Canadian GP: Verstappen gains outright spot in top 10 all-time winners list

Victory at the Canadian Grand Prix earned Max Verstappen an outright place in the top 10 of F1 drivers with the most race wins in the sport’s 72-year history. What’s even more incredible is that he’s done it by an age most F1 stars are still finding their feet.

Aged just 17 years and 166 days when he made his debut for Toro Rosso in Australia in 2015, the Dutchman remains the youngest driver to have competed in F1.

Fast forward to the present day and Verstappen’s career so far has seen 150 starts, 67 podiums, many, many wins and one world championship title. And the way things are going in 2022, he’s on course to defend that crown this season.

With more races than ever on the current calendar and a contract lasting until 2028 - thought to be the longest ever signed - Max looks certain to break all manner of records before he hangs up his helmet.

Without further ado, here’s how the top 10 looks right now. How high can Verstappen climb, do you reckon?

Wins: 25

Two legends of the sport and five world championships between them, Jim Clark and Niki Lauda amassed 25 wins apiece during their F1 careers. Clark would no doubt have registered more had it not been for his untimely death at the age of 32, killed in an accident in Hockenheim in 1968.

Lauda of course had his own accident at the Nurburgring during the 1976 season, where a crash and fire left him with severe burns and lung damage. Miraculously he recovered, and although he lost the world championship to James Hunt that year, he regained his crown the following season and won a third in 1984 after a short period in retirement.

Wins: 54

Verstappen’s first victory came on his debut for Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2016, having been promoted from Toro Rosso in favour of the unfortunate and out-of-form Daniil Kvyat. The two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg then promptly crashed into each other on the first lap, leaving the Dutchman free to claim victory in front of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

It was the first of many, and Verstappen's rise up has been especially meteoric lately. Since winning his first world title in controversial circumstances in Abu Dhabi in 2021, he's been near enough unbeatable, winning more races in the two seasons since than Fernando Alonso has in his entire career. Now that is a stat.

His 2023 campaign might never be topped: 19 victories from 22 grands prix and enough points to win the constructors' championship on his own. Just wow.

Wins: 27

What’s remarkable about Jackie Stewart’s 27 victories is that they came from just 100 starts between 1960 and 1968, giving Sir Jackie (yes, he’s a knight of the realm don’t forget) one of the highest win ratios in the history of the sport. Among those to have driven more than 10 grands prix, only six drivers have bettered Stewart’s hit rate: Michael Schumacher, Jim Clark, Lewis Hamilton, Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio and Max Verstappen.

Wins: 31

Making his F1 debut in 1980, it wasn’t until 1985 that Mansell took the chequered flag for the first time, doing so at Brands Hatch in what was billed as the European Grand Prix. Several victories followed over the next few years, but a world title proved elusive as he finished runner-up in 1986, 1987 and 1991.

However, Williams’ FW14B was the class of the field in 1992 and Mansell won eight of the first 10 races to charge to the championship he’d fought so long for. 

Wins: 32

He might be well into his 40s now but Fernando Alonso is still going strong in F1, albeit having had a sabbatical to go and win Le Mans a couple of times. The Spaniard’s first victory came in only his second season in 2003, and by 2006 he was a double world champion with Renault.

At that point it seemed inconceivable that he wouldn’t add to those championships, but the story of his career since has been one of never quite finding himself in the best machinery. On three occasions he has missed out on the title by four points or less. That’s gotta sting.

We still live in hope that Fernando will climb back to the top step of the podium one day. His resurgence with Aston Martin in 2023 - which yielded eight more podium finished - shows that he's still razor sharp behind the wheel. All he needs is a top car...

Wins: 41

Often thought of as the greatest F1 driver ever to have lived, Ayrton Senna is another on this list who would’ve easily racked up more wins had he not died before his time.

Blessed with natural talent and outrageous speed, Senna also put in the hard yards by working on details when other drivers would rather be enjoying their down time. So it’s no wonder he was so successful.

Senna won all three of his world titles with McLaren, but departed for Williams for the 1994 season. It proved to be a fateful move, as the Brazilian was tragically killed in a crash at Imola. He was 34.

Wins: 51

A look back at Alain Prost’s racing record reveals an astonishing level of consistency: the Frenchman found himself on the podium 106 times during his 13-year F1 career, meaning he got a taste of champagne in more than half the races he entered. Which is a bit staggering.

51 of the podiums were wins, and you’ve got to wonder how many more victories he’d have secured if he hadn’t shared his peak years with Senna, the other great of his generation. Four world titles was more than a fair return for his speed and racecraft.

Wins: 53

Having finished his career in the midfield with Aston Martin, it’s easy to forget just how dominant Vettel was in the period between 2010 and 2013 in which he won four world championships in a row.

Frequently Vettel would demolish the field in qualifying, before establishing a comfortable lead ahead of the chasing pack on race day and cruising to the chequered flag. His command of that era’s machinery was unrivalled, and though he went on to challenge for more titles with Ferrari, he never quite replicated that dominance for the Italian team.

If he has one weakness (and that’s to be debated) it’s that he’s never been as good climbing through the field as he is leading it: he retired in 2022 having never won a grand prix from lower than third on the grid. Quite incredible when you think about it.

Wins: 91

There was a time when no one imagined Michael Schumacher’s records would ever be broken. The German driver pushed the boundaries in all kinds of ways in his time in F1, and the fact that there’s such a big leap from Verstappen's total of 54 wins (so far) just goes to show how extraordinary Schumacher was.

His first full season with Benetton in 1992 yielded his first win, and two titles followed in 1994 and 1995. He then moved to Ferrari and - together with a handful of key team members - was responsible for turning the team into the most successful of any era up to that point.

Schumacher’s last win came in 2006 not long before retirement, and although he returned to F1 for three seasons from 2010, he only managed one more podium in that time.

In 2013 Schumacher very sadly suffered a severe brain injury in a skiing accident, and hasn’t been seen in public since.

Wins: 103

Statistically the most successful F1 driver of all time, Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time world champion and so far the only driver to have entered triple figures for race wins.

Very nearly a world champion in his debut season with McLaren, a first world title followed in 2008, famously overtaking Timo Glock on the penultimate corner of the last lap of the season to overhaul Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Though successful at McLaren, a switch to Mercedes in 2013 was the catalyst for turning a great career into an iconic one. The Silver Arrows found themselves dominating the sport at the beginning of the turbo-hybrid engine era in 2014, and they didn't stop winning for ages. Neither did Hamilton: 81 of his 103 victories have come with Mercedes, as well as six of his world championship titles.

Could Verstappen overhaul him one day? On current form, you'd have to say yes...