How Stirling Moss can strangely take back an F1 record this month

If Max Verstappen beats Lewis Hamilton to win the 2021 Formula 1 world championship, the late Stirling Moss would reclaim a title.

This might well be one of the strangest tidbits to note heading into the final two-race stretch of the hotly 2021 Formula 1 world championship battle, but it is surely one to keep an eye on.

With 20 of 22 races on this year’s schedule in the books, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen holds a slim eight-point lead over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in the F1 driver standings.

Verstappen’s lead has been as large as 33 points — and recently as large as 21 points — but Hamilton has managed to trim it down, thanks in large part to back-to-back victories heading into this Sunday’s inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at Jeddah Street Circuit.

Despite this eight-point deficit, WynnBET lists Hamilton (-165) as the slight favorite to win the title over Verstappen (+120).

Make your pick now on WynnBET.

The season is scheduled to conclude with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, December 12.

Verstappen entered the 2021 season without a finish of higher than third place in the driver standings in six previous seasons of F1 competition.

But no matter what happens over the next two weekends, he is guaranteed to record his first ever top two finish in points in a career year that has seen him win nine races thus far.

Entering the year, Verstappen had 10 career victories, and his career-high single-season win total was three from the 2019 season. His nine-win season has shot him up to 17th place on the all-time wins list with 19 victories.

But here’s where things get even more interesting from an all-time perspective.

With 10 victories, Verstappen entered the 2021 season tied for sixth place on the all-time wins list among drivers who had never won world championships. He was tied with Ronnie Peterson and Gerhard Berger.

It didn’t take him long to pass Peterson and Berger, plus Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello (both 11), Carlos Reutemann (12), and David Coulthard (13).

With his seventh win of the season in his home race, the Dutch Grand Prix, at Circuit Zandvoort, he passed Stirling Moss to break the all-time record.

Moss, who is widely considered the greatest driver never to win a Formula 1 world championship, earned 16 victories throughout his career.

Verstappen now holds that record with 19. But if he is able to hold off Hamilton, that total would effectively evaporate, and Moss would reclaim the title of winningest non-champion in Formula 1 history.

Aside from Verstappen, only two other active non-champions have more than two victories: Valtteri Bottas (10) and Daniel Ricciardo (8).

Will Verstappen hang on to win what would be his first career Formula 1 world championship over the next two weekends, or will Hamilton secure a record-breaking eighth world title to ensure that Verstappen keeps his spot ahead of Moss as the winningest non-champion of all-time for at least another year?

WynnBET Promo: Bet $1, Win $100 if any NFL or college football team scores. Claim offer now.