With the two drivers’ world titles won in 2021 and 2022, the competitive maturation of Max Verstappen, at the age of 25, he has become one of the best in the history of Formula 1 by right. And, as often happens, the comparisons between the Dutchman and other legendary figures in the category have begun, with Nico Rosberg who recently compared him to Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. It was precisely from the German seven-time world champion – and the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel – that Max Verstappen broke the record of victories for a single season last Sunday in Mexico, setting the new limit at 14, with two races still to be played.
But in Mexico City, Verstappen has paired Ayrton Senna as the number of races disputed in his career, or 161allowing a parallelism between the two which cannot be other fruit of a cold statistical game, given the impossibility of drawing a real comparison between samples of different generations.
First of all, it is correct to observe how Senna participated in 162 race weekends, but San Marino 1984, when the Brazilian failed to qualify, cannot be counted among the GPs. And it is interesting to highlight how the same number of GPs was obtained in 11 years of activity for the Brazilian and in only 8 for the Dutch – a difference obviously given by the lengthening of the calendars -, as well as the age of the 161st between the two. very different: 34 for Senna in San Marino 1994 and only 25 for Verstappen in Mexico City 2022.
Senna overtakes Verstappen for GPs won (41 to 34), sharply for pole position (65 to 18), on the woolen thread for podiums (80 to 76), for world titles (3 to 2) and laps in the lead (2931 to 1798), being defeated in the fastest laps in the race (19-21) and in the closed races in the top ten (103 to 125). Given the era and the reliability of the cars in the 80s and 90s, it is then easy to understand how Seine have collected almost double the colleague’s withdrawals (60 to 31).
Finally, it should be noted that in the 161 GP of Senna there were – in addition to the Brazilian – 4 world champions: Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. In the “Verstappen era” the world championships – in addition to the Dutch – were only 2, namely the Mercedes couple formed by Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
F1 | Senna-Verstappen comparison after 161 GP
Ayrton Senna |
Max Verstappen |
|
161 |
GP |
161 |
41 |
Victories |
34 |
80 |
Podiums |
76 |
65 |
Pole |
18 |
19 |
Fast laps |
21 |
3 |
World titles |
2 |
1984-1994 |
Activities |
2015-2022 |
11 |
Seasons in F1 |
8 |
103 |
GP in top10 |
125 |
60 |
Withdrawals |
31 |
2931 |
Turns in the head |
1798 |
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