Verstappen's astonishing achievements - Stats and facts of a champion

Max Verstappen clinched his maiden F1 world championship in dramatic style with a last-lap lunge on Lewis Hamilton in a race shrouded in controversy.

The Red Bull driver, who joined the sport in 2015 with Toro Rosso [now AlphaTauri], completed his journey to the top in a season that saw him take more pole positions and victories than any other driver.

Here are the stats and facts of his championship-winning campaign.

First from the Netherlands

Verstappen became the first Dutch F1 champion with his triumph over Hamilton. The Netherlands is the 15th different country to produce a champion. It is the first time since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 that the champion is neither German nor British.

Turbocharged

Verstappen is also the first non-Mercedes champion within the V6 turbo-hybrid era.

Honda's prowess earned a first drivers' title for the Japanese manufacturer since Ayrton Senna with McLaren in 1991.

An elite group of four

Verstappen's victory ensures he joins Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso as the only drivers in F1 history to have taken a world title before turning 25 years old.

All four are on the grid for next season's campaign.

A split

For the first time since 2008, when Lewis Hamilton took his first title and Ferrari clinched the constructors', the championships have not been won by the same team.

Brawn took the double in 2009, Red Bull from 2010-2013 and Mercedes from 2014-2020.

Follow the leader

Verstappen led 652 laps this season, which equates to 50.2 per cent of all race laps, more than double the number of laps led by Hamilton (297), and more than the other nine drivers who led races this year combined (348).

Only three drivers have led more laps in a single season - Sebastian Vettel (2011 and 2013), Nigel Mansell (1992) and Michael Schumacher (2004).

More than half of the 1239 career laps he has led have come this season. In the season finale? He led for one lap – the final one.

It didn't take too long!

Verstappen achieved the world title in his 141st F1 start, 23 of which came with Scuderia Toro Rosso (2015-16) before his switch to Red Bull Racing for the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, which he won on debut for the team.

Verstappen the podium man

Eighteen podium finishes in 2021 of the 60 in Verstappen's career. This breaks the record for most by a driver in a single season.

Since the beginning of 2018, he has been on the podium in 49 of 81 races, equating to 60 per cent of all Grands Prix held in four years.

All [wheel] guns blazing

Red Bull Racing had the fastest pit stop in 13 of the 22 Grand Prix in 2021 (Verstappen in Bahrain, Portugal, Monaco, Azerbaijan, Styria, Austria, Hungary, Netherlands, Turkey, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and Sergio Pérez in France and Saudi Arabia).

Double-double digits

Ten - both the number of wins this season of the 20 in Verstappen's career and the number of 2021 pole positions of his career total of 13.

His most dominant run came in the France-Styria-Austria triple-header, where he won three races in succession for the first time and led all 142 laps across the Styrian and Austrian Grands Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Nothing to separate them

Verstappen had nine seconds in hand over Hamilton over 5487km in all of the races both drivers ran to their completion in 2021 (excludes the Azerbaijan, British, Belgian and Italian Grands Prix).

The flying Dutchman

Six fastest laps this season of the 16 in Verstappen's career, five of which earned an extra world championship point for finishing inside the top 10 in Spain, France, Austria, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Pat on the back for pit crew

Four successive years where Red Bull Racing has won the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for the team with the fastest average pit stop time over the course of a season.

Of the fastest pit stops this season, Red Bull had the eight fastest single stops and nine of the top 10.

The two Vs

Verstappen is the second world champion to win the title for Red Bull Racing after Sebastian Vettel won four in a row from 2010 to 2013.

Sub-two-second stops

1.88 seconds, the fastest pit stop of the season when Verstappen pitted on lap 40 of the Hungarian Grand Prix – one of five sub-two-second stops for the team this season.

Change of number

Verstappen will carry the number one on his car for 2022 as the reigning Formula One World Champion.

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