Yahoo Autos Max Verstappen Made More Passes in 2016 Than Any F1 Driver in 33 Years
Max Verstappen is the youngest person on the F1 grid, but that didn't stop him from having a hell of a 2016 season. After being promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, Verstappen quickly became the youngest driver to win an F1 Grand Prix, and managed 5th place in the Driver's Championship. According to new data from Pirelli, he also pulled off more successful passes than any F1 driver in the past 33 years.
Verstappen managed 78 successful overtakes in the 2016 season, which is not only the most of any driver this year, but the most of any driver since Pirelli started measuring this stat in 1983. Pirelli, for the record, considers a successful overtaking move as "one that takes place during complete flying laps (so not on the opening lap) and is then maintained all the way to the lap's finish line."
Of Verstappen's 78 overtakes, 18 were completed at Toro Rosso–his team for the first four races in the season–with the remaining 60 at Red Bull. With Daniel Ricciardo contributing 61 passes and Daniil Kyvat contributing 15 before getting demoted, Red Bull had the most overtakes of any team this season with 131.
In total, there were 866 overtaking moves completed by all drivers this season, marking an improvement on 2015's scant 509 overtakes. Sebastian Vettel set the record as the least overtaken driver of the year, only being passed once at the Brazilian Grand Prix by–you guessed it–Verstappen.
Clearly, Red Bull made a smart decision in promoting Verstappen to its top team and gettingh him in one of the better cars on the grid. This kid sure seems like he's got championship potential.
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