Lewis Hamilton may have struggled over the past two seasons, but he has given doubters a firm message of intent despite being in the twilight of his racing career.
With plenty writing him off over any prospect of winning an elusive eighth world championship, Hamilton knows that the last two years haven’t been the best indicator to prove his credentials.
The cars that Mercedes has offered him in this period have simply not been up to the required standard to challenge for the world championship. As a result, he has endured the longest dry-spell in terms of wins in his career, stretching back to the closely-fought 2021 season.
Hamilton’s teammate Russell has won the only race for Mercedes in this period and although the youngster was able to get the better of Hamilton in his first season at the Silver Arrows, Hamilton soon restored order.
Red Bull’s dominance has been such that it is entirely fathomable that Hamilton may not win another race this season as well, but that speaks more about his own team’s woes than his ability.
Recently, former F1 driver David Coulthard issued a statement on Hamilton.
“This is not Lewis at his prime – this is Lewis in a very frustrating two-year state of underperforming,” Coulthard said.
“When he gets a winning car again, it’ll be really interesting to see if he can rediscover the old Lewis magic.”
Driving what was a ‘diva’ of a car last season, Hamilton still showed his ability to make the most of what was at his disposal.
Despite the likes of Ferrari, Aston Martin in the early half and McLaren in the second half of the season showing that they had faster challengers than Mercedes, it was still Hamilton who came out behind the Red Bull pairing of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the drivers’ standings.
Even a poor finish of the season did not put Hamilton in danger of slipping out of the top-3 positions and it showed that the British driver had maintained great consistency even when the going got tough.
Perhaps this is all the evidence Hamilton needs to point at when he answers his critics over concerns regarding his ability to battle it out against the likes of Verstappen.
Based on his results last year, it seems obvious that Hamilton has signalled that he is still very much the main rival to Verstappen heading into the upcoming season. Mercedes may have slacked in the past couple of campaigns, but Hamilton remains at the top of his abilities.
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