F1: What is the equivalent of a GP win in other sports? And a championship?

It's much more important than a test century.

F1 drivers: out of 720 drivers to have qualified, only 101 have actually won a race (14%).

For the 8 major cricket nations (playing against only the other 8 proper nations to avoid thrashings of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh clouding the picture), 607 out of 1742 specialist batsmen have scored a test century (34.8%). 3002 centuries have been scored by the specialist batsmen of the top 8 countries playing against each other, in just 1746 matches.

Test centuries are therefore comparatively easy to come by.

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It's less important than winning a tennis grand slam tournament.

Imagine you had a driver dominanting F1 like Schumacher almost continuously; tennis has had Borg, McEnroe, Lendl, Wilander, Edberg, Sampras and Federer as successively brilliant players, and since they started winning grand slams between them in 1974 there have 142 Grand Slam tournaments...those men have won 68 of those between them. Add Connors, Becker and Agassi and then just 10 men have won 90/142 events, or 63%. The other thousands of player to enter have won just 52 (37%) of the events between them (and Nadal, Courier and Vilas account for 14 of those).

So winning a grand slam event is fairly impossible compared to winning a GP.

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I'd liken a GP win to winning a main tour event (NOT a Major, they are almost as hard to come by as the tennis version) on the European Golf Tour. The list of winners is fairly restricted, and several only ever win once in a long career, both of which are points of direct comparison with F1. One golfer can dominate, but never wins all the events in a year as many uncontrollable factors come into play, just like in F1.

As to an F1 championship, I think that's directly relatable to finishing the year as world number one in tennis. Very hard to do, and only a select few ever manage it.

There have been 15 end-of-year number ones since 1973 (the first year of rankings), or one every 2.33 years. That compares to 30 champions in 59 years of F1, one every 1.97 years...ok, so it's a little bit harder to finish the year as tennis number one, but it is fairly comparable.

EDIT @allan

The TDF comparison isn't bad, but cycling really is too much about the rider and not his equipment for it to be like F1. I'd say that winning a TDF stage is a lot harder than winning a GP, simply because so many riders have a chance every single time. Only very good riders win more than once in their careers - for many riders a TDF stage win is the highlight of their career - and only specialist sprinters or time-triallers win multiple stages on a regular basis, but that comes at the expense of not having a chance of winning the whole Tour.

The TDF is won and lost in the mountains, but the people who win there are rarely the most competitve elsewhere. Only all-round greats like Lance Armstrong, Miguel Indurain or Eddie Merckx win different types of stages regularly.

Hi Firefox. That is a toughie!

I agree with Rosbif that it's not comparable with a cricket century (less in comparison), nor with the tennis Grand Slam (more in comparison), for the reasons he exactly described.

Keeping with the cricket theme, how about this...winning a test match in a series (especially the Ashes)? I know it's shorter ie. typically over only 5 tests, but a huge achievement, with an even bigger one to aim for ie. to take the series.

Or, how about winning an FA cup game? Yes I know the format is different ie. it's a knockout whereas F1 is essentially a league, but the aim of the "big" title of FA Cup winners is then the pinnacle. I'm not suggesting that winning a footie league game is the same because there are so many more matches than there are F1 races, so it doesn't make each win as much of an achievement compared to a GP win.

I think it's tricky comparing F1 WDC to team sports. Golf, tennis etc. are the natural ones to compare with.

Failing these, Julian's "personal Monaco GP" whilst slogging through the muddy, cold English countryside (I have bad memories of that, not personally WITH Julian!), is certainly a main contender, and he even got a podium! ;-)

Hey Firefox, I've been thinking about this for a couple of days, and was going along with the golf-tennis comparison, although neither of them have 1 world champion and being ranked number 1 isn't the same (look at the current women's tennis number 1)

So here's my suggestion..

The Tour de France, 21 stages to win over 3500km, and 1 champion at the end of it. A stage win is a big achievement, multiple Tour winners become world famous (Lance Armstrong) and it all kicks of at Monaco!

Don't know what the world wide coverage is like, its certainly a hugh event in Europe and pretty big in the US I think.

So there you go, I like to be different! :-)

PS I heard that Julian was black flagged in that race for overtaking under waved yellow's! :-o

Edit rosbif, good points about the TDF, but surely a bicycle has more in common with an F1 car than a golf club has, it's got wheels and things! lol

Edit Julian, That was a cheap shot! lol

Coming 3rd in the New Forest county schools cross county championship 1995, I could of been a star, it was my own little Monaco GP.