Max Verstappen has re-written the history books in many ways in 2023, with an astonishing performance for Red Bull that has seen him dominate the field and leave the rest of the drivers battling for seconds.
Although this season has been all about Verstappen, it has not all been about Verstappen – with plenty of interesting stats to be seen all the way down the field.
WIN PERCENTAGE
Starting with Verstappen, he has not only beaten his own record of most wins in a season but has upped the victory percentage to an astonishing 85.7% – the highest ever percentage! To put this into perspective, previous record holders were Alberto Ascari at 75% (6 out of 8 races in 1952) and Michael Schumacher at 72.22% (13 out of 18 races in 2004).
A 19th victory of the season in Abu Dhabi – for which he is at odds of 2/7 – would raise the record to 86.4%. That is significantly better, even, than his previous record of 15 wins (68.2%) last year, and although it was said before with Schumacher’s records, surely that will take some beating.
Notably, in the all-time winner’s list, Verstappen has jumped two driving legends this season – moving from 35 to his current 53 career victory and passing Ayrton Senna’s 41 and Alain Prost’s 51 in the process.
POLE PERFORMANCE
Compared to his race successes, Verstappen has not had it all his way in qualifying and he ‘only’ has 11 poles from 21 races so far – well down on Sebastian Vettel’s record of 15 from 19 set in 2011. In fact, four other drivers – Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton – have also started from the front.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-23
Of these drivers, Leclerc has had the most poles (5) and the odds of another in Abu Dhabi is at 7/2. When it comes to teams, Red Bull has 13 poles and Ferrari 7 – and the odds of Ferrari closing that gap this weekend are 5/2.
Four drivers – Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso – have all started from the front row in second place, but have not yet managed to get pole this season. Of those, Norris is perhaps most likely this weekend to do just that, with odds of 11/1, while the least likely is Alonso at 100/1.
Qualifying has been very close across the field this season – and astonishingly every driver who is on the grid this weekend has appeared in the Top 10 at least once, with eight drivers averaging a grid position…
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