Max Verstappen’s victory in last Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix was his first Formula 1 ‘grand slam’, regarded as the ultimate measure of dominance of a weekend.
This feat, also known by the French ‘grand chelem’, is the rarest achievement in Formula 1 races. It requires the driver to win a grand prix from pole position, lead every lap and set the fastest lap. In short, crushing domination. It has only happened 59 times in 1044 world championship races.
Verstappen was unbeatable at the Red Bull Ring and became the 23rd driver to achieve at least one grand slam, making him the first to do so since Lewis Hamilton in the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Of those, only 11 have achieved it more than once, with Jim Clark holding the record thanks to eight achieved from 1962-1965.
But while there have been times when the grand slam has been effective in reflecting weekends of true dominance, in recent times it has become more about luck than excellence. That doesn’t mean that a driver is fortunate to win or hasn’t driven superbly, simply that the opportunity to close out a grand slam from a dominant position is down to external factors.
While pole position and the win are controllable, managing to lead every lap and take the fastest lap are less so. Given F1 has certain strategic constraints in terms of starting tyre, the need to use both compounds and the fact that the undercut is often a powerful weapon, there are times when the leader must stop before a challenger to protect that lead.
Sometimes they lose out on a led lap or two in the process, even though they have effectively not lost the lead. The same can be true when those at the front are on different strategies.
And while fastest lap is supposed to reflect the quickest car/driver combination in a race, the re-introduction of the fastest lap point at the start of 2019 means that this often goes to a driver making an extra pitstop, usually because they don’t have anything to fight for or lose by doing so.
In the 47 races since the start of 2019, only 14 times has the winner set the fastest lap.
The Red Bull Ring double-header underlines this because Verstappen was also dominant in the Styrian GP that took place on the weekend prior.
But in that race, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez set quicker fastest laps thanks to making significantly later extra pitstops and capitalising on fresh rubber.
As Hamilton made his stop at the start of the penultimate lap, Verstappen and Red Bull couldn’t respond so were snookered in terms of chasing that fastest lap point.
You could argue that had Verstappen been more than 17 seconds clear of Hamilton before the Mercedes driver pitted he could have had a free stop, but the way you win races in F1 doesn’t lend itself to burning up resources when you have a comfortable cushion simply to open that gap.
While Red Bull did have a slightly bigger advantage on the second Red Bull Ring weekend, the fact Lando Norris was in the way of Hamilton for the first part of the race ensured Verstappen was out of sight and able to take an extra stop anyway.
That said, Verstappen was already quick enough for fastest lap even without that, but this was primarily because Hamilton’s pace was contained for much of the race either by Norris or the rear-left aero damage he sustained on lap 30, the latter of which restricted his pace after the second stop.
So while Verstappen set the fastest lap five times in the first 22 laps in the first Red Bull Ring race, when cars were at their heaviest, he wasn’t able to keep hold of it.
The fact he didn’t take the fastest lap there but did the following weekend, did not reflect any fundamental shift in his advantage, it was purely situational. Verstappen didn’t have to drive better to get the fastest lap in the Austrian GP, it was down to what happened around him.
But even the addition of the fastest lap point hasn’t disrupted the grand slam a great deal. If anything, it has perhaps made them slightly more likely given that the fastest lap is at least incentivised.
In the last 47 races prior to 2019, the winner only set fastest lap 10 times, which underlines the extent to which the complexity of the races and the fact that you should not simply sail off into the distance even if you have the pace has changed things.
That’s the reason why, in modern F1, the grand slam is less relevant than it once was. Yes, it’s difficult to achieve, but that’s not because of how well you have to drive as many of the most outstanding performances – including many of Verstappen’s prior to the Austrian GP – do not result in a grand slam in 21st century F1.
And in any achievement statistic, the fact it is within the control of the driver is what confers value.
