The Verstappen statistic Ferrari must overhaul in 2024

Since Michael Schumacher stepped away from Formula 1 for the first time, in 2006, there have been 333 World Championship races, as of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Ferrari has won 51 of those for a strike rate of 15.31%, with its last title coming in the form of the 2008 Constructors', while Kimi Raikkonen remains the last World Champion from the Scuderia in 2007.

That is 51 wins in 17 seasons, equalling three per year since the former karter from Kerpen was rather forced out the Maranello exit door.

That's certainly a respectable tally, especially when you consider the fact that some of the machines produced will not go down as Maranello's finest, with no wins coming in 2014, 2016, 2020 or 2021.

But then we come to Max Verstappen. Alone, the Dutchman won 19 times in 2023 - that is the same number as Ferrari has managed since 2017 combined.

The Red Bull driver now sits on 54 career wins - third on the all-time wins list - and has won three more Grands Prix by himself than Raikkonen, Felipe Massa, Luca Badoer, Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have managed between them since 2007.

While Ferrari has done this in those 333 races, as of Abu Dhabi 2023, Verstappen has made 185 starts since his debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, a difference of 148 races.

Whilst the Scuderia did not challenge the title in 2023, tangible progress was made under new boss Frederic Vasseur - with the team ending the season strongly and just failing to pip Mercedes to second in the Constructors'.

The fact that Verstappen has been able to rack up 34 wins - two more than the entire career tally of Fernando Alonso - since the start of 2022 is down to the collective failures of Ferrari and Mercedes, and indeed Sergio Perez, to mount a serious challenge as much as it is to Verstappen's relentless ability to churn out wins.

While the gap to Red Bull is probably too vast a chasm to close for any team in one year to topple it, Ferrari must get back to regular race-winning ways in 2024, with it recording more than five wins in a season only once since 2010, as the table below shows.