Proud to be British: British motorsport achievements

Following on from my post regarding this year’s National Motorsport Week, did you know:

The Sport

• Britain has produced more F1 World Champions than any other nation with ten title winners; Brazil and Finland are next up with three each.
• Two of the last three F1 World Champions are British – Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
• More British drivers (32) have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans than those representing any other nation, including France (27).
• Guernseyman Andy Priaulx MBE is one of only two drivers to have won three World Touring Car Championship titles.
• The reigning IndyCar champion is Dario Franchitti from Scotland.
• The late Dan Wheldon from England won the 2011 Indianapolis 500
• The UK host rounds of the three premier FIA World Championships: FIA Formula 1 World Championship, FIA World Rally Championship and the new FIA World Endurance Championship.
• There are more than 32,000 MSA Competition Licence holders in the UK.
• The UK hosts almost 5,000 MSA sanctioned motor sport events every year including: autocross, autotest, circuit racing, cross-country, drag racing, hillclimbing, karting, rallycross, rallying, sprinting, time attack and trials.

The Industry

• British-based constructors have won no fewer than 37 F1 Constructors’ Championships well ahead of Italian (16) and French (1) based companies.
• Eight of the 12 current F1 teams are based in the UK.
• British built cars won 18 from 19 Grands Prix in 2011.
• Two of the three premier World Rally Championship teams are based in the UK.
• The top ten finishers on the 2011 Wales Rally GB were all British-built cars.
• The FIA World Touring Car Championship winning team is based in the UK.
• UK companies dominate the design and manufacture of components used in the majority of the world’s competition categories.
• More than 4,000 UK companies are involved in the technology driven world of UK Motorsport and Performance Engineering Industry with an annual turn-over of £6 billion – of which £3.6 billion exported.
• These innovative businesses invest more than 30 per cent of their sales into R&D when the UK pharmaceutical industry invests 15 per cent.
• Motorsport supports nearly 40,000 full and part-time jobs of which 25,000 are qualified engineers.

Makes good reading hey.  I’ve probably missed lots of stuff out, if so let’s from you on more British successes that you are aware of…