Max Verstappen dominates the 2022 F1 drivers’ championship with an iron hand, and counts the days to mathematically seal what will be his second world championship.
The Dutchman has 11 wins in 16 races, and much has been said that he is close to equaling and surpassing the record shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel for the number of wins in a year, but… what other records can beat Verstappen at the end of this 2022?
Record number of victories in the same F1 season (same year)
The aforementioned record of Schumacher and Vettel is 13 victories in the same Formula 1 year. The first did it in 18 races and the second in 19. Verstappen has 11 and it seems that he may even exceed that figure, since there are still six left . However, and given that he will have 22 races to have surpassed that mark, you have to look at percentages.
Schumacher, in 2004 with Ferrari, achieved 72.22% of the victories, while Vettel, in 2013 with Red Bull, finished first in 68.42% of races won. If Verstappen wants to exceed the winning percentage in a season, he will have to win at least 16, which would be 72.73% of the 22 that will be played.
That is, he has to win all but one of the remaining ones, although if he wins two or three more, few would take into account the number of races in total and it would be said that Verstappen would have the historical record for wins in the same year.
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Record number of points in the same F1 season
It is one of the most feasible records for Max Verstappen, since he has 335 points and is 78 from the 413 with which Hamilton was proclaimed champion in 2019. With the 164 points that remain to be distributed in the six races (plus one to the sprint ) that remain from 2022, seems a record quite within reach of the pilot from the Netherlands.
However, it is a record that could only be compared with modern F1 seasons, since victory is worth 25 points and not 20. And in that sense, percentages should be compared at the end of the year, since this is the campaign where the most points have been distributed in the history of Formula 1, thanks to three sprint races in which 8 extra points can be achieved in each of them (in addition to the fact that there was not always an extra point for the fastest lap in all the careers).
At the end of 2022 it will have been possible to opt for a maximum of 604 points, so Verstappen, even adding all the points that remain to be distributed, would reach 499 (82.6%), which would not allow him to exceed 83.58% either. of points that Vettel achieved in 2013 (397 of 475).
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In terms of historical percentage, Alberto Ascari achieved 100% of the points that could be achieved in F1 in 1952, and Jim Clark repeated the feat twice, adding 100% in 1963 and 1965. However, both statistics have asterisks that must be explain, and it is that in those times only the best harvested results counted for the World Cup, so you could ‘get rid’ of some bad result.
Title difference record with the greatest difference in points compared to the second
Verstappen takes 116 points from his closest rival, Charles Leclerc, and could surpass the 155 points that Vettel took from Fernando Alonso in 2013, the 124 from Hamilton from Valtteri Bottas in 2020 or the 122 from Vettel from Jenson Button in 2011. Yes , again it should be noted that as many points were never awarded as in this F1 2022, but with this, Verstappen has a shot at setting a new record in terms of the difference between the champion and the runner-up.
As for proclaiming himself champion before anyone else, Verstappen will no longer be able to beat when Schumacher, in 2002, was crowned in July with six races still to go. And it is that if #33 is crowned at the next appointment in Singapore, there would be five more grand prizes left.
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Record number of F1 races led in one year (in the same season)
Verstappen has so far led at least one lap in 13 of the 16 races so far in 2022. If he were to lead every single one that remains, he would have equaled the record of 19 races led in an F1 season, currently held by Lewis. Hamilton.
However, it would be a nuanced record, since while the Mercedes driver led 19 of the 21 races in 2019 (90%), Verstappen would stay at 86% (19 in 2022). The fact is that many seasons in the history of F1 have not even had 19 races to reach that figure.
If we base ourselves only on the percentage of races led in the same F1 season, the record of 11 out of 11 led by Jackie Stewart in 1969 is impressive, that is, 100%. Also better was Vettel’s 95% of races led in 2013 (18 out of 19) and Alain Prost’s 94% in 1993 (15 out of 16).
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Record podium finishes in an F1 year (in the same season)
Verstappen has 13 podiums in the 2022 season and, if he completes what remains, he would go up to 19, beating his own record of 18 podiums last year, when 22 races were also held.
However, it will no longer be able to exceed Michael Schumacher’s 100% podium finish in 2022 (17 out of 17), Jim Clark ‘s 90% in 1963 (9 out of 19) or, among others, Hamilton’s 89.47% podium finish in 2015 nor Vettel in 2011 (both made 17 podiums in 19 grand prix).
