Max Verstappen – 4 Time F1 World Champion: The Facts and Statistics

Max Verstappen has been crowned World Champion for the fourth time at the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. Here are the facts and statistics behind his latest title win!

Formula 1 has a new four-time World Champion. Driving to fifth in the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix and finishing ahead of title rival Lando Norris, Max Verstappen secured his fourth championship victory in as many years.

The sixth four-time World Champion

Verstappen is the sixth driver to have won as many as four titles, joining Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton on the list. Verstappen is the first inductee onto the list of four-time champions since Hamilton, who won his fourth in 2017.

Verstappen has continued a coincidence which has seen every driver who has won three titles in a row go on to secure a fourth championship win in the following season. He is the fifth driver to win four World Championships in a row. Fangio was first to do so in 1957, Schumacher repeated the feat in 2003, Vettel joined the club in 2013 and Hamilton did the same in 2020.

Verstappen is only the second driver, after Vettel, to win his first four titles in consecutive seasons. Another title in 2025 would make Verstappen the first driver in history to win all of his first five titles in successive years and would make him only the second driver, after Schumacher, to win the title in five consecutive seasons.

The title is won in Vegas

While Verstappen’s title is the first to be won at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, it is not the first to be won in Las Vegas. Three of Formula 1’s four visits to Las Vegas to date have resulted in World Championship victories. The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held twice in the 1980s and saw World Champions crowned both times. Nelson Piquet won his first title in Vegas in 1981, while Keke Rosberg won his only championship there in 1982.

The Las Vegas Strip Circuit is the 32^nd different venue at which the Drivers’ Championship has been decided. Verstappen makes 2024 the ninth time that the World Championship has been won in the United States. He is the first driver to win the title in the United States since Lewis Hamilton in 2019. Only Japan (14) and Italy (11) have hosted more title deciders.

This is the second time that Round 22 of the season has been the title decider, after 2021 when Verstappen claimed the title at the 22^nd and final round of the year in Abu Dhabi.

A Saturday title decider

Max Verstappen is the second driver to have won the title on November 23, after Lewis Hamilton at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This is the second year in a row that Verstappen has won the title on a Saturday. He won his third title last year as a result of the Saturday Sprint race at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.

This is the eighth time that the title has officially been decided on a Saturday in Formula 1 history – or the ninth if you include Nelson Piquet’s confirmation as World Champion as a result of Nigel Mansell withdrawing from the 1987 Japanese Grand Prix due to an injury on the Saturday of the race weekend.

The quickest time to amass four titles

Max Verstappen has set a new record for the shortest amount of time between a driver’s first and fourth title successes. Race day in Las Vegas marked 1,078 days since his maiden title win at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It’s one day less than Sebastian Vettel’s record; he secured his four titles with Red Bull over a period of 1,079 days. Verstappen takes the record as a result of the Las Vegas Grand Prix being held on a Saturday night.

Sebastian Vettel retains his record of being Formula 1’s youngest-ever four-time World Champion, with Max Verstappen slotting in as the sport’s second youngest quadruple champion. Verstappen is only the second driver to have won four titles under the age of 30 and is exactly 10 months older than Vettel was on the day he won his fourth title.

Age on day of fourth title win:

• 26 years, 3 months, 25 days – Sebastian Vettel
• 27 years, 1 month, 25 days – Max Verstappen
• 32 years, 7 months, 17 days – Michael Schumacher
• 32 years, 9 months, 23 days – Lewis Hamilton
• 38 years, 7 months, 3 days – Alain Prost
• 45 years, 2 months, 10 days – Juan Manuel Fangio

Verstappen is only the third driver to win the F1 World Championship at the age of 27. Jim Clark secured his first title at 27 in 1963, while Emerson Fittipaldi won his second World Championship when he was 27 in 1974.

Juan Manuel Fangio’s record for the shortest amount of time between first Formula 1 appearance and fourth title victory remains unbeaten. Verstappen slots into third place on that list, having won the title 3,542 days and 207 races after making his debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.

The longest time leading the World Championship

On race day at the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Max Verstappen set a new record for the most consecutive days spent at the top of the Drivers’ Championship, eclipsing Michael Schumacher’s former record of 896 consecutive days between the 2000 United States Grand Prix and the 2003 Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s title win ensures that he will remain top of the standings until the first race of the 2025 season, meaning that his record will stand at 1,029 consecutive days atop the championship standings on race day at the season-opening 2025 Australian Grand Prix.