Red Bull hits a century
Important numbers seem to be a theme for the Shanghai Circuit.
The last time it heard the roar of Formula 1 engines was back in 2019 when the World Championship hit the one thousand Grand Prix mark. Five years later, the circuit provided the backdrop to Red Bull's one hundredth pole position. It came courtesy of – surprise, surprise – Max Verstappen who, at the tender age of just 26 has now headed the field no fewer than 37 times. And it's still early days in his career as this weekend is his 190th Formula 1 appearance.
And yet, Max had to wait until his 93rd attempt before securing pole for the first time at the Hungaroring in 2019. Since then, his score is 36 out of 97, pretty close to a 40% success rate. Clearly, the Dutchman has made the most of the progression and then the dominance of his Red Bull car, but there's no doubt a lot of it is down to him. It explains why, of his team-mates, only Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez, on three occasions each, have managed to beat him to the number one grid slot.
Red Bull thus joins an exclusive club of teams who have secured at least 100 pole positions, the others being Ferrari, (249), McLaren (156), Mercedes (137), Williams (128) and Lotus (107). While the Maranello squad, the only team to have taken part in every year of the world championship, is the outright leader, when looking at percentages of races entered, then Mercedes is the dominant force, having been on pole for almost half its races (46.13%), followed by Red Bull with just over one pole for every four races (26.81%). Given the dominance of the Milton Keynes squad since 2022, it looks more than likely that Lotus' fifth place in this particular list will be in jeopardy this year, while Williams could be overtaken next season.
2024 could also see Max become Red Bull's most successful driver in terms of qualifying performance, as only Sebastian Vettel currently outscores him on 44 pole positions with the team. So far this year, the three-time world champion has taken pole at all five rounds and if he was to continue in this vein, he and Vettel could be level pegging at Silverstone.
