No one will win more F1 races than Verstappen this year

2021 Mexico City Grand Prix stats and facts

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With his ninth victory of the year in the Mexico City Grand Prix, Max Verstappen ensured no one will win more races than him during the 2021 Formula 1 season.

Lewis Hamilton has been the most prolific winner in every season since the V6 hybrid turbo era was introduced in 2014. He can still match Verstappen’s tally, but only if he wins all the remaining races.

Over the past seven years Hamilton has scored no fewer than nine wins each season and has never failed to win the most races. That included in 2016, his only championship defeat during that time.

This episode of Formula 1 was brought to you by the number 19. Verstappen scored the 19th win of his career, while Valtteri Bottas took his 19th pole position and 19th fastest lap.

The Mercedes driver now has the most pole positions of any driver who has never been world champion, surpassing Rene Arnoux’s total of 18. Arnoux’s best championship position was third for Ferrari in 1983, while Bottas finished the last two campaigns in second place.

Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2021
Bottas took an unexpected pole position for Mercedes
Bottas also denied Verstappen the fastest lap of the race, though as he finished outside the top 10 he did not score the bonus point. He now has as many fastest laps as fellow non-champions Stirling Moss and Mark Webber, as well as Damon Hill and Ayrton Senna.

The 21st F1 race in Mexico saw the first podium appearance by one of the country’s competitors. Sergio Perez claimed third place. His team mate did the same at Zandvoort, becoming the first Dutch driver to stand on the podium at home.

How many different countries have seen drivers finish on the podium at home? That’s right, 19. But it’s not quite that straightforward.

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Ricciardo stood on his home podium, then got some bad news
The only Australian driver to stand on the podium at his home race, Daniel Ricciardo, did so in 2014. He was subsequently disqualified from second place due to a fuel flow rate violation. So the record shows only 18 driver have been classified in the top three at their home race. Ricciardo still stood on the rostrum though…

The Red Bull drivers were accompanied on the podium by chief technical officer Adrian Newey. The race marked the 30th anniversary of the first F1 victory for a car he had helped to design, the Williams-Renault FW14, which Riccardo Patrese took to victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 1991.

Patrese beat Mansell in Newey’s first race-winner
Perez also became the first Mexican driver to lead their home race. He hit the front for six laps of the race. However Perez has still spent fewer laps ahead of his team mate than any other driver. He’s been ahead for just 9.4% of all laps where the pair have been on the track at the same time. No wonder Red Bull weren’t too worried about the possibility of having to order him to let Verstappen win.

Fifth and sixth places for the Ferrari drivers moved the team up to third in the points ahead of McLaren. However they had to follow Pierre Gasly home as he took his third top-four finish of the season and drew AlphaTauri level with Alpine for fifth place in the standings.

Review the year so far in statistics here:

Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Mexico City Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.

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2021 Mexico City Grand Prix

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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43 comments on “No one will win more F1 races than Verstappen this year”

  1. Max is at 19 career wins. If he wins next 3 races, he becomes champion with 22 career wins. That would put him 3rd on the list of highest number of races won before becoming world champion. Current leading members in this list are:
    1) Nigel Mansell: 29 races
    2) Nico Rosberg: 23 wins
    3) Alain Prost & Damon Hill: 21 races

    1. Interestingly, at 22 wins he would equal Hamilton’s 22 wins total and 1 title before the start of the turbo hybrid era – adding further 78 wins and 6 titles for him.

      Next year is a new era. Max to do the same (22 wins and 1 title) and history to repeat itself? Damn

      1. Just a Fan

        Interestingly, at 22 wins he would equal Hamilton’s 22 wins total and 1 title before the start of the turbo hybrid era – adding further 78 wins and 6 titles for him.

        He reached that after contesting 7 F1 seasons, and Verstappen is in his seventh Formula 1 season. It’s equal! No wonder why even some LH fans say Max looks like Lewis in the first half of his career in many ways. About right.

        Next year is a new era. Max to do the same (22 wins and 1 title) and history to repeat itself? Damn

        In itself it doesn’t mean much, but I’d rather reject such repetitions of something that was actually pretty boring for the sport. If Max is about to win the way Lewis did, utterly unopposed or inconsistently challenged for such a long time, it’s not good even for many Max fans!

      2. i do not expect that.. the first years there could be a big shake up between the teams. I do hope there is no real dominating team like Mercedes the past 7 years. Its boring and scrambles up every serious statistic about the best drivers.

        1. “scrambles up every serious statistic about the best drivers”
          I partially agree with you there. I know you are talking about Hamilton topping every “GOAT” stat, but seriously there are many factors into play. Let me tell you some off the top of my head:
          – If Schumacher hadn’t returned, his stats would be unreachable. He added just one podium to all his previous stats in those last 3 years. Add to that the fact that when he returned, there were more races per year, so it means he decreased his ratios faster than if he had retired in a different era.
          – Vettel isn’t adding any serious stats recently. As much as I love the guy, he won’t shine again. Struggling against Stroll isn’t doing any favours to his reputation. After he lost his mojo in 2018, he was done.
          – In the past, many greats died before reaching high stats. I am not an expert in names before the 90s, but surely Senna could have racked a couple more championships (and thus maybe decreased Schum’s stats at the beginning of his career with Benneton).
          – Like him or not, even if we claimed (without any way to prove it) That Hamilton only “deserves” half of his wins (which sounds as an absolute stretch), he would still brag a mighty 50-victory statistic. That shows how good he is.

          1. @omarr-pepper

            Like him or not, even if we claimed (without any way to prove it) That Hamilton only “deserves” half of his wins (which sounds as an absolute stretch), he would still brag a mighty 50-victory statistic. That shows how good he is.

            Deserving needs definition here. As far as we know, Hamilton didn’t brag all those wins sabotaging other teams behind the scenes so in that sense he deserves every victory for the value he brought to his team. But it doesn’t mean he faced an appropriate level of competition to achieve those wins. He had it even less than Schumacher in his dominating years, as for five consecutive WDCs Schumi had to fight elbows out until the very end of the season for two of them. As for Hamilton, he conquered six titles in seven seasons (lost one in which there was strong intra-team opposition) and in only one of those the title decision went to the last race, and still with slim chances for his rival. It makes an even less competitive run for the trophies, which already wasn’t ideal about Schumacher and Ferrari domination.
            As such, in the first half of his career, having potentially championship winning cars or at least race winning cars every season, Hamilton scored 22 wins. Given the same level of machinery competition for a second half, with rising stars like Verstappen, Leclerc and others, and giving fast enough cars for old rivals like Alonso and Raikkonen, would be realistic to expect Hamilton to amass much more than a double of those 22 wins? I genuinely don’t think so. He had seven times more WDCs and almost four times more wins in the second half of his career than in the first. Are you seriously implying that he got at least 4 times better as a driver? This is ridiculous.

  2. It’s not to do with the Mexico City GP per se, but should Verstappen win in Sau Paulo with Hamilton second, Verstappen will be in the “Rosberg Position” meaning he can then finish second to Hamilton in all of the remaining races and still win the championship (by 5 points if my maths are right, which was also the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg in 2016).

    1. If Lewis gets all 4 fastest laps and wins the sprint race while Max is outside the top 3, then Lewis would still win the championship by 2 points in that scenario.

      1. Curses to Sprint races and bonus points for the fastest lap!

      2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        9th November 2021, 13:55

        As written earlier if Max wins Brazil and finishes 2nd in all races (incl Sprint) they could tie at 393.5 points at the end of the season in which case Max is WDC as he will have 10 wins to Lewis 8.

        Max can still break the record of most wins in a season without being WDC, winning 11 races and see Lewis win WDC by maximum 24 points.

    2. Assuming neither of them gets the point for fastest lap in any of the coming races…argh that messed up my calculations!

      Also “Sao Paulo”…an edit button would be nice. :)

      1. It’s actually São Paulo…

        1. I added a “pedantic mode” tag, but it was lost… (an edit mode would be indeed nice!)

          1. @miguelbento

            I added a “pedantic mode” tag, but it was lost… (an edit mode would be indeed nice!)

            Yeah, just like saying “his name is not Raikkonen, is Räikkönen”.

    3. @geemac

      It’s not to do with the Mexico City GP per se, but should Verstappen win in Sau Paulo with Hamilton second, Verstappen will be in the “Rosberg Position” meaning he can then finish second to Hamilton in all of the remaining races and still win the championship (by 5 points if my maths are right, which was also the gap between Hamilton and Rosberg in 2016).

      There’s no exactly a true “Rosberg Position” available for Verstappen in this title fight because his rival drives for another team, Provided that the teams remain nearly equal forces until the end of the season, it makes things a lot more unpredictable. If Max wins both sprint and main race in Brazil and Lewis finishes third in the race, does not score the FLAP point and also ending up outside the sprint podium (which happened in Monza), the difference between them grows to 32 points coming to the last three rounds. Now Max can afford to finish second in every remaining race in the Middle East, not even worrying about the fastest lap, and regardless of what Lewis could do he would still become WDC. His situation would not be as comfy as Rosberg’s in the end of the 2016 season though, as given that Max and Lewis aren’t team-mates, if the Mercedes car has a big edge on Red Bull in one of those rounds a 1-2 for them would automatically make things more interesting. Max could make everything right in a given round and still finish third, hence his task would not be as simple as just do the basics and finish at least where you should be and the title is guaraunteed. This is what makes this title fight way more interesting than that one of 2016, even with both being a two-way constest, to all effects since the beginning.

      1. If Max wins both sprint and main race in Brazil and Lewis finishes third in the race, does not score the FLAP point and also ending up outside the sprint podium (which happened in Monza), the difference between them grows to 32 points coming to the last three rounds.

        * The reasoning above works for a 24 points difference, not 32, as there will be three rounds remaining.
        So one example of the combination of results required would be: Max wins the main race, Lewis finishes second and scores the FLAP bonus point; Lewis wins the sprint, Max comes second. Even with those pretty much realistic results in Max’s favour, the difference between the two title rivals grows only 5 points but it already reaches that scenario of almost “Rosberg Position” for Max.
        Come to think of it, the prospect of WDC for Max is looking even better than at first glance.

  3. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    9th November 2021, 13:50

    Max is the 6th driver to win 9 or more races in 1 season.
    First was Mansell in 1992, followed by Schumacher in 1995, then came Vettel in 2011, Hamilton in 2014 and Rosberg in 2016.

    Max is also the 6th driver to score 14 or more 1st/2nd finishes in 1 season.
    First was Schumacher in 2001, followed by Alonso in 2006, then came Vettel in 2011, Rosberg in 2014 and Hamilton in 2014.

    With Max’s 14th podium (9x 1st and 5x 2nd) he is still able to break all time record of most podiums in a season as well as most 1st/2nd finishes (obviously helped by the ever increasing amount of races).
    Most podium record is currently held by Schumacher (17 out of 17 in 2002), Vettel (17 out of 19 in 2011) and Hamilton (2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019).
    Most 1st/2nd finishes record is currently held by Schumacher (16 out of 17 in 2002), Vettel (16 out of 19 in 2011) and Hamilton (16 out of 21 in 2015).

    1. Schumi you legend!

      Also, since the start of the 2020 F1 season, Max has stood on the podium an astonishing 25 times out of 27 races he finished. The only exceptions are Turkey 2020 and Hungary 2021! (that too would have been 2nd at least)

      1. He was also on course for a podium in turkey 2020 before his spin.

  4. First time Max has scored 300 or more points in a season.

    Max’s 14th podium of the season, record for a non-Mercedes driver since the turbo hybrid era.

    Max’s Mexico City win guarantees that the championship will at least be decided at the penultimate round of the season (21 of 22) if somehow (god forbids) he DNF’s all the remaining races including Brazil sprint. This is the first time since the turbo hybrid era that it has happened for championship rivals from different teams.

    1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      9th November 2021, 15:04

      You are correct in case of a Hamilton WDC however the driver championship can be won by Max already in Qatar.
      If Max outscores Lewis by 33 points (maximum 55 available) in next 2 races he is the WDC as he will go to Saudi Arabia with a 52 point lead with only 52 points left available.

      33 points could be 2 wins and a Hamilton DNF.

      1. 33, where have I seen that number before?

        Also:

        This episode of Formula 1 was brought to you by the number 19. Verstappen scored the 19th win of his career, while Valtteri Bottas took his 19th pole position and 19th fastest lap.

        19 is the amount of places lost by Bottas before T2.

        1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
          9th November 2021, 16:52

          Bottas and Riccardio touched 19 seconds after the start, I just re-watched the reply slowly.

          1. Ha, that’s a nice one @jelle-van-der-meer, I also like the one you found there jff!

        2. jff

          19 is the amount of places lost by Bottas before T2.

          But Schumacher and Tsunoda retired on the spot, didn’t they?

          1. Yep, but after passing Bottas, cause they mounted Ocon just before the kerb of turn 2

          2. Jelle van der Meer (@)
            10th November 2021, 11:50

            Yes they did but only after overtaking the spinning Bottas, so prior to spinning back in the right direction Bottas was 20th, a few seconds later he was 19th once he passed the stranded car of Tsunoda and shortly after that 18th when passing the stranded car of Schumacher.

  5. The two retirees had their respective second career DNFs in F1.
    Additionally, this season has had three races in which only one rookie reached the chequered flag (previously MSC in Zandvoort & Monza).

    The fifth race without anyone taking the FLAP bonus point.

    The second Mexico race in which Bottas got lapped and third for Mercedes as a teammate (Hamilton got lapped in 2017).

    Most pit stops by a single driver in Mexico, at least since the 2015 return.

    1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
      9th November 2021, 15:16

      “The fifth race without anyone taking the FLAP bonus point.”

      How did you get to 5? I count 4 this season and 6 in total since 2019.
      2019: 19 out of 21 (Singapore Magnussen 17th and Brazil Bottas DNF)
      2020: 17 out of 17
      2021: 14 out of 18 (Baku Verstappen DNF, Silverstone Perez 16th, Belgium no FLAP, Mexico Bottas 15th)

    2. « I just made a FLAP on my tyres »

  6. 3rd place finishes have been a possession of the top teams’ second drivers more often than not this season. Bottas finished 3rd not less than seven times already, against only one from Perez (a proof that he was doing a far better job as Hamilton wingman than Perez for Verstappen) as late as the Russian Grand Prix, the round 15. After that Perez has finished 3rd in every race, and as such from a total of 18 races already run this season, 12 times it was a driver from Mercedes or Red Bull who finished in that position, always their respective second drivers except in a non-race, Spa, for which Hamilton was “awarded” the lowest spot in the podium. Another 3rd place finishers in 2021 include Norris (3 times), Sainz (2 times), and Gasly (one time).

    1. The first and second places of the F1 races have become nearly as concentrated between two drivers this season, the top teams’ leading drivers, of course. Verstappen and Hamilton finished as 1st and 2nd (in whichever order) in no less than 10 races this season, still the majority of races already run. Among the races in which both finished, it represents two-thirds of the total results. From those “one-twos”, Verstappen has finished ahead more often, 6 times, overturning a deficit of 2 from the first four rounds of the season.
      After finishing right ahead of Verstappen three times in four races at the beginning of the season, Hamilton only reapeated the feat once, in Sochi. It partially illustrates how not so gradually Verstappen gained the upper hand against his title rival along the season, an effect considerably softened by some costly DNFs Verstappen had, at the same time in which Hamilton’s wins became a lot more rare than it used to be not long ago.

      1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
        10th November 2021, 12:08

        @rodewulf That is actually a record in terms of number of times the same 2 drivers not driving for the same team occupying the top 2 steps within a season.

        So far this season (18 races) Max has 14 top 2 finishes and Hamilton has 12 of which 10 were shared with Max.

        If you also include teammates than the 2014 season (19 races) is record holder with Rosberg having 15 top 2 finishes and Hamilton had 14 of which 11 were shared with Rosberg.

        1. @jelle-van-der-meer
          For the recent Formula 1 history, another case of two drivers occupying the top 2 steps many times in a season is 2006. Alonso had a staggering 14 top 2 finishes from a total of 18 races in a Renault which was not dominant (just like Verstappen did for Red Bull this season), and also Schumacher had 11 of these. As for shared 1-2 finishes between them, for some reason it was proportionally a smaller number, 8. But would that make it the third most prolific instance for this record, and the second largest ever for drivers in different teams? Maybe in the times of Senna and Prost rivalry there was a season with as many races in which they shared 1st and 2nd places as well, but they were team-mates during the most iconic part of their history together.

          1. Jelle van der Meer (@)
            10th November 2021, 19:00

            @rodewulf

            Found a new record holder – the 2015 season, see below list of sharing top 2 places:
            2015 Hamilton and Rosberg 12 times
            2014 Hamilton and Rosberg 11 times
            * 2021 Verstappen and Hamilton 10 times (2 different teams)
            1988 Senna and Prost 10 times
            2002 Schumacher and Barrichello 9 times
            2019 Hamilton and Bottas 9 times
            2006 Schumacher and Alonso 8 times (2 different teams)
            2004 Schumacher and Barrichello 8 times
            2016 Rosberg and Hamilton 8 times
            1994 Schumacher and Hill 7 times (2 different teams)
            1992 Mansell and Patrese 6 times
            1996 Hill and Villeneuve 6 times
            2000 Schumacher and Hakkinen 6 times (2 different teams)

            The 1988 season is probably the most dominant any team has been with Mclaren Honda scoring more than 3x the points of the 2nd team, winning 15 out 16 races and Senna & Prost scored 25 top 2 finishes. Also weird is that Prost managed to score 105 points, 11 more than Senna yet Senna was WDC as only the 11 best results counted causing Prost to lose 18 points while Senna only lost 4.

          2. @jelle-van-der-meer
            Wow! Sharing that many 1st-2nd race finishes during a season is relatively rare among drivers from different teams. It requires two nearly equal cars race after race and two top-tier drivers leading their teams, both with team-mates a league or more below them as well. Not the most common of combinations in Formula 1, it seems.

  7. Mercedes’ first front-row start in Mexico since 2016.

    Raikkonen’s best start of the season, having not previously started higher than 13th.

    Verstappen is the first driver to win 3 times in Mexico (Clark, Prost, Mansell and Hamilton all have 2 wins). Still awaiting a 3-time winner of the Mexican Grand Prix, however…

    Verstappen has won at the 3 highest venues this season (Austria, Spa, Mexico).

    Honda’s first and most recent wins as an engine supplier have come in Mexico.

    Sainz’s first ever points in Mexico.

    McLaren have only scored 6 points in Mexico since 2015.

    Thanks to the official F1 site for some of these.

    1. When you say « still awiting a 3-time- winner of the Mexican Grand Prix », what do you mean ?
      Because Verstappen has won 3 times.
      So what’s the difference ?
      The hat trick ?

      Or 3 times in a row ?

      1. This was the Sao Paulo Grand Prix

        1. Sorry, getting ahead of myself… the Mexico City GP!!

  8. Lies, damned lies, and statistics 🙂

  9. Mexico has held 22 races and 9 different engine manufacturers have won it. It means that 41% of races have been won by different engine. That must be high on the list.

    Honda 5 (1965, 87, 88, 89, 21)
    Mercedes 3 (2015, 16, 19)
    Ford 3 (1967, 68, 69)
    Climax 3 (1962, 63, 64)
    Renault 2 (1991, 92)
    – TAG Heuer 2 (2017, 18)
    Ferrari 2 (1970, 90)
    BMW 1 (1986)
    Maserati 1 (1966)

  10. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    10th November 2021, 12:29

    Most interesting stats from Motorsport:
    * 10th consecutive different driver to get Pole in Mexico ranking 3rd in history behind Buenos Aires with 14 and Zandvoort with 11.
    Senna (1989), Berger (1990), Patrese (1991), Mansell (1992), Rosberg (2015), Hamilton (2016), Vettel (2017), Ricciardo (2018), Leclerc (2019) and Bottas (2021).

    * First time in Hybrid era that Red Bull has both drivers on the podium in 3 consecutive races.

    * Verstappen is first driver to win 3 times in Mexico and he has lead the most laps with 203. Previous record holder was Jim Clark with 191 laps, Clarck lead from start to finish (then only 65 laps race instead of 71 now) in 1963 and 1967 and in 1964 till the before last lap.

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