How Lewis Hamilton finally laid to rest the ghosts of 2021
Hamilton’s emotional victory at the British Grand Prix on Sunday was his first since he was cruelly denied a record-breaking eighth world title after the farcical finale to the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi
Lewis Hamilton, by his own admission, had never cried after winning a Formula One race before.
From his first victory on the streets of Montreal in 2007 to the night-time lights of Jeddah in 2021, a streak of winning at least one race a year meant the sensation of the triumph was never absent for long. Yet 31 months, 56 races and 945 days after his last win, the desertion of that unmatchable feeling meant this one meant more. More, it turns out, than any of the others.
Hamilton’s stellar and mature drive to victory amid the wet-dry conditions of a Silverstone summer’s day on Sunday was the destination of a long road of torment for Britain’s greatest racing driver. A road that started, as we all know, with Abu Dhabi 2021 and the disreputable ending to that most titanic of battles with Max Verstappen. Disreputable for the sport that is, not Hamilton, who came out of it with the sympathy of the F1 world behind him.
In the two-and-a-half years since, there’s been a catalogue of near-misses. Austin 2022, denied by Verstappen in a car simply quicker on the closing laps. Brazil 2022, when his team-mate George Russell earned gold with the team’s elder statesman a frustrated man in silver.
Even the last two years at Silverstone – a track he has mastered, from his days as a junior to now a record nine race wins – has seen glimpses at the top-step of the podium taken away, simply due to the inferior pace of a wretched generation of Mercedes car.
But Sunday’s victory, as he staved off the challenge and finished most satisfyingly of all ahead of Verstappen, posed an obvious question. Was he now over the farce of 2021 – a year he mentioned immediately after the race in conversation with Jenson Button – and could he now finally move on to bigger and better things?
“It’s all about not giving up and making the right decision with my life,” he said, perhaps referencing not just the last two years but the off-season post-2021, when he undoubtedly flirted with packing it all in.
“The decision for next year [joining Ferrari]. The commitment for this team and the love I have for my job. There’s nothing that will come close to it.”
Then came the punchline. “In 2022, I thought I was over it [2021] – but I wasn’t. It’s taken a lot of healing. I’ve just tried to work on myself and tried to find that inner peace, day by day.”
It was no doubt a statement to the critics. Coming into Sunday’s race, Russell had usurped him again – 10-2 in qualifying this season in favour of the 26-year-old – to take pole position, one week on from the King’s Lynn racer earning Mercedes’ first win since November 2022. And while Russell was unfortunate as a mechanical failure forced a mid-race retirement, Hamilton was quicker amid variable conditions in Northamptonshire.
That skill, that know-how around this high-speed 18-turn track, was what won him the race.
MOST WINS AT THE SAME GRAND PRIX
Lewis Hamilton - 9
Michael Schumacher - 8
Alain Prost - 7
Ayrton Senna - 7
Jim Clark - 5
Graham Hill - 5
Hamilton pitted at the right time originally, switching to intermediates and applying the pressure on Lando Norris ahead. His team pitted him at the correct moment a second time round, a lap ahead of Norris, albeit to a soft tyre which was on the limit of performance.
At this moment, his long-term engineer Peter “Bono” Bonnington informed him of Norris’ tyre choice. Hamilton simply replied: “Leave me to it mate.”
The remaining 10 laps or so was Hamilton at his very best, a throwback to yesteryear before the ghost which has glanced over him since that fateful day in Abu Dhabi. Quick enough to keep Norris and a resurgent Verstappen behind him, but slow enough to keep the tyres at the right temperature. A fine balance, perfectly executed.
The toll, of the race and the 31 months that have gone before it, at the chequered flag was obvious immediately. Bono was himself emotional; Hamilton matched that, tears audible as he said: “This means so much to me. I love you, Bono.”
A hug with father Anthony, a man so instrumental in Lewis’ journey to stardom, and mum Carmen followed. Bono joined him on the podium, as he heard God Save The King for the first time with his name on top. Yes, it’s been that long.
With his nearest and dearest present at a moment which meant so much, halfway through this season with 12 races to go in Mercedes black-and-white, it finally feels as though Hamilton can move on to the next phase of his career. It is a closure of sorts. The ghost of 2021 has been exorcised.
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