“I don’t know how far the record will go, ha,” responded Max Verstappen in the middle of Foro Sol at the Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack when asked by Jenson Button, the 2009 champion and in charge of the interviews after the competition. The Dutchman had just achieved his 16th win of the season, on the 20th round of the 74th season of Formula 1, to surpass his own mark of 15 that he had since 2022. In addition, as if that were not enough, he reached the line of 51 victories by Alain Prost to level his line in fourth place in the all-time ranking, only surpassed by Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.
It took Verstappen just 800 meters to reach the lead of the Mexican competition, after starting from third place. The same distance that he demanded from Checo Pérez to destroy his career in a crazy attempt to get ahead. The three-time champion started from third place and overtook the Ferrari duo almost without problems to command the actions. While his partner tried to go on the outside in a heroic way, but tried to turn the first corner as if he were alone, but Charles Leclerc was there. The touch was inevitable for the Monegasque, the RB19 of the Guadalajara literally took flight and goodbye to his dream of winning at home.
After the first corner, Verstappen began to command. It was known from the preview that the surprise that the Scuderia had marked on Saturday in qualifying, with pole for Leclerc and second place for Carlos Sainz, could hardly be confirmed in the race. The pace of the SF-23 is not even close to the level of the Dutchman’s Austrian car and not even enough to compete with the revamped Mercedes in this final stretch of the World Championship.
Rossa’s one-stop strategy was more about trying to contain the Englishman from the Silver Arrows than an idea of putting Verstappen on the ropes. In any case, the plans fell on deaf ears with Kevin Magnussen’s terrifying accident, which forced race management to stop everything with a red flag. At the restart, the logic occurred: Max escaped, Hamilton got rid of Leclerc and Colorín Colorado, story over.
“To be honest, we are having a spectacular season. Today I started third, but the pace of the car was very good,” said the champion. “We tried to make a different strategy, but fortunately, with the red flag, we have not been able to show it. Those hard tires at the end were strong. Now, I don’t know what the next goal is,” he added.
Now, numbers. Verstappen reached the record for wins in a single season (16). Of course, that figure alone means little, because at the beginning of Formula 1, the calendars were far from having the current length. For example, in 1950, the first season of the World Championship, the agenda had seven dates, with the Indianapolis 500 included, a race that the “Europeans” overlooked. So, you have to look at winning percentages.
The 2023 calendar has 23 events, of which 20 will be held due to the suspension of the Emilia-Romagna GP due to the floods that northern Italy suffered last May. Thus, Max has so far won 16 of the 19 contested competitions, an effectiveness of 84.21%! If the percentage is taken as a parameter to equate extensive calendars with limited ones, Alberto Ascari closed the 1952 World Cup with a 75% success rate (six out of eight). In this area, the podium is completed by Michael Schumacher, with his 72.22% (13-18) from 2004. If he wins the three remaining events (Brazil, Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi), Verstappen would reach an effectiveness of 86.33 %. Now, if the Dutchman did not win more in 2023, he would continue with his record in one year, but it would fall to 72.72% and would be below Ascari.
Verstappen closed his time in Mexico by saying that he did not know what the next objective would be. Without a doubt, he will be first in the percentage. And, no less important, climbing to third place in the historical ranking of successes, led by Hamilton (103), followed by Schumacher (91) and Vettel (53). If the Dutchman wins in the trio of remaining events, he will reach 54. For now, he reached none other than the French Professor with 51.
And if it’s about objectives in these three races, that’s what Hamilton is doing, second in Mexico. The seven-time champion will try to make a splash with his improved Mercedes to break the two-year streak of no success and hunt down Checo Pérez in second place and take the runner-up position. The Mexican alone gave him a hand with his mistake in front of the people who spoiled him. The 20 points that separate them are few considering that there are 86 left.
Fuente: LB24 / ESPN.
2023-10-30 00:14:01
#Verstappen #won #Mexico #reached #record #wins #season
