Records and getting smashed....

[WeirdKerr]

Hamilton is clearly going to beat Schumacher's 91 wins, possibly some time next season (personally I hope he does it at the British grand prix... the question is will he end up taking it to 100 wins or beyond....

[WaffleCat]

I think it just comes with the evolution of the sport, especially calendar expansion.

Like think of next year's calendar expanding to 22 races. For comparison, it would've taken three whole seasons from 1950 to hit that mark. If there were indeed 22 races per season in 1950 (maybe there were if we count non-championship), Fangio would've probably pounded everyone records-wise. In 2004, even at age 7 (god that'll make some yall feel old), I remember some drama over 18 races being insane in terms of calendar length. Even considering Merc dominating greater than Ferrari in the 2000's, cant help but feel calendar length is important in these records

Not to mention points records. Literally every sporcle quiz I do focusing on top point scorers, I just know to include modern day drivers among the top, even including drivers that haven't won like Grosjean and Perez (and freakin HULK on some occasions) because of the incredible increase in points systems (which is more than double in the top 5 IIRC) creating some ridiculous anomalies for these records.

Obviously, for comparison's sake, its better to use averaged/percentage stats than cumulative stats like win percentage (which Hammy is also getting close to freakin Fangio at the rate he's going) and using one's own point systems for comparing thru the years. But in terms of pure, record book numbers, there will be the inevitable smashing of records, partially due to driver skill, but also thru changes in F1's systems.

[Pacific Edge]

It's the same as points scored, the official list compares points scored, despite there being 2 different scoring systems.

[UncreativeUsername37]

If only there was something that allowed you to pick an F1 points system and then multiplied the points of each race based on the length of the season. Wouldn't that be great?

Really, though, it's weird how some people take raw win records and the like seriously

[Rob Dylan]

My record for getting smashed was oh wait

[mario]

I think it just comes with the evolution of the sport, especially calendar expansion.

Like think of next year's calendar expanding to 22 races. For comparison, it would've taken three whole seasons from 1950 to hit that mark. If there were indeed 22 races per season in 1950 (maybe there were if we count non-championship), Fangio would've probably pounded everyone records-wise. In 2004, even at age 7 (god that'll make some yall feel old), I remember some drama over 18 races being insane in terms of calendar length. Even considering Merc dominating greater than Ferrari in the 2000's, cant help but feel calendar length is important in these records

Not to mention points records. Literally every sporcle quiz I do focusing on top point scorers, I just know to include modern day drivers among the top, even including drivers that haven't won like Grosjean and Perez (and freakin HULK on some occasions) because of the incredible increase in points systems (which is more than double in the top 5 IIRC) creating some ridiculous anomalies for these records.

Obviously, for comparison's sake, its better to use averaged/percentage stats than cumulative stats like win percentage (which Hammy is also getting close to freakin Fangio at the rate he's going) and using one's own point systems for comparing thru the years. But in terms of pure, record book numbers, there will be the inevitable smashing of records, partially due to driver skill, but also thru changes in F1's systems.

What really stands out is that, even in the length of Hamilton's own career, the number of races per season has increased dramatically. Since the start of Hamilton's career, the calendar has expanded by nearly 25%, and the planned increase for next year to 22 races would take that up to nearly 30%.

However, most of that increase has taken place after 2014 - when he started back in 2007, there were still only 17 races on the calendar. Back then the calendar was still comparable to the length of the calendar in Schumacher's time, and in fact even a slight reduction on the previous couple of years (the 2005 season had 19 races and 2006 had 18). The distorting effect of the expansion of the calendar started kicking in around 2010, but it's mainly in the past few years that it's really started to ramp up when you start trying to run a comparison with, say, the early 2000s or even the 1990s.

It means that, when you look at what that means for the future, even any record that Hamilton might set now will probably also fall prey to the same calendar expansion phenomenon. Let's take Leclerc as an example of a young driver who has recently joined a front running team - by the time that he reaches his 13th season, which would put him level with Hamilton's current total, Leclerc will have competed in around 15% more races, or about 30 more races, than Hamilton simply due to expansion of the calendar.

[CarloSpace]

It means that, when you look at what that means for the future, even any record that Hamilton might set now will probably also fall prey to the same calendar expansion phenomenon. Let's take Leclerc as an example of a young driver who has recently joined a front running team - by the time that he reaches his 13th season, which would put him level with Hamilton's current total, Leclerc will have competed in around 15% more races, or about 30 more races, than Hamilton simply due to expansion of the calendar.

It's also worth considering that the drivers of today are joining F1 earlier than the drivers of the past which means they have even more chances to accumulate races, points etc. Hamilton for example was 22 years, 2 months and 11 days old on his début at Melbourne in 2007. Leclerc however will be 22 years, 1 month and 16 days old at Abu Dhabi this season. So two full seasons worth of experience before Hamilton even started his career! And don't get me started on Verstappen who just turned 22 this Monday with almost five full seasons under his belt...