Which F1 driver has led the world championship the longest? 

While some drivers take the title long before the final round – recently Max Verstappen took both the 2022 and 2023 titles with several races left to go – others can sit at the top of the table but still never claim the crown. Valtteri Bottas is one of those unfortunate drivers, having led the championship for just 24 days in 2019 before the season was eventually won by Lewis Hamilton.  
 
However, some drivers have been able to retain the lead for a whole season and even longer. Although leading the championship for the longest is arguably the most impressive record a driver can hold, the most consecutive days led can also tell us much about a driver and the seasons they held the title.  
  
Here are the drivers who have consecutively led the championship chase for the most number of days. 

Top F1 drivers who have spent the most consecutive days leading the drivers’ championship  

Winter breaks have been taken into consideration for every driver’s leadership run, including if a driver lost their run on the first race of the season. This makes figures consistent with the drivers whose tallies have continued to accumulate from one season and into the next.

Number of consecutive races leading drivers’ championship: 37  
Total days leading the drivers’ championship: 2562 
Total number of races leading the drivers’ championship: 121  

Michael Schumacher is the most successful Formula 1 driver when it comes to leading the drivers’ world championship. The German jointly holds the record for the most titles with seven alongside Lewis Hamilton and has the record for most consecutive drivers’ championships with five between 2000-04.  
  
Schumacher appears twice in the top 10 drivers to have led the title for the longest time consecutively, appearing in the top position with 896 days and third with 630 days. His longest period of heading the standings came between the 2000 USA Grand Prix and the 2003 Australian GP, and consisted of 37 races.   
  
The 2000 season was Schumacher’s third drivers’ championship victory and his first with Ferrari, after joining the team in 1996. After winning five of the first eight races of the year, he was struck by a bout of bad luck and had three consecutive DNFs at the French, Austrian and German GPs. But over the following six races he never finished lower than second, and at the 2000 United…