I usually like the BBC's data visualisations - but then this happened...

The BBC website generally provides excellent examples of how to present information. I have learnt a lot from studying material produced by the BBC. So imagine my disappointment when I encountered the following today  ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36671922):

The first issue is why the BBC felt that it was necessary to have a chart at all. There are three drivers having won 5, 4 and 3 times respectively. A simple table, such as the following, would have conveyed this information more clearly

Aside form the poor use of font weight, the BBC chart has managed to get the drivers' names to align vertically, making them hard to read. Choosing a horizontal bar chart, rather than a vertical column chart, would have avoided this. For example:

I think the graph above is entirely clear. But if the BBC needed to add some more visual interest, they could have added further embellishments,  such as using a pictograph:

This is quite easy to do with Excel. The example above took about ten minutes, most of which was creating a suitable image file. With a  little more time and care it could be made much more aesthetically pleasing, although for some reason these types of graphs always make me think of the 1950s.

Perhaps later today the BBC may update their graphic - maybe on aesthetic grounds - but preferably also because the data will have changed!