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Formula One, these days, can be as much about luck as it is about skill. Some drivers seem to have all the bad luck heaped upon them. Three of the drivers in the F1 paddock got hit with the unlucky stick in this past weekend’s British Grand Prix.

The first, Kimi Raikkonen. Sure, he’s lucky in that for this season his teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, always seemed to have the bum car and Kimi made it through to the end (except for a couple of spectacular incidents), but the last two Grands Prix have been particularly unlucky for him. Each weekend he’s had an engine let go, and in this year’s rules changing your engine means you take a ten-position hit on the starting grid. For the French GP he had the third-quickest qualifying time but started in thirteenth, and for the British GP he was second-quickest and started twelfth. Mind you, he finished second and third, respectively, but had he not blown up his engines he could conceivably have won both races.

The second, Giancarlo Fisichella. French GP, he stalled on his third pitstop and lost a couple of positions. Ended up finishing sixth. British GP, he stalled on his second pitstop and lost a position. Ended up finishing fourth, when he could have come in third and got back on the podium after winning the Australian GP at the beginning of the season. Giancarlo is either really unlucky or Flavio’s got his anti-Fisi device working well.

The third and so far most unlucky driver this season is Takuma Sato. Not only did he get disqualified from the San Marino GP for running with an illegal fueling system, losing his points from that race, he got banned from the following two races. At the European GP, BAR’s first race back after their suspension, he got collected in a first-corner crash that kindly removed his front wing. After pitting and struggling with his car, he finished twelfth. At the Canadian GP he got rear-ended by one of the Saubers which broke off part of his diffuser (an important aerodynamic piece) and his rear wing. Half-way through the race he had troubles with his gearbox. Even though this effectively put him out of the race, BAR decided to change it and put him back out for some testing. To add insult to injury, during this testing his rear brakes locked up and put him out of the race for good.

The US GP he missed because he was one of the Michelin Fourteen. At the French GP he just kept moving backwards, ending up eleventh. An at the British GP he hit the wrong button on his steering wheel while lining up for the grid, which cut his engine. He had to be pushed into the pits where he lost a couple of laps. Ended up sixteenth.

Sato’s the only driver to not score any championship points this season, which is particularly bad considering all four Minardi and Jordan drivers have points (although those were gained in the US GP debacle). Rumour has it that Sato’s unlucky streak is a consequence of BAR’s good fortune last year. See, BAR was second in the Constructor championship last year, so their cars this year are numbered three and four. The three goes to the top driver Jenson Button, and car number four is driven by Takuma Sato. In Japanese, Sato’s native tongue, four has the same pronunciation as death. That’s pretty unlucky, I’d say.