As of Round 5, 2026 · Canadian GP
First podium of the season
Verstappen's first podium of 2026 came at round 5. That's his slowest opening to a season since 2018.
Round number, by driver, by year. Click any other current driver below to overlay their trajectory on the same axis.
2026 median first podium
R2
Across the 7 drivers who have already reached the top three this season.
Still without a 2026 podium
15
Active drivers waiting on their first top-three of the year. The list includes Alonso, Pérez, Bottas and 12 more.
Verstappen's career median
R2
Across his eleven seasons in F1 (2016–2026). 2026's round 5 is two rounds beyond his median.
The two R5 seasons bracket Verstappen's title era
Verstappen's 2026 column sits in unfamiliar company on his own row. The only other R5 in his career is 2018, the season before the Red Bull–Honda title run began. Between them, every season opened with a podium inside the first two rounds: R1 in 2019 (Australia), R2 in 2020 (the pandemic-shifted opener at the Red Bull Ring), R1 in 2021 (Bahrain), R2 in 2022 (Saudi Arabia), R1 in 2023 and R1 in 2024 (both Bahrain), R1 in 2025 (Australia). The car was that consistent. The 2026 regulation reset (smaller power units, simplified aero, mandatory active surfaces) has knocked the field around rather than him specifically. A quieter season opener doesn't decide a championship, but it's the first time he's started this far back since the era began.
Hamilton's chart is the most level on the page
Lewis Hamilton has finished on the podium of the first championship round in seventeen of his nineteen full seasons. There are two outliers, and both were diagnosed inside one race weekend each. R10 in 2009 was Brawn's dominant year, with McLaren miles back. R10 in 2024 was Mercedes's worst F1-2014-era car. His 2026 bar reads R2: a P2 at the Chinese Grand Prix in his second Ferrari outing. The exceptions on his row map cleanly to machinery, not to him.
Fernando Alonso's seven-year gap
The most striking thing about Alonso's row isn't where it starts. It's the gap from 2015 to 2020. Five and a half seasons at McLaren-Honda and McLaren-Renault produced zero championship Grand Prix podiums, plus two full years away from F1 chasing Le Mans, the Indy 500 and the Dakar Rally. He came back via Alpine in 2021 (a P3 at Qatar, R20), peaked again with Aston Martin in 2023 (R1 at Bahrain, the Aston-Honda spike), and has had two flat seasons since. The same name on the championship lists, with the longest podium-less stretch on the chart in the middle of it.
A rookie leads the 2026 count
The driver with the most 2026 podiums isn't Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc or any of the multiple champions on this chart. It's Kimi Antonelli. Five podiums in five rounds, including the win at the Canadian Grand Prix on 24 May. Antonelli wasn't in F1 eighteen months ago. His first podium last season came at Canada (R10); his 2026 bar starts at the Australian opener. The chart shows the round numbers; the count behind them is the part the chart can't draw.
What the chart can't say
"First podium round" is a noisy signal. It tells you when the season started for each driver, not how it ended. Sergio Pérez scored a podium in round 1 of both 2023 and 2024 and finished second and a distant fourth in those championships. George Russell's first podium of 2021 came at round 12, and he was on his way to Mercedes the next year regardless. A low bar means the car was fast in February. It doesn't tell you which car held its development through the summer, which driver lost their seat, or who was carrying a points penalty. Read the chart as a heat map of season-opening opportunity, not of season-long form.
How this is calculated
Each bar is the lowest round number at which the driver finished in P1, P2 or P3 of a championship Grand Prix that season. Sprint races are excluded across the whole chart. They only exist from 2021 onward and would silently bias the modern columns toward lower round numbers, since a sprint can put a driver on the box on the Saturday of round 1 without them ever finishing top three in the actual Grand Prix.
Where a driver missed a season entirely (Pérez in 2025, Bottas in 2025, Alonso across 2015–2020), no bar is drawn rather than a zero. A zero bar would imply a "first podium at round zero" which is meaningless, and would visually pull the average down. The same rule applies to the in-progress 2026 column: drivers without a 2026 podium have an empty bar this year, not a zero.
The chip row reflects the actual 2026 race grid. A driver appears as soon as they have at least one championship race result in 2026, which is why Lindblad (one Canadian GP start) is on the row and Tsunoda (Red Bull reserve, no race starts) is not. Drivers are sorted by 2026 podiums, then all-time podium seasons, then most recent podium year. The chip row at the top is "who's been on the box this season" and the chip row at the bottom is "who's still waiting on their first one of the year".
Every figure on this page comes from public F1 championship results. Numbers update as new results are added after each race weekend.
Frequently asked
When did Max Verstappen score his first podium of the 2026 season?
Round 5 at the Canadian Grand Prix on 24 May 2026. He finished third behind Kimi Antonelli (win) and Lewis Hamilton (P2). It's his slowest opening to a season since 2018, and only the second R5 in his career. Both 2018 and 2026 bracket the four-title era between them, when every season opened with a podium by round 1 or 2.
Which 2026 drivers are still without a podium this season?
15 drivers on the 2026 grid have yet to finish in the top three of a championship Grand Prix this year. The list includes Alonso, Pérez, Bottas and 12 more. That number can only shrink: every round forward adds another opportunity, and a chart bar can never be drawn at a higher round than it already is.
Why are sprint races excluded?
Sprints only exist from 2021 onward, which would silently bias the modern columns toward lower round numbers. A driver could 'score their first podium' at round 1 simply because the calendar that year happened to put a sprint in the season opener. Excluding sprints keeps every column comparing the same thing: a championship Grand Prix top-three finish. The figure stays consistent whether you're reading Alonso's 2003 row or Antonelli's 2026 row.
Why does Fernando Alonso's row have a gap from 2015 to 2020?
Five and a half seasons at McLaren-Honda and McLaren-Renault produced zero championship Grand Prix podiums. He stepped away from F1 entirely in 2019 and 2020 (Le Mans, Indy, Dakar), then returned with Alpine in 2021 and scored at round 20 in Qatar. The gap on the chart is the longest podium-less stretch by an active driver, and it sits inside one of the most decorated careers on the grid.
Why isn't Yuki Tsunoda on the chip row?
Tsunoda is Red Bull's reserve driver in 2026, not a race driver. He has no 2026 race entries in the championship results, so he doesn't appear on this chart. The chip row reflects the actual 2026 race grid: anyone who starts a championship race this season is included.
Why does Kimi Antonelli's row only have two bars?
Antonelli's championship Grand Prix career started in 2025. His bar that year is at round 10 (Canada). His 2026 bar is at round 1 (Australia). He's also the leader of the 2026 podium count outright with five podiums in five rounds, including the Canadian GP win. Two bars, both worth reading carefully.
How current is this data?
The 'as of' label at the top of the page shows the most recent round on the chart, currently the Round 5 Canadian Grand Prix of the 2026 season. Numbers update as new results are added after each race weekend.
More F1 stats from Racemate: career win rate of every 2026 driver · only 11 champions ever defended their title · F1's one-win wonders.