Red Bull hope to become the fourth team to win ten races in a row, Hamilton is still in search of his first win of the year and Norris becomes the fourth driver to race on his 23rd birthday. Here are the milestones and records which could be broken at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix!
THE MILESTONES
The 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix will be the 1,078th World Championship race. It will be the second time that Brazil’s race has been given the title of ‘Sao Paulo Grand Prix’. This will be the 49th F1 race held in Brazil, as well as the 39th World Championship race to be held at Interlagos.
This weekend will mark the 700th Grand Prix which an Australian driver has started. Australia is the sixth nation to reach this milestone.
Lando Norris will celebrate his 23rd birthday on the day of the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. It’s the 74th occasion on which a driver has raced on their birthday. Norris becomes the fourth driver – after Jacky Ickx, Gianmaria Bruni and Felipe Massa – to race on their 23rd birthday. Norris will be the first driver to race at Interlagos on his birthday and the first since Jody Scheckter in 1978 to race in Brazil on his birthday.
Charles Leclerc will become the ninth driver to start 80 races with Ferrari, equalling Michele Alboreto’s total number of starts with the Italian team.
Fernando Alonso will make his 19th appearance at Interlagos. He equals Rubens Barrichello as the driver to have made the most race starts at the circuit.
Kevin Magnussen makes his 100th start with the Haas team this weekend. The Magnussen and Haas alliance is the 22nd driver and team pairing to reach 100 starts, with Magnussen becoming the 20th driver to have started 100 races with a single team.
2022 marks 50 years since F1 first visited Interlagos for the non-championship 1972 Brazilian Grand Prix. The circuit joined the championship calendar the following season.
The 41st lap of the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix will be the 2,500th racing lap to take place at Interlagos.
The 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix will be the fifth F1 race to be held on November 13th. The last race held on this day was the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix.
THE F1 RECORDS TO BREAK
A win for Red Bull would make this their tenth consecutive victory – which would be a new personal best streak for the team. It would be only the sixth time that a team has taken ten wins in a row; the first time it will have been done since Mercedes won all ten events between the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix and the 2019 French Grand Prix. Red Bull would be the fourth team, after Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes, to achieve the feat.
Max Verstappen has won the last three races. Another victory this weekend would make 2022 only the fourth season in which a driver has recorded four wins in a row on two occasions during a single season. Michael Schumacher was first to achieve the feat in 2004, while Lewis Hamilton did it in 2014 and 2016.
Having set a personal best for most 1-2 finishes in a season at the Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull could record their sixth 1-2 result of the year at the United States Grand Prix. It would be the 11th time that a team has recorded six 1-2 finishes in a year and Red Bull would be the fifth team to achieve the feat after Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes.
Red Bull could overtake their previous longest consecutive podium streak this weekend. If Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez finish in the top three, this would be the 20th consecutive race to feature a Red Bull driver on the podium. It would be only the sixth time that a team has finished on the podium at 20 consecutive races; the longest such streak for a team since Mercedes took top three finishes at 22 consecutive races between the 2017 Canadian Grand Prix and the 2018 French Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc could take his tenth pole of the season this weekend. It would be the 18th occasion on which a driver has taken ten poles in a single year. With Verstappen having already won this year’s championship, Leclerc could become only the fourth driver to take ten poles in a year and not win the title, after Ayrton Senna in 1989, Nico Rosberg in 2014 and Lewis Hamilton in 2016.
A pole position for Charles Leclerc would make him only the second Ferrari driver to take ten poles in a single season. Michael Schumacher is the only other Ferrari driver to achieve the feat, doing so in 2001.
Carlos Sainz has recorded six retirements so far this season. Should he retire again at any remaining race in 2022, he would become the first Ferrari driver to fail to cross the finish line seven times in a single season since Eddie Irvine in 1997.
If Lewis Hamilton or George Russell set the fastest lap, Mercedes would become the fourth team to have recorded 100 fastest laps in Formula 1.
Should the driver of a Mercedes-powered car lead a lap of the race, this would be the 350th Grand Prix which a Mercedes-powered car has led. Mercedes would be only the second engine manufacturer, after Ferrari, to reach the milestone.
If Sebastian Vettel scores a point this weekend, it will be his 219th points-scoring race. That would see him equal Kimi Raikkonen for fourth in the list of most Grands Prix in which a driver has scored during their career.
George Russell has led 92 laps in his career without winning a race. Should he lead another 16 laps this weekend and not win the race, he will overtake Jean Behra as the driver to have led the second-most laps without taking a victory.
The 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix will be held on November 13. Lewis Hamilton has previously won at Interlagos on this date, in 2016. Should he win again in 2022, he would join Michael Schumacher as only the second driver to have won at Interlagos twice on the same date.
If the race is won by less than a second, 2022 will be the first season since 2017 to have had at least three races in which the win margin was under a second. The record for most races won by under a second in a single season is seven, in 2002.
A podium result for Bottas would see him equal Rubens Barrichello as the non-champion with the most podiums in F1.
Sebastian Vettel will become the third driver to record podium finishes in fifteen different seasons if he finishes in the top three.
If three Mercedes-powered cars finish on the podium, Mercedes will equal Renault’s record tally of 17 podium lockouts for an engine manufacturer.
THE INTERLAGOS RECORDS TO BREAK
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton can equal Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most wins at Interlagos. Schumacher won here four times during his career.
Victory for Lewis Hamilton would see him become the sixth driver to take back-to-back wins at Interlagos. Emerson Fittipaldi, Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Juan Pablo Montoya and Nico Rosberg are the other drivers to have taken successive wins here. No driver has taken more than two consecutive Interlagos victories.
Ferrari can equal McLaren’s record of twelve victories in Brazil this weekend, while McLaren can extend their existing record. Meanwhile, McLaren can equal Ferrari’s record of nine victories at the Interlagos circuit.
Lewis Hamilton can become the first driver to record four pole positions at Interlagos this weekend. He currently shares the record of most poles at the circuit with Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello. Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas can equal the existing record.
Ferrari are the most successful engine manufacturer in Brazil, with eleven victories. Their record tally could be equalled this weekend if a Renault or Mercedes-powered car wins the race. Mercedes are the most successful engine manufacturer at Interlagos – and their tally of ten wins can be equalled by Renault or Ferrari.
Williams can equal McLaren’s record of eleven pole positions in Brazil this weekend. Williams last took pole here in 2010, with Nico Hulkenberg. Williams can also equal McLaren’s record of nine poles at this circuit.
McLaren currently hold the record for most podium finishes in Brazil, with 32. Ferrari, currently on 31 top three finishes in the country, can equal or break McLaren’s record this weekend.
Lando Norris and Max Verstappen will be hoping to maintain their 100% points-scoring appearance rate at Interlagos. Only three other drivers have scored on every appearance at the track: Didier Pironi, Gunnar Nilsson and Jackie Stewart.
If he leads four laps of the race, Sebastian Vettel will overtake Michael Schumacher as the driver to have led the most laps at Interlagos. Lewis Hamilton can also surpass Schumacher’s record if he leads 58 laps of Sunday’s race.
Lewis Hamilton can equal Michael Schumacher as the driver to have set the fastest lap on the most occasions at Interlagos. Schumacher set the fastest Sunday time here five times.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel can become the fifth and sixth drivers to have raced 1,000 laps at Interlagos this weekend. Hamilton needs to complete 49 laps of the race to do so, while Vettel needs to complete 50 laps.
Fernando Alonso will equal Michael Schumacher as the driver to have finished the most races at Interlagos if he crosses the finish line this weekend. Schumacher reached the chequered flag on seventeen occasions in Brazil.
Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are currently tied as the drivers with the most front row starts at Interlagos, with six each. Either driver could extend the record this weekend.
If he’s out in Q1, Lance Stroll would equal Heikki Kovalainen’s record of five Q1 eliminations at Interlagos.
HAMILTON STILL SEARCHES FOR FIRST WIN OF 2022
Time is running out for Lewis Hamilton to maintain his record of having won at least one race in every season that he’s competed in. Victory for Hamilton in any race in 2022 will see him become the first driver in F1 history to have won a race in 16 different seasons, as well as the first to win in 16 consecutive seasons.
June 10th marked 15 years since Lewis Hamilton’s first F1 win at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. If Hamilton wins any race from now on, he’ll become only the second driver – after Kimi Raikkonen – with a gap of longer than 15 years between his first and last F1 wins.
If he takes pole position, sets the fastest lap and wins the race, Lewis Hamilton would become the second driver – after Michael Schumacher – to record 20 hat tricks in his F1 career.