Max Verstappen power 4. The Dutchman offered himself this Sunday to Las Vegas Grand Prix his fourth consecutive crown as F1 world champion. The Red Bull driver joins Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel to the pantheon with 4 titles, and becomes the 5th man in history to win four consecutive titles. But that’s not all. An update on his exceptional career.
62
With 62 victories in Formula 1 since his debut 10 years ago, Max Verstappen is the third driver in history behind Lewis Hamilton (105) and Michael Schumacher (91) with the most career successes. He reached this total in 207 Grand Prix contested, a ratio of almost 30%, the second best in history behind Juan Manuel Fangio (24 successes in 51 Grand Prix – 47%). To this must be added 111 podiums and 40 pole positions.
3,361
This is the number of laps spent in the lead in a Grand Prix by Max Verstappen on just over 11,200 laps covered. The Red Bull driver is an example of consistency with only 15 retirements in 207 Grand Prix, and only one this year out of the 22 races contested so far.
2
Max Verstappen was crowned this Sunday in Vegas while there are still two races to go, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the next two weeks. It’s better than in 2021, where he was titled during the final lap of the final Grand Prix of the season still in Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, in 2022 and 2023, he had flown through the season to the point of being crowned with still 4 and 6 races, respectively, on the program.
8
Like his number of victories this season. The Dutchman started the year with a bang with 7 victories in 10 Grand Prix, before experiencing a big slump, with 10 races without the slightest victory. He had regained victory in Brazil 3 weeks ago. This fourth coronation will be the fewest in victories (10 in 2021, 15 in 2022, 19 in 2023). As an additional statistic, the 27-year-old driver has never won three races in a row this season.
1
This is the paradox of this 2024 season. Max Verstappen has led the championship since the first Grand Prix of the season and a victory in Bahrain. The Dutchman will only have occupied first place in the championship this season. His lead over Lando Norris will have risen to 84 points in the middle of the season before dropping to a low of 47.
27
At 27, Max Verstappen is the second youngest driver in history to be a quadruple world champion. Before him, Sebastian Vettel, another Red Bull protégé, had achieved such a performance a year younger, before never again experiencing the joys of a title at Ferrari (twice 2nd) then at Aston Martin where he ended up retire.