At the 65th Belgian Grand Prix to be held as a round of the World Championship, Hamilton and Vettel will move up the order of most starts and Bottas could equal Hakkinen’s podium tally. Here are the milestones and the records which could be broken at the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix!
THE MILESTONES
This will be the 1,025th World Championship F1 race. It will be the 65th Belgian Grand Prix to be held as a round of the F1 Drivers’ Championship. It will be the 53rd Belgian Grand Prix to be held at Spa Francorchamps.
This weekend, the Belgian Grand Prix will overtake the German Grand Prix as the fourth most regularly contested event in Formula 1. There have been 64 runnings of both events so far. However, there have been more races held in Germany than in Belgium in total (78 compared to 64).
The 2020 Belgian Grand Prix will be the 1000th Grand Prix to feature a Ferrari-powered car.
This weekend, Lewis Hamilton will overtake Riccardo Patrese as the driver to have started the seventh most Grands Prix in F1 history. This will be Hamilton’s 257th appearance. Patrese made 256 starts in his career, with his last appearance coming at the 1993 Australian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel will overtake David Coulthard as the driver to have started the tenth most Grands Prix in F1 history. This will be Vettel’s 247th appearance. Coulthard made 246 starts in his career, with his last appearance coming at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Daniil Kvyat will make his 100th F1 start at the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix. He’ll be the 73rd driver to reach the milestone.
THE RECORDS TO BREAK
If he finishes in the top three, Lewis Hamilton will equal Michael Schuamcher’s record of nine podium finishes at the Belgian Grand Prix.
A win for Ferrari this weekend would see them equal McLaren’s record tally of eleven Grand Prix victories at Spa Francorchamps.
If he wins on Sunday, Charles Leclerc will become the eighth driver to have taken back-to-back wins at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. A pole for Leclerc would also make him the eighth driver to have had consecutive pole positions at the circuit.
A second place finish for either Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel would see them equal the record of most second place finishes at Spa. The record of three runner-up finishes is shared between Alain Prost, Bruce McLaren and Michael Schumacher.
A top three finish for Valtteri Bottas will see him equal Mika Hakkinen’s career tally of 51 podium finishes. Hakkinen’s record is currently the second-most podium finishes for a Finnish driver, bettered only by Kimi Raikkonen.
Should he finish in the top five this weekend, Sebastian Vettel will become the fifth driver to have scored points in 200 Grands Prix, joining Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are currently tied on 152 points scored at the Spa circuit. One of them is likely to take the outright record for most points scored at the track this weekend.
If Nicholas Latifi reaches Q3, he’ll join a very small group of drivers with a 100% Q3 appearance rate at the Belgian Grand Prix. Other drivers in the club are Mark Webber, Nick Heidfeld and Sebastien Bourdais.
If he is eliminated in Q2, Romain Grosjean would set a new record for most Q2 exits at the circuit. He’s currently tied for the record with Nico Hulkenberg and Adrian Sutil. The trio have had four Q2 exits each at the circuit.
Should he finish the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel will equal Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa as the driver to have completed the Belgian Grand Prix on the most occasions. Schumacher and Massa crossed the finish line at Spa twelve times in their careers.
A first lap retirement for Lewis Hamilton and/or Romain Grosjean would see them become the first driver to retire on the first lap of the Belgian Grand Prix three times.
If Lewis Hamilton finishes in the same position that he starts in the 2020 Belgian Grand Prix, this will be the first time in his career that he has neither gained nor lost positions at six successive races.