Lewis Hamilton lost a record-breaking seventh world championship title in excruciating circumstances the previous season, therefore the 2022 season was expected to be his year of retribution.
For Mercedes and Hamilton, however, it was more of a “annus horribilis.”
Hamilton did not win a race throughout the entire year for the first time in his illustrious Formula One career. In addition, he had numerous issues with balance, handling, and the ride quality of the W13, and new teammate George Russell outperformed him.
Maybe for the first time ever, serious concerns were raised about whether the most successful driver in history of the sport was still operating at the highest level or if aging was finally beginning to take a toll on his speed.
Toto Wolff, the team principal, passionately defended his driver, claiming that Hamilton’s 2022 early season troubles were caused by him behaving as the W13’s “Dr. Frankenstein” and trying out different parts every weekend. With the exception of Brazil, where Hamilton’s much younger teammate defeated him over the course of the weekend to secure the team’s lone victory of the season, Hamilton appeared to find better form as the season went on.
Thus, Hamilton was always going to be one of the most intriguing plots to follow into 2023. Would he return to his former status as one of the field’s top drivers, or would his detractors become more outspoken?
Even though Mercedes’ 2023 campaign was roughly as unsuccessful as the previous one, Hamilton continued to be one of the grid’s more consistently strong performances. Even if he didn’t have the remarkable results in a year that Red Bull dominated once again, the seven-time champion seemed to bring out the best in the faulty W14 more often than Russell did, hindered by another weak Mercedes that he was forthright in his criticism of from the start.
Throughout a season in which the performance of teams trailing the champions varied a great deal, virtually from race to race, Hamilton made sure he was contributing a good number of points to his team each Sunday. Hamilton finished inside the top six spots on Sundays fifteen times over the first sixteen rounds of the championship, nearly twice as often as Russell’s eight finishes.
Hamilton also demonstrated that his racecraft has not deteriorated in his time away from the very front of the grid by consistently finishing higher than he qualified.
Hamilton managed to hold off Fernando Alonso for the majority of the race to secure second place and his first podium of the year, as Mercedes established their form early in the season in Melbourne.
Although he was caught off guard by the safety car’s timing, his sixth-place result in Baku was really better than it appeared. He finished directly behind Carlos Sainz Jr.’s Ferrari, which was unquestionably faster throughout the weekend, and was about 30 seconds ahead of Russell at the checkered flag.
Thereafter, there was a very impressive sequence of races between Monaco and Montreal. Despite being unable to avoid Esteban Ocon in Monaco, he managed to jump up two positions from the starting grid to secure fourth place and the bonus point for the fastest lap.
The next weekend in Barcelona, Mercedes enjoyed their finest Sunday since Melbourne, and Hamilton once more outperformed the Silver Arrows, passing Sainz and Lance Stroll to finish in second place, which was the best position he could have had.
In Canada, there was another podium. Early in the race, Hamilton overtook Alonso to take second place, but even though he was unable to stop the Aston Martin from overtaking him, he managed to stay close to his longstanding opponent to secure his third podium finish.
Hamilton’s performance in the Abu Dhabi final round was among his worst of the year. Over the course of the three days, he battled to maintain his W14 happiness, missed the third pit stop, damaged his front wing after making contact with Pierre Gasly, and finished ninth at the finish line, which was his lowest finish of the year. After the race, Hamilton was relieved that he would never again have to operate that specific vehicle when he got out of it.
Even with the disappointing outcome, he had still easily taken third place in the championship by a margin greater than that of a race win, and he would have taken third place even more if his Austin podium had not been taken away.
Even if it would have meant little to Hamilton, finishing as the “best of the rest” after Verstappen and Perez was an accomplishment in and of itself during a season where the battle behind Red Bull had been as fierce as it had ever been. Even if it wasn’t Hamilton’s greatest season in his storied career, he still demonstrated why Mercedes wanted to retain him well into his forties by offering him a two-year contract extension.
All Mercedes needs to do now is loan him a vehicle for the upcoming winter so he can try for that eighth championship once more.
