Mick Schumacher believes more races in Formula 1 seasons made it inevitable that his father Michael's record tally of 13 wins would be broken, as Max Verstappen did so in the Mexican Grand Prix. Michael Schumacher scored 13 wins from 18 races as he collected his seventh World Championship in 2004, with compatriot Sebastian Vettel also winning 13 Grands Prix from 19 attempts in his victorious 2013 campaign. At the Mexican GP, Verstappen was tied with both drivers on 13, but a dominant drive at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez secured him a record-breaking 14th victory. Vettel himself has challenged Verstappen to reach 16 wins in the remaining two races , but Schumacher believes it was only a matter of time before his father's total was eclipsed.
Schumacher on record being broken
Owing to F1's surge in popularity, the calendar has expanded to a current 22 races, with 24 Grands Prix planned for the 2023 season. In his career spanning 1991-2006 and 2010-2012, the highest number of races Michael Schumacher contested in a single season was 20, during his final season. "We compare 22 races to a few less races, so obviously that record was always going to be broken," Schumacher told media including RacingNews365.com , speaking after his 16th place finish in Mexico. "We are increasing [the number of] races, so I am sure that when we increase to 24 races, things may look differently again." As for Schumacher's own race, he believes cooler track temperatures could have affected the team, with teammate Kevin Magnussen finishing down in 17th. "It was a struggle, I don't know if it was track temperatures or not, but obviously from FP3 to Qualifying, the performance changed quite a bit and there were more than 10 degrees in that. "Once the track cooled off, it just seemed like the performance wasn't there anymore, so it is quite unfortunate. "Nonetheless, we take the positives away. We had great pace on one lap [in Qualifying], so now we just have to put that into positives and then hopefully be in a good position for the next races."
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