Max Verstappen poised to pass Lewis Hamilton in illustrious F1 ranking

It already feels like a lifetime ago: Max Verstappen’s very first Formula 1 podium finish. And what a moment that was — his debut race for Red Bull Racing, and immediately a victory, at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

Now, nine years later, Verstappen is a four-time world champion and competing for his fifth title against the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

On his way to this impressive record, Verstappen has stood on the podium 123 times: 68 victories, 37 second places and 18 third places.

With his third-place finish in Mexico, Verstappen also officially overtook Sebastian Vettel in the list of most career podiums. Only Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher remain ahead of him.

Hamilton comfortably leads that ranking. The seven-time F1 drivers' champion has finished in the top three no fewer than 202 times over the past 18 years, including 105 victories.

He needed 376 grands prix to achieve that — or at least, that’s how many race starts he currently has to his name. His most recent podium came at last year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, 23 grands prix ago.

Verstappen closing in on Hamilton

Given the difference in total podiums between Hamilton and Verstappen, it may still take some time before a change at the top occurs — if it happens at all.

However, the two rivals are remarkably close when it comes to their podium finish percentage.

Verstappen’s 123 podiums in 229 grands prix give him a podium rate of 53.71%, while Hamilton’s 202 podiums in 376 races correspond to 53.72%.

The two are therefore separated by just 0.01 percentage points. It’s entirely possible that Verstappen could overtake Hamilton in this statistic after the next race in Brazil.

If Verstappen finishes on the podium at Interlagos, he will move ahead of Hamilton in terms of podium percentage — regardless of Hamilton’s own result.

This gives the Dutchman another opportunity to surpass his old rival in a notable statistical category. Of course, it should be remembered that this ranking is constantly changing.

To put the numbers in perspective: the next active driver on the list is Oscar Piastri (36.36%), followed by Charles Leclerc (29.94%), Lando Norris (28.38%), and Fernando Alonso (25.18%).

Among all drivers with at least 25 podium finishes, Verstappen and Hamilton trail only five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, who achieved an extraordinary podium rate of 68.63% during the 1950s.

Below is the list of the ten drivers with the highest podium percentages in Formula 1 history (minimum of 25 podiums).