With the 2022 season officially complete, many have begun to wonder when Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton will sit down to discuss a contract extension, with team principal Toto Wolff having assured fans that it will take place over the winter.
Hamilton’s desire to continue for several more years is incredible, given that 2022 was the worst season of his Formula 1 career.
As well as being the first season where he hasn’t claimed a win, Hamilton also ended the year in the lowest position he’s ever been in Drivers’ Championship, sixth.
His current contract is set to expire at the end of 2023; however, he has made his eagerness to drive for several more years very well known.
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It was only the third time in his career that he’s finished below his team-mate in the standings, with George Russell having ended the season in fourth.
Russell joins Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg in the exclusive club, after an excellent first year with the Silver Arrows.
Hamilton was actually the better driver; incredibly, in the second half of the season; however, the 37-year-old was comfortably in Russell’s shadow for the first half of the campaign.
The seven-time World Champion’s comeback, though, is commendable, with him having come agonisingly close on multiple occasions to claiming a victory.
Whilst he’s never been one to be totally bothered by records, losing the record for winning in every season might come as a disappointment to him, given that no driver has maintained it for their entire F1 career.
Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel has actually backed Hamilton to come into 2023 even stronger than before, with the driver clearly having the “drive” to achieve more, despite having already done so much in the sport.
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“The motivation was not there for a while, the preparation was maybe not top and he had to take stock of the competition,” Coronel wrote, in FORMULE 1 magazine.
“However, then not hitting the sweet spot does not mean you have lost it – as he has underlined in the second half of the season.
“It is clever how he has recovered, and that he now wants to continue even longer. Because with him you could easily think: you’ve seen it anyway, what do you still have to prove? So that drive is there and that is unprecedented, because he doesn’t have to do it for money, fame or unfinished business.”