1. Youngest driver to start a race
Max Verstappen is the current holder of this record. He set this record in his debut race in Australia in 2015 when he was only 17 years and 166 days old. This record will be impossible to break under the current FIA rules as the minimum age requirement for a Super license is now 18 years.
2. Oldest driver to start a race
Kimi Raikkonen is currently the oldest driver on the F1 grid at 40 years but he would have to race for another 15 years to even come close to Louis Chiron who holds this record at 55 years and 292 days. Chiron achieved this in 1955 and it is very unlikely that this record would ever be broken given how F1 has changed since the 50s which is the era from which every single of the 10 oldest drivers in F1 raced in.
3. Percentage wins
Juan Manual Fangio is the holder of some really unique records but one that will be the most difficult to break would be the percentage of races he won out of all the races he entered. Fangio managed to win 46.15% races he participated in. He did so in the 50s and no one has been able to even come close in the more than 60 years since. Lewis Hamilton is the one to have come closest from the modern era and even he has only managed to win 33.60% of the races he has participated in. To further put that into perspective, Hamilton would have to win the next 59 races without fail and then retire to claim the record.
4. Youngest winner
Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen is also the holder of this record. He won his first race when he was just 18 years and 228 days old at the 2016 Spanish GP. The feat will be very difficult to beat under the current regulations as the drivers now have to be at least 18 years old to even be able to enter an F1 race. That means that this record can only be broken by someone during their debut year and the chances of an 18-year old getting to drive with one of the top teams remains quite remote.
5. Oldest winner
Perhaps this is the record that would be least likely to be broken. Luigi Fagioli has remained the oldest F1 driver to win a race since 1951 when he won the French Grand Prix at the ripe old age of 53 years and 22 days. These days it is rare to see anyone continue racing in F1 in their 40s and rarer still to see them racing for a team that has the capability to win races as evidenced by Kimi Raikkonen’s move to Alfa Romeo from such a position even before he turned 40.
6. Win from furthest back on the starting grid
F1 is often criticized for being an unfair sport and it might be true as no driver has ever been able to win a race after starting from the back of the grid in its long history. John Watson came the closest in 1983 when he won the US GP after having started the race in 22nd place. Replicating or beating this record in modern times would be impossible as F1 isn’t exactly known for overtaking opportunities and more to the point, the current grid only has 20 cars with no clear signs that will be increasing anytime soon.
7. A win in every single year contested in a career with multiple years
This record of Lewis Hamilton is often seen as his single biggest stake to the claim of being the greatest F1 driver ever. He has won at least one race every single season since his F1 debut in 2007. For someone to replicate this record, they would have to make their debut with a team capable of winning races and then be able to switch to other teams capable of doing so at the right time throughout their entire career.
8. Youngest points scorer
Inevitably, Max Verstappen makes another appearance on this list. He became F1’s youngest points scorer when he finished 7th in just his second race at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix at the age of 17 years and 180 days. This record will be impossible to break unless the FIA decides to relax their minimum age requirement for a super license some day in the future which seems highly improbable.
9. Most different race winners in consecutive races
Modern F1 has received plenty of criticism for not being competitive enough but 2012 managed to be a weird anomaly as seven different drivers won the first seven races of the season. While the new regulations are aimed at making racing in F1 a bit more unpredictable, the chances of this many different drivers winning this many consecutive races remains more on the unlikely side.
10. F1 Title with the least number of wins
Trying to win the maximum number of races in a season would seem like the most sure-fire way of winning a championship and that is usually the case. However, Mike Hawthorn in 1958 and Keke Rosberg in 1982 managed to win the F1 drivers’ championship despite only winning one race. Both these championship wins took place because of some rather unique circumstances such as a different scoring system and a driver line-up that would change with every race.
So there you go, 10 records in F1 that like will never be broken (at least any time soon).
Which of these records do you think is most likely to be broken? Let me know what you think in the comments.
