There was once a time F1’s Lewis Hamilton was inevitable. In fact, in his prime from 2014 to 2020, the Englishman recorded 73 Grand Prix titles en route to winning six of his seven World Championships.
Lewis Hamilton: A Legend in Decline
That Lewis Hamilton, sadly, appears to be a relic of times past. The 40-year-old Hertfordshire native hasn’t won a Grand Prix since 2022, and he is now in danger of completely missing out on a podium finish for an entire season. Should that happen, it would be the first time in Hamilton’s illustrious career that he won’t get up on the podium at all and likely feed into the narrative that F1’s biggest star for the longest time is washed out.
For additional context, Hamilton’s fewest podium finishes was four during the 2009 season when he was still with McLaren. Over the past three years, even as he groped for form, Hamilton still got to the podium 21 times—9 times in 2022 and 6 each in 2023 and 2024.
But, as it turns out, Hamilton’s sixth podium finish in 2024—third place at the Hungarian Grand Prix—has been his last as he has missed the podium in every Grand Prix since then—the final four of last season and the first sixteen of this season. Now, Lewis Hamilton has eight races left to avert a complete and embarrassing shutout.
An ‘Optimistic‘ Lewis Hamilton
Despite the challenging times, the seven-time World Champion is optimistic he can still claim a podium finish this season. If so, it would be his first for Ferrari, whose own season has been less than stellar. Hamilton, in particular, is feeling bullish about the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he thinks a top-three finish is a realistic goal.
“I feel optimistic coming into the weekend,” said Hamilton. “I feel like I’ve found a couple of things and now I need to work on extracting them. So, I really hope that this weekend can be the start of that.”
While optimistic, Hamilton is nonetheless staying pragmatic, noting that winning is actually “far-fetched considering I’ve been sixth, seventh and eighth for most of the season.”
Yes, the once-dominant Lewis Hamilton isn’t inevitable anymore. Now, it seems he’d happily settle for a podium finish.
But even that isn’t a guarantee anymore.
