Lewis Hamilton’s status as a bona fide Formula 1 legend is already thoroughly assured, but the seven-time FIA World Drivers’ Championship winner is not someone who will allow himself to rest on his laurels.
You don’t get to the top of the Formula 1 world without having a burning desire to push your talent to the limit, and there’s no doubt that the Brit has eyes on future success. Yet despite that determination, Hamilton finds himself in a new and unwelcome position, one where he’s on the outside looking in.
Having dominated the podium for years, Hamilton — or more precisely, his team, Mercedes — is experiencing real issues getting back on it. As it stands, the Brackley based team and its star driver are very far away from winning any kind of championship, though Lewis’ past exploits will mean there are more than a few people willing to use an introductory offer to back him to pull off an unlikely victory this year. More likely, though, it’s another season of development and transition.
So where can Hamilton hope to go? Let’s take a look.
Tough start
If Hamilton thought he could put last season’s misery behind him this time around, he was mistaken. Not only did Hamilton fail to go head-to-head with Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, but he also fell behind Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz in Bahrain.
Not the dream start that Hamilton was hoping for — and he wasted no time laying the blame at the feet of the Mercedes team. It wasn’t so much that he failed to get on the podium that left Hamilton despondent, but that he never even looked like being on the pace either. It was a bad start for a driver who always set the bar very high…
On the right track?
After a rough opening two races, where Hamilton failed to get on the podium, things began to look up in Melbourne, where he finished second. On the face of it, this is clearly a step in the right direction. However, it remains to be seen whether this really does mark a new dawn in the Mercedes season, or whether Hamilton was just a lucky beneficiary of Formula 1 madness.
After all, the Albert Park race saw some controversial decisions with all the red flags and restarts, and it’s also true that Mercedes tend to do well on that track, which could make it an outlier. If it offers a platform for growth, then Hamilton may well be involved in the race for the Championship. Yet with Verstappen taking the top position again, it seems like that’ll be a tall order even if the Brackley squad do manage to iron out their kinks.
The end of an era
One thing is clear: Hamilton’s era of being a leading contender in the world of Formula 1 is over. Well, for now. Mercedes have had too many problems trying to adapt to the new vehicle regulations, way more than any other team. In the latter half of the previous season, Mercedes seemed to be performing better in a vehicle that wasn’t quite right.
And that may arguably have caused them more problems since it gave them enough motivation to stick with a design that was never truly going to be competitive. In the process, they may have sacrificed another half-season, which is just too much time in the Formula 1 world.
And does that mean that Hamilton might begin to look elsewhere? It wouldn’t be the first time that the British driver has cast his eyes around the paddock. At the moment, however, it seems more likely that Hamilton will stick with Mercedes beyond this season, no matter what happens.
A man on a mission
One thing is clear, however, and that’s that Hamilton is unlikely to say goodbye to Formula 1 anytime soon. He currently shares the record for most World Driver Championships with Michael Schumacher. The prospect of claiming another title and becoming the outright record holder will be too tantalizing to a man who burns with intense ambition.
Whether that’s with his beloved Mercedes outfit, or another team remains to be seen, but if there’s one thing we can be sure of, it’s that Hamilton will stay in Formula 1 until he wins again — or is kicked out…
