Max Verstappen broke a 71-year-old F1 record at the recent Brazilian GP, which adds to a very long list of feats he has set during a dominant 2023 championship-winning campaign
Max Verstappen is statistically having the greatest Formula 1 season in history after breaking yet another record at last weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver secured a record-extending 17th victory of the 2023 season at Interlagos, which also means he has broken Alberto Ascari’s 71-year-old record.
No matter what happens in the final two races of 2023, Verstappen will finish the campaign with the highest percentage of wins in a season, surpassing Ascari’s 75% from 1952.
But, what is every record Verstappen has either broken or matched in 2023 and which ones could he still beat with the Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix still to come?
F1 records Verstappen has set in 2023
*indicates record still ongoing
F1’s highest percentage of wins in a season*
In only F1’s third season, Ascari became a world champion after winning six of the eight races that year for Ferrari. It is a win percentage that the likes of Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel could not even break during their championship-winning campaigns.
But then came Verstappen. Being far and away the most dominant driver in 2023, he has so far won 17 of the 20 races this year, which gives Verstappen a win percentage of 85%.
Considering there are two rounds left this season, the lowest his percentage could drop to is 77.3% whereas the highest it can increase to – probably the more likely scenario – is 86.4%.
PHOTO BY: SIMON GALLOWAY / MOTORSPORT IMAGES
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19, 1st position, parks his car in Parc Ferme
F1’s most wins in a season*
While Verstappen broke Ascari’s record in Sao Paulo, he is also beating his own. In 2022, Verstappen won 15 grands prix which surpassed Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record of 13 victories in 2004 and 2013, respectively.
But, amazingly, Red Bull and Verstappen have taken it to new heights in 2023. Verstappen now stands at 17 victories for the season where he surpassed his total from 2022 at October’s Mexico GP. It seems very plausible that he will take that tally up to 19 for the season.
F1’s most consecutive wins
Verstappen is continuing to break the records set by Red Bull’s other drivers’ world champion. Vettel won the final nine races of the 2013 season, which broke the previous record of seven straight wins set by Ascari and Schumacher.
It initially looked as though Vettel’s record would stand for quite some time, but a decade on Verstappen became untouchable. He started the run by winning the Miami GP in May, before matching Vettel’s record at Verstappen’s rain-hit home race in Zandvoort three months later. The Red Bull driver then won a 10th consecutive race at the Italian GP a week after, before Carlos Sainz’s victory in Singapore ended Verstappen’s record-breaking run.
F1’s most wins from pole in a season*
The grand prix is not won on a Saturday (or Friday for the sprint race format), but if Verstappen achieves pole then it’s quite a foregone conclusion what will happen. The Red Bull driver has converted all of his pole positions into victory in 2023.
That means he has won 11 races from pole this season, which beats Nigel Mansell and Vettel’s record of nine in 1992 and 2011, respectively.
F1’s most consecutive wins from pole position*
While Verstappen has converted all 11 poles this season into victory, it is part of a wider record that the Red Bull driver currently owns.
He has converted his past 15 pole positions into victory, a run which dates back to the 2022 Dutch GP. The last time he failed to convert a pole into victory was the 2022 Austrian GP, which was won by Charles Leclerc.
PHOTO BY: JAKE GRANT / MOTORSPORT IMAGES
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st position, arrives in Parc Ferme
F1’s most hat-tricks in a season*
Of those 11 poles, five have been part of a hat-trick. This is when a driver achieves pole position, race win and the fastest lap on a grand prix weekend. With Verstappen so far doing that five times in 2023 (Spain, Austria, UK, Japan and Qatar) it equals the total achieved by Ascari in 1952 and Schumacher in 2004.
F1’s most points in a season*
When race wins became worth 25 points in 2010, the point tallies have become a lot higher. For example, Schumacher scored 148 points in his final championship-winning year which is a total the top six drivers passed in the 2022 standings.
Nevertheless, Verstappen has achieved the most points in a single F1 campaign. This is another record of his own that he has beaten from 2022. In Verstappen’s second title-winning campaign the Red Bull driver scored 454 points which beat Hamilton’s record of 413 from 2019. In 2023, Verstappen has blown that out of the water by so far scoring 524 points with 52 left available for the season.
F1’s most podiums in a season*
This is another one where in 2023 Verstappen has surpassed his own record, but not from 2022. During his legendary 2021 championship fight with Hamilton, the Red Bull driver scored 18 podiums which was one more than the previous record set by Schumacher, Vettel and Hamilton.
Verstappen followed it up in 2022 by joining his fellow world champions with 17 podiums in a season, before breaking his own record in 2023. He has so far stood on the podium 19 times, with Singapore being Verstappen’s only finish outside of the top three. That meant Schumacher’s 2002 campaign remains the only time a driver has stood on the podium at every race.
F1’s most consecutive top two finishes
This is a record that dates back to the 2022 season finale in Abu Dhabi. That victory at Yas Marina Circuit started a run of 15 consecutive top two finishes for Verstappen, which ended at the 2023 Singapore GP. It meant Verstappen matched Schumacher’s record from 2002 of most consecutive top two finishes. Behind the pair is Hamilton on 12, which he set across 2014 and 2015.
F1’s most laps led in a season*
Verstappen remarkably broke this record with five grands prix (and two sprint races) left in the season. At the Qatar GP, the triple world champion overtook Vettel’s record of leading 739 laps in a season en route to his victory in the middle east. Verstappen now holds the record at 922 and counting.
PHOTO BY: ERIK JUNIUS
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
F1’s most pitstops by the winning driver in one race
Probably one of the more peculiar records set by Verstappen. He joined Jenson Button in making six pitstops en route to a race victory at the 2023 Dutch GP.
The 2009 world champion first set the record at the dramatic 2011 Canadian GP. The race started under safety car conditions due to rain, and it was not until late on that a victory appeared likely for Button. At first, he endured a horrible outing that included putting team-mate Hamilton out of the grand prix. His sixth and final stop placed the McLaren driver last, but that was Button’s saving grace as he became the only driver on slick tyres.Amid drying conditions, he quickly cut his way through the field before taking first on the final lap after Vettel went wide at Turn 6.
Meanwhile, Verstappen’s home race was much less dramatic. Although drivers were forced to pit for intermediate tyres by the end of lap three after starting on slicks, before conditions then constantly changed between wet and dry, Verstappen led the race throughout to take victory.
F1’s most races left in a season before championship win
It became clear very early on that Verstappen would become a triple world champion in 2023. His season has been that dominant that the Red Bull driver sealed the championship in October after the Qatar GP sprint race.
Because he did it after a sprint race, it meant Verstappen clinched the title with six grands prix left in the season. It is a record he holds with Schumacher, who achieved that feat in 2002. He won his fifth championship at the season’s 11th round where he won the French GP.
F1 records Verstappen could break before the end of 2023
F1’s most consecutive points scored
Hamilton amassed a record 998 consecutive points from the 2018 British GP until the 2020 Bahrain GP. It is a streak which ended when he missed the Sakhir GP which followed, because the seven-time world champion tested positive for COVID-19.
That might come back to cost Hamilton this record, as Verstappen has currently scored 953 consecutive points. He started this current run of point scoring form with a victory at the 2022 Emilia Romagna GP, after he retired from the Australian GP two weeks’ prior.
PHOTO BY: CARL BINGHAM / MOTORSPORT IMAGES
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18
With 52 points left available in the 2023 season, Verstappen is well placed to overtake Hamilton’s tally of 998 as the Red Bull driver could take his total up to 1,005.
F1’s biggest points gap between first and second in the championship
Not many things highlight Verstappen’s dominance in 2023 more than the margin he holds in the championship. Especially when it is over team-mate Sergio Perez in the same machinery. At the time of writing, Verstappen holds a 266-point gap over second-placed Perez in the championship. In fact, that gap is actually bigger than the 258 points Perez has currently amassed over the whole 2023 season.
As there are just 52 points left available to score this season, it means Verstappen will surpass Vettel’s record winning margin of 155 points over Fernando Alonso in 2013.
Highest percentage points difference between first and second in championship
While Vettel had the record for biggest championship winning margin before 2023, it was Mansell and Jacques Villeneuve who held the largest margin in terms of percentage. In 1992, Mansell scored 48.1% more points than Riccardo Patrese in second while five years later, Villeneuve held the same percentage margin over Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
However, that is only because Schumacher, who scored three points less than Villeneuve, was disqualified from the 1997 championship for intentionally attempting to crash the Williams driver out of the season finale when the two drivers were battling for the drivers’ crown.
Currently, Verstappen’s gap over Perez stands at 49.2% and considering both driver’s recent form then it is likely that percentage margin will remain above 48.1%.
F1’s most consecutive races as championship leader
Verstappen will end the 2023 season having led the championship for 39 consecutive grands prix. This is a run which dates back to May 2022, when a turbo and MGU-H failure caused race leader Leclerc to retire from the Spanish GP. This then helped Verstappen to win the race and overtake his Ferrari rival for the championship lead that weekend.
He did not lose it again for the rest of 2022, and then victory at the 2023 season-opening Bahrain GP aided Verstappen to lead the standings after every race this year. Verstappen is therefore breaking the record set by Schumacher, who led the standings for 37 consecutive races from the 2000 United States GP until the 2002 Japanese GP.
PHOTO BY: RED BULL CONTENT POOL
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
F1’s record for most fastest laps in a season
Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen both hold the record for most fastest laps in a season with 10. The seven-time world champion achieved it in 2004, while the 2007 champion reached that feat twice in 2005 with McLaren and then 2008 at Ferrari.
So far in 2023, Verstappen has had eight fastest laps, so with two races left in the season, the Red Bull driver could take it up to 10. It will not be so easy though, as Verstappen has failed to score the fastest lap in the last three races.
Other F1 records held by Max Verstappen
