Verstappen can write even more history: what records can he break in 2023?

In the 2022 season, Max Verstappen has already set some records. For example, the Limburger broke the record for most points in the championship, the record for most wins in a season and the record for most wins without pole position. In 2023, the double world champion can break several records. F1Maximum list what they are.

The Dutchman’s 2022 season didn’t start the way he and Red Bull Racing would have liked, but the result turned out to be phenomenal in the end. After the tune-up of the RB18 car, victories rain down on the 25-year-old. Verstappen has taken his season to a new level, breaking a number of records that will shine on his CV, which he can carry into the 2023 season. In the next Formula 1 season, the Red Bull driver can again break records.

Most wins in a season

With the expansion of the F1 calendar to 23 Grands Prix, there is one more victory to be won than in 2022. Verstappen climbed to the top step of the podium no less than fifteen times in the previous season. With this, he broke the record of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, because for this the most wins in one season was thirteen.

Most points in a season

This record can be directly related to the record for most wins in a season. With 23 races on the annual schedule, including six sprint races and 23 fastest race laps, a total of 646 points can be awarded (25 x 23 + 8 x 6 + 23 = 646). This is fifty more than last year, when there were a total of 596 points to distribute.

The Dutchman has already been able to register this record in 2022, since he achieved 454 points. That record was previously held by Lewis Hamilton, who managed to score 413 points in 2019 with a 21-race schedule. Verstappen therefore went well beyond that in the previous season.

Most podiums in a season

If Verstappen wanted to break the record for the most podiums in a single season, he would break his own record. In 2021, the double world champion achieved eighteen podiums in 22 races, which puts him directly at the top of this list of records. In 2022, the Limburger climbed the podium seventeen times. With two more races in 2023, Verstappen can make an effort to improve on those stats.

First Dutchman with three titles

If the 2023 season goes as well as the 2022 season and the other teams cannot offer much competition, Verstappen can become the first Dutchman with three Formula 1 titles. With the success of the last two seasons, that is certainly possible, but several former drivers, like Webber and Coulthard, believe that Mercedes and Ferrari will be there and will fight at the front in the 2023 season.

Verstappen himself also believes the teams will be much closer than last year. If this is not the case and Red Bull hits the bullseye again with the car, the Limburger can win his third title in the coming season. Then he also has as many titles as Brazilian F1 legend Ayrton Senna.

Most consecutive races in the lead

This record is currently still held by seven-time world champion Schumacher, who led the championship from the 2000 United States Grand Prix to the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix for a total of 37 consecutive races.

Verstappen has led seventeen consecutive races in the 2022 championship. He would then need to take the lead in the Bahrain Grand Prix and hold it until after the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2023 to break that record. So the double world champion must have the wind in its sails from the start of the season.

Mercedes and Ferrari: will they throw a spoke in the wheels of Red Bull?

In the 2022 season, Red Bull and Verstappen were practically unreachable, thanks to which the Limburger has accumulated a fine collection of records. After the winter of 2021, it turned out that Mercedes hadn’t done their homework well enough to come out well in 2022. The German racing team was mainly affected by porpoisingbut managed to make good developments towards the end of the season, so that the team did not return to Brackley without a win.

Ferrari clearly had a fast car, but the Scuderia regularly missed the mark with strategy. Now that the teams are used to the new technical rules, the field, especially at the front, should be much tighter. As several drivers and former drivers have indicated, this could well lead to a title battle between Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

The Gazetta dello Sport managed to report in mid-January 2023 that Ferrari had regained around 30 horsepower, suggesting that the team will be at the forefront in terms of power. After all, the Italian midfielder believes this puts Ferrari ahead of Mercedes and Red Bull. Mercedes thinks they know exactly where the wrong choice was in 2022, and will they avoid such a mistake now.

A preview of the work of the teams during the winter is provided during the presentations of the cars and the pre-season test days, but the real performance of the teams after the winter break will of course only be visible at the first Grand Prix of the season .