For the first time in his Formula 1 career, Max Verstappen has scored victories in two consecutive races.
This should have happened three weeks earlier. He was on course to follow up his Monaco Grand Prix win with victory in Azerbaijan, until the tyre failure which put him out.Sergio Perez picked up the pieces on that occasion, and with Verstappen winning the next two, Red Bull are now on a run of four consecutive grand prix victories.
This is a significant indication of how the pendulum has swung in the championship contest. Mercedes, the dominant team of the eight-year-old V6 hybrid turbo era, had not previously gone four races without a win during that time.
Over the last four races, Red Bull have outscored Mercedes every time, building a 40-point lead in the constructors championship.
Verstappen took his fourth victory of the season in the Styrian Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton has three wins in 2021. Again, the pendulum has swung: In all seven seasons under the current engine formula – including when he lost the title to Nico Rosberg in 2016 – Hamilton scored the most wins of anyone.
For the second time this year Verstappen led every lap of the race. He’s now headed the field for 332 laps this year – 65.8% of all laps raced – compared to Hamilton’s 122.
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Verstappen’s 14th career win puts him level with a trio of world champions – Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Emerson Fittipaldi. He now has six pole positions, equalling Fittipaldi again, along with Phil Hill, Jean-Pierre Jabouille, Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann and Ralf Schumacher.
Hamilton set the fastest lap on Sunday, having had enough of a gap behind him at the end of the race to pit for fresh tyres.
For the fifth time this year, Lando Norris was the first driver home in anything other than a Mercedes or a Red Bull.
He was lapped, however – only four drivers finished on the lead lap, the fewest since last year’s Spanish Grand Prix
George Russell endured another disappointment having run in a strong position, a power unit issue ending his day while he held eighth place. He’s now spent 52 laps inside the top 10 without scoring, 49 laps more than his team mate.
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Review the year so far in statistics here:
- 2021 F1 championship points
- 2021 F1 season records
- 2021 F1 race data
- 2021 F1 qualifying data
- 2021 F1 retirements and penalties
- 2021 F1 strategy and pit stops
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Styrian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2021 Styrian Grand Prix
- Sainz praises Ferrari “teamwork” with Mercedes after unlapping himself from Hamilton
- W Series boss says it will not become a “billionaire girls’ club”
- Mercedes has more than just aerodynamic upgrades coming for 2021 car
- Alonso: F1 rule to ‘improve the show’ helps the big teams
- Is stamping out ‘burn-out’ celebrations a killjoy over-reaction?
Jelle van der Meer (@)
28th June 2021, 13:43
The 4 world champions on the grid together have now started 1,200 races.
In terms of race experience they rank 1st, 3rd, 6th and 8th in the all-time list.
In 4 races Alonso will overtake Barrichello for 2nd and in 6 races Vettel will overtake Massa for 7th, neither of them a World Champion.
Then the top 7 more experienced drivers of all time will only include 1 non world champion.
Sergio Perez overtook Alain Prost and is now 13th in all time points scored list with 802 points, obviously today’s scoring mechanism is far more favourable to score more points.
Max is now ranked 2nd in the most wins without a World Championship with 14 wins, Stirling Moss is 1st with 16 and David Coulthard is 3rd with 13 wins.
This is Max first season in which he won 4 races and also for the first time won back to back races.
The Red Bull Ring is so far Max’s most succesful circuit with 3 wins, Mexico is the other circuit Max has won more than once.
melanos
28th June 2021, 14:51
My prediction: before the season ends Max will surpass the great Stirling Moss (don’t miss The Boy, his recent bio)
By the end of the season Moss will be on top again, ’cause Max will be WDC
Bleu (@bleu)
28th June 2021, 21:15
Moss has lost that honor four times already. Prost, D.Hill and Rosberg surpassed him in wins on years each one won their first (for latter two only) title. Mansell passed Moss in 1991 before taking title next year.
Jelle van der Meer (@)
28th June 2021, 19:03
Forgot to add – first time since 2013 that Red Bull had 5 or more race wins.
Ferrari had 5 in 2017 and 6 in 2018
From 2014-2020 Mercedes had 102 wins (74%) versus 36 wins for all other competitors (17 Ferrari, 17 Red Bull, 1 Alpha Tauri and 1 Racing Point).
So far 2021 only Mercedes and Red Bull have won, with Red Bull leading 5 to 3.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:37
And considering, that I recall, that there were 2 people on the podium not from the top 2 teams in baku it may yet happen that a non-top team wins a race.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:38
Not to mention monaco, where a non-usually-top team could’ve won the race on merit.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th June 2021, 13:47
The fourth-shortest race on the current Red Bull Ring configuration at 1:22:18.925. Preceded by 1:21:48.523 (2017), 1:21:56.024 (2018), 1:22:01.822 (2019), and followed by 1:22:50.683 (2020 Styrian GP).
The 4th-placed driver was the lowest finisher on the lead lap. 3rd in 2018 and 5th the following season, so another occasion of most drivers getting lapped in Austria. 2011 Spanish GP also had lapped drivers from P5 downwards, while the 2017 race had one fewer, so the 2nd Styrian GP edition joins this category.
Max led throughout for the 3rd time in the last nine races (he had only done this once before). His 3rd win at Red Bull Ring ties him with Alain Prost for most victories on this track. He’s never won thrice at any other circuit.
Hamilton has tied the record for 2nd place finishes (43).
Mercedes’ longest winless streak in the V6 turbo hybrid era.
Bottas has more top-three finishes at Red Bull Ring than any other driver. Also, the first for him in four races. All of his top 3s this season have been 3rd.
Red Bull has never had both drivers on the podium on their home track, while Perez had never previously finished in the top five there.
Norris finished lower than his starting position for the first time this season. 5th from 3rd. He’s finished in the top six in all four of his Red Bull Ring F1 starts.
Stroll scored for the 5th time this year but hasn’t yet finished higher than 8th.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th June 2021, 13:49
I should’ve noted the Mercedes winless streak is in the article before posting.
Balue (@balue)
28th June 2021, 16:09
but who is the other one?
Ben (@b3ndy)
28th June 2021, 16:27
Stats are before this race, so need updating, however…
1 Germany Michael Schumacher 43
2 UK Lewis Hamilton 42
3= Spain Fernando Alonso 37
3= Finland Kimi Räikkönen 37
5 Germany Sebastian Vettel 36
6 France Alain Prost 35
7 Brazil Rubens Barrichello 29
8 Finland Valtteri Bottas 28
9 UK David Coulthard 26
10 Germany Nico Rosberg 25
11 Brazil Ayrton Senna 23
12= Austria Niki Lauda 20
12= Brazil Nelson Piquet 20
12= Netherlands Max Verstappen 20
15= Austria Gerhard Berger 17
15= UK Nigel Mansell 17
15= Italy Riccardo Patrese 17
18= France Jean Alesi 16
18= Australia Mark Webber 16
20= UK Jenson Button 15
20= UK Damon Hill 15
20= UK Graham Hill 15
20= Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya 15
MacLeod (@macleod)
29th June 2021, 8:02
It’s earier that Max is also on that list as 12th and probally will pass NIki Lauda and Nelson Piquet this year.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:40
That’s basically a given, would say aiming for senna is more likely.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:40
Maybe even more since he and hamilton seem to be on another level than their team mates.
MCG (@malrg)
29th June 2021, 8:43
Na, wins don’t count, so he will stay on 20 second places :)
Balue (@balue)
29th June 2021, 19:09
@b3ndy Thanks. I guess Barrichello must be have the worst stats 2nd’s in relation to 1st’s.
RandomMallard (@)
28th June 2021, 13:50
I think this is also the first season in the hybrid era that Red Bull have won 5 races in 1 season if my maths is right.
GeeMac (@geemac)
28th June 2021, 14:16
@randommallard Your maths is spot on.
RandomMallard (@)
28th June 2021, 15:04
@geemac Thanks ;-)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:41
That’s very interesting, so now only a couple more wins (on pace they should be fine next race, you never know about reliability) and they’ll have brought a better challenge than ferrari did.
John H (@john-h)
28th June 2021, 15:27
I think massive Kudos to Honda. It must of been completely embarrassing when they underperformed for years at McLaren, and instead of throwing in the towel they kept going and have perfected a Mercedes beating engine. Such a shame they are now walking away, I just hope that they end up winning the championship (at least one of them) this year instead of ‘doing a 2009’ so to speak. Very inspiring to be honest to see what they’ve achieved in the face of adversity.
Balue (@balue)
28th June 2021, 16:10
@john-h indeed, that was grit
Robert Koeck
28th June 2021, 18:03
Couldn’t agree more.
sumedh
28th June 2021, 18:28
This? Again?
Wasn’t Mclaren’s and Toro Rosso’s 2018 season enough proof for this? It took just 9 races for Red Bull to sign them on, Eric Boullier was fired before that.
Lets face it, Red Bull are about to triumph at WDC and WCC by taking a discarded driver and a discarded engine. Its a great story for F1 and a humbling moment for the detractors of the said discarded driver and engine.
Exediron (@exediron)
28th June 2021, 18:55
While it’s pretty clear that McLaren exaggerated Honda’s share of the blame for their struggles, there’s no getting away from the fact that in 2015 and 2016 the Honda engine was absolutely awful. They improved the engine after that, and have greatly improved it since — but let’s not take a complete 180 turn here and rewrite history to suggest Honda was never terrible.
John H (@john-h)
28th June 2021, 23:25
Calm down, I’m paying Honda a compliment. Jeez Sumedh. I remember 2015 and 2016 very well as exediron also mentions. I won’t bother next time.
Mr Fabulous (@mrfabulous)
28th June 2021, 21:41
Nikita Mazepin still has a mathematical chance of being World Drivers Champion!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:43
And will probably now spin less following steiner’s funny gift!
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
29th June 2021, 1:02
Remember when it was announced that the 2021 regulation overhaul was to be delayed to 2022 and the general consensus was that Mercedes were going to win at a canter in 2021? Wasn’t that long ago really. Oh how things have changed. It’s sure shaping up to be a classic season I reckon!
Patrick (@paeschli)
29th June 2021, 7:56
It’s sad that we had to wait 7 years before seeing a competitive season in the hybrid era though
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
29th June 2021, 8:46
Well, I’m sure I’m not the only one who would call 2017 and 2018 competitive, 2017 for about halfway, 2018 for 75% before ferrari fell back and obviously vettel’s way too many mistakes in 2018 when ferrari was performing greatly still. And there’s ofc some same-team competition in 2014 and 2016.
2019 at least had teams able to win races on pace, while never able to mount a title challenge, I enjoyed seeing those races, austria 2019 was great, with the underdogs suddenly being the 1st and 2nd car, with the dominant car being 3rd best!
Pod
29th June 2021, 7:44
“Verstappen’s 14th career win puts him level with a trio of world champions – Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Emerson Fittipaldi.”
This statistic is the best example I’ve seen of why it’s absurd to compare the “results” of F1 drivers from different eras.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
29th June 2021, 7:57
Just putting a slightly different perspective on this. Honda’s success is largely due to them deciding to pull out of F1. Much of their improved performance is due to them bringing forward changes that were not scheduled for production until 2022 or later. They rolled the dice on reliability and performance and came up sixes.
MCG (@malrg)
29th June 2021, 8:49
I agree that the engine has improved, but also believe what Max said to be true, the engine upgrades have been around reliability. The RB dominance is being exaggerated here, Max is winning in the RB yes, but Sergio is trailing with Lewis and Valterri in the middle, I still believe the Merc to be a marginally better car, just being pipped by the RB/Max combination.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
29th June 2021, 21:01
@malrg
The changes were brought in before homologation to improve performance. This engine is significantly different to last years.
MCG (@malrg)
1st July 2021, 1:08
@johnrkh – Please show me the proof of these engine performance upgrades that you have factually stated, I have not seen anything that supports this. There is an article on CRASH about the oil upgrade – https://www.crash.net/f1/news/982312/1/new-oil-has-boosted-red-bull-s-f1-title-charge and obviously airo changes may have benefited RB.
JohnH (@johnrkh)
3rd July 2021, 3:17
@malrg
JohnH (@johnrkh)
3rd July 2021, 3:18
a href=”ww.racefans.net/2021/02/19/honda-reveals-changes-to-power-unit-for-final-season-in-f1/”
JohnH (@johnrkh)
3rd July 2021, 3:39
@malrg Tried to post a link but couldn’t, the article is on this site 19th February 2021. There are plenty of others on the net.
As I said Honda’s 2021 ICE is a new unit with increased power and reliability. Neither Merc or Ferrari made such significant changes. So now Honda has arguably the most powerful power unit on the grid
MCG (@malrg)
4th July 2021, 6:11
@johnrkh – Thanks, that is interesting, it’s fair to assume therfore that the Honda PU is an improvement from its previous generation, but doesn’t confirm that it is now more powerful than the Merc or any other for that matter. It would be great if we could see what the output of the relative PU’s really is, straight power deliver vs what reaches the wheels on the various machines, would be awesome.
Jani
29th June 2021, 8:28
The last time Lewis had four consecutive races without a win within a season was the last time he didn’t win the championship.
Erivaldo
29th June 2021, 14:36
The last 17 races were won by drivers who have the number with repeated digits
Wayne
29th June 2021, 16:02
Lewis is tied with michael schumacher if i remember correctly for mosy 2nd place podiums