Verstappen On-Course To Record Most Dominant Season In F1 History

Max Verstappen is very dominant in the 2023 F1 season, but his season in Red Bull may even be the most dominant in the sport's history.

Over the 74 editions of the Formula One World Championship, we've seen multiple drivers dominate. Some dominated over the course of a couple of races, some over the duration of a season, and some even over a full decade.

And while some dominant periods were more one-sided than others, the sport has probably never seen dominance similar to Verstappen's. The Flying Dutchman currently leads the 2023 World Drivers' Championship by 226 points in front of his closest competitor, his teammate Sergio Perez.

Obviously, Verstappen has already won the Drivers' Championship, but he can still break multiple records and collect multiple achievements in 2023. Only during his most recent United States Grand Prix win the Dutch driver recorded his 50th career win.

He joined the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, and Alain Prost, and already in 2023 if he adds four more wins in the last four remaining races, he can overtake Vettel and Prost and sit in third place in race wins in the sport's history.

But Verstappen can also record the most dominant season by a driver in the history. Currently, the Dutch driver won 15 out of 18 races, with a total number of Grands Prix this season stopping at 22.

Already now, he has tied his record for most wins in a season, which was 15 in 2022. With his next race win, he can break this record and set a new one. But since there's not the same amount of races every year, and the Dutch driver has an advantage due to F1 having a really long calendar at the moment, there's another way of showing the driver's dominance.

That's obviously by translating his race wins into a percentage of races in the given season. The most dominant season in this regard was achieved in 1952 by Alberto Ascari, who won six out of eight races in the season, with an impressive 75% record.

For over seven decades, it was difficult to break this record, because of how few races were in the Championship back then, but in 2004, Michael Schumacher got close, winning 13 out of 18 races, which translates into 72.22%.

Some other drivers had seasons in which they won more than 60% of the races, and one of them was Verstappen's 2022 season, when he won 15 out of 22 races, placing him 5th in this statistic with 68.18%.

However, since the Dutch driver has won 15 out of 22 races, with four races still to go, in 2023, he's on course to break Ascari's record. Currently, his percentage sits at 68.18%, but with next race win, Verstappen would improve to 72.72%, overtaking everyone except for Ascari and taking the second place in this stat.

Two wins, in the remaining four races, would sent the Dutchman to 77.27%, taking the first place in the most dominant season rank, and the best he can achieve is unprecedented 86.36%, should he win all the remaining races.