Max Verstappen made the most overtaking manoeuvres during the 2016 F1 season, just as he did in 2015.
According to Pirelli overtaking this year was up more than 50 per cent over 2015 with 866 passes happening across the season, and just as in 2015 Max Verstappen was responsible for the most, with 78 overtakes – 29 more than he managed the year before.
Although it was his defensive driving which raised eyebrows in the middle of the season, Max was clearly also getting his offensive driving right, most memorably at the Brazilian Grand Prix, when he went from 16th to 3rd in just 14 laps. Amazingly that wasn’t the most overtakes by a single driver in a race – that honour falls to Lewis Hamilton in China, who made 18 passes on his way to 7th place having started dead last.
The Red Bull drivers proved to be the masters of overtaking across the season with a combined total of 136 – 61 by Ricciardo, 60 by Verstappen, and 15 by Kvyat.
The Mercedes drivers were overtaken fewer than any other team – they were only passed seven times between them across the whole year – but the real king of not being overtaken was Sebastian Vettel, who remarkably was only overtaken once all year (by Max Verstappen in Brazil).
Pirelli don’t count overtakes that happen as a result of major mechanical failure or any that involved lapping or unlapping. They also don’t count any passes that happen on the first lap of the race – if they did then Fernando Alonso would surely top the list, as he made more passes on the first lap than anyone else for the second year in a row, with 41.