Red Bull look for a seventh win in a row, Hamilton hopes to set a new record for most wins at a single circuit and Vettel becomes the third driver to race on his 35th birthday. Here are the milestones and records which could be broken at the 2022 British Grand Prix!
THE MILESTONES
The 2022 British Grand Prix will be the 1,067th World Championship race. It will be the 77th British Grand Prix since the event was first held in 1926 and the 73rd time that the event has been held as a round of the World Championship.
This will be the 57th Formula 1 race held at Silverstone. In addition to 55 previous British Grands Prix, the track also hosted the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in 2020.
The 2022 British Grand Prix will be the ninth race held on July 3rd. It becomes only the fourth date on which nine or more World Championship races have been held. It’s the first race to take place on this date since the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel celebrates his 35th birthday on the day of the 2022 British Grand Prix. It will be the 72nd occasion on which a driver has raced on their birthday – the first time it has happened since Carlos Sainz celebrated his 25th birthday at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix. It will be the second time Vettel has raced on his birthday. He last did so at the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix, where he failed to finish the race. He becomes only the sixth driver to have raced on his birthday on multiple occasions. Derek Warwick and Olivier Panis are the only other drivers to have raced on their 35th birthday.
This weekend, Lewis Hamilton will overtake Jack Brabham as the driver to have had the tenth longest Formula 1 career. Race day will mark 15 years, 3 months and 15 days since the start of Hamilton’s career. Brabham had a gap of 15 years, 3 months and 9 days between his first and last starts. When Hamilton moves ahead of Brabham, Graham Hill will be the only driver who raced in the 1950s to remain in the top ten of longest F1 careers.
Haas will equal Osella’s number of starts at this weekend’s Grand Prix. Osella made 132 appearances in total, between the 1980 South African Grand Prix and the 1990 Australian Grand Prix. Haas also equal them as the team with the third most races without a pole – if you include Sauber in this list, who did take pole under their BMW Sauber guise.
Having started every race since the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas will become the 13th driver to start 150 consecutive races. Max Verstappen achieved the same feat at the previous race.
This weekend marks Carlos Sainz’s 150th race start.
THE F1 RECORDS TO BREAK
Red Bull have won all of the last six races. If they win the British Grand Prix, it will be the 15th time that a team has won seven or more races in a row. Red Bull have achieved the feat only once previously, during Sebastian Vettel’s record run of nine consecutive wins between the 2013 Belgian and Brazilian Grands Prix. Mercedes were the last team to win seven races in a row, between the 2020 Tuscan and Bahrain Grands Prix.
If Lewis Hamilton wins the 2022 British Grand Prix, he will become the first driver to have won a single Grand Prix on nine separate occasions. It’s a record which Hamilton already shares with Michael Schumacher. Schumacher won eight times at the French Grand Prix, while Hamilton has won eight times so far at both the British and Hungarian Grands Prix.
If Hamilton fails to win this weekend, it will be the 11th consecutive race which he has not won. That would make it the longest win-less streak of his Formula 1 career. Hamilton previously failed to win ten consecutive races on three occasions. Two of those previous streaks (in 2009 and 2013) were ended with a victory at the tenth round of the season. The British Grand Prix is the tenth round of the season this year.
Already holding the record for most wins for a driver at their national Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton can equal the record for most wins on home soil this weekend. While Hamilton has won at Silverstone on eight occasions, Schumacher won in Germany nine times during his F1 career. He won four times at Hockenheim and five times at the Nurburgring. Learn more: Most F1 wins on home soil.
Lewis Hamilton can set a new record for most podiums at a single circuit should he finish in the top three this weekend. It would be his thirteenth top three appearance at Silverstone.
Lewis Hamilton can equal the record for most poles at a single venue this weekend. Should he take pole, it would be his eighth at Silverstone. Hamilton currently shares the record for most poles at a single circuit with Ayrton Senna (8 at Imola) and Michael Schumacher (8 at Suzuka). Hamilton has also taken eight poles at Albert Park and the Hungaroring.
Ferrari can equal their own record for most Fastest Laps for an engine manufacturer at a single circuit at the 2022 British Grand Prix. Their current record is nineteen Fastest Laps at Monza.
If Carlos Sainz finishes in 2nd or 3rd place this weekend, he’ll equal Stefan Johansson for second on the list of most Formula 1 podiums without a win.
If Carlos Sainz or Fernando Alonso score this weekend, it will be the 300th Grand Prix in which a Spanish driver has picked up points.
If Fernando Alonso scores two points this weekend, he will become the third driver to have scored 2,000 points during his Formula 1 career. Alonso momentarily passed the milestone at the last race, before picking up a post-race time penalty which cost him four points.
Both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu scored at the Canadian Grand Prix. If both drivers score this weekend, it would be the first time that the former Sauber team has scored points with both cars at consecutive races since the 2010 Japanese and Korean Grands Prix.
After the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, both Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have scored in 139 Grands Prix. If either driver scores this weekend, they would equal Rubens Barrichello as the driver to have scored in the eighth-most races.
If Lance Stroll is eliminated in Q1, this will be his 55th Q1 elimination. That would see him equal Adrian Sutil and Heikki Kovalainen for third on the list of most Q1 exits since the qualifying system was introduced in 2006.
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.
THE SILVERSTONE RECORDS TO BREAK
Mercedes can equal Ferrari as the most successful engine manufacturer at Silverstone this weekend, if a Mercedes-powered car wins the race. Ferrari has powered 14 victories here, all for the works team.
Williams and Ferrari are currently tied for most poles at Silverstone, with eleven apiece. Either team could extend the record this weekend, while Mercedes could equal the pair.
Lewis Hamilton will set a new record for most points-scoring appearances at Silverstone if he finishes in the top three this weekend. He has finished in the points ten times so far at the circuit. His currently tally is shared with Kimi Raikkonen.
If he sets the fastest lap of the race, Lewis Hamilton will equal Nigel Mansell’s record of six fastest laps at Silverstone.
Lewis Hamilton can become the first driver to score 300 points at Silverstone if he wins the 2022 British Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo can become the sixth and seventh drivers to score 100 points at the venue.
Fernando Alonso will become the third driver to have raced 1,000 laps at Silverstone if he completes 36 laps of the 2022 British Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas have the opportunity to become the first driver to have finished as runner-up four times at Silverstone.
Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris will be hoping to maintain their 100% Q3 appearance rate at Silverstone. Jacques Villeneuve, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher are the only other drivers to reach Q3 on every appearance at Silverstone since the qualifying system was introduced in 2006.
HAMILTON SEARCHES FOR FIRST WIN OF 2022
Victory for Lewis 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.
If Lewis Hamilton sets the Fastest Lap of the race, he will become the first driver to set 60 Fastest Laps with a single engine manufacturer.
Pole for a British driver would see the nation equal their own record for most consecutive seasons in which a nation has taken pole. The current record held by British drivers is 19 consecutive seasons with a pole position, between 1955 and 1973.
At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton recorded his 32nd third place finish in F1. Another third place this weekend would see him equal Sebastian Vettel as the driver to have recorded the second-most third places in F1 history. Only Kimi Raikkonen sits ahead of Vettel and Hamilton in this list, with 45 third place results.
MERCEDES STILL SEEK SUCCESS
Pole for Mercedes would make them the first engine manufacturer to have poles in 26 consecutive seasons. Ferrari are the only other engine manufacturer to have poles in 25 successive years. Their record streak ended in 2020. Meanwhile, if a Mercedes-powered car leads the race, the manufacturer would be first to lead races in 28 consecutive seasons.
If three Mercedes-powered cars finish on the podium, Mercedes will equal Renault’s record tally of seventeen podium lockouts for an engine manufacturer.
