Hamilton’s scintillating 2023 shows he’s still got what it takes for F1

Coupled with this was a wicked porpoising issue, the W13 bouncing up and down as it rocketed down the straights. Though it was something most teams had to deal with, Brackley had a bigger problem than most.

Despite the pre-season issues, Hamilton delivered a podium behind the Ferraris in the first race of F1’s new era in Bahrain. He was gifted that appearance on the rostrum by both Red Bulls failing in the closing laps, but it said a lot that the Brit had maximised his opportunities by being best of the rest and ready to pick up the pieces when the time came.

It’s a theme that has continued over the duration of 2022 and 2023.

As the 2022 season gathered pace, Hamilton’s results at first paled in comparison to new team-mate George Russell. Had Hamilton finally met a new, faster version of himself in the young Mercedes gunner? Analysis of the underlying pace – coupled with the fact the finishes were mainly due to bad luck with safety cars and qualifying runs – suggested no, actually.

“Although the result sheets have Russell ahead of Hamilton in those last five races, Lewis’s average qualifying pace is 0.14sec ahead of the man known as ‘Mr Saturday’,” wrote Mark Hughes in May last year.

After that relatively slow start, the results soon began to rack up – soon showing Hamilton had lost none of his bite.

Starting in Montreal, Hamilton would scored five podiums in a row. The most consecutive rostrums Russell would manage was two.

Standout races from the back in Spain, duelling at the front with faster cars at Silverstone and a consummate drive at one of his favourite circuits in Hungary were true demonstrations of Hamilton’s virtuoso driving.

Hamilton ultimately scored nine podiums across 2022, Russell with an eventual eight. Though it was the latter who would claim the Silver Arrows’ only win of the year in Sao Paulo, it’s arguable that it was Hamilton who spent more time on average closer to the sharp end come the chequered flag.

The seven-time champ finished sixth in the championship, behind the clearly superior Red Bull and Ferrari cars in addition to Russell. Taking into account the above-mentioned SC and qualifying hiccups, which Russell largely avoided, Hamilton almost always maximised the chances he’d been given.

Hamilton was best of the rest in F1 2023

Heading into 2023, Russell has since seen his form fall away – while Hamilton has remained relentless.

Things began steadily then slowly built up – filliped by a second place in Australia – behind the rampant Red Bulls and new best-of-rest Aston Martin, but all the while Hamilton reeled in results in a relatively uncompetitive car.

Scoring four podiums in the first ten races, following Silverstone Hamilton was fourth in the championship on 121 points – just 16 behind Fernando Alonso’ far superior Aston and 35 points behind Sergio Perez’s RB19 – a car now widely touted as one of the greatest F1 cars of all time.

From here the Mercedes driver began a chase of his Red Bull rival in earnest. Following the Mexican GP, he was just 20 points behind Perez.

It looked at one point as though Hamilton might nick the championship runner-up spot off Perez, but three indifferent results to round off the season – linked by some to Mercedes’ disqualification in Austin, when it was penalised for running its cars too low – meant in the end ‘Checo’ was able to save his blushes.

However, the fact that Hamilton even got close to beating Verstappen’s No2 in a car so markedly superior is an embarrassment to both the Mexican and his Red Bull team – but also shows just what a high level the seven-time champion has been operating at.

This all said, there have still been blips over the past two years. A collision with Alonso in 2022 at Spa led to the Spaniard saying that Hamilton “only knew how to race from the front”.

At the 2023 Qatar GP, an ambitious move round the outside of Russell and Verstappen at Turn 1 left Hamilton in the gravel and out of the race.

Misjudgements can happen to drivers young or old though. George Russell hit the wall and took himself out of contention at the death in Singapore, Charles Leclerc is always prone to errors and only in 2023 has Verstappen’s copybook been relatively blot-free.

Hamilton in 2024: Another F1 title beckons?

It’s clear F1’s most successful driver still has the speed, and at this year’s Italian GP a new two-year Merc deal taking Hamilton to the end of 2025 was announced.

“I definitely didn’t think that I’d be the age that I am and feel the way that I do physically and mentally and still love what I’m doing as much as I do,” he said after signing the contract.

“A lot of people stay in the same jobs and roles for a long period of time, and fall out of love with it. I genuinely still have that love for what I’m doing. I still love getting in the car, I still love racing with my peers.”

His team don’t doubt his raw speed or racecraft either. Merc’s technical director James Allison made the point to Sky recently:

“Lewis and George need us to give them the right car[…],” he said. “Lewis Hamilton has proven seven times that he can become world champion. And he has scored the most points of any of Red Bull Racing’s opponents.”

2023 was a standout year for Hamilton – it looks very likely there’s much more to come.