Max Verstappen’s first triumph at the British Grand Prix saw Red Bull collect its 11th successive win and equal the all-time record for the most consecutive victories in Formula 1 history.
The Austrian outfit now shares the accolade with McLaren, who stormed to wins in the opening 11 races of the 1988 season.
The Woking outfit’s legendary driver duo of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna would score a further four wins across the remainder of the year behind the wheel of the MP4/4.
However, McLaren was denied an unbeaten campaign at the Italian Grand Prix when Ferrari’s Gerhard Berger profited from a late incident in the race that thwarted Senna.
After being defeated at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix by Mercedes in the penultimate round of last year, Verstappen comfortably won the season finale in Abu Dhabi before Red Bull’s crushing of the opposition commenced this year.
The RB19 has been untouchable through the opening 10 races of the year, powering Verstappen to eight wins and team-mate Sergio Perez adding a further two in Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia.
Red Bull will have the opportunity to set a new outright benchmark around the twisty Hungaroring circuit at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.
Mercedes previously came close to tying the record at the height of its dominance during the V6 turbo-hybrid engine era.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s collision on the opening lap at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix brought an end to a 10-race winning run dating back to the year before.
While the German marque embarked on another unbeaten streak immediately after that incident, an engine failure for Hamilton in that year’s Malaysian Grand Prix again saw Mercedes come up just one short.
Prior to equalling the record in 2023, Red Bull had racked up nine successive victories in both 2013 – when Sebastian Vettel won every single race across the second half of the season – and last season.
Meanwhile, Verstappen could still match Vettel’s tally of nine wins in a row from his championship-winning 2013 season.
The reigning World Champion notched his sixth consecutive victory at Silverstone, surpassing his previous best streak of five from last year that ended in Singapore.
Discussion about this post