Defeated by Verstappen, Vettel hopes to reach 16 wins

The one who has already made his mark on this season by becoming a double world champion at Suzuka, continued to amaze the statistics by winning in Mexico. This victory is his 14th of the same season, thus surpassing the record of 13 wins that was long held by Sebastian Vettel. The four-time German world champion has spoken about this new record and hopes that the current world champion reaches a number of 16 wins this season.

« I think it’s great for the team. I still know some people there, so I’m really happy for them and for Max. Well done. I think he’s having an amazing season, so I hope he’ll have 16 wins by the end of the year! Anything less would be disappointing, right? »

Sebastian Vettel, who had equaled Michael Schumacher’s record with 13 victories during the 2013 season, has expressed his thoughts on the difficulty of achieving such a feat throughout an entire season. He emphasizes that despite Max Verstappen’s talent and the advantage his car can provide him, the task is not easy.

« No, it’s not, he assured. « But obviously, I think they had a momentum compared to last year, the car this year is incredible. They won races even when they were heavier than everyone else. I think now, they have probably found the weight limit. So the car is ready, but Max is also doing an incredible job. »

If Verstappen has the most absolute victories in a season, he is not necessarily the one with the best victory to Grand Prix ratio in a season. Nowadays, seasons have more races than in the past. Therefore, one would need to win at least 16 races out of the 22 Grand Prix in 2022 to be alone at the top in terms of the Victory/Grand Prix ratio on the calendar.

It should be noted, however, that Verstappen achieved this feat in the first 19 races of the season. Therefore, if the situation only considered 19 races, he would be well ahead in this ranking, currently holding a ratio of 14 wins out of 19 races, which is 73%.