The 1000th race to feature a British driver, the 70th F1 race held in the USA and a chance for Ferrari take a rare seventh consecutive pole position. Here are the records which are up for grabs over the 2019 US Grand Prix weekend!
The Numbers and Milestones:
This will be the 1,016th Formula 1 race. It’ll be the 70th F1 race to have been held in the USA, and the 41st F1 race to have been designated as the US Grand Prix. In total, it’ll be the 49th US Grand Prix since the event was first held in 1908. This weekend also marks the eighth F1 race to have been held at the Circuit of the Americas.
This weekend, COTA will equal Indianapolis as the venue to have hosted the second-most US Grands Prix (not counting when the Indy 500 was a round of the F1 championship between 1950 and 1960). It’ll also equal Long Beach’s number of F1 races, which appeared on the calendar eight times at the US Grand Prix West.
Despite Kevin Magnussen celebrating his 100th race last weekend in Mexico, this weekend marks his 100th start. Also celebrating their 100th race starts this weekend are Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen.
The eighth lap of the 2019 US Grand Prix will be the 400th lap of COTA since F1 first visited the Texas track in 2012.
The US Grand Prix will be the 1000th F1 race to feature a British driver.
This will be the 40th F1 race to have been held in the month of November.
The Records to Beat:
If anyone other than Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen takes victory this weekend, they’ll become the 40th different driver to have won an F1 race in the USA.
If a Ferrari-powered car wins, the Italian manufacturer will become the most successful at the US Grand Prix, moving clear of Ford Cosworth who are currently tied with Ferrari on eight wins at the event. Meanwhile, Ferrari, Ford Cosworth and Mercedes are all tied as the most successful engine manufacturers in qualifying at the US Grand Prix. A pole for a Ferrari or Mercedes-powered car would see them set a new outright record.
A pole position for Ferrari will be their seventh consecutive pole position. It would be only the 20th time in F1 history that a team have taken seven poles in a row, and the third time that Ferrari have achieved the feat. Ferrari last took seven successive poles between the 2000 Italian and 2001 Brazilian Grands Prix, and also took seven in a row back between the 1952 Belgian and 1953 Argentine races.
If Sebastian Vettel takes pole this weekend, he’ll equal Lewis Hamilton’s record tally of three poles at the circuit. Hamilton could extend the record himself.
If Lewis Hamilton takes pole this weekend, he’ll equal Ayrton Senna’s record of five poles at the US Grand Prix. It’d also equal the record for most poles taken by a driver in America.
If Lewis Hamilton leads six laps of the race, he’ll become the first driver to have led racing 200 laps at COTA.
Lewis Hamilton is currently tied with Michael Schumacher for most podium appearances at the US Grand Prix. A top three finish for the Mercedes driver this weekend will see him set a new record of eight podium finishes. It would also be a record for the most podium finishes achieved by a driver at F1 races in the USA.
Should Lewis Hamilton lead 71km of Sunday’s US Grand Prix, he’ll equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 1,417km led at the event. To do this, he’d need to lead 13 laps of the race. Meanwhile, Ferrari need to lead 28km of the race to equal Lotus’ record of 2,848km led at the event.
If Lewis Hamilton wins this weekend, this will be only the sixth time that a driver has won the same event seven times. Michael Schumacher is the only other driver to have won the same race seven times, having won the French Grand Prix on eight occasions, and taking victory at the San Marino and Canadian Grands Prix on seven occasions. Hamilton has already taken seven wins in Canada and Hungary.