Max Verstappen and Red Bull both reached significant statistical landmarks with their victory in the Canadian Grand Prix. But it was not an entirely positive weekend for the team.
This was the 41st victory of Verstappen’s Formula 1 career, putting him level with three-times world champion Ayrton Senna. Before he had even debuted in F1, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko had compared Verstappen to Senna, and now only four drivers in the history of F1 have more wins than the pair.It took 171 races for Verstappen to reach that tally, while Senna did it in 158. Remarkably, Verstappen has scored more than half of his victories – 21 of those 41 wins – since the start of last season.
Verstappen also took his 25th pole position, moving ahead of Niki Lauda who he now matches for races started. His 48th front row start puts him level with Jim Clark and Juan Manuel Fangio.
The 25 points for victory means Verstappen has scored more than 2,200 in his career, while the all-time record holder Lewis Hamilton has more than twice as many with over 4,500. Hamilton, of course, raced before the current scoring system was introduced, so his first wins scored 10 points instead of 25.
Hamilton is also the only driver now to have scored in more consecutive races than Verstappen. The Red Bull driver claimed points for the 27th race running last weekend, matching Kimi Raikkonen for second place on the all-time list. This was also Verstappen’s ninth podium appearance in a row.
Sergio Perez took the fastest lap for the 11th time in his F1 career in the other Red Bull, but the weekend was not a strong one for the driver who remains Verstappen’s closest title rival.
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At four of the eight rounds held so far this year he has failed to reach Q3. Having only scored six less points than Verstappen across the first four rounds, Perez has been outscored by 66 points since.
It was the 100th win for Red Bull, making them the fifth team to reach that landmark. They are the third-quickest to a century, having achieved it on their 355th race. Rivals Mercedes only took 207 races to take 100 wins, while Williams managed the feat in 316 races. McLaren and Ferrari reached 100 wins in 381 races and 459 races respectively.
However F1’s older teams joined the championship at a time when seasons had far fewer races. Ferrari were almost halfway into their fourth season in F1 by the time they racked up as many starts as there are races in the 2023 season.
A more representative way to look at how quickly they reached 100 is by seasons entered. Mercedes took just under 12 seasons of being an F1 constructor to rack up 100 victories, while Red Bull has done it in under 18-and-a-half seasons and Williams took 20 and a half. McLaren took just over 26 seasons, while Ferrari were in their 41st year of racing in F1 when their 100th win arrived.
Red Bull’s recent success in seasons that consist of more than 20 races is shown in that it took them longer than other F1 behemoths to reach 75 wins. That’s a landmark six teams have reached, with Mercedes quickest to get there (165 races), then Williams (270), Ferrari (287), McLaren (322), Red Bull (325) and the now defunct Lotus team (344).
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It took Red Bull 74 races before they were F1 winners, but only a further 23 races to rack up ten wins and another 26 races after that to reach the-quarter-century of wins. Their 50th victory came in their 177th start.
Fernando Alonso finished second behind Verstappen in Canada, with the Aston Martin driver taking the 104th podium finish of his career and putting him past Kimi Raikkonen into fifth in the all-time list.
Further down the order Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg moved past Gerhard Berger into 20th in the all-time list of laps raced in the world championship, having now completed 9,807 in his career, and Williams’ Alex Albon finished seventh which is his best result since the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when he was racing for Red Bull.
Albon topped the second stage of qualifying in Canada, putting Williams on top in a segment of qualifying for the first time in seven years. It was last done by Felipe Massa in Q1 at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix.
F1 will return to Montreal next year to race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the 43rd time. Only four circuits have been raced on more times, and all of those are in Europe.
Have you spotted any other interesting stats and facts from the Canadian Grand Prix? Share them in the comments.
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2023 Canadian Grand Prix
- Norris ‘even more’ sure Canada penalty was wrong after review request fails
- McLaren seeking more than just downforce gains from major upgrade
- Winning more races won’t necessarily lead to F1 seat – Palou
- Red Bull’s testing restriction will “massively affect” 2024 car development
- Schumacher’s set-up input gives Mercedes a “super advantage” – Wolff
Jere (@jerejj)
21st June 2023, 14:40
Yuki Tsunoda’s 50th & Kevin Magnussen’s 150th GP.
Red Bull Racing’s most recent win equals Seb’s consecutive-race win record from 2013, meaning if they win in Austria, that’d mean a record-breaking 10th successive victory.
Furthermore, they’ve won on 30 different circuits, spanning five continents & more than half of their wins (52) have come from pole position.
Seb was the last driver to lead three races in a row all the way through.
Williams’ highest race result since the 2021 Belgian GP & more realistically, the highest since the previous round in Hungary.
MichaelN
21st June 2023, 19:46
Red Bull winning 10 races would be a record for them (it’s currently their third 9 race streak), but the all-time record is held by McLaren at 11. There have been four further 10 race streaks (1 by Ferrari, 3 by Mercedes).
Jimmy Cliff
21st June 2023, 20:53
Yeah 2 of the 10 wins streaks of Mercedes would have been a 21 win streak if not for Barcelona 2016
Qeki (@qeki)
21st June 2023, 14:54
Win percentage
Fangio 24/51 47.06%
Ascari 13/32 40.63%
Clark 25/72 34.72%
Hamilton 103/318 32.39%
Schumi 91/307 29.64%
…
Verstappen 41/171 23.98%
nm
21st June 2023, 15:21
he is making massive gains at the moment
melanos
21st June 2023, 17:14
Fangio and Ascari seem very hard to beat but I wouldn’t bet against Max beating the other three.
melanos
21st June 2023, 16:59
If you care to include those pesky Indy 500 from the fifties (then part of the official F1 calendar) we also have Lee Wallard (1/2, 50%) and Bill Vukovich, 2/5, 40%).
Qeki (@qeki)
21st June 2023, 19:57
If Verstappen wins the next 77 GPS out of 79 he will be on 118/250 47.20% which would beat Fangios record. Let’s say he retires at end of 2028. It will be around 130 GPs. Then his total would be 300. Then he would need 141 wins to beat the record. So 100 wins for the last 129 GPs.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
21st June 2023, 14:57
The laps led stat is fine, but I’d much rather know the distance led.
In 1988, Senna led 264 consecutive laps between Britain and Italy, but 2 of those races included old Hockenheim (only 44 laps) and Spa (only 43 laps), so clearly laps led dilutes this dominance as all laps are not equal.
Interestingly, despite Prost being in the other McLaren, it was Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari that bookended Senna’s run.
MichaelN
21st June 2023, 19:50
@eurobrun StatsF1 has those. Senna’s 1988 run was 1435 kilometers. Ascari’s 2075 and Verstappen’s current one 927, which is incidentally the highest of all active drivers. Vettel holds the 21st century record at 1112 kilometers. Interestingly, he set this in 2012 – not 2013 when he won 9 races in a row.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
21st June 2023, 20:51
Excellent thank you. I think this is a much more informative stat.
Jimmy Cliff
21st June 2023, 21:56
Yes and know – when Ascari set his distance record the races were not all set to 305km.
There were races of 400 or 500km – in that sense it is easier to rack up distance. If races today would be 500km instead of 300km then Max distance would be 40% higher as it wouldn’t have made any difference to him leading/winning.
Shorter laps like in Canada with multiple overtaking possibilities per lap is more difficult to stay in the lead than longer laps with less overtaking possibilities.
Jonathan Parkin
21st June 2023, 15:39
Verstappen can beat Nigel Mansell (235 laps in the lead) if he leads another ten laps. Then it’s only Ayrton Senna and Alberto Ascari ahead of him
melanos
21st June 2023, 17:11
Another dominant win without an early pit stop at Austria and it will be 71 more laps, just 8 laps shy of the Alberto Ascari record. Then a decent start at Silverstone and the new record will be done.
This year it looks like Max can also beat the %laps ahead in a season but I don’t know where it stands now.
Jimmy Cliff
21st June 2023, 20:58
Yes correct 358 laps in the lead from 487 = 73.51 beating current record holder Jim Clark in 1963, Clark was in the lead of 506 laps from 708 = 71.47%.
melanos
21st June 2023, 17:08
Another dominant win without an early pit stop at Austria and it will be 71 more laps, just 8 laps shy of the Alberto Ascari record. Then a decent start at Silverstone and the new record will be done.
This year it looks like Max can also beat the %laps ahead in a season but I don’t know where it stands now.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st June 2023, 17:59
So ferrari is the slowest team to hit 100 wins, not surprised, though at least they stay around in good and bad periods; mercedes being the fastest is also no surprise, the only surprise is that williams did it faster than red bull, even as someone who remembers williams as a top team.
SteveP
21st June 2023, 18:35
Remarkable, anyone would think he was in a massively dominant car. Oh, he is.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
21st June 2023, 19:06
so was lewis. what’s the point?
sethje (@seth-space)
22nd June 2023, 13:44
Yep, just like Perez………
Mayrton
27th June 2023, 11:54
Yes, this is the interesting part. Someone on this forum showed nr of victories vs nr of victories of the team mate(s). Lewis 103 (46 for his team mates), Schumacher 91 (16 for his team mates), Vettel 48 (12) and Max 41 (9). Technical failures and team orders will distort this somewhat but still I think it is save to say Lewis mostly benefitted from a dominant car here plus I do recall hearing quite often “Valtteri, it’s James”. Schumacher stat is incredible.
paulgilb (@paulgilb)
21st June 2023, 22:26
Ocon has started 9th, 8th, 7th and 6th on his last 4 visits to Canada.
Car 55, who finished 5th in the Championship in both 2021 and 2022, currently sits 5th in the Championship having finished 4 of the last 5 races in 5th.
Verstappen, Perez, Alonso and Hamilton all have two 2nd place finishes this season.
Williams and Mercedes are the only teams to have had more than one mechanical DNF so far this year.
Urvaksh (@thedoctor03)
22nd June 2023, 10:42
Pretty sure Latifi topped a quali segment some time 2 years ago?
RandomMallard
23rd June 2023, 10:37
@thedoctor03 I believe that was a practice session (FP3 in Hungary last year I think?)
MVerstappen (@mverstappen)
22nd June 2023, 21:00
Adrian Newey reached his 200th race win. 376 wins combined for the four on the podium.
Seven titles for Lewis Hamilton, Two titles for Fernando Alonso, Two titles for Max Verstappen, 23 titles (11 Driver, 12 Constructor) for Adrian Newey
383 total podiums for the 3 drivers.
Red Bull won 18 of the last 19 races .
Max Verstappen has won the last 12 races run on clockwise configurations. (Suzuka is both clockwise and anti-clockwise)
The next six races will also be clockwise.
Mal Ross (@malross)
23rd June 2023, 8:44
“A more representative way to look at how quickly they reached 100 is by seasons entered”
Really?! Surely that’s a less representative way to look at it. What’s more impressive is how quickly the teams reached 100 wins, seen as a percentage of the races they’d entered by that point. Working by the calendar is, as the article itself points out, going to treat early entrants unfairly as there were fewer races per season early on and so fewer chances to reach the 100 milestone in the same chronological period.
MaxCO2
23rd June 2023, 20:31
Sorry, I don’t recall Senna, Clark or Fangio being awarded a Championship by the FIA violating their own rules.