Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time. The Brit made his debut back in 2007 with McLaren and in just his second season, he won the World Championship. In 2013, he moved to Mercedes and won a further six Championships, thus establishing his legacy as an all-time great.
At the age of 38, Hamilton is still going strong and is showing no sign of retiring. However, the previous campaign turned out to be his worst ever in F1. The Mercedes driver went through an entire season without winning a race, which was a first in his long and illustrious career.
Mercedes failed to deal with the regulation changes as well as Red Bull or Ferrari did, which limited Hamilton’s ability to guide the car to the front. However, leading up to these regulation changes, very few drivers were as excited as Hamilton.
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Lewis Hamilton promised to keep driving after watching designs of 2021 cars
The regulation changes which hit teams in 2022 were going to take place in 2021. However, due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the sport decided to delay proceedings by a year. In 2018, F1’s former technical director Ross Brawn shared the concept design of these cars during a conference.
After having a look at the tentative new designs, Hamilton was very impressed. He took to his Instagram account to post a story with the picture of a Ferrari concept car. There, he wrote, “This sh*t looks dope af. I’m definitely gonna be driving if cars look like this….just please bring a V12 or a V10 back.
Hamilton did keep his promise, but he did not get to drive the new cars in 2021. Instead, he had to endure a heartbreaking loss to Max Verstappen in the season finale that year. Hamilton hoped to bounce back in 2022, but this time, the car wasn’t fast enough.
Hamilton to extend Mercedes stay?
2022 wasn’t an easy year for Hamilton. However, he does not intend to give up before winning his eighth World Championship, and people are expecting the Silver Arrows to be back in the hunt in the upcoming campaign. 2023 will also mark the end of Hamilton’s current deal with Mercedes.
Fortunately for Hamilton and Mercedes fans, multiple reports suggest that the two parties are very close to agreeing a new deal. This will make him the highest paid driver in the sport’s history, with an annual salary of $76 million for two years.
