3 records Max Verstappen broke at the 2022 F1 Mexican GP
Max Verstappen's 2022 F1 season is all about setting records and not even bothering to talk about them. The nonchalance with which the Dutch driver sat on the top of his Red Bull as he was elevated to the top of the podium showed that it was just another day for him. The fact that he's doing all of this with a mature head on his shoulders is a scary aspect for all the other drivers on the grid.
The Mexican Grand Prix was another race that featured Verstappen just turning up to the race and doing his flawless job. He secured pole position in qualifying. He led from the very start and won the race quite easily in the end.
In the process, he once again made history and broke a few records. What are these records? Let's take a look.
#1 Most wins in an F1 season (Max Verstappen = 14)
One of the more well-known records that Max Verstappen broke on his way to another win was the record for most wins in an F1 season.
The Red Bull driver was tied with Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher after he picked up his 13th win of the season in Austin. With the win in Mexico, Verstappen broke a record that stood for 18 years.
Most wins in a single F1 season 🏆
Michael Schumacher 13
Sebastian Vettel 13
Max Verstappen 14 (2 races to go)
Greatness. https://t.co/A8QbACRIjW
Michael Schumacher set the record in 2004 at the peak of his Ferrari domination as he won 13 out of 18 races. Sebastian Vettel won his 13 races in 2013 in 19 races with Red Bull. In Vettel's case, the 13 races also included the merciless stretch of nine consecutive race wins as well.
Max Verstappen already has 14 wins in 20 races and will be trying to win the last two races of the season as well to stretch his record.
#2 Most wins at the F1 Mexican GP (Max Verstappen = 4)
Max Verstappen came to Mexico after winning the race three times already in his career. The 25-year-old driver famously won the race here in 2021 when he jumped both the Mercedes cars at the start of the race. He also won the race in 2017 and 2018 in dominant fashion.
Verstappen was tied with the great Jim Clark with three Mexican GP wins as he started the race weekend. With another win in Mexico, Verstappen is now the driver with the most wins in Mexico (4).
STATS:
📊 STATS:
• Max took the 34th victory of his career at the #MexicoGP 🇲🇽
• He becomes the first driver in F1 history to win 14 races in a season.
• He continues to be the most successful driver in Mexico City, with the most wins (4), points (122) and laps led (264). https://t.co/eUkfCl2Kft
What was surprising to note this weekend was how the Dutch driver's dominance at this track had not caught the eye initially. Until it was pointed out by Daniel Ricciardo who said that Mexico is a Verstappen track and whenever he races here, he wins.
On the current grid, only Lewis Hamilton is the other driver that has a couple of wins on this track. Hamilton won the race in Mexico in 2016 when F1 made a return to the track and then won the race in 2019 as well. Other than those two visits, the place has seen utter dominance from Max Verstappen, who has won as many as four races here.
#3 Most points in an F1 season (Max Verstappen = 416 points)
Another record that Max Verstappen broke that went completely unnoticed was the record for the most points scored (416) in a single F1 season. He broke the record previously held by Lewis Hamilton when he scored 413 points in 21 races in the 2019 season. Max broke Hamilton's record in just 20 races and he still has a couple of races to stretch the lead.
MOST WINS IN AN F1 SEASON, MOST POINTS IN AN F1 SEASON, TWO TIME WDC, NOTHING BUT THE BEST FROM MAX VERSTAPPEN. https://t.co/vGfsBWSywX
What seems to be the most impressive thing about all of this is that Verstappen has picked up the level of domination that Hamilton used to enjoy on the field in his Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton's reign was dominant. But looking at the way Max Verstappen has bettered so many singular season records, it does show that the Dutch driver has leveled up from what his predecessor was doing.
To further highlight the kind of dominance Max Verstappen has had over the rest of the field, the driver has had two DNFs in the early stages of the season. In both of those races, Verstappen was on course to finish second in the race behind Charles Leclerc. The first was in the Bahrain GP while the second was in the Australian GP.
Formula 1 hasn't seen this kind of dominance in a long time and it's safe to say that a lot of it has to do with the fact that the Red Bull star driver is performing at a level above everyone else on the grid at the moment.