Max Verstappen earned his 50th career Formula 1 win on Sunday, becoming the fifth driver to pull it off. When did Lewis Hamilton achieve it?
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen achieved a feat that only four other Formula 1 drivers had achieved by winning Sunday afternoon’s United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas, bringing his career win total to 50.
Only seven-time world champions Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher and four-time world champions Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost own more wins than the three-time world champion Verstappen at 103, 91, 53, and 51, respectively.
Of those drivers, only Hamilton remains active.
Max Verstappen, who is now in his ninth Formula 1 season, achieved the feat at the age of 26, an all-time record, and did so in his 180th career start.
Hamilton pulled it off in his 10th season, and he also pulled it off at Circuit of the Americas, doing so back in 2016. He too was a three-time world champion, though he won his third title the year prior and did not win a fourth until 2017. He achieved it at the age of 31 and in his 185th career start.
Schumacher pulled it off in his 11th season at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in 2001 as a three-time world champion. He would go on to secure title number four later in the year. His 50th win came at the age of 32 and in his 153rd career start.
Vettel pulled it off in his 12th season at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2018. He was a four-time champion, though his four titles all came from 2010 to 2013. He achieved the feat at the age of 30 and did so in his 205th career start.
Prost pulled it off in his 13th final season at Silverstone Circuit in 1993. Like Schumacher, he won it as a three-time world champion en route to becoming a four-time world champion later in the season before retiring at the end of the year. He was 38 years old at the time and achieved the feat in his 192nd career start.
All things considered, Verstappen measures up quite well compared to these other legends in terms of when he became a 50-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner. Having said that, future success is never guaranteed, no matter how dominant one is at any given point in time.
At this particular point in time, however, Verstappen is as dominant of a driver as Formula 1 has ever seen.
He secured his 50th career victory with what was his record-tying 15th win of the 2023 season. The win gives him 30 wins over the last two seasons, as he secured a record-breaking 15 wins in 2022.
Never before had a driver won more than 13 races in a single season, and never before had a driver won more than 22 races in a two-year span. He also owns 40 wins over the last three seasons, breaking Hamilton’s previous record of 33 in a three-year span.
With four races remaining on the 2023 schedule, Verstappen could potentially ascend to as high as third place on the all-time wins list behind only Hamilton and Schumacher before the season ends.
He is set to go for win number 51 to tie Prost in this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which is scheduled to be broadcast live on ABC from Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez beginning at 3:55 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 29. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don’t miss it!
