Lewis Hamilton to break unwanted Ferrari record despite reaching new F1 milestone

Lewis Hamilton's failure to finish on the United States Grand Prix podium means he is to set a new Ferrari F1 record for most race starts with a podium finish.

The Austin race was the 19th of Hamilton's F1 career, with the Briton's best finish being fourth at Imola, in Austria and at Silverstone - something he repeated in Austin, finishing behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the race for the final podium spot.

Coming into the race, Hamilton was one behind Didier Pironi, who took 19 grand prix starts before his first Ferrari podium - which came in the controversial 1982 San Marino GP, in which some teams boycotted and Pironi broke team orders and passed team-mate Gilles Villeneuve for the win.

Hamilton is now guaranteed to break that record, with his first podium for Ferrari set to come in at least his 20th race with the team, in Mexico City, should he finish in the top three, something he did six times for Mercedes.

However, it is not all doom for Hamilton after Ferrari's strong showing in the Austin race, as he also became the first driver in F1 history to pass through the 5,000 point barrier. 

Hamilton is now on 5,004.50 points - that half score coming at the 2021 Belgian GP when his third-place haul of 15 was halved due to the abandonment of the race.

Now, it must be caveated that modern drivers tend to dominate the points rankings owing to the fact that there are a greater number and share of points available in modern, with Sprints all factored in. 

The prime example of this is Michael Schumacher. Under the points system he raced, Schumacher scored 1,566 points.

If this is recalculated using the 2025 grand prix system, this becomes 3,880, placing him second behind Hamilton and ahead of Max Verstappen on 3229.50.

As it is, Schumacher is 10th all-time.