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In the eyes of many, since the 2021 F1 championship battle, Lewis Hamilton has passed the baton on to Max Verstappen. The two drivers had an intense championship battle that season and it went down to the last race.
Since then, Verstappen has gone from strength to strength with his team Red Bull while Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have been playing catch up. The roles have reversed significantly as Hamilton is now the hunted while Verstappen is dominating the sport.
In doing so, Max Verstappen has taken some of the benchmarks that were set by Lewis Hamilton in his era of dominance and bettered them. The record for the most points in a season now belongs to the Dutchman and so do many others.
Having said that, Lewis Hamilton has enjoyed a very special career. The driver has done some brilliant things and a simple role reversal of fortunes alone is not going to put each and every record of his in danger.
In this feature, we will take a look at some of the Lewis Hamilton records that Max Verstappen will never break.
#1 Most entries with a single engine manufacturer
It might sound astounding but Lewis Hamilton has been an F1 driver for more than 15 years and has driven only Mercedes-powered cars. The driver made his debut with McLaren in 2007 and it was powered by a Mercedes engine.
Until 2013, he was part of McLaren and drove Mercedes-powered cars. In 2014, the Brit moved to the Mercedes works team and has been a part of the same since. The driver has had as many as 322 races with Mercedes, a record for any single-engine manufacturer.
Max Verstappen, on the other hand, has been a Red Bull/Torro Rosso driver all his career. He started his F1 journey with a Renault power unit and then moved to Honda.
The Red Bull association with the Japanese brand ends in 2025 and beyond that, the team will have a Ford Power unit (in association with RBPT) at the back of the car. Looking at the career trajectory, it's hard to see Max Verstappen ever matching the number with a single engine supplier that Lewis Hamilton has.
#2 Most wins in a rookie season
Lewis Hamilton arguably has the best rookie season in the history of the sport. The driver almost won the title in his debut season and went up against the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.
While Hamilton fell short of the title by just one point, he racked up quite a few impressive records in his very first season. In his very debut campaign, Lewis Hamilton scored four wins, an all-time record matched only by Jacques Villeneuve.
Max Verstappen, on the other hand, did not have the kind of initiation into F1 that Lewis Hamilton did.
Unlike Hamilton, who debuted in McLaren, Verstappen debuted in a Torro Rosso and his best result was a P4 finish in a midfield car.
#3 Fewest world championship seasons before a title
What worked for Hamilton early in his career was the opportunity to drive a McLaren. It is somewhat conventional that a driver makes his way through the midfield in the first couple of years before progressing to a front-running car.
This happened with almost every top driver including Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, and Max Verstappen.
This did, however, not happen with Lewis Hamilton, who debuted with a McLaren and repaid the faith that Ron Dennis had in him. After missing out on a title in his rookie season, Hamilton did clinch the title in his second season in F1, a record he shares with Jacques Villeneuve.
Verstappen, on the other hand, has had to work hard to mold Red Bull into a race-winning team. After debuting in F1 in 2015 as a teenager, the Dutch driver had to wait until 2021 to get a championship-contending car.
Fortunately for him, he's been able to make the most of it and not miss out. Having said that, he still would never be able to break Lewis Hamilton's record of taking the fewest seasons to a world title.
