The F1 records that could be broken in 2020

Total race wins 

Lewis Hamilton could beat one of the long-standing and most impressive F1 records in history as he sits within touching distance of Michael Schumacher’s 91 grand prix victory. 

The Briton has 84 wins - just seven behind Schumacher’s tally - and will surpass F1’s most successful driver this year if he keeps up his remarkable average of scoring at least nine wins per season since the start of the V6 hybrid era in 2014. 

Hamilton is already the only driver in F1 history to have won at least one race in every season he has contested. 

Consecutive constructors’ championship 

Mercedes matched Ferrari’s tally of six consecutive constructors’ world titles (1999-2004) triumphs in 2019 and the German manufacturer can move clear in the record books providing it repeats the feat once more this year. 

The all-conquering Mercedes outfit has crushed its opposition in both world championships since 2014 and has already become the first team ever to claim six straight world championship doubles. 

Youngest world champion

Both Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen have the opportunity to claim a piece of F1 history providing one of them can end Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton’s dominant run of title success and win the world championship. 

Verstappen and Leclerc do not turn 23 until September and October respectively, meaning they would beat Sebastian Vettel’s record of being crowned the youngest-ever world champion at the age of 23 years and 134 days in 2010.

Podium finishes

Lewis Hamilton has already stood on the podium an impressive 151 times from his 250 starts, and the reigning world champion is just four adrift of Schumacher’s record of 155 podiums - which he achieved from 308 starts - heading into the 2020 season. 

Most grand prix started 

At the age of 40, Kimi Raikkonen is by far the oldest driver on the grid. It should come as no surprise then, that he could in line to also take the mantle for the most experience grand prix racer. 

That tag currently belongs to ex-F1 driver Rubens Barrichello, who has 322 starts to his name from his career spanning between 1993 and 2011. Raikkonen is 10 race starts shy of Barrichello and is in line to surpass the Brazilian’s record at the Austrian Grand Prix in June. 

However, don’t be fooled into thinking that such a statistic would get the Iceman excited. He said reaching the milestone “gives me nothing”…

Two drivers could set a new benchmark for most race finishes inside the points in 2020. Both Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen are just eight top-10 appearances behind Michael Schumacher’s tally of 221 points finishes. 

Hamilton could also beat his own record of 33 consecutive points finishes (which he set between the 2016 Japanese Grand Prix to the 2018 French Grand Prix) if he scores points at the 2020 season opener in Melbourne. Following a double retirement for Mercedes in Austria two years ago, Hamilton started another (ongoing) 33-race streak of points finishes at the 2018 British Grand Prix. 

Grands Prix won leading every lap

Lewis Hamilton could surpass boyhood idol Ayrton Senna’s record of leading every lap for 19 of his 41 grand prix victories this year if he completes at least one more lights-to-flag triumph in 2020. He achieved the feat five times in 2019 in China, Spain, Monaco, France and Abu Dhabi. 

Most pole positions at the same grand prix 

If Lewis Hamilton takes pole position in Australia it will see him earn the outright record of nine poles at a single venue. Hamilton has already racked up eight poles at Albert Park and is tied on eight poles at the same grand prix with both Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. 

Hamilton match another one of Schumacher’s records - eight wins at the same grand prix - if he claims another victory in either Canada or Hungary this year. 

With the longest-ever F1 season in history set to commence, the chances are high that some of this records will fall in 2020. 

Assuming Hamilton does indeed win his seventh world title in 2020, that would set up the opportunity to claim an unprecedented eighth championship in 2021 and surpass Schumacher’s record in the process.