The all-time Formula 1 records Verstappen can break in his dominant title run

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What began as a close battle between Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc for this year’s world championship has turned into nothing less than a rout by the Red Bull driver.

Verstappen is now so far ahead he could clinch the championship at the next round in Singapore, with five races still to go. And while collecting his second title Verstappen also has a strong chance of surpassing a few notable F1 records.

It’s a far cry from the situation last year, when the title fight went down to the final race of the season. Instead of wondering who might take the title, as the last rounds of 2022 approach the question is just how crushing will Verstappen’s inevitable victory be?

Most points

*Did not win championship

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Yas Marina, 2019
Hamilton hit a record 413 points on his way to 2019 title
In order to break the record for the most points ever scored by a driver in a single season, Verstappen needs to take slightly more than half of the available points over the final six rounds. That is certainly within his grasp: He’s scored 127 out of a possible 130 points over the last five races, missing only a few fastest lap bonus points.

The record for most points scored in a season is currently held by Lewis Hamilton. He racked up 413 points over a 21-race season in 2019, which is one round fewer than this year. Verstappen also has the advantage of three sprint races to score more points at and he’s already claimed the maximum points for the two held so far, with one more to follow in Brazil.

But the 2023 F1 calendar looks likely to contain 24 races and the series is looking to add three more sprint events, meaning even more points will be on offer next year. Verstappen might not be able to crack the 500 barrier this season – a perfect run over the final half-dozen rounds would see him finish on 499 – but that target is surely not far off.

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Biggest winning margin

Vettel won the 2013 title by 155 points from Alonso
Over the first six decades the value of a win rose from eight points to nine and finally 10. Then in 2010 it shot up to 25, meaning far bigger points hauls and winning margins became possible.

Sebastian Vettel achieved the most emphatic title win in terms of raw points in 2013, a season which had much in common with this one. It got off to a competitive start: Vettel was one of four drivers to win in the first six races. But after the summer break Red Bull dominated and Vettel was never beaten.

During that time Vettel extended his lead from 28 points to 155 over eventual runner-up finisher Fernando Alonso. Now Verstappen, 116 points to the good over Charles Leclerc, has a serious chance of improving on that. Not just because of the rate with which Verstappen has picked up wins, but Leclerc has only taken two podium finishes from his last five starts.

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Most wins in a season

Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello, Ferrari, Suzuka 2004
Schumacher’s record of 13 wins in a season is within reach
Michael Schumacher pushed the record for most wins in a single season as high as 13 back in 2004, back when the calendar was 18 races long. With 22 races taking place this year, Verstappen clearly has a good chance of beating that, but he can equal Schumacher’s feat of winning 13 out of 18 races if he takes victory in the next two.

Most fastest laps in a season

Verstappen could also take the record for most fastest laps in a single season, but it’s a tough ask. He has five already, the most of any driver this year, but needs to sweep the remaining six to beat the record.

With other drivers out to claim the bonus point that comes with it, this record looks likely to remain in the hands of Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, who managed 10 fastest laps each. Schumacher established the record in 2004 while Raikkonen matched it in 2005 and 2008 – unusually, neither of which was the year in which he won the world championship.

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Longest winning streak

Alberto Ascari, Ferrari, Nurburgring Nordschelife, 1952
Ascari was the first driver to win nine races in a row
It took six decades for anyone to match Alberto Ascari’s achievement of winning nine races in a row. The Ferrari driver was undefeated in every race he entered from the 1952 Belgian Grand Prix until the same race a year later, having not entered the Indianapolis 500 which occured during the same period and counted for the world championship.

Finally in 2013 Vettel entered and won nine consecutive rounds, tying Ascari’s record. That triumph brought F1’s V8 engine era to a close. When the field reassembled at the beginning of the V6 hybrid turbo era, Vettel’s latest Red Bull was not the threat its predecessor had been, and he ended the season win-less.

Today Red Bull are back on top and Verstappen has a strong chance of matching and exceeding the records of Ascari and Vettel. For proof of that, look at where he’s taken his last five wins from. Just one was scored from pole position, the others have come from as far down the grid as seventh 10th and 14th. He’s already won from seven different starting positions this year – a record in itself.

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Earliest win record out of reach

Only Schumacher has won the title as early as July
One significant record which is already out of Verstappen’s reach for this year is the earliest conclusion to a championship. Schumacher’s feat of locking down the crown before August remains the standard.

Two decades ago, Schumacher won the world championship on July 21st. This was the earliest conclusion to the title both by date and in terms of races remaining: There were still six rounds to go.

Over to you

Which of these records do you think Verstappen has a realistic chance of beating? What does his dominance say about his and Red Bull’s performance this year? Have your say in the comments.

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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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54 comments on “The all-time Formula 1 records Verstappen can break in his dominant title run”

  1. In the end all these absolute numbers stats are a quite incomparable throughout the decades.
    The amount of points one can score per race, the amount of races being run per season, are all subject to change. And in comparison to Fangio’s time massive change.
    Add to that things like reliability rules and grid penalties, and F1 and its stats have become a completely different thing.

  2. I reckon the shared most wins in a season record is the most realistically surpassable, given he only needs to win three races from the remaining six or half of them, which is perfectly realistic in his present form.

    1. The Most Points in a season is also within reach, given he only needs 79 to beat HAM’s record, with 164 available.

      1. Looking at absolute numbers make no sense, we have more races than ever and more points for grabs than ever.

        1. Agreed.

          For these stats to make sense, need to factor in how many races in a season, or how many races the said driver participated in. For instance, the most wins in a season stat, Hamilton actually has a higher win percentage in 2020 than Vettel in 2013.

          Hamilton participated in 16 races in 2020 and won 11 races. That’s a win percentage of 68.75%
          Vettel participated in 19 races in 2013 and won 13 races. That’s a slightly lower win percentage of 68.42%.

          The bare stats don’t give a true picture. Context is needed

        2. Not to mention the current points scoring structure is vastly different (larger) than it was prior to 2010 which is why that statistic makes little sense.

    2. I think the most important stat is that Max has 335 Pts, and Ferrari as a team have 405. Which means that Max could potentially beat the team with the fastest car for the first half of the season all by himself. Im not sure when that was last done.

      1. True, that’s an impressive stat, there was the one where ferrari got as many points as all other teams together probably in 2002, but a driver getting more points than the team with the fastest car in the first half no idea, at least hamilton in 2020 got more points than red bull, which ended 2nd in the championship, and that car was occasionally competitive for wins, but never really the fastest car.

  3. It’s very telling Max already at this stage of the season matched Hamilton’s records. All done in a car at best equal or slightly better to his rivals, while Sir Lewis had absolutely dominant machines for 7 years running. It only proves how much better than Hamilton Max is.

    1. @armchairexpert

      Agree with you. Lewis occasionally dropped the ball against his teammates, and found some slump in form, but Max is absolutely on it. The ease with which he’s won races from P10, P14 and P7, despite not having the machinery advantage Lewis did just shows that he’s currently on a level above each and every driver on the grid. Lewis was probably the best driver on the grid when he was dominating as well… but never a league so convincingly higher than his rivals.

      1. For me it’s becoming obvious Max is the best driver in F1 history. Let’s remember he got into F1 at the age of 17, then got promoted into top car mid-season at 18. Faster than Ricciardo in almost every race in 2017-18, but of course was sometimes beaten due to making quite a lot of silly mistakes. Part of learning experience, but we’re still talking about 19/20 year old kid. Ever since he cut mistakes basically to zero, he’s unbeatable.

        I already said it once: if Ferrari/Mercedes can’t make their cars 0.3s quicker than Red Bull, Max will win title after title. If Red Bull is the best car, you see Spa 2022 week-in, week-out and every imaginable record beaten before Liberty say “enough” and introduce measures to nerf them.

      2. Do you imply Max would have maintained this performance driving a Mclaren or even the Ferrari.
        That Redbull is the fastest car by a good margin and it is a consistently fast car.
        It can maintain a relatively higher average speed than the Ferrari which can go faster then slower in a race achieving a much lower average.
        Trust me, Max is an astounding driver, but even Perez could have beaten him a few more times this season but for some issues.

        1. I’m not comparing Max to Leclerc or Norris, and saying he would have done a better job in either of their cars. I’m comparing his 2022 season to Hamilton’s seasons in a dominant Mercedes. Mercedes that had a bigger advantage over its rivals (from 2014 – 2020) than Red Bull has over the rest of the field in this season.

          Sure, Max didn’t start the season in top form, which is why you claim that Sergio was as good on some race weekends.. but you can’t seriously believe that a driver that has been a better part of a second off his teammate for the last 10 races is even in the same league.

          1. Just like you are saying. Best way to know if it’s about the car or about the driver is simple -> Just look at the difference between both drivers in the same car.

      3. I don’t the issue was Lewis dropping the ball against his teammates, so much as Mercedes had a policy of sharing the spoils. When they were dominant they could afford to man-manage their drivers.

        Redbull on the other hand is quite ruthless, so we don’t even get the pretense of inter-team rivalry. It’s a one-driver team and anyone else is just along to contribute to their strategy calls.

        1. You mean you never heard the several teamorders Bottas got? They gave Bottas even earlier in the season teamorders than RB did this year. But many here ignored that by obvious reasons. Mercedes let their drivers race in a completely different situation. When it was clear one of them would be certainly worldchamp, they may race. When RB gave a teamorder ferrari was close in the championship (and the armchair experts here went nuts by this ‘unfair’ decision, like the ‘Bottas, it’s james’ era never happened)

          1. Merc never gave Bottas team orders early in the season. They usually waited until later in the season, when it became clear Hamilton was their main title hope–and even then, it wasn’t often. Maybe 2, 3 times at most over 5yrs. The only exception would be if Bottas had a reliability issue early in the season..their ethos was no team orders early in the season unless either driver had a car, reliability issue..

            RB have used team orders early this season….and Perez doesn’t even have the equipment as Max. Horner has said the floor Perez is using is upto a 10th slower than the one Max is using.

          2. @amam oh, I see you like to play with double standard? If it suits you point, twist the facts a bit in your favor.
            The top 5 of teamorders (and 5 is not 2 or 3) https://youtu.be/VvLycBdR-54
            But the real lust is a bit longer, as you know this for sure.

            ‘Perez driving a slower car’, we all can find the following link in which Horner stated the it’s maximum one tenth of a second, but probably less than that
            https://racingnews365.com/perez-f1-floor-difference-negligible-red-bulls-horner/amp
            In the endless discussion here about the ‘early’ teamorder from RB some found out the first tramorder of MB came in the fourth race in a season (and I will find for you the link, and you will say ‘but it was a reliability issue) The problem here is that the bias is so big it sometimes hilarious. A first teamorder from RB and people got mad here (with exactly the excuse it was to early in the season, but those opinions came surprisingly mostly from the LH fans)…. So I thing the first teamorder from RB this year must be a reliability issue, don’t you think so?

          3. @amam ‘don’t hold Lewis up’ That seems to be a teamorder, don’t you think so?

          4. (@itsme) Thanks for proving my point. No team orders early in the season

          5. @amam thanx for acknowledging your way of thinking. So even when the teamboss of MB says he is giving a teamorder at the fourth race of the season https://www.racefans.net/2021/05/10/wolff-can-relate-to-bottas-reluctance-to-let-hamilton-past/
            People are twisted enough to deny that as a fact,…mmm, interesting.

      4. @todfod reminds me of when Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear compared Senna to Villeneuve

        “Villeneuve was spectacular on a number of occasions, Senna was spectacular every time he got in an F1 car.”

        Verstappen is the best version of Hamilton every weekend.

    2. Or it proves when another team is capable of matching ORBR they drop ball badly. Or it proves that the ORBR team execute a better strategy every race. Or it proves absolutely nothing that ORBR is just the dominant team this year and as Verstappen liked to indulge us, anyone could win in that car (except Perez)!

      1. Max had 1 (one!) race when his car was dominant, and that was Spa. Hamilton on the other hand had 7 seasons of massive car/team advantage and guess what? He couldn’t set any meaningful records because he’s not at the same level as Max is.

        1. Max has, at the very least, the same speed at Lewis IMHO. What he does have is greater consistency and doesn’t make as many errors.

          1. Yes, hamilton has been complimented for his consistency, but in reality, which he rarely made errors back then, he had more off-weekends than other top drivers performance wise.

          2. And example in 2017 I don’t think hamilton did any better than vettel, the points vettel lost through mistakes (a lot less than 2018) hamilton lost through occasional underperformance.

    3. TBF, for instance, the most points in a season, was achieved by Lewis in 2019, when Ferrari had that monster (albeit illegal) engine. Ferrari often had the fastest straightline speed in 2019 and was pretty much like the Ferrari this year—fast over 1 lap with many poles, sometimes fast on Sunday. Overall, Merc had the best car in 2019, much like RB has the best car this year. And Lewis did it in 2019 without the sprint race points that Max has this year and with a teammate who was given equal upgrades/equipment. Perez is driving a slower car than Verstappen, as confirmed by Horner.

      Also, let’s not forget Ferrari had equalish machinery in 2017 and 2018.

      1. edit

        Considering many F1 insiders rated Ferrari fastest overall car of 2018 (e.g. AMuS, Mark Hughes etc)—or Ferrari being at least evenly matched with Merc, Hamilton having the most points in a season, for 2018, is quite impressive.

        1. It seems pointless to even point out anything Hamilton has or hasn’t done. No-one knows if he pushed himself to the limit every race in every season or just enjoyed himself once he saw the job was done.

          There is a snooker player that hasn’t scored as many century breaks as he could of but was still a world champion and number 1 in the world. He just gave up on a break once he knew he had won the frame. Perhaps there is a similar trend? We just don’t know.

      2. There is a lot of discussion about perez’s car. Sometimes he get the updates one race later, but slower car. People who say that are often a fan of a driver who became ladt year second. Probably I missed that source where Horner says that Perez is driving the whole season in a slower car. So, if you can give us your source, that would be nice.

    4. With a car at best slightly faster if not equal to its rivals? You must be joking. Redbull has performance to spare, especially since Spa. It’s a repeat of 2013.

      Let’s not hype Max the same way Alonso was hyped back in the Ferrari days.

      1. Agreed. Todfod stated this “. The ease with which he’s won races from P10, P14 and P7, despite not having the machinery advantage Lewis did just shows that he’s currently on a level above each and every driver on the grid.”

        Max had by far the most superior car on the grid when he won from P13 (P14 grid slot, but only 12 cars in front of him). The RB car in that race was dominant. Even Verstappen called it a rocketship. No different to Hamilton slicing through the field in Brazil 2021.

        IMO, Hamilton’s 2018 win from P14 is more impressive. Ferrari had the fastest car that weekend and was expected to easily win.

        1. Agree, spa 2022 was a reminder of brazil 2021 performance wise.

        2. But in germany 2018 hamilton was really lucky, vettel made a mistake and sent out the SC, so that no other driver had that challenging conditions again and bottas had team orders: unimpressed.

          1. Vettel’s mistake, was in part due to the pressure Hamilton was able to exert. And the team orders myth has long been debunked. Hamilton had already pulled away from Bottas without the team order

      2. Given the username, I’ve just assumed it’s a parody account!

    5. Its important to note that Max’s teammates have severely under performed (with the exception of Ricciardo). If Hamilton had Kovaleinen as a teammate during that time and not Rosberg or Bottas, he’d have more records. Its actually most interesting how many world champions (in their prime) Hamilton’s had as teammates. I think only Prost and Senna had as many or more.
      While there’s no doubt about Max’s quality, his first metric is his teammates and they’ve flattered him. Ricciardo was his toughest test, and he was beating him regularly in their final season together, but by a slender margin (the same as Hamilton and his teammates).

      1. None of this takes away from the fact that Max is absolutely at his peak and a joy to watch. The way he carved through the field in the last few races, it was like watching a video game.

  4. The Ascari record is kinda weird to count it as 9 consecutive wins, as he missed one race that was part of the championship. Yes he won those 9 races that he entered but he had a 7-race streak and he just didn’t race the 8th round (yes I know the Indy 500 was somewhat peculiar in terms of who contested there, but still).
    It would be like if driver entered only 9 random races within a decade (like between 2010-2019) and he won all of them, but like 1 race in 2011, 1 in 2012,… and so on. Would we call that a record of consecutive wins? I doubt it.

    Although it seems reasonable to bet Verstappen can break Vettel’s record this year give his form, he needs to win the next 5 races… which statistically speaking, he’s bound to have a off race or bad luck or a race where the starts align and Ferrari and Leclerc don’t bin it for once.

    1. @black Indy featured in an almost parallel universe back then. I think it’s fair to forego the technicalities of the record on this one.

    2. Although it seems reasonable to bet Verstappen can break Vettel’s record this year give his form, he needs to win the next 5 races… which statistically speaking, he’s bound to have a off race or bad luck or a race where the starts align and Ferrari and Leclerc don’t bin it for once.

      Statistically speaking, it would be difficult to take 5 races on the trot even when you are the fastest car/driver pairings but I think you underestimate Ferrari. They’re trying their level best to ensure that Max wins every remaining race of the season.

      1. I think ferrari will win another race this season, they usually have that odd race where performance is back after a late season slump.

        1. @esploratore1

          They’ll probably get a win after the championship has already been wrapped up. No one really cares about those races, as they are pretty inconsequential anyways.. but that’s when Ferrari would get its act together for a race weekend. They would then create a hype story around that win and take that ‘momentum’ in to next season.. where they would fail even more spectacularly.

  5. It took quite a few years and a change to the aero regulations for Newey to again design a car that is in fact streets ahead of the rest.

    Add to that a driver pairing where there’s a clear No1 and Max has really had a very easy time of it, not unlike a couple of the Merc dominant years, although theirs was primarily PU rather than pure chassis.

    What will be interesting to know is why/how they got it so right, and presumably within the rules, and others didn’t.

    It will be even more interesting to see if any other teams can develop anything remotely competitive for 2023. Otherwise we’ll start seeing the whole mess of complaining about one team being dominant again.

    I say well done RBR and to the other teams, get your collective acts together.

    1. The RedBull and the Ferrari were often within a tenth of each other up until Spa.
      A lot of people are trying to compare them to Merc who could turn their engines down to hide their advantage and still win comfortably.
      Unlike that Merc era too, RedBull are catchable with development.

  6. Years of working together and competing at high level for so long, Max and Redbull (as machinery and as a team) are on another plane to everyone else. They are superbly in sync, Max is driving flawlessly, the team designed a superior car and the team takes the slack of both with the strategy and pitstop pace when needed. I think the only times that was as close as this kind of dominance was 2014 with Schumacher in Ferrari and 2020 (maybe also 2019) Hamilton in Mercedes.

  7. The y-axis labels on the charts seem to refer to other stats RaceFans has previously reported on. Presumably a copy and paste issue! Besides that, an interesting and impressive set of stats once one works out what one is looking at.

  8. I appreciate the work that went into this article, but unfortunately most of the data collected is essentially irrelevant. For instance, Senna never won more than 8 races in a season, but Rosber did manage to win 9 in his last season. Does it mean that Rosberg was better?
    The point is, most of the stats in this article are heavily dependent for interpetation on the number of races in a given season, and without taking this into account the data is meaningless.
    It would be great if the article showed not one picture but two, the second one showing proportions, e.g. 70% of all available points of the season won, 70% of the races won etc. Of course, there would still remain problematic points (a driver who had a pliable tem-mate versus a driver with #1 status enforced), but at least the data would have some substance instead of none.
    Thanx for the effort anyway, the Verstappen/Red Bull combo is powerful this year, indeed.

  9. Surely he’ll pass the wins in a season record. 5 more consecutive wins is a tough Ask though, especially if he continues to start races mid-pack and all the dangers that presents at turn 1. Seb had the luxury of starting on the front row for pretty well all those wins from memory. It’s a frustrating way for the championship to be wrapped up given the early promise, but you’ve gotta hand it to him and Red Bull. They’ve not really put a foot wrong since Max pulled over in Australia.

    1. So going off the track and losing a couple of places in spain and spinning in hungary is not putting a foot wrong?

  10. At least no one can say it was the car. He could have easily equaled his 2022 season in an Alpine or a McLaren.

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