In the first Formula 1 race in Portugal since 1996, Hamilton could set a new record for most wins and Mercedes power could win for the first time in the country. Here are the milestones and records which could be broken at the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix!
THE MILESTONES
This will be the 1,030th Formula 1 race. It’ll be the 26th Portuguese Grand Prix since the event was first held in 1951, and the seventeenth time the event has been held as a round of the F1 World Championship. This will mark F1’s first visit to the Algarve International Circuit.
This weekend marks the first time that the Portuguese Grand Prix has been held since 1996. Sunday will mark 8,799 days since the last race in the country – the second longest gap between World Championship Portuguese Grands Prix.
Algarve International Circuit will become the fourth different circuit to have hosted the Portuguese Grand Prix, after Circuito da Boavista, Circuito de Monsanto and Estoril. It’s the 73rd different venue to have hosted a round of the Formula 1 World Championship.
This will be the second Portuguese Grand Prix to have been held in October. The 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix took place on 21st October.
At the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, Renault will surpass Brabham as the team to have started the sixth most Grands Prix in F1 history. This will be their 395th start.
THE RECORDS TO BREAK
Lewis Hamilton could set a new record for most wins in Formula 1 this weekend. At the Eifel Grand Prix, he equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 victories and is now on the search for a record breaking 92nd win. Read more: A History of F1’s All-Time Win Record.
Whoever wins the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix will become the twelfth different driver to have won a World Championship F1 race in the country. The polesitter will become the eleventh different driver to have taken pole position at the Portuguese Grand Prix and the three podium finishers will be the 27th, 28th and 29th different drivers to have finished in the top three at the event.
Mercedes could become the first team to have won seven consecutive Constructors’ Championships. They can only do so if they record a 1-2 or 1-3 finish, with Red Bull scoring minimal points. Read more: Portuguese Grand Prix Title Permutations.
If Mercedes – or any Mercedes-powered car – wins the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix, it would mark the first time that a Mercedes engine has won the event.
Should Mercedes take pole this weekend, they will continue their 100% pole rate in the 2020 season. This will be only the second time that they have taken pole at all of the first twelve races of the year, having also done so in 2015. Only Williams and Red Bull – who took pole at all of the first fifteen races in 1993 and 2011 respectively – have a record longer than Mercedes’.
Of the current ten teams, only Williams, McLaren and Ferrari have previously won the Portuguese Grand Prix. A win for any other team will see them become the eighth different constructor to have won the event. The same can be said of pole positions.
If both McLaren drivers finish on the podium, McLaren will equal Williams as the team with the most podium finishes at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Williams have had thirteen podium finishes at the event. Meanwhile, a top three finish for Charles Leclerc or Sebastian Vettel would make Ferrari the third team to have taken ten podiums in Portugal.
Sebastian Vettel has failed to reach Q3 at all of the last seven races. Should he fail to do so again at the Portuguese Grand Prix, this will be the first time in his career that he has failed to qualify in the top ten at eight consecutive races.
