Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton vs Sebastian Vettel: Comparing their eras of dominance

Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Sebastian Vettel have been the most successful drivers to have graced the grid since the advent of the 2010s. The trio have won 14 of the 15 world drivers' championships crowned since then and have amassed various F1 records under their belt for various feats achieved within this timeline.

The timeline between 2010-2025 has seen four drivers take the world championship home, where Nico Rosberg's name appears as an anomaly in comparison to the trio's respective eras of dominance.

Though the 2025 championship is underway, the "Verstappen era" has seemingly not concluded yet, so let's take a look at each of the multiple world champions' eras in the F1 world:

Max Verstappen's era (2022-25)

While Max Verstappen won his maiden world championship in 2021, his timeline of moving to the upper realms of F1 dominance started with the introduction of the ground effect era of regulations. When the 2022 season started, the Dutchman was already the reigning world champion and had been in the game for over seven years.

This resulted in some mature results and a host of F1 records that were shattered in the 89 Grand Prix weekends that have taken place so far. So, let's take a look at Verstappen's results within this time frame:

• Wins - 48
• Pole positions - 34
• Podiums - 64

These are the highlights of the Red Bull driver's campaign between 2022-25, which has been able to accumulate with three race weekends in the 2025 season still left to go.

Lewis Hamilton's era (2014-2021)

Lewis Hamilton's era is the biggest one among the trio of world champions. His time with Mercedes is the most successful team and driver partnership that F1 has ever seen, which is easily reflected in the results that he was able to muster in this period.

Within 159 Grand Prix weekends (Sakhir Grand Prix is excluded as Lewis Hamilton was ruled out of the race due to him testing positive for COVID-19), the then-Mercedes driver secured:

• Wins - 81
• Pole positions - 72
• Podiums - 128

Though towards the tail end of the turbo-hybrid era, Max Verstappen caught up to Lewis Hamilton and dethroned him, he had still mustered an impressive amount of achievements in F1, helping him write down his name in the history books with golden letters.

Sebastian Vettel's era (2010-2013)

Lastly, it's time for Sebastian Vettel's dominant period in F1. The German had made his debut in 2007 and caught the eyes of the paddock. He then quickly rose through the grid and joined Red Bull, where he achieved vast success before the V8 engines were phased out after the conclusion of the 2013 season.

In the 77 Grand Prix weekends that took place between 2010 and 2013, Vettel had amassed:

• Wins - 34
• Pole Positions - 40
• Podiums - 53

However, the results of the three world champions vary a lot due to the differing number of Grand Prix weekends that took place within their respective time frames. To better understand these statistics, we can convert this data into percentage figures and figure out where each driver excelled in their own eras, which can be observed in the table below:

From this, we can interpret that Verstappen has the greatest ratio of winning Grand Prix weekends that he enters. Vettel was the most dominant qualifier, and Lewis Hamilton was the most consistent in terms of claiming a podium in a Grand Prix weekend that he entered.

Edited by Geetansh Pasricha