, Dan Biggar, Adam Beard and Jonathan Davies were players who were taken off before the end of matches. Certainly the times for Dan Biggar might explain why Callum Sheedy got so many points.

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored?

Dendrogram

Heatmap

 

What's clear from the heatmap that wasn't clear from the dendrogram is that the Welsh team was very much Josh Adams, Dan Biggar, Adam Beard, Gareth Davies, Jonathan Davies (no relation), Louis Rees-Zammit, Justin Tipuric, Talupe Falatau, Alun Wyn Jones, Liam Williams, Wyn Jones (also no relation), Tomas Francis, Ken Owens, George North and Josh Navidi, with everyone else being brought on only if one of those needed to be taken off.

Matrix

    

The matrix view doesn't show the central fifteen as well as the heatmap, because it shows not just the "core" team, but also the players most likely to be subbed on because Wales scored a lot of points after minute ~65 when the substitutions occurred. 

This is a good example of why producing all three types of diagram is useful. Patterns may be more obvious in one view that the other two, and which of the three shows the patterns most clearly may change based on the underlying data. 

(Files for this: json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Walespoints.json?raw=true 

Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Wales.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Scotland

Team: Scotland 

Number of point scoring occasions: 39 

Number of players present for at least 1: 35 

Who scored the points? 

   

Scotland's points were quite evenly spread between Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, this is partly because of Finn Russell's injuries/yellow cards, but it also shows that they have two attacking prongs, which I think is part of why they did better in 2021. 

When were the points scored?  

Scotland's points are remarkably evenly spread out through out the 80 + extra time minutes. 

  Who scored when?

 

 The point scored by Russell and Hogg are also reasonably distributed by time, neither of them was "the one that scored at the start of the match" or "the one that finished matches off".

 

Percentage version of the previous 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

No Scotland player was present for all the points. Those present for the most were Stuart Hogg and Duhan van der Merwe who were present for 39/41 points.  

Scotland probably shows the best what I wanted to describe with this visualisation, so you can see that Matt Fagerson, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Darcy Graham, Sam Johnson, Sam Skinner and Finn Russell were the players subbed off (I think in Russell's case, to prevent him picking up yet more yellow cards). 

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored?

Dendrogram

 

There does look to be a clump of Hogg, van der Merwe, the two Fagersons, Jamie Ritchie, Sutherland, Turner, Ali Price, Russell, Chris Harris (no, not that one) and Cameron Redpath (who makes me feel ancient) and then everyone else.

Heatmap

    

The number and the mix and match nature of the Scotland team is born about by most of the heatmap being very pale, with only really Hogg, van der Merwe and Hamish Watson always being together.

Matrix

    

That's also borne out by the matrix view, which has a lot of players on it (23), but the previously identified central chunk with lots of players sticking out from it. 

(Files for this: json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Scotlandpoints.json?raw=true 

Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Scotland.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Italy

Team: Italy 

Number of point scoring occasions: 16 

Number of players present for at least 1: 28 

Who scored the points? 

 

Not unexpectedly, the kickers. 

When were the points scored?  

Italy's points tend to be scored in the first 20 minutes of each half. Possibly this is related to the terrible phenomenon of "Italy are in the game for 60 minutes and then it all falls to pieces". 

Who scored when? 

   

(Sorry about the colour clash between Garbisi and Ioane) 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Only Ioane was on the pitch for all Italian points scored, then there's a clump of 6 players (Negri, Garbisi, Lamaro, Bigi, Meyer and Brex) who were on the pitch for 14/16 points scored.

 

Other than Riccioni, there's no-one who is a clear "front row 50th minute sub off", possibly because players who were subs in one match were starters in the next. 

Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored? 

Dendogram

 

Heatmap 

   

The Italian heatmap ... is a Rorshach blot that looks like a beetle. Again, this possible reflects the same thing as the "when players played" diagram, because players who were starters in one match were subs in the next. 

Matrix 

   

As well as Riccioni sticking out (also seen in other diagrams), Lovotti, Cannone and Fischetti do, and I think they're all front rowers. (Double checks) Lovotti, Riccioni and Fischetti are props, but Cannone is a lock so I can't explain that. I will discuss with the subject matter expert and amend if I get any more information. 

(Files for this: json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Italypoints.json?raw=true Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Italy.R?raw=true )

6 Nations 2021 Data Visualisation Project - Ireland

Team: Ireland 

Number of point scoring occasions: 41 

Number of players present for at least 1: 32 

Who scored the points? 

Johnny Sexton. 

   

No really, as an Ireland fan, I am not at all terrified by how dependent Ireland are on a now 37 year old Johnny Sexton. And that domination is with him missing a game due to concussion protocols. 

 When were the points scored?  

A lot of Ireland's points were scored in minutes 30-50. 

Who scored when? 

   

And now the percentage view.  

This view makes it even more clear how dependent Ireland are on Sexton. 

Who was present for more than one point scoring opportunity?  

Only Hugo Keenan was present for all of Ireland's points.  

Because Ireland's team were more mix and match there is less of a "and these are players who swap for each other", except for Josh van der Flier and Tadhg Furlong. 

  Who was on the pitch at the same time when points were scored?

Dendrogram

Heatmap

 

The mix and match nature of the Irish team shows up in the heatmap, with there being sort of a 8 core, followed by another bunch of 8, then a less used 8, then the least used 8 (including Peter O'Mahony who was banned for 3 games after that sending off). There's also more of a weaving of colours.

Matrix

   

Again, the matrix view supports the information from the others, that Ireland swapped a lot of players in and out, with a lot of players in it as co-occurring, even though they missed several matches. 

(Files for this: 

json - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Irelandpoints.json?raw=true Rproj - https://github.com/fulltimesportsfan/6-Nations-2021/blob/main/Six%20Nations%202021%20Ireland.R?raw=true )