Verstappen with two wins in the first three races: how many like him?
General
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen won the Bahrain and Australian Grand Prix: is he destined to win his third consecutive championship? The numbers suggest yes, as many times in the past drivers with similar starts have lifted the trophy at the end of the season. Other times, however, drivers have encountered difficulties during the course of the year and have been left high and dry (right, Charles Leclerc?). Let's scroll through F1 history together in search of numbers and trivia!
A good start...
Verstappen is only the latest driver in F1 history to win (at least) two of the first three races of the season. Before him we find the likes of Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and the old lion Lewis Hamilton, who managed it four times during the Mercedes dominance period. In total there are 26 years in which a driver has managed to win the championship after such a start. From Alberto Ascari in 1953, through Fangio, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Villeneuve, Hakkinen, to the recent Alonso, Button, Vettel and Rosberg. In the entire history of F1 only three times has a driver managed to win the first five races of the season and then win the championship: Senna in 1991, Nigel Mansell in '92 and Schumacher in 2004.
...is not always half the battle.
Many times, more than one would expect, the driver who won at least two of the first three races of the season failed to bring home the most coveted trophy. Last on this list is Charles Leclerc who, like Verstappen this year, had triumphed in Bahrain and Australia. The Monegasque then, victim of personal and team mistakes, failed to impose himself throughout the year, throwing in the towel in the face of Red Bull's superiority. The young Ferrarista can take solace in the knowledge that he has 12 drivers to keep him company, for a total of 16 seasons in total (in addition to his own). This list includes Alain Prost, who had to surrender to his rivals for three years, but also Ayrton Senna, one of the few to appear in both of these curious lists. Then also the names of Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, but also Enzo Fittipaldi and Nicki Lauda appear. In short, history is also of the defeated.
And the teams?
This year, in addition to Verstappen's super start, the efforts of the Red Bull team, which between the Dutchman and Sergio Perez won every race, should also be praised. It is by no means every day that a team wins the first three races of the season, quite the contrary. If we look at it, in fact, the team that started with such an en plein has only managed to win the constructors' championship 14 times. We start with the Lotus of Jim Clark and Graham Hill in 1968, then the legendary McLaren-Honda of Prost and Senna in '88, which even managed to win the first 11 races of the season. Finally, we come to the more recent Ferrari of Schumacher and Barrichello in 2000 and 2004, the Renault of Alonso and Fisichella in 2005 and 2006, and finally the Mercedes of Hamilton, Rosberg and Bottas. Will Verstappen and Perez manage to add Red Bull's name to this illustrious list?