As Sprint Qualifying makes its third outing, Ricciardo could become the driver with the second most consecutive starts and Perez could equal the record for most consecutive third place finishes. Here are the milestones and records which could be broken at the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix!
THE MILESTONES
The 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix will be the 1,054th World Championship Formula 1 race. It will be the 49th Brazilian Grand Prix since the event was first held in 1972, and the 48th Brazilian Grand Prix to be held as a round of the World Championship. It will be the 38th World Championship race held at Interlagos.
This will be the first time that the F1 race in Brazil has been given the official title of the “Sao Paulo Grand Prix”.
This will be the 207th consecutive Grand Prix which Daniel Ricciardo has started, overtaking Nico Rosberg as the driver to have started the second-most successive races. Lewis Hamilton is the only driver to have started more consecutive races. He started 265 races in a row between the 2007 Australian Grand Prix and the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix.
This will be the 400th Grand Prix to feature a Dutch driver on the grid.
This will be the second World Championship race to be held on 7th November. The 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is the other race which has been held on this day.
Lap 12 of the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix will be the 2,400th racing lap held at Interlagos in F1 World Championship history.
This weekend, Haas will overtake the number of F1 appearances by the Surtees team. Surtees started 118 races between 1970 and 1978. Haas will overtake Surtees as the team to have made the eighth most appearances without taking a Grand Prix victory.
The 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix will be the third F1 event to use the Sprint Qualifying format. This will be the final time the format is used this season.
THE F1 RECORDS TO BREAK
If Red Bull win this weekend, they would take their 75th Grand Prix victory. They would be the sixth team to reach that milestone.
Sergio Perez has finished in third place at all of the last three races. Should he finish third again this weekend, he’ll equal the record for most consecutive third place results in Formula 1. Only two drivers have previously finished third at four successive races. Heinz-Harald Frentzen did so between the 1997 Belgian and Luxembourg Grands Prix, while Mark Webber was the most recent driver to achieve the feat, between the 2011 Canadian and German Grands Prix.
The podium was identical at the United States Grand Prix and the Mexican Grand Prix. It was the thirteenth time that consecutive races have had identical podiums in F1 history. Should Max Verstappen win with Lewis Hamilton second and Sergio Perez third at the Brazilian Grand Prix, it would be the first time in F1 history that the podium has been identical at three races in a row.
THE BRAZIL RECORDS TO BREAK
Sebastian Vettel can equal Michael Schumacher’s record of four victories at the Interlagos circuit this weekend.
Victory for Max Verstappen would make him the sixth driver to have taken back-to-back wins at the Interlagos circuit. Pole position for Verstappen would make him the eighth back-to-back polestitter at the track.
If Ferrari win this weekend, they will equal McLaren’s record of twelve Brazilian Grand Prix wins. Meanwhile, a win for Ferrari would see them extend their record of wins at Interlagos to ten – though their current tally of nine wins at the circuit could be equalled by McLaren.
In terms of engine manufacturers, Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes are all tied on nine wins apiece at Interlagos. Who will come out on top this weekend?
Lewis Hamilton could set a new record for most poles at Interlagos this weekend. He’s currently tied on three poles at the circuit with Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello.
A pole position for Williams would see them equal McLaren’s tally of eleven Brazilian Grand Prix pole positions. They would also equal McLaren’s record of nine poles at Interlagos.
Lewis Hamilton will equal Michael Schumacher’s record of most fastest laps at the Brazilian Grand Prix if he sets the fastest lap at the event for a fifth time on Sunday.
Ferrari could usurp McLaren as the team to have had the most podium finishes at the Brazilian Grand Prix. McLaren have finished on the podium 32 times at the track, becoming the outright record holders thanks to Carlos Sainz’s podium here in 2019. Ferrari need one podium finish to equal McLaren once again.
Sebastian Vettel can overtake Michael Schumacher as the driver to have led the most laps at Interlagos this weekend. He needs to lead three laps to equal Schumacher’s tally of 236 laps led at the circuit. If Lewis Hamilton leads every lap, he will equal Vettel’s current tally of 233 laps led.
A second place finish for either Kimi Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso would see them set a new record as the driver to have finished as runner-up on the most occasions at Interlagos. Lewis Hamilton could equal the pair’s record of three runner-up finishes at the track.
Either Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel or Kimi Raikkonen could record their third fourth place finish at Interlagos this weekend. Jenson Button and Mika Hakkinen are the only drivers to have finished fourth here more than twice.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel currently share the record for most front row starts at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Both of them could extend the record to seven this weekend.
If he reaches Q3, Kimi Raikkonen will set a new record for most top ten qualifications at Interlagos. It’s a record of sixteen which he currently shares with Michael Schumacher.
Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso will be looking to extend the record of most Q3 appearances at the Brazilian Grand Prix to twelve.
Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen will be hoping to maintain their 100% Q3 appearance record at Interlagos. The only other drivers to have never missed out on Q3 on every appearance at the track are Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Albon.