Review of 2020: The year of Max Verstappen in numbers
Published on 30 December 2020 by Kees-Jan Koster
2020, already the sixth year of Max Verstappen in Formula 1, was in all respects a special year. Verstappen.com looks back on the most remarkable facts and statistics of Max in the past season.
Because of covid-19 the season start was delayed for months and in the end, there were seventeen Grands Prix on the considerably changed calendar. Seventeen races were therefore the least number of races for Max in one Formula 1 season. In addition, the first home race of Max at Zandvoort was postponed for a year.
In these seventeen race Max scored a total of 214 points and finished third in the championship, equalling his best classification scored last year. With only nine points behind Valtteri Bottas in second position, Max has never been so close to the vice-title. With Max unable to compete for the title, it means that he will not be able to win the record for youngest Formula 1 champion. The record will remain in the hands of Sebastian Vettel.
This year Max took two victories, just as in 2017 and 2018, bringing him to a total of ten wins. He only took more wins in one season in 2019 (three times). When he took his first win of the season, at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, Max equalled his fathers record of the Dutchman driving the most Grands Prix. At the end of the year Max drove a total of 119 Grands Prix.
This year Max finished eleven times on the podium, equalling the greatest number of podiums in one season, as in 2018. In every race Max made it to the finish this year, he finished on the podium, except in the Turkish Grand Prix where he finished sixth. From the Styrian Grand Prix up to the Belgian Grand Prix Verstappen finished six times in a row on the podium. Again, equalling his best series, which he set at the end of the 2018 season up to the first race of 2019. Max has now scored 42 podiums in total in Formula 1, putting him on a joined all time 20th position. This also means that Max finished on the podium in 35% of all his races.
Max finished in a joined second place considering the number of wins and podium finishes in one season for the first time in his career. Just like Max, Bottas also scored two wins and finished eleven times on the podium this year. They had to tolerate Hamilton in front of them, who scored no less than eleven Grands Prix wins and finished fourteen times on the podium.
Max took his only pole of the year during the last Grand Prix of the season, defeating Mercedes for the first time since 2013 in Abu Dhabi. With his dominant performance in Abu Dhabi, Max was leading the whole race for the second time in his career, just as in the Mexican Grand Prix of 2017. Daniel Ricciardo took the fastest lap in the final lap of the race. Thus preventing Verstappen from taking his first ‘Grand Chelem’ (pole, win while leading every lap and fasted lap). Despite that, Max took the fastest lap three times this season, just like in 2019. Verstappen did move past Ricciardo on the eternal rankings of numbers of points scored in Formula 1. To date Max scored 1162 points in his Formula 1 career, putting him in an all time tenth place.
Max qualified this year for every race ahead of teammate Alexander Albon. Since the Canadian Grand Prix in 2019, in which Max did not go through to Q3 because of a red flag, the Dutchman has not been defeated in qualifying by his teammate.
There was a lot to celebrate by the Red Bull Racing team in 2020. For the first time since 2017 the team from Milton Keynes scored a double podium with second place for Verstappen and third place for Albon in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Also Red Bull finished second in the constructor’s championship for the first time since 2016. The Red Bull mechanics have contributed to this. Nine of the fastest pit stops were scored by Red Bull, in which the fastest pit stop this year was completed in 1.86 seconds. They won dominantly the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award, for the third time in a row.
Also the fans appreciated Max achievements. Again this season Max was awarded most often ‘Driver of the Day’, no less than four times.
Red Bull will do everything possible to compete for the championship next year. Also next year Max will have Sergio Perez as his new teammate. The Mexican will be the fifth teammate of Max in Formula 1, following Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon. This means that Verstappen still did not have had a teammate younger than him.
Results of Max Verstappen in 2020 Grand Prix Grid Race Austria 2 DNF Styrian 2 3 Hungary 7 2 Great Britain 3 2 70th Anniversary 4 1 Spain 3 2 Belgian 3 3 Italy 5 DNF Tuscan 3 DNF Russia 2 2 Eifel 3 2 Portugal 3 3 Emilia Romagna 3 DNF Turkey 2 6 Bahrain 3 2 Sakhir 3 DNF Abu Dhabi 1 1
