Max Verstappen’s incredible 2023 season: What records did the Dutch driver break?
The three-time F1 champion not only won the Championship but did so in great fashion. Here are some of his accomplishments.
He was the favorite to finish the season in the podium’s top spot and he delivered. Max Verstappen kept making history in Formula 1 by winning another title last campaign, the third one in his career.
Although many experts believed the 26-year-old driver would end up collecting another Championship, probably none of them expected him to become champion with the brilliance he did.
Most wins in a season and highest percentage of victories
The Dutchman has become one of the modern greats in motorsports and he intends to extend his dominance as long as he can. With 54 victories so far in his career, he’s only behind Michael Schumacher (91) and Lewis Hamilton (103).
Verstappen already showed the world what he was capable of driving his Red Bull in 2022, as he won 15 races to break Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher’s records of 13 victories in a season.
Last season he won 19 out of 22 races, with Sergio Perez winning two and Carlos Sainz winning another one. In other words, he won 86 percent of the races this year, which breaks Alberto Ascari’s 1952 record of 75 percent.
Most consecutive victories
Why is Verstappen already being considered among the greatest F1 drivers of all time? The answer seems easy. At 26, he has already won three titles, but it’s the way of winning them that has made him considered one of the very best.
He recorded 10 consecutive wins in 2023, from taking the top spot on the podium at the Miami Grand Prix in May to being the best driver in the Italian Grand Prix in September. He improved Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive wins in a Red Bull.
This winning streak translated into a total of 575 points at the end of the season, which is the most in a campaign. Moreover, he recorded the biggest ever difference between first and second in the Drivers’ Championship, as he had a 290-point margin over Red Bull teammate Checo Perez.
First driver to be in the lead over 1,000 laps
As if none of the above wasn’t enough, Verstappen stole another record from Vettel. He overtook the German’s feat of laps led in a single season, being in the first position in 1,003 laps, 264 more than Vettel (739).
Verstappen also holds the highest percentage of laps led in a season with 75.7 percent, improving Jim Clark’s 71.47 percent in 1963.
Other records
But that’s not all. In his magnificent 2023, Verstappen has kept breaking records and accomplishing feats.
He has the record for most consecutive pole positions, with 16, and turned every pole position start into a victory in the 2023 campaign, which saw him break the record for the most wins from pole positions in a single season with 12 victories.
He’s also the driver with the most consecutive races as championship leader, with a total of 39, and most consecutive points scored.
He also registered the most pitstops by a winning driver in one race, during the Dutch Grand Prix, while he’s also the driver with the most sprint wins in a season, with four.