At what could be the coldest Formula 1 race on record, Verstappen could equal Vettel’s win tally and Norris could set a new record for most podiums without a win. Here are the milestones and the records which could be broken at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix!
THE 2023 LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX MILESTONES
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the 1,100th World Championship event in Formula 1 history. Read more: F1’s Milestone Races In Statistics.
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix is the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix – but it is not the first time F1 has raced in Las Vegas. The sport previously visited for two runnings of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1981 and 1982.
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the first F1 race not held on a Sunday since the 1985 South African Grand Prix. In total, it is the 74th round of the World Championship not held on a Sunday – and the 58th to take place on a Saturday.
A quirk of the scheduling at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix means that qualifying and the race will actually be held on the same day. Qualifying starts at midnight on November 18, with the race starting 22 hours later. It’s the first time that qualifying and the Grand Prix will take place on the same day since the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix.
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the third race held in the United States this season. That makes it the first time since 1982 that F1 has staged three races in the United States in a single year. In total, this is only the third F1 season to feature three races in a single country. It also happened in 2020, when Italy hosted the Italian, Tuscan and Emilia Romagna Grands Prix.
Logan Sargeant becomes only the third driver to race on home soil three times in a single Formula 1 season. The other drivers to have done so are Eddie Cheever in 1982 and Antonio Giovinazzi in 2020. Read more: The F1 Drivers Who Raced at Home 3 Times in a Single Season.
The Las Vegas Strip Circuit becomes the 77th venue to host a round of the World Championship. It is the 12th different venue that Formula 1 has visited in the United States.
This will be the 76th time that Formula 1 has raced in the United States.
The 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the second round of the World Championship to be held on November 18. The only other race held on this date was the 2012 United States Grand Prix – another race in which a new American circuit made its debut.
THE FORMULA 1 RECORDS TO BREAK
Being held on a November night in Nevada, the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix could set a new record for the coldest Formula 1 race. The record for the coldest F1 race is 5ºc, at the 1978 Canadian Grand Prix in early October – the first race to be held on the Montreal track now known as Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Max Verstappen is already guaranteed to set a new Formula 1 record at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix. After the race, he’ll lead the Drivers’ Championship for a 38th consecutive event. That sees him overtake Michael Schumacher as the driver to have led the championship at the most successive races. Schumacher’s previous record lasted for 37 races, from the 2000 United States Grand Prix to the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix.
Victory for Max Verstappen in the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix would mark his 53rd Grand Prix win. That would see him equal Sebastian Vettel for third place in Formula 1’s all-time win list.
Max Verstappen could secure his 12th pole position of the 2023 season at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. If he does so, he’ll make 2023 only the seventh season in which a driver has taken 12 poles. He’d be the sixth driver to achieve the feat, after Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
A win for either Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez would make Red Bull the first team to win 20 races in a single Formula 1 season.
If Max Verstappen leads every lap of the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, it would mark the 13th time that he’s led a race from start to end. That would see him equal Jim Clark for fourth on the list of most races led from start to finish.
A podium finish for Fernando Alonso would mark the Spaniard’s 107th top three finish in Formula 1. That would see him overtake Alain Prost for fourth place on F1’s all-time podium list.
A second or third place finish for Lando Norris would see him overtake Nick Heidfeld as the driver to have taken the most podiums without winning a Grand Prix. Norris has recorded 13 podium finishes so far in his career without winning a race.
If the polesitter wins the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, it would be the first time that the polesitter has won the first race at a new F1 venue in the United States since Clay Regazzoni did so at Long Beach at the 1976 United States Grand Prix West.
A points finish for Logan Sargeant would make him the first American driver to score on home soil twice in a single year since Eddie Cheever in 1982. Sargeant finished tenth in the 2023 United States Grand Prix – scoring the only point of his career to date – earlier this year.
Pole position for Charles Leclerc would be his 23rd pole with Ferrari, which would see him equal Niki Lauda as the driver to have taken the second-most poles with the Scuderia.
At the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen joined Fernando Alonso as only the second driver to have won races from nine different grid positions. Either driver could become the first to win from ten different grid positions, while Lewis Hamilton could equal the existing record.
A front row start for Oscar Piastri at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix would make this the 100th Grand Prix at which an Australian driver has lined up on the front row of the grid.
Having already won the Saudi Arabian and Azerbaijan Grands Prix, one more victory for Sergio Perez in 2023 would make this the first season in which he has won three Grands Prix in a single year.
If Fernando Alonso wins any race this season, he will become the oldest driver to win a Grand Prix since Jack Brabham at the 1970 South African Grand Prix. Brabham won that race at the age of 43 years, 11 months and 5 days.
A fifth place finish for Fernando Alonso in the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix would see him equal Jenson Button for the most fifth place finishes in Formula 1. Button finished fifth on 27 occasions during his career.
A top ten finish for Nico Hulkenberg would make this the 100th race weekend at which he has scored points. That includes the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, at which he only scored points in the Sprint.
The 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix marked the fourth consecutive race in which the driver starting from sixth on the grid finished on the podium. Another podium for the driver starting sixth at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix would see the grid slot equal its longest podium streak in F1 history. The last time that drivers starting sixth scored five podiums in a row was almost 60 years ago, between the 1963 South African Grand Prix and the 1964 French Grand Prix.
Should Lando Norris be voted Driver Of The Day at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, it would be the first time that the same driver has won the accolade at four races in a row.
HAMILTON SEARCHES FOR FIRST VICTORY SINCE 2021
Victory for Lewis Hamilton would see car number 44 equal car number 2 as the car number to have taken the third most wins in Formula 1.
A victory for Lewis Hamilton at any race in 2023 would see him move into the top 20 of the oldest drivers to win a Grand Prix in Formula 1. He would overtake Damon Hill as the third-oldest British driver to have won a Grand Prix.
If Lewis Hamilton wins any race this year, he’ll overtake Kimi Raikkonen as the driver to have had the longest gap between his first and last Grand Prix victories. He’d also be the first driver to have won after the 300th race of his career. Fernando Alonso would break the record if he were to take victory.
A victory for Lewis Hamilton would make him the first driver to have won in 16 different Formula 1 seasons. 2022 is the only season during his career in which Hamilton has not taken a victory.
WILL MERCEDES BE BACK IN THE FIGHT?
A victory for Mercedes would make 2023 the 12th consecutive season in which the team has won a race. They would be only the third team to win in 12 consecutive seasons, after Ferrari (1994-2013) and McLaren (1981-1993).
Victory for a Mercedes-powered car would see them become only the third engine manufacturer to have won in 17 consecutive Formula 1 seasons. The only other manufacturers to have done so are Ferrari (20 seasons, between 1994-2013) and Ford Cosworth (17 seasons, between 1967-1983).
If three Mercedes-powered cars finish on the podium, Mercedes will equal Renault’s record tally of seventeen podium lockouts for an engine manufacturer.