BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2023--

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On taking off his seat belt in the Red Bull 2023 juggernaut for the final time on race-day in Abu Dhabi, Max Verstappen took stock. The Dutchman had just coasted to a record-extending 19th victory of the season; his 54th overall, with only Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher ahead of him now in the all-time stakes. For a man whose unflappability has been the defining characteristic of his championship cruise, the three-time world champion admitted to feeling emotional as he waved goodbye to the RB19. “An incredible season – it was a bit emotional on the in-lap,” he said. “The last time sitting in the car that has of course given me a lot.” A lot is an understatement. Pretty much everything is more accurate. Save a strange anomaly in Singapore in September, Verstappen has been on the podium at the end of every race. His 575 points gave him a 290-point margin over second place: team-mate Sergio Perez. If the Mexican’s tally of 285 was doubled, he’d still be five points shy. LIST OF MAX VERSTAPPEN’S 2023 RECORDS - Most wins in a single season – 19 - Most podium finishes in a season – 21 - Highest points total – 575 - Largest championship-winning margin – 290 - First driver to surpass 1,000 laps led in a single season - Only driver to complete every lap in the 2023 season - Highest win percentage in F1 history – 86.3% He also became the first driver ever to surpass 1,000 laps led in a single season, while his Abu Dhabi victory meant he was the only driver on the grid to complete every lap in 2023. In fact, he has not endured a retirement since Australia last April. The sheer supremacy and dismissal of the opposition – both across the garage and the other nine teams, flailing in his wake – has been ruthless. There has been no let-up. Yet the ultimate indication that this was the most dominant season in F1’s 73-year history is best represented (in a time where podiums and race wins are incomparable due to the current record-breaking calendar) by his win-percentage. Nineteen out of 22 gives him 86.3%. The previous record had held for over 70 years: Alberto Ascari’s 75% in 1952, when he won six of eight races. It makes Verstappen’s 2023 campaign, statistically, the best-ever by some distance. The 26-year-old – whose calculated in-race menace and over-eagerness of his early 20s looks a thing of the past – has set the new benchmark, far beyond the likes of Fangio, Schumacher and Hamilton. Formula 1 has never seen the like before. In Verstappen’s own words: “It will be hard to do something similar again.” But where does it rank in the all-time great sporting seasons? A comparison in this respect is difficult, by virtue of different sports placing different emphasis on different competitions, with the weight of team vs individual at play too. Nonetheless, speculating is fun: we’ll give it a go. Immediate standouts include Tiger Woods’ 2000 season, where he stormed to three of the four majors and nine out of 20 PGA Tour wins. Novak Djokovic – take your pick – has a quadruple of hat-trick major glory in 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2023, while Roger Federer’s 2006 saw him lose to just two players (Rafael Nadal and a young Andy Murray). But even then, Verstappen is superior in the numbers game. Woods entered 20 tournaments in 2000, winning nine to give him a 45% win ratio. Of course, golf has a bigger playing field and is prone to more random winners (and just how F1 would value a bit more uncertainty right now for the sporting product). But still, that’s the facts. Federer played 17 tournaments in 2006, winning 12 of them. The Swiss maestro is closer, with a 70.6% win percentage in tournaments played. He has Rafael Nadal to thank for it not being near-perfect, with four of those five losses at the hands of the Spaniard. Djokovic’s best season for titles was 2015, when he won 11 from 16 tournaments played – 68.75%. Serena Williams had an identical 11/16 titles record in 2013. Still, some way short of Verstappen. In recent years in European football, Barcelona’s treble-winning season in 2014-15 was super impressive. Lionel Messi and co. played 61 matches, winning 51 of them. That gives them 83.6% across the course of the season. Staggering, really. Manchester City’s treble last year came in at 73.77% of matches won, with their 2017-18 100-point season statistically better at 80.7%. Across the Atlantic, only two NBA teams have ever recorded win percentages higher than Verstappen’s: Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in 1995-96 and Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors in 2015-16. The 1972 Miami Dolphins are the only team ever to complete a perfect NFL season, with Tom Brady’s New England Patriots coming close in 2007 before falling at the final Super Bowl hurdle. We could go on and on. Blatantly, different sports have different barometers of success. Different competitions and tournaments have different significance depending on prestige and ranking points, unlike F1 where points are identical for each race. But what this very basic overview does show is that Verstappen in 2023 is very much in the conversation. It still feels as though the Dutchman’s achievements this year are viewed through quite a narrow prism. “It’s all about the car,” says Joe Bloggs, with a Mercedes cap on. Sure, the RB19 is one of the greatest cars in F1 history and has a monumental impact. But Perez’s topsy-turvy season in identical machinery shows there is more to Red Bull’s success than the machine. It needs to be armed and steered by capable hands. Verstappen has barely made a mistake all season. His year of dominance will be looked back on in years to come, similar to the Schumacher reign at the start of the 2000s. It’s now about how big Verstappen’s legacy will be. How many titles can he win in a row? Can he get up to Schumacher and Hamilton’s record of seven? And how many races can he continue to win, with a brash sense of ease and control, along the way? Read More F1 fans spark chaos with brawl at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix IndyCar champion admits breaching McLaren contract in £18m lawsuit over F1 seat Lando Norris slams Sergio Perez after collision: ‘It’s nothing new’ Williams boss refuses to confirm Logan Sargeant’s seat for 2024 F1 2023 season report card: Red Bull flourish but what about Mercedes and Ferrari? Toto Wolff sees ‘Mount Everest’ ahead as Mercedes seek to end Red Bull’s domination

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Max Verstappen appears set to return to form at the Japanese Grand Prix after posting a blistering time in the opening practice session. Verstappen’s record 10-race winning run and Red Bull’s unbeaten season came to a shuddering halt last weekend in Singapore, where the team admitted they did not understand their struggles with the car’s set-up around the street circuit. Lewis Hamilton warned on Thursday the Red Bull car would be “phenomenal” around the high-speed corner circuit at Suzuka and, while practice times must always be treated with caution, it appears the runaway championship leader could dominate again this weekend. Verstappen, who is closing in on a hat-trick of world titles, was the first car out on track and it took the Dutchman just a handful of laps to set the fastest time in every sector. He finished the opening running 0.626 seconds clear of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who clinched victory in Singapore. McLaren had been tipped to be the closest challengers to Red Bull this weekend with George Russell even suggesting they could be favourites. Lando Norris delivered an impressive final lap to clinch third for the British team, ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and home favourite Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri. Oscar Piastri, who extended his McLaren contract this week, claimed seventh just behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. Red Bull will almost certainly clinch the Constructors’ Championship this weekend at the home race for their engine supplier Honda. But Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez finished only 11th and a massive 1.396sec adrift of the pace-setter. Mercedes pair George Russell and Lewis Hamilton struggled badly to repeat the impressive pace they showed last weekend, finishing a lowly 13th and 16th respectively. The second practice session gets under way at 1500 local time (0700 BST). Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lance Stroll to sit out Singapore Grand Prix after huge crash in qualifying ‘You can forget about that’ – Max Verstappen rules out another win in Singapore Lance Stroll crashes into barrier at 110mph in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying

Irina Shayk has shared details about her co-parenting relationship with ex Bradley Cooper. The supermodel, 37, opened up about sharing custody of her six-year-old daughter, Lea, with the Silver Linings Playbook star in an interview with Elle published on 8 November. In the interview, Shayk revealed that she and Cooper always put their daughter first, despite their busy schedules. “We both take Lea everywhere with us. She’s super easy,” she told the outlet. Shayk went on to recall how her daughter sat and drew in a colouring book for an hour while she was working out. When the mother-daughter duo then went to a Michael Kors fitting, Lea drew the designer a “kitty cat” and he “gave her a bag” in return. The Russian-born model admitted that she and Cooper, who grew up outside of Philadelphia, both come from “normal backgrounds” far different from Lea’s childhood in New York City. However, Shayk revealed that neither of them have hired a nanny for their daughter, so as to give her as regular an upbringing as possible. “Looking at my daughter now, she’s growing up in a completely different environment,” Shayk said. “She lives in the West Village. She went to all these countries in two months. But we want her to know the value of stuff. We want to show our daughter: ‘You have to work hard to get something.’” Even when Cooper is away shooting a film, Shayk admitted that they “always find a way” to make their co-parenting schedule work for both of them. “He’s the best father Lea and I could dream of. It always works, but it always works because we make it work,” she said. The supermodel previously admitted in March 2021 that she “never understood” the term co-parenting. “When I’m with my daughter, I’m 100 per cent a mother, and when she’s with her dad, he’s 100 per cent her dad. Co-parenting is parenting,” she told Elle at the time. Although the former couple split in 2019 after four years together, they’ve remained close for the sake of their daughter. In August, Shayk and Cooper took their daughter on vacation together to Italy. In a post shared to her Instagram Story during their getaway, the model shared a black and white snap of The Hangover star lying in a kayak on the water. The pair also posed for a photo together on another family vacation in August 2022. In the smiling image, Shayk and Cooper could be seen smiling for the camera and feeding a group of pigs, as she rested her head on the actor’s shoulder. While Shayk has been open about her co-parenting relationship with Cooper, she was not as quick to address rumours she’s dating retired NFL star Tom Brady. “No comment,” Shayk told Elle, when asked about her rumoured love interest. The model maintained that she chooses to keep certain aspects of her life private, including who she’s dating. “I share my work stuff because I decided to keep my personal life personal,” Shayk said. “That’s why it’s called personal, because it’s something that belongs to me. If one day I feel like I want to share it, I will.” Back in July, Shayk and Brady sparked romance rumours when they were spotted together in Los Angeles. In photos obtained byPage Six, the pair were photographed in a car, with the former quarterback sitting in the driver’s seat and smiling at Shayk in the passenger’s seat. One photo also appeared to show Brady’s hand placed on Shayk’s face while they were at a stoplight. A source claimed to People that the rumoured couple “have been in touch for a few weeks” and that “there is a spark” between them. “There is an attraction, the source claimed, adding that Shayk and Brady “have never been involved romantically before”. Just last month, however, insiders told the outlet that Brady and Shayk’s rumoured relationship has “fizzled out” since the summer. “Irina was very attracted to Tom. She liked dating him. It excited her,” one source said. "They had fun travelling to see each other. In the end, it kind of just fizzled.” “They both keep having obligations, and it was getting more difficult to be in the same city at the same time,” they continued. “Irina has nothing but great things to say about Tom.” A second source added that “there’s no drama” between Brady and Shayk following the split. Meanwhile, Cooper is currently romantically linked to fellow model Gigi Hadid. The two first sparked romance rumours in early October, when they were spotted having dinner together in New York City. Cooper and Hadid, 27, were later photographed taking a stroll in the Big Apple - where the actor could be seen sporting a pair of Ellen Degeneres-branded boxers peeking above his pants waistband. Read More What is silent reflux? Salon owner with incurable cancer who lost hair in treatment makes customisable wigs Should we end daylight saving time? Doctors think it’s bad for our health What is silent reflux? Salon owner with incurable cancer who lost hair in treatment makes customisable wigs Should we end daylight saving time? Doctors think it’s bad for our health

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