Max Verstappen’s record breaking F1 career so far

One of Formula 1’s greatest ever drivers to grace the track once said that records are there to be beaten. And, in a career that spanned 19 seasons, Michael Schumacher had won more races and world championship titles than anyone who came before him. Setting a legacy of records, which would one day be beaten.

F1’s 2023 season was relentless, and there was rarely an on-track battle for the top step of the podium. Three-time Formula 1 World Champion, Max Verstappen, has dominated in 2023 like he never has before. His record-breaking racing career started long before 2023 however, you can trace Max’s records right back to his F1 debut in 2015.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane and explore just how many records Max Verstappen has beaten in almost nine years on the F1 grid.

Max first hit the Formula 1 scene during FP1 at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, when he replaced Jean-Éric Vergne at Toro Rosso for one session, as part of his preparation for taking on a full-time race seat. At 17 years and three days old, he was the youngest person in history to partake in a Formula 1 race weekend. Only a few months later, aged 17 years and 166 days, Max made his full-time F1 debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the youngest driver to ever do so. Another of Max’s record-breaking moments came in the same year at the Malaysian Grand Prix; he was the youngest driver in a Q3 session, qualifying in sixth for the race. On Sunday, Max finished P7 to score points on his debut, breaking another record that weekend.

Red Bull took the decision to switch Max with Daniil Kvyat at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, the race where he took his first ever Formula 1 victory, becoming the youngest race winner and podium sitter aged 18 years and 228 days old. In the same year, Max became the youngest driver to set a fastest lap in the rain at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

At the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Max became the first Dutchman to ever start on Pole, after setting a lap time of 1:14.572, 0.018 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas.

2021 was Max’s first championship winning season, after a year-long battle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. After a controversial finish to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Max led Lewis by eight points to take his first Formula 1 World Championship, the first Dutchman to do so. At the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix, Max became the youngest driver with a Grand Slam; he took Pole, led every lap, won the race and set the fastest lap of 1:06.200, all at the age of 23 years and 277 days. The 2021 season saw Max take the most podiums in a Formula 1 season, a total of 18 out of a potential 22. The four races in which he missed out on a podium spot had nothing to do with a lack of speed in his RB18; in Azerbaijan, he suffered a puncture and crashed into the wall, at both the British and Italian Grands Prix he collided with his title rival, Lewis Hamilton, taking them out of the races and an incident with Bottas at the Hungarian Grand Prix caused a domino effect for multiple drivers, Max included. He finished the Hungarian GP in P9.

Max won his second championship in 2022, another season during which he broke a number of records. He took the most wins in an F1 season – 15 out of a possible 22 – breaking the record previously shared by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, both of whom won 13 races, in 2004 and 2013 respectively. Max finished the 2022 season with 454 points, breaking Hamilton’s previous record of most points scored in a season, 413 points in 2019

This year, Max won his third consecutive World Championship title after finishing in second place in the Sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix, securing the points gap between himself and his teammate, eventual WDC runner up Sergio Pérez. This result saw Max become the first driver to be crowned World Champion in a Saturday Sprint.

Throughout the 2023 season, Max has smashed multiple on-track records after an unbelievable showing from the Dutchman in his RB19. He won 86% of the Grands Prix this year, a total of 19 out of a possible 22 races; only one of the 22, the Singapore Grand Prix, was not won by a Red Bull driver, instead won by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Max surpassed Sebastian Vettel’s nine consecutive race win record, winning 10 races in a row, starting at the Miami Grand Prix until the Italian Grand Prix. The season finale in Abu Dhabi saw Max become the first driver to lead over 1000 laps, having led a total of 1003 laps in his career.

The 2023 season saw Max break a range of other records, including taking 21 podiums and breaking his own record of 18 in 2021, winning the most times from Pole on 12 occasions, and taking the most hat-tricks (pole, win and fastest lap) six times. With a gap of 290 points in the Championship standings between himself and his teammate, Max holds the biggest championship winning margin since Vettel in 2013, who led the way by 155 points. He finished the 2023 Formula 1 season with a huge 575 points in the standings, breaking his own previous record of 454 points accumulated in 2022.

With Max contracted to stay at Red Bull Racing until 2028, it’s only a matter of time before he smashes through even more records on-track. Pre-season testing for the 2024 campaign kicks off in February in Bahrain, followed by the first round of the racing season; it’s not long to wait to see just what Max Verstappen and Red Bull will achieve in their ninth season together.

Want to see the record breaker in action in 2023? Secure your British Grand Prix tickets now