© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
By Alexia Tibil
“A new year to be better, a new year to climb, keep fighting and unite even more. And it’s another chance to fight for a World Championship.”
- Lewis Hamilton in a recent retrospective interview with Mercedes.
After his DNF at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton stated it was that particular race that has basically summed up the whole season. Truth be told, the season has been filled with nothing but lots of experiments from Mercedes in order to get the car in a somewhat “sweet spot”. Yes, some tracks seemed to be fairly suitable to the W13 and Hamilton’s driving style, but unfortunately nothing more.
“This year was not the greatest,” Lewis said in one post-season interview.
“It is probably up there with the top-three worst seasons. I feel like this year, when we got our first fifth, it felt like a win. When we got our first fourth, it felt like a win. When we got our first podium, it felt like a win, and those second places felt as if we really achieved something.
“So I’ll just hold on to those,” he concluded.
A quick retrospective on the season could make us understand Lewis’ position better, going into the new season. Starting off with a 3rd place back in Bahrain, after a couple of challenging testing weeks in both Bahrain and Barcelona, a podium for him was exactly the kind of confidence required in such early stages of the season. But then came a period of time filled with upgrades that were supposed to reduce “porpoising”, a phenomenon that came with the newest regulations, and up until the Spanish GP back in May all those upgrades seemed to be in vain. In that race, a first lap collision with Kevin Magnussen caused Lewis to pit prematurely, thus sending him all the way back of the grid. As we’ve seen on a number of occasions, his racecraft and determination in crucial moments is unparalleled, and so he climbed his way back up the grid. What could have been a fantastic P4, unfortunately ended up being a P5 due to some mechanical issues. But nevertheless, it unequivocally felt like a long awaited win.
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As for the next couple of races, the W13 seemed to be off yet again and there was nothing Lewis could have done to squeeze out more performance. His unpreceded work ethic started paying off beginning at the Canadian GP, with a first podium appearance of the season, a thoroughly deserved P3 at the track where he got his very first win back in 2007. The British GP not only saw us watching Hamilton leading a race for the first time in the season, but also fight wheel to wheel with both Red Bull and Ferrari. Since then, fairly constant podium appearances have been the norm for him.
“I’m definitely excited for 2023,” Lewis said in a recent interview.
“These last few years have been so difficult for so many around the world, so many people struggling with the war and many other things.”
What definitely makes Lewis more excited about the new season is connected to the idea of “fighting your way back to the top”. Nonetheless, it is wholly easier to win when you have the fastest car underneath you, but as Lewis mentioned countless times, he loves ‘a good old fight’. And his experience, especially of the last couple of seasons, could surely come in handy in his pursuit of climbing his way back to the top step of the podium.
If we were to take a quick look at his past “bad” seasons within F1, we could easily notice that whenever he was down and his abilities were diminished by the media pundits, he always struck back. Take the first half of the 2009 season, for instance, when he was a McLaren driver. The first half was horrendous for both him and the team, but in the second half he managed to grab 3 victories to round up the season. In the seasons to come, although he was merely in contention for the title, he gave his absolute best both on and off track. His move to Mercedes in 2013 didn’t start on the right foot, but it was understandable as he was faced with a totally new car concept, both mechanically and aerodynamically. With the start of the turbo hybrid era in 2014, Lewis has managed to outdo himself at every given opportunity thus getting him to a record-equalling seven world titles.
“Going into the winter, the team knows that we’re on the right track,” Lewis said in a post-season interview.
“And we are still the best team. We will get back to having this more consistent I think next year and I’m excited for that battle.”
When there’s a will, there’s more often than not a way as well. We’ve seen Lewis working harder than ever last year, with him being in touch with the engineers at all times and trying to make different tweaks to the car and without a doubt, all that working experience will eventually prevail.
Will he be able to finally engrave his name on the record-breaking eighth title in 2023? Having analysed both his successful and less successful seasons, and after putting them head to head, I believe there is a tremendous chance he could. We have been witnesses to his ups and downs for so many years now, and even when given a midfield car, he somehow manages to squeeze all the performance out of it.
Having said all of the above, Hamilton is definitely not “new” to working harder for his dreams, whether they happen to be on track or off of it.
“I have no doubt we’ll come back better. We’ll be back. I’ll be back,” Lewis said, and I believe him.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of SilverArrows.Net.
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