Honestly, if you look at a list of the most grand prix wins, it feels like a simple math problem. You count the trophies, rank the names, and go home. But anyone who’s spent a Sunday morning screaming at a television screen knows that F1 numbers are kind of a lie. Or at least, they’re a very specific version of the truth.
As we sit here in 2026, the leaderboard looks like a titan-sized clash of eras. You've got Lewis Hamilton sitting at the top with 105 wins. Then there's Michael Schumacher at 91, and the "new" kid, Max Verstappen, who has already rocketed to 71 wins. Behind them, names like Vettel (53) and Prost (51) start to feel like they belong to a different century.
But here’s the thing: how do you compare a guy who raced 10 times a year in a car held together by hope and leather straps to a modern driver who has 24 races a season and a simulator that costs more than a small country? You can't. Not really. But we’re going to try anyway.
The 100-Club: How Lewis Hamilton Rewrote the Script
For a long time, Schumacher’s 91 wins felt like a "never going to happen" number. It was the Everest of the sport. Then Lewis Hamilton showed up.
Hamilton didn't just break the record for most grand prix wins; he obliterated the ceiling of what we thought was possible for a driver's career longevity. His 105 victories are spread across two massive chapters: the early, "wild" years at McLaren and the clinical, machine-like dominance at Mercedes.
What’s wild is that Hamilton hasn't actually won a race since the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix. His 2025 season with Ferrari—yeah, it’s still weird seeing him in red—was a bit of a struggle, finishing 6th in the standings. He didn’t add to the tally last year, proving that even the GOAT needs the car to cooperate. His move to Maranello was supposed to be the "fairytale ending," but as of early 2026, that 106th win is proving to be the hardest one to catch.
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- Total Wins: 105
- Win Percentage: ~27%
- Most Successful Track: Silverstone (9 wins)
The Verstappen Surge: Is 105 Actually Safe?
If you had asked this three years ago, people would have laughed. Now? Nobody’s laughing. Max Verstappen has 71 wins. He’s 28 years old.
Think about that for a second.
Verstappen essentially spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons playing a video game on "easy" mode. He won 19 races in a single year (2023). In 2025, he added another 8 wins to his total, even though McLaren's Lando Norris actually took the world title. Max is currently sitting in third place on the all-time list, having jumped past Sebastian Vettel and Alain Prost with frightening speed.
The debate now isn't if he’s great—it’s whether the "Verstappen Era" has enough gas left to reach Hamilton’s 105. With Red Bull transitioning to their own Ford-backed engines this year (2026), the hardware is the big question mark. If the car is fast, Max could realistically hit 100 wins by the time he’s 31. That’s a scary thought for the history books.
Why Michael Schumacher’s 91 Hits Different
We have to talk about the "Schumacher Tax." When Michael was racking up 91 wins, the seasons were shorter. In 2002, he won 11 out of 17 races. If you scale that to today’s 24-race calendar, he’d be clearing 15 or 16 wins a year easily.
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Schumacher’s era was about building a team around a single human being. He didn't just drive for Ferrari; he basically owned the place. He’d spend 12 hours a day at the Fiorano test track, something modern drivers can't even do because of the strict testing bans.
When we discuss the most grand prix wins, Schumacher’s name carries a different weight because he didn't join a winning team—he turned a broken Ferrari team into a dynasty. It's the same thing Hamilton did at Mercedes, but Schumacher did it first, and he did it with a manual gear lever for part of it.
The Elite Top Five (As of January 2026)
- Lewis Hamilton: 105 wins. The statistical king.
- Michael Schumacher: 91 wins. The man who defined the modern era.
- Max Verstappen: 71 wins. The predator closing the gap.
- Sebastian Vettel: 53 wins. The king of the "blown diffuser" era at Red Bull.
- Alain Prost: 51 wins. "The Professor" who won through pure brainpower.
The Forgotten Context: Starts vs. Wins
Percentages matter. If you win 10 races but only entered 20, you’re a god. If you win 10 races but entered 400, you’re just persistent.
Take Juan Manuel Fangio. The guy only has 24 wins. Sounds small, right? But he only started 51 races. That is a 47% win rate. Basically, every time Fangio put on a helmet, there was a coin-flip's chance he was going to win. Compare that to Fernando Alonso, who is an absolute legend of the sport but has a win percentage of around 7% because he’s spent a decade dragging mid-field cars into positions they didn't deserve.
Then you have Lando Norris. He finally broke through and won the 2025 World Championship. He’s up to 11 wins now. Does he belong in the conversation for most grand prix wins? Not yet. But the McLaren is the car to beat right now. If Norris and Oscar Piastri (who has 9 wins) keep this up, the "old guard" leaderboard is going to start looking very different by 2030.
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What Most People Get Wrong About Win Counts
The biggest misconception is that the "best" driver always has the most wins.
Look at Ayrton Senna. He "only" has 41 wins. Does anyone honestly think Sebastian Vettel (53 wins) was "better" than Senna? Probably not. Senna’s career was cut short, and he raced in an era where cars broke down if you looked at them funny. Reliability in the 80s and 90s was a joke.
Modern F1 cars are bulletproof. If Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton starts a race, 99% of the time, the car will finish the race. In the 1970s, you were lucky if the engine didn't explode by lap 20. This is why Jim Clark’s 25 wins or Jackie Stewart’s 27 wins are arguably more impressive than a modern driver getting 30 or 40.
Actionable Insights for the F1 Fan
If you're trying to track the race for the most grand prix wins this season, keep your eyes on these three things:
- The 2026 Engine Regs: This is the Great Reset. If Red Bull-Ford fumbles the power unit, Verstappen’s march toward Hamilton’s 105 wins will hit a brick wall.
- Hamilton's Ferrari Form: Watch the first three races of 2026. If Lewis can’t find the pace in the Ferrari SF-26 early on, he might retire at 105.
- The McLaren Civil War: Norris and Piastri are taking wins off each other. This is great for fans, but bad for their individual all-time rankings. A dominant "Number 1" driver always accumulates wins faster than two equals fighting for the same piece of tarmac.
The hunt for the most grand prix wins is more than just a tally. It’s a reflection of how the sport changes—from the dangerous, romantic days of the 50s to the hyper-technical, data-driven world of today. Whether you value the raw numbers of Hamilton or the efficiency of Fangio, one thing is certain: we are living in the most prolific era of winning the sport has ever seen.
For those looking to dive deeper into the data, checking the live "Elo ratings" of drivers often provides a better picture of talent than win counts alone. Also, keep an eye on "wins from pole" versus "wins from the back"—it’s the easiest way to separate the great drivers from the great cars.