Striking: Verstappen has surprisingly led this list since the Bahrain Grand Prix

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Striking: Verstappen has surprisingly led this list since the Bahrain Grand Prix

At 25 years old, Max Verstappen is certainly not one of the older drivers, but thanks to his debut at the age of 17, he is now one of the most experienced drivers. Yet there are several active drivers who made their debut much earlier than the Dutchman. In particular, Fernando Alonso, who made his debut in 2001, and Lewis Hamilton, who made his debut in 2007, had already completed quite a few races before Verstappen started for the first time. That makes Verstappen an extra striking leader in a special statistic.

Although seven of Max Verstappen’s nineteen fellow drivers made their Formula 1 debut at the same time as or earlier than the Limburger, Verstappen is still the one who has the longest consecutive Grands Prix participation of any active driver. Table 1 shows that he is just one race ahead of Finn Valtteri Bottas, while experienced veterans Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso can only be found at the bottom of the top ten.

Table 1. Max Verstappen has the longest series of consecutive GP participations of all active drivers.
Table 1. Max Verstappen has the longest series of consecutive GP participations of all active drivers.

Last season Daniel Ricciardo was still the leader in this statistic, with 232 consecutive GP participations, but the Australian has been sidelined this season and saw his run come to an end, only to be relieved by his former Dutch team-mate. The longest series of consecutive GP participations of all time is in the name of Lewis Hamilton with 265, but the Briton missed the Grand Prix of Sakhir in the corona year 2020, after which the counter started again from zero. Verstappen drove his 165th race last weekend and has not missed a single Grand Prix since his debut.

There are several reasons for the shortened races of the drivers who made their debut before Verstappen did. Lewis Hamilton is not the only one who saw his series end due to a corona infection; Verstappen’s current teammate Sergio Pérez, who made his debut in 2011, was also affected by the virus and missed both races at the Silverstone circuit in 2020. Lance Stroll also fell victim to the corona virus, but made his debut anyway later than Max Verstappen.

Fernando Alonso returned from a period outside Formula 1 at the beginning of 2021, and Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen, who both made their debuts before Max Verstappen, were also sidelined for at least a year. Even then, there are still two drivers who made their debut at least simultaneously with Verstappen: Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas. The Spaniard made his debut for Toro Rosso together with Verstappen in 2015, but saw his series come to an end when he failed to make the starting line-up in Belgium in 2020. Bottas comes closest to Verstappen; the Finn made his debut in 2013, but missed Verstappen’s debut race due to back problems.

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