Max Verstappen was 22. Pierre Gasly was 23. Carlos Sainz was 25.
The official top three at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix had an average age of approximately 23 years and eight months. That remains the youngest podium in Formula 1 World Championship history, across every circuit.
But the three drivers never shared the original podium ceremony. The result that established the record was confirmed after the champagne had already been sprayed.
Three drivers, two first podiums
Verstappen won at Interlagos on November 17, 2019, finishing ahead of Gasly’s Toro Rosso. For Gasly, second place brought his first Formula 1 podium, just months after Red Bull had moved him back to its sister team.
Sainz’s route was very different. A power-unit problem prevented him from setting a qualifying time, leaving the McLaren driver last on the grid. He recovered from 20th to finish fourth on the road.
That drive already belongs among F1’s deepest grid-to-podium recoveries since 2014. Its final reward depended on a decision made after the race.
Once Sainz was promoted to third, Brazil displaced the previous youngest podium: Sebastian Vettel, Heikki Kovalainen, and Robert Kubica at Monza in 2008.
Why Sainz missed the ceremony
Lewis Hamilton crossed the line third and attended the podium ceremony alongside Verstappen and Gasly.
The stewards subsequently gave Hamilton a five-second penalty for his collision with Alex Albon late in the race. That dropped him to seventh and promoted Sainz to his first Formula 1 podium.
By then, the official ceremony was over. Sainz later celebrated on the podium with his McLaren teammates, marking the team’s first top-three Grand Prix finish since Australia in 2014.
The youngest-podium record therefore belongs to the final classified top three: Verstappen, Gasly, and Sainz. Hamilton’s presence at the ceremony doesn’t change that classification.
Miami came within 14 days in 2026
Kimi Antonelli’s victory ahead of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix produced another exceptionally young top three.
Antonelli was only 19, younger than any member of Brazil’s record-setting trio. Norris was 26 and Piastri 25, however, so the average across all three remained slightly higher.
Using each driver’s age in days on the date of the race, Miami’s podium was exactly 14 days older on average than Brazil’s 2019 combination.
A teenage winner brought the record close. Interlagos kept it.
