Max Verstappen has re-written the history books in many ways in 2023, with an astonishing performance for Red Bull that has seen him dominate the field and leave the rest of the drivers battling for seconds.
Although this season has been all about Verstappen, it has not all been about Verstappen – with plenty of interesting stats to be seen all the way down the field.
WIN PERCENTAGE
Starting with Verstappen, he has not only beaten his own record of most wins in a season but has upped the victory percentage to an astonishing 85.7% – the highest ever percentage! To put this into perspective, previous record holders were Alberto Ascari at 75% (6 out of 8 races in 1952) and Michael Schumacher at 72.22% (13 out of 18 races in 2004).
A 19th victory of the season in Abu Dhabi – for which he is at odds of 2/7 – would raise the record to 86.4%. That is significantly better, even, than his previous record of 15 wins (68.2%) last year, and although it was said before with Schumacher’s records, surely that will take some beating.
Notably, in the all-time winner’s list, Verstappen has jumped two driving legends this season – moving from 35 to his current 53 career victory and passing Ayrton Senna’s 41 and Alain Prost’s 51 in the process.
POLE PERFORMANCE
Compared to his race successes, Verstappen has not had it all his way in qualifying and he ‘only’ has 11 poles from 21 races so far – well down on Sebastian Vettel’s record of 15 from 19 set in 2011. In fact, four other drivers – Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton – have also started from the front.
Of these drivers, Leclerc has had the most poles (5) and the odds of another in Abu Dhabi is at 7/2. When it comes to teams, Red Bull has 13 poles and Ferrari 7 – and the odds of Ferrari closing that gap this weekend are 5/2.
Four drivers – Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso – have all started from the front row in second place, but have not yet managed to get pole this season. Of those, Norris is perhaps most likely this weekend to do just that, with odds of 11/1, while the least likely is Alonso at 100/1.
Qualifying has been very close across the field this season – and astonishingly every driver who is on the grid this weekend has appeared in the Top 10 at least once, with eight drivers averaging a grid position higher than 10 through the year.
PODIUM PERFORMANCES
Only Perez and Sainz have taken victories this year, but five drivers have finished second. The odds of those five finishing second again are Norris (6/5), Hamilton and Leclerc (5/1), Piastri (14/1) and Alonso (40/1).
An astonishing 11 drivers have finished on the podium this season, with Lance Stroll being the only driver to have finished fourth but not made it to the champagne celebrations. The odds of him doing so this weekend is 100/1.
Meanwhile, Norris has claimed five podiums from the last seven races, and the odds of another this weekend is at 8/11.
Four different engines have powered cars on the podium, with Red Bull’s Honda RBPT unit top on 29 but Mercedes just five podiums back on 24 – thanks to Mercedes, Aston Martin and McLaren all using that unit.
TOP SIXERS
Verstappen has finished in the top six in every race this season – in the three races he did not win, he finished second twice and fifth in Singapore. Next best are Perez and Hamilton, who both have 16 top-six finishes, whilst Sainz has 15 in his Ferrari – eight of which have come in the last nine races. The odds of another are 1/3.
CRASHES AND RETIREMENTS
Esteban Ocon and Logan Sargeant have suffered the most retirements this season with a current total of seven. The odds of them making that eight non-classified finishes before the season comes to a close is 9/2. Kevin Magnussen, Leclerc and Stroll are next up with five non-classified finishes, although the latter two both failed to start one race each and Leclerc was also disqualified from one.
This season has seen a total of 36 accident-induced retirements, with Ocon and Magnussen suffering the most with four crashes each. Ocon, Sargeant and Russell have had the most mechanical failures with each on four. The odds of Russell posting another retirement to end the season are 11/2.
Alonso and Norris have both raced the most laps 97.5% and 96% respectively, while in contrast Leclerc (86%), Sargeant (85%) and Ocon (83%) have completed the least.
LEADING LIGHTS
It is no surprise that the Red Bull pair have led the most laps – with Verstappen on a staggering 951 and Perez on 146. Sainz, who is the only other winner, is next up on 77, but the driver who has led most and not yet won is Leclerc, with 40 leading laps. The odds of him converting the lead to victory this time are 16/1.
KEEP TRACK OF THE ACTION
To keep track of the action, wherever you are, the F1 Live Tracker from bet365 – is a good place to go – covering all the information you could possibly need, from all the practice sessions, through qualifying, sprints and the race itself.
It allows users to track each driver’s position from the starting grid to the finish, live throughout the race, with current leaderboard information, the latest fastest lap, current lap times, number of pitstops by driver, current tyre settings and driver gaps.
To make it simple to catch up, a timeline details all the important race updates – including all the key overtakes and incidents – and it also allows two drivers to be compared head-to-head within the race, highlighting them on the tracker.
On top of that, all the safety car updates, red flags and yellow flags are covered, while track information such as temperatures, humidity and chance of rain makes it possible to keep tabs on potential changes and challenges and more easily predict what could happen.
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