The 2022 Formula One season is very much one that British driver Lewis Hamilton will be looking to forget. Having won six of the previous eight world titles and running Max Verstappen all the way to the wire in 2021, many would have expected the Mercedes driver to put up a similar fight this time around, but it hasn’t proven to be the case.
Hamilton finished the campaign in the sixth spot, which is the worst finish he’s ever secured in an F1 season, and that’s quite a feat when you consider 2022 was the 37-year-old’s 16th in e sport.
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The poor campaign, which saw Hamilton manage zero pole positions and zero wins, had led some to believe that the experienced driver might walk away from the sport but rest assured he’s ready to go again in 2023;
“At some stage, I will want to have a family, and that will be my full focus, but right now, being in Formula 1 with Mercedes is it.”
“There’s a reason why I have as much energy as I do, that I’m still able to train with the intensity that I do and have the dedication that I do,”
Motivation is clearly the key, and Hamilton is not lacking that particular incentive;
“You’ve got to keep pushing. You’ve got more to do, more to achieve. I’ve done it for 30 years, and it’ll be 30-plus years when I do eventually stop. Luckily for me, right this second, it’s not now,”
One man who is backing Hamilton to get back into gear is Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff who was full of praise for the driver in a recent interview;
“For me knowing him for ten years from a personal side, he was exceptional,”
“Better than all the performances in the car, his attitude, and mindset this year was outstanding. He has held us up at times, kept the energy level up when it was down, even on days where it was difficult for him.”
On the dramatic fall from grace that Mercedes have suffered, with the team collecting their lowest points count since 2013, Wolff is also keen to find a solution;
“We are analyzing what were the reasons in the past that teams that dominate over an era suddenly lost performance,”
“You can trace it back quite well, a change of regulations, people leaving, a tire changing fundamentally. We have the same organization, the same capability, and the same financial funding. The regulations changed, we got it wrong, but all the other pillars are still in place.”
One thing is for certain. Hamilton, on his own, can’t reverse the team’s fortunes. A driver, even one as exceptional as he, can only perform as well as the car he’s sat in.
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