No driver has led the Formula 1 standings wire to wire since Hamilton in 2015.Born on June 27, 1985, in Wiesbaden, West Germany, Nico Rosberg was always destined for a life spent on go-kart circuits and in cars. Verstappen won last year’s finale in Abu Dhabi to close out a record-breaking 15-win season. Not since the 2016 season opener had a driver won the season finale of one year and the season opener of the next, when Rosberg pulled it off after winning the final three races of the 2015 season.

From 2014 to 2020, the 2016 season was the only season in which Hamilton did not win the title.įortunately for Verstappen, he has already ended one streak. While he eventually lost his lead in the standings to Hamilton, he was able to get it back and hang on to win his first and only world championship. In 2016, Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg won the first four races. In all six of those seasons, the winner of the season opener finished in second place in the standings. Hamilton won the opener in 2021 while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won it in 2022.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton won every title from 2017 to 2020, but it was Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who won the openers in 20 and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas who won them in 20. Not since the 2016 Formula 1 season has the winner of the opener gone on to win the title. Having earned his 36th career victory in race one of 2023, however, the 25-year-old Dutchman must now set his sights on ending an ominous streak. His first championship leads in his 20 title-winning seasons did not come until several races into the calendar. Verstappen, who is now an even bigger favorite to win the world championship than he was entering the first of 23 race weekends on the 2023 calendar, had never previously won the season opener.

While the Bahrain Grand Prix was somewhat of a chaotic race as a whole, it was business as usual up front to open up the 2023 Formula 1 season, with two-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen leading Sergio Perez across the finish line to secure a 1-2 finish for reigning constructor world champions Red Bull. Max Verstappen is looking to change that. Not since the 2016 Formula 1 season has the winner of the season opener gone on to win the world championship.

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