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Welcome back to Prime Tire, where we wonder if you’ve heard that Guenther Steiner is the new ambassador for the Miami Grand Prix? I really thought this guy would retire to a vineyard or something after leaving Haas. He’s everywhere right now!
One week before the Japanese Grand Prix. My name is Patrick and Madeline Coleman will be here shortly. Let’s go.
How Verstappen’s streak of 43 consecutive races stacks up
When the right rear brake on Max Verstappen’s RB20 stuck, overheated and died during the Australian Grand Prix last Sunday, it ended an incredible streak you might not have been aware of. The DNF was Verstappen’s first since the 2022 Australian GP – 43 consecutive races without a retirement.
I was just starting to understand this feat this week when F1 released some interesting numbers on X (formerly Twitter). During those 43 races, Verstappen accumulated 35 wins, 39 podiums, 989 points, 15 fastest laps and two world championships. He averaged 23 points and a 1.6 ERA. Screaming figures.
This got me thinking: how does Verstappen’s 43-race streak compare to other 43-race streaks of dominance in F1 history? So, I started some research.
Instead of going through all 1,106 F1 world championship events, I decided to limit my investigation to a “modern era” of motor racing, which I arbitrarily set at 1990. (The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990. Dial-up Internet access began in 1992. Oasis released “Definitely Maybe” in 1994. Modern era.)
I defined “extent of dominance” as “this guy sure has a lot of ‘1s’ in his ‘arrival’ column.” Using this highly scientific method, I landed on five other drivers with 43-race streaks similar to Verstappen’s. (Note: I haven’t taken points into account, as the F1 points system has changed over time.)
Notable stretches from 43 F1 races
Driver |
Years |
Victories |
Podiums |
Fastest laps |
Avg. Finishing |
Completed races |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Max Verstappen |
2022-2024 |
35 |
39 |
15 |
1.6 |
43 |
Lewis Hamilton |
2014-2017 |
22 |
37 |
12 |
1.9 |
40 |
Nicholas Rosberg |
2014-2016 |
16 |
33 |
11 |
2.9 |
39 |
Sebastian Vettel |
2011-2013 |
20 |
29 |
15 |
2.9 |
40 |
Michael Schumacher |
2000-2003 |
26 |
37 |
12 |
1.6 |
40 |
Nigel Mansell |
1990-1994 |
16 |
25 |
15 |
2.2 |
29 |
Some points to remember:
- Verstappen’s streak of 43 consecutive races is unprecedented. Other drivers compete against him in terms of podiums, average results and fastest laps, but no one touches Verstappen’s 35 wins in 43 races. Not close.
- I could have included two periods of 43 races for Michael Schumacher at that time, but since they overlapped, I took the one with the most impressive numbers.
- Nigel Mansell’s stretch was interesting. This was towards the end of his career, when he had an on-and-off relationship with the retired and Williams. Consistency was hard to come by in that streak (he has the most retirements of this group), but his 1992 world championship season at age 39 was transcendent – nine wins, and he still holds the F1 records for the highest percentage of poles won in a season (88 percent).
- Nico Rosberg certainly shone at Mercedesis not it ?
I reiterate that Verstappen is the only one of these drivers to have completed all 43 races in all categories. Something tells me that next week in Japan he will start another 43 supernatural races.
Mercedes’ ‘brutally painful’ start to season
What goes into repairing an F1 chassis? You’ll recall that when Alex Albon crashed his Williams during testing in Australia, Williams was left without a spare chassis, leading Logan Sargeant to hand over his car to his teammate for the weekend.
Meanwhile, Albon’s chassis was returned to the UK for repairs. In his “Vowles’s Verdict” recap video, Williams team principal James Vowles detailed the next steps for the team:
“We have measures in place to make sure the chassis is back here (at Grove) very early Monday morning,” Vowles said. “I think he arrived at about 2 a.m. or so, and since then there were already crews inside the building working on it, taking it down and doing repairs… In Melbourne there were photographs and techniques called NTT, which are non-destructive testing. So there are different (tests) that you can do (on the track), but this gives us a good understanding of the extent of the damage and what we need to do. And this preparation was essential. This meant that on Monday already at 2 a.m. the work could begin.”
This work is almost finished…Williams will be able to run both cars in Japan next week. Williams will no longer have a spare chassis in Japan but is expected to prepare its third chassis for China on April 21.
Now, let’s turn the floor over to Madeline for a burning question…
Over the last 25 races, only one non-Red Bull driver has won a race (two in fact): Carlos Sainz. Yet the 29-year-old remains out of work next season after Ferrari opted not to renew his contract and signed Lewis Hamilton for 2025.
This begs the question: is he underrated? This question was asked of Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris during the post-race press conference in Australia, and we’ll delve deeper into these answers in a moment. We decided to ask F1 fans the same question and sent our readers a poll via X (formerly Twitter) this week. We received 1,046 votes, and an overwhelming majority of you voted yes, you think Sainz is underrated.
Sainz is one of the most complete drivers on the grid, and a weekend without a point is rare. He is calm under pressure (remember Monza qualifying last year?) and methodical in nature. His dedication to the sport is undeniable. Just 16 days after undergoing surgery for appendicitis, Sainz recovered and won the Australian Grand Prix after Max Verstappen retired early due to a brake problem.
“There’s no reason for anyone to think he’s underrated,” Norris said after the race in Melbourne. “I think people who know him know what he can do, know his level of effort, his approach and his dedication to wanting to be one of the best, exactly like he proved today and over the last two weeks.”
His teammate, Leclerc, agrees: “He is one of the highest rated drivers in the paddock, and he has been extremely strong every time he has been in a Formula 1 car. And he has. shown several times. So, I don’t think he’s underestimated for that. I think everyone knows the value of Carlos. And that’s why I’ve said many times that I’m not too worried about his future.
That being said, results matter. Sainz is a three-time Grand Prix winner having been on the F1 grid since 2015 and has stood on the podium 20 times. “The results are always a bit big to show, and people on the outside judge things easily from what you see on TV,” Norris said. “But when we have worked with him, when we know what he is capable of doing, and when things click, they click very well, and he puts in performances like this weekend. And I would say that all year it turned out to be perhaps a notch above what it had been last year.
“Yeah, you’re an idiot if you underestimate him.”
Let us know what you think of Sainz and if he’s underrated in the comments below or on this form. We’ll share some of your comments in next week’s edition of Prime Tire.
Thank you Madeline! NOW,
Let’s remember a race
THE 2000 Japanese GP was the third race in the 43 race streak for Schumacher that I mentioned earlier. It was also the race that gave the German driver their third world championship title: his overtake of Mika Häkkinen on lap 40 ended their title fight. What I like best about this race is that Schumacher was criticized by former Italian President Francesco Cossiga for daring to imitate a conductor and dance on the podium during the Italian national anthem.
So disrespectful!
Outside of points
Felipe Massa is seeking more than $80 million in damages from Formula 1 management, former F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA over the ‘Crashgate’ scandal that cost him the 2008 drivers’ championship Massa’s lawyers said Athleticism that Massa is trying to create a “strong precedent” for motorsport athletes. “There is a lot of fear and skepticism from star pilots who seek to correct obvious injustices; it’s time to change that,” said Bernardo Viana.
And finally, remember William Storey? The founder of Rich Energy who had a bizarrely short-lived sponsorship deal with Haas in 2019? Athleticism did a great profile on this guy and his repeated attempts to buy a football team in the UK
Main image of Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen: Martin KEEP / AFP, Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images