Motorsport

SINCE Formula One began 63 years ago, many great drivers made history and secured their place in the history books. However, now the rankings of drivers with the most points ever has been revealed.
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both rank in the top five of the listCredit: EPA
But F1 great Michael Schumacher has a surprisingly low rankingCredit: AP:Associated Press
Topping the list is seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
Despite not winning a race since December 2021, the Brit’s exploits from years past have secured his position on top of these rankings.
Since starting his career in 2007 he has always been able to score healthy points in every season, winning a race every year except for 2022.
Overall, he has mustered an incredible 4492.5 points, giving him a healthy lead over next best driver Sebastian Vettel.
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The German earned 3098 points over a trophy-laden career which saw him win four titles in a row at Red Bull.
While the titles evaporated at Ferrari, Vettel continued to challenge for race wins.
Rounding out the podium is Vettel’s Red Bull successor Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman has amassed 2181.5 points and only overtook the driver in fourth of this list during this season’s Monaco Grand Prix.
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Here’s how the top ten F1 points rankings look
Verstappen is the driver to beat at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, having already won five races this season and winning the last two F1 seasons.
The 25-year-old is the first driver on the list to have raced his entire career under the new points system – introduced in 2010 – which upped points for a win up from 10 to 25.
Aston Martin and fellow two-time F1 champ Fernando Alonso is hot on Verstappen’s heels with 2160 points.
Having made his debut back in 2001, the 41-year-old Spaniard is the longest-serving driver on the grid.
A duo of former Finnish F1 drivers rank next, with last Ferrari champion Kimi Raikkonen scoring 1873 points.
Valtteri Bottas ranks in sixth with 1791 points, but is the first driver on the list to not win a drivers title.
The Alfa Romeo driver is ironically higher than Nico Rosberg, the man he replaced at Mercedes.
Rosberg retired at the peak of his career, and the German-Finnish driver’s tally of 1594.5 also places him above legend Michael Schumacher.
Despite having the joint-most titles in F1, Schumacher drive nearly all of his career under the old points system, meaning his 1566 points can rank him only in eighth in the list.
However, had he been racing under the modern system, the German would have accrued a mighty 4660 points, which would still place him behind Hamilton.
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Though Hamilton himself would also receive a bonus if his whole career came under the current system, with his total shooting up to over 5000.
Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo round out the list, with the former seeming to be the one threat to Verstappen’s bid of landing a third title in a row.
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THE Canadian GP got off to a false start after race bosses were forced to scrap first practice due to a CCTV failure.Pierre Gasly ground to a halt in his Alpine but the session did not restart as Race Control spotted that the local CCTV cameras had failed.
The practice session was stopped due to a CCTV failureCredit: Splash
The CCTV failure came after Pierre Gasly’s Alpine had stopped on the trackCredit: Alamy
It came after only three laps and as the clock ticked down, the FIA eventually canned the session.
A statement from the FIA said: “The delay will be longer as the CCTV is not synced correctly and until the issue has been fixed we cannot run on track.
“This system is a local installation and they are continuing to work to resolve the problem.
“The clock will continue to run down on FP1 and the session won’t be extended as there must be 2.5hrs between FP1 and FP2. We are looking at options to extend FP2.”
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In order to compensate for the lost track time, the FIA increased FP2 to 90 minutes rather than the usual hour.
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen comes into the eighth race of the season off the back of three successive victories.
He has opened up a 53-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.
And he is the overwhelming favourite to win in Montreal this weekend in what would be his sixth triumph of 2023.
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Verstappen is eyeing a third consecutive F1 drivers’ title.
Since debuting in the sport eight years ago, he has picked up 40 wins from 170 race starts.
But he had to wait until last year to clinch his first Canadian GP victory – which he won by less than a second from Carlos Sainz. More

THIERRY BOUTSEN is used to life in the fast lane – and now the former Formula One star is flying high as a multimillionaire aircraft dealer.The now 65-year-old Belgian raced in F1 for the Arrows, Benetton, Williams, Ligier and Jordan. 
A former F1 star is now raking it in as an aircraft dealerCredit: Getty
Thierry Boutsen achieved three Grand Prix wins in his F1 careerCredit: Getty
He took to the track in 164 Grands Prix and beat the late, great Ayrton Senna on three occasions to claim a trio of victories.
Boutsen also achieved 15 podium finishes in total before retiring in 1993.
However, his career has continued to accelerate – albeit not on the race track.
Explaining all to Monaco Life, Boutsen said: “I honestly had no idea that private jets existed until I was 18-years-old.
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“A family friend was CEO at Abelag (a private jet operator) in Brussels and he invited me to work there as a mechanic in the aircraft maintenance department. I enjoyed every minute of it – discovering these extraordinary flying machines.
“I was even invited on board to do a post maintenance test flight.That is when I promised myself, should I one day have earned enough money, I would buy and fly my own plane.
“I had to wait 12 years for that. Since then, flying has been a passion, like driving race cars.”
He continued: “I had no intention of starting a company in the beginning. I was always flying my own plane from racing event to racing event, or marketing event to marketing event, for private or business purposes.
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“Then I had a request in 1997 from a colleague of mine, former F1 driver Heinz Harald Frentzen, who wanted to buy the same plane I was using at the time but he didn’t know how to get it or how to complete the paper work etc. So, I said I would do it for him, and he ended up being my first customer.
“Immediately afterwards, I had a request from Keke Rosberg to buy a similar airplane for him; then I had to buy one for Mika Hakkinen, and then Michael Schumacher came to me and said he wanted to sell his Challenger.
“I did about 10 transactions, just in the racing world. I was doing the job as if it was for me – with a lot of passion, dedication and attention to detail. People loved it.
“So, we decided to go further and explore Europe. My wife Daniela and I started Boutsen Aviation: she was in charge of the marketing and presentation and I was in charge of the commercial side.
“At the end of 2000 we had our first employee, Dominique Trinquet – who is still with us today and is now president of the company. We have nine people working with us here in Monaco, and we have representatives in India, Russia, northern Europe, eastern Europe and Switzerland.”
Boutsen then revealed: “We have sold 385 planes to date, and every time we make a sale, we celebrate it is a success for the whole team. Our team in aviation is like a racing team – everyone is working together to get the job done and using their capabilities to 100 per cent, or sometimes even more. It will be a very important milestone when we get to 400, but it is due to the hard work of everybody of the company.
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“We have 16 planes for sale on an exclusive basis. We sell all types of business jets, but 70 to 80 per cent of our planes are transatlantic, like Challengers, Gulfstreams, Falcons… big planes that can travel from Nice to Los Angeles, for instance. We also sell biz-liners like the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ).
“These planes used to sell for between 20 and 35 million. Today, it’s between 15 and 25 million for exactly the same airplane. This is because the inventory has increased.
“During lockdown, some people wanted to get rid of their planes because they had no need for them. A plane is expensive to buy and maintain, so if you have one that just sits in a hangar for six months, it’s not worth it.”
But the icon’s future is very much not only in the air as he keeps busy with a number of other successful business interests.
He added: “I am also the Chairman of the Boutsen Group which includes Boutsen Design, run by my wife Daniela, to offer a bespoke and individual design and decoration service for business jets, superyachts and residences.
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“I also run Boutsen Classic Cars, sourcing and selling high-end classic road and race cars for discerning collectors.
“Then we have the Boutsen Racing Team, and we compete all over the world.”
Ayrton Senna (left) pictured with Belgian Boutsen back in 1990Credit: Getty
Boutsen retired in 1993 and embarked on his new business ventureCredit: Getty More