Max Verstappen gave the term "domination" a new meaning in 2023 as he put together the most unprecedented season Formula 1 has ever seen.
Here are the 20 wildest stats from Verstappen's third championship campaign:
1.27: Verstappen's average finishing position across 22 races in 2023 was an unbelievable 1.27. That's the best since Michael Schumacher averaged a 1.2 mark in 1994 - when he finished only 10 of 16 races.
5: With championship wins in 2021, 2022, and 2023, the Red Bull star joined Juan Manuel Fangio, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, and Schumacher as one of five to ever win three straight titles.
6: Pole, win, and score the fastest lap - Verstappen completed the hat trick six times in 2023. He's the only driver who's done that in a season.
6: There were still six races left when Verstappen clinched his third driver's championship after the Qatar sprint event, tying Schumacher's 2002 campaign for most races remaining when locking up the title.
10: In perhaps his most impressive feat, Verstappen won 10 races in a row, beating former Red Bull legend Vettel's near unthinkable nine-race win streak set a decade ago.
12.2: Verstappen's average difference to P2 in his victories clocked in at 12.2 seconds. He won by over 10 seconds nine times and even finished over 20 seconds ahead on four occasions.
16: If Verstappen starts on pole, the race is as good as over. Dating back to 2022, the 26-year-old has converted his last 16 pole starts to victories - including 12 this year. He smashed the previous record of 12 straight set by Schumacher.
19: The Dutch national anthem became an even bigger Sunday tradition as Verstappen overwrote his own single-season record of 15 wins by taking the top step a whopping 19 times in 2023. Verstappen's count this season is more than all but 17 drivers have achieved in their entire careers.
21: Verstappen stood on the podium in 21 of 22 circuits, shattering the 18-podium Formula 1 record he himself set in the 2021 season. His lone blemish on a near-perfect feat? None other than the Singapore Grand Prix.
23: With victories in Bahrain, Australia, Silverstone, Austria, Qatar, Brazil, and Las Vegas, Verstappen finished first at 23 of 24 circuits that Formula 1 has visited since 2022. Unsurprisingly, Singapore continues to be his kryptonite.
75.7%: 10 drivers led a Grand Prix this season, but none led more than Verstappen, who etched his name above Jim Clark in the record books after being ahead for 75.7% of all laps. Perhaps even more remarkable, that stat ranks the Dutchman ninth all-time among constructors for a single season.
86.36%: Coming into 2023, Alberto Ascari's historic 75% winning percentage in a single year was considered pretty safe considering it happened in an era that consisted of just eight races. That didn't seem to faze Verstappen, who won 86.36% of the time despite a lengthy 22-race calendar.
92.7%: Verstappen came as close to a perfect season as we've seen in the last 50 years. The three-time champ scored 92.7% of the points available, leaving just 45 on the table across 22 races.
100%: Verstappen didn't miss a single Grand Prix lap in 2023, joining Michael Schumacher (2002) and Lewis Hamilton (2019) as the only drivers to complete every lap in a season.
290: There's never been a larger margin between the top two drivers in the drivers' championship than the 290-point gap separating Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez. That difference alone is larger than what it took Vettel to win the title in 2010 (256 points) and 2012 (281 points).
575: Not only is Verstappen's 575 points scored a single-season record, but it's also more than the second- and third-place finishers, Perez and Hamilton, respectively, combined to collect this year (519).
650: Verstappen's current reign is guaranteed to last at least 650 days - until the 2024 Bahrain GP - since no other driver was able to knock him off the No. 1 spot this year. Since taking the lead in the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix, the Red Bull driver has led the championship for a record-breaking 39 straight races, passing the previous best mark of 37 set by Schumacher between 2000-02.
664: Verstappen went from a one-time to three-time champion in record time - there were just 664 days between his first title on Dec. 12, 2021 and his third on Oct. 7, 2023.
1,003: Verstappen led 1,003 laps in 2023, making him the only driver to ever exceed 1,000 in a season. To put that number into perspective, Verstappen led the same amount of laps as Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna combined in 1988 when they drove the legendary and historic McLaren MP4/4. It's also more than Hamilton has recorded over his last four seasons (969).
4,914: Formula 1 races covered 6,700 total kilometers in 2023, with Verstappen leading for 4,914 of them. No one else in the sport's history has ever exceeded 3,800 kilometers led in a season.
