Having entered the summer break on an eight-race winning run, Max Verstappen could break several records during the remainder of the 2023 Formula 1 season; the season resumes at Dutch GP from Friday, live on Sky Sports F1
Tuesday 22 August 2023 10:45, UK
With Max Verstappen and Red Bull delivering an all-time great season, multiple records are within reach for both driver and team during the remainder of the 2023 campaign.
Most successive wins
By winning in Belgium in the final race before the summer break, Verstappen became just the second driver to have claimed eight successive F1 victories.
The Spa triumph took him clear of Michael Schumacher, Nico Rosberg and Alberto Ascari, who each had recorded seven straight triumphs.
Verstappen has the chance to match Sebastian Vettel's record of nine consecutive wins, which the German set in a Red Bull during his title-winning 2013 campaign.
Verstappen's opportunity to equal Vettel comes at his home race - the Dutch Grand Prix, and if he is successful in Zandvoort, he will then have the chance to establish a new mark of 10 at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza a week later.
Most wins in a season
Verstappen set the record for the most wins in a season with 15 in 2022, and he is well on course to up that mark.
As with some of the other records, this one is impacted by the fact there are significantly more races on the calendar now than there were in the past.
With that in mind, perhaps even more special than beating his own 2022 record, would be Verstappen bettering the highest percentage of race wins for a season, which was set by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher when he won 13 of 18 (72.2 per cent) races in 2004.
The 10 out of 12 races Verstappen has won to this point put him on a remarkable 83.3 per cent for this season.
That leaves him needing six wins in the remaining 10 Grands Prix both to better his 2022 total and to stay clear of Schumacher's record win percentage.
Most Sprint wins in a season
Verstappen can also set a new mark for the most Sprint wins in a season, a cause which is aided by the fact the number of Sprint weekends has doubled to six for this campaign.
The Dutchman won two of the three Sprints in 2022, while Valtteri Bottas achieved the same feat for Mercedes as Sprints debuted in 2021.
With three Sprints remaining after the summer break - in Qatar, Austin and Brazil - any driver on the grid could technically set a new benchmark by winning all of them.
However, having won two of the first three, Verstappen is the obvious candidate to take ownership of another record.
All-time wins ranking
While Verstappen isn't even halfway to Lewis Hamilton's all-time record of 103 race wins, he could move to third on the list by the end of the season.
Having gone past Ayrton Senna's 41 wins earlier in the season, Verstappen's tally of 45 has him fifth on the list.
His next target is Alain Prost on 51, with Sebastian Vettel just two wins further away.
In second on 91, Michael Schumacher's position is comfortable for now, but the way Verstappen is going it would take a brave individual to bet against him one day joining Hamilton beyond a century of victories.
Most podiums in a season
Verstappen already owns the record for the most podium finishes in a season, which he set by coming in the top three on 18 occasions on his way to claiming a maiden drivers' title in 2021.
It's another one that he is very much on course to improve, having finished on the podium in all 12 races so far this season.
He could become just the second driver to finish on the podium in every race of a season, with Schumacher having done so in all 17 races in 2002.
Most points in an F1 season
Almost certain to go is Verstappen's own record of 454 points in a campaign, set last season.
He already has 314 points with 10 races and three more Sprints to go. The additional Sprints are of course of assistance once more, but he looks set to go well beyond his previous best.
Most successive wins
Red Bull have already eclipsed McLaren's long-standing record for the most successive race wins by an F1 constructor.
Their current streak, which stretches back to the final race of last season in Abu Dhabi, stands at 13.
Meanwhile, their most recent win, in Belgium, assured that they also better McLaren's 1988 record of 11 successive wins within a season.
The longer this streak extends, the harder it is to imagine another team - or even Red Bull themselves - coming close to it any time soon.
Most wins within a season
As Red Bull team principal Christian Horner will remind you, the type of dominance his team are enjoying isn't a totally new phenomenon for the sport.
They still have plenty of work to do to overhaul Mercedes' record of 19 wins in the 2016 season, which would almost certainly have been 20 (from 21 races) if it weren't for a crash in Spain between duelling team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
At the very least, one would expect Red Bull to improve on the team-record 17 race wins they managed last year.
Invincible season
When Mercedes driver George Russell said after the opening weekend of the season that he expected Red Bull to win every race the season, the comments were largely dismissed as dramatic.
Fast-forward five months and the Brit's remarks look very reasonable, with Red Bull on course to become the first F1 team to achieve an unbeaten season.
Unlike some of the other records, which are made easier to break by the sport's extended schedule, it is the total opposite for this one.
Winning all 22 races would be perhaps the most remarkable achievement ever seen in the sport.
Most points in a season
Red Bull came very close last season to bettering Mercedes' record of 765 points in 2016, falling just six points short of that target.
With 500 points already on the board this time around, even the inconsistent form of Sergio Perez appears highly unlikely to prevent Red Bull from reaching this mark.
And if the Mexican can rediscover his early-season excellence, a near unbeatable target could be set.
Formula 1 returns after the summer break with the Dutch GP and all sessions will be live on Sky Sports F1 on August 25-27. Stream Sky Sports F1 and more with NOW
