Having already got a World Championship in his back-pocket, Max Verstappen has crushed the Formula 1 field in 2022 armed with his Red Bull RB18 machine. Up to and including the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, he has claimed 10 victories from 15 races and currently enjoys a 109 point championship lead with just seven races remaining. Having broken the record for most podiums in a season in 2021 (18), Verstappen now firmly has another in sight - that of most Grand Prix victories in a single season. But can he actually brake the long-held record?
Who currently holds the record?
The record for most Grand Prix wins in a single Formula 1 season is jointly held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. With 11 world titles between them, the duo won 13 races apiece in their respective championship winning campaigns of 2004 and 2013. Schumacher won 12 of the first 13 races overall in 2004, only stumbling in Monaco where he crashed behind the Safety Car in the tunnel after a tangle with Juan Pablo Montoya. He added a further win in Japan later in the year as he celebrated his seventh world crown and fifth overall. As for Vettel, his 13 wins came in his final championship year of 2013 as Red Bull excelled in the final year of the blown-exhaust era. He had won four races before the summer break to hold a healthy lead, before winning every race when the season resumed. The sixth victory in this sequence, in India, handed Vettel that fourth title as he steamrollered the field in one of the most remarkable seasons in Grand Prix history. From the Monaco Grand Prix, round six of 19, he dropped just 35 points - a DNF in the British GP and 'just' third in Hungary. The maximum number of points available to Vettel in 2013 was 475. He hauled 397. But for that gearbox failure at Silverstone, when he was leading, Vettel would have eclipsed Schumacher's 2004 record. His nine successive wins is also the all-time record for consecutive wins - something else Verstappen might also be targeting.
Will Verstappen do it?
With 10 wins and seven races remaining in 2022, Verstappen will need to win four times in the final stretch of the season. It is eminently doable given the Red Bull's pace advantage - in Verstappen's hands at least - Mercedes continuing to struggle and Ferrari's race-by-race implosion. The races remaining are in Italy, Singapore, Japan, United States, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Verstappen has won four of those races in the past - the last four - with him being dominant in Mexico and Brazil due to their high altitude suiting the Red Bull power unit. Although, as some might point out, Verstappen has actually won 12 'races' in F1 2022 - having claimed victory in the two sprint races held so far at Imola and in Austria...
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