Why Hamilton's 2022 struggles shouldn't define his career

“You do everything you can to prepare for the season better than you did the previous year when you were leading the points table, and you had the package to challenge for the world championship. Then you arrive and there’s nothing you can do. You can’t get out and push the car any faster.”

Those words are from Lewis Hamilton, but they aren’t about the Mercedes W13 and the 2022 Formula 1 rules reset. They are from 2009, when McLaren’s MP4-24 initially missed the mark under new aero regulations.

Hamilton’s struggles in 2022 – one podium finish from the first four races and seventh in the points behind new team-mate George Russell – have led to some suggesting it’s the first time he has not had the best car in F1. As Hamilton has pointed out, this is clearly nonsense.

Leaving to one side the fact that most of motorsport’s greats have spent large portions of their careers in the best cars – top teams hire top drivers – it’s easy to forget some of the challenges Hamilton faced between jumping straight into F1 with one of the leading cars and his recent domination with Mercedes.

In 2010, McLaren had the third fastest car in F1. The MP4-26 was second quickest in 2011 but was a similar, significant margin behind the pacesetting Red Bull. A troubled Hamilton had to watch Sebastian Vettel take another crown, while inspired McLaren team-mate Jenson Button comfortably beat him in the standings.

The 2012 McLaren was arguably fast enough to challenge. Hamilton won four grands prix and pipped Button, but the MP4-27 wasn’t reliable enough, while the 2013 Mercedes tended to eat its tyres in races too often and was second-fastest to the Red Bull RB8.

Hamilton was quick in his final year with McLaren in 2012, but the MP4-27 was too unreliable and drove him into the arms of Mercedes

Photo by: Sutton Images

Even during Mercedes’ turbo-hybrid domination, there were times when it was not the best, though these were rare. Ferrari’s package generally had the upper hand for the first two thirds of the 2018 season and Hamilton made the difference on several occasions, including his brilliant German and Italian GP wins and his wet Hungarian GP pole, in his fights with Vettel.

And, of course, last year Mercedes was on the back foot after the floor rule changes hampered it’s low-rake concept. A combination of factors created a tighter 2021 title fight than there should have been given the early pace of the Red Bull, but one of them was Hamilton – both on track and behind the scenes as he pushed the team to find more performance.

The 2009 McLaren, though, is the most obvious time Hamilton has been hampered by the machinery at his disposal. The MP4-24 was more than two seconds off the pace in testing…

Some still don’t believe that the double-diffuser concept, most famously used that year by Brawn and also initially appearing on the Williams and Toyota racers, should have been allowed, but it was. McLaren missed it and started 2009 with a significant downforce deficit.

Hamilton also learned a valuable lesson in 2009, one that Max Verstappen seemed to get in 2018 and Charles Leclerc (hopefully) has just got at Ferrari: when not to overreach

“There’s nothing you can do but try to will your team on and encourage improvement and try to inspire people,” continued Hamilton in his piece for The Official Formula 1 Season Review 2009, more words that sound familiar. “You have to find the inspiration for yourself, pull yourself back up somehow. I think we all had our doubts at some stage or other.”

The competitive nature of the field that year – 2009 was the closest season in F1 history in terms of the raw pace gap between the fastest and slowest cars – meant McLaren fell a long way.

PLUS: When was F1 closest? 

Reigning champion Hamilton qualified 15th for the 2009 season-opener in Australia and started 18th thanks to a replacement gearbox penalty. He took a lucky fourth on the road in the GP, only to be disqualified following controversy and disparate accounts concerning swapping places with Jarno Trulli’s Toyota during a safety car period.

Hamilton's 2009 season started in messy fashion with a disqualification in Australia

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Thereafter, Hamilton qualified outside the top 10 six times in the first half of the season and finished in the points (then awarded to the top eight finishers, with no daft point for fastest lap) on only three occasions in the first eight rounds.

McLaren got its double diffuser, already introduced quickly but far from perfect, working properly at the German GP (round nine). The upgraded MP4-24 sported a new front wing, engine cover, floor, diffuser and sidepods. Thereafter, Hamilton was a consistent top-five contender.

His championship chances had long gone, but Hamilton took brilliant wins in Hungary and Singapore, and scored three other podiums. He leapt from 11th in the points table to fifth.

Hamilton also learned a valuable lesson in 2009, one that Max Verstappen seemed to get in 2018 and Charles Leclerc (hopefully) has just got at Ferrari: when not to overreach. Having just set his best lap, a charging Hamilton was chasing Button’s second-placed Brawn in the Italian GP when he ran wide out of Lesmo 1, spun across the track and crashed into the barrier.

“He’s a great racing driver and never gives up, just pushes and pushes,” said McLaren’s team principal Martin Whitmarsh. “If you do that, occasionally these things happen.”

“I have learned a huge amount through the season,” said Hamilton at the end of the year. “On track, I learned how hard I can push and also how hard I can’t push.

“At Monza I learned not to push 110% on the last lap of the race! Bit by bit, you just keep putting that knowledge into a jar and, at some stage, you can use it all together.”

Hamilton had pushed as hard as he dared all season in an uncooperative car, taken the results when things improved and learned a lot. As we would see again in 2016, defeat helped him up his game, even if there were mistakes and miscues along the way.

Hamilton's 2009 Monza shunt was an important lesson in when not to overreach in a sub-standard car

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

It is probably fair to say he tends to perform best when he has a sniff of victory. But there’s never been a suggestion of Hamilton just giving up when things get tough.

Of course, there are several key differences between the situation Hamilton finds himself in now and his 2009 predicament. One is that McLaren was able to throw developments at the car fairly freely, certainly compared to the cost cap or windtunnel restrictions Mercedes now faces.

Another is the stage of Hamilton’s career. While the extra experience he has should help from a technical point of view, it must surely be harder to stay motivated as a 37-year-old seven-time world champion than a 24-year-old one-time champion near the start of his F1 journey.

This shouldn’t be regarded as the defining moment of Hamilton’s career. He has already been tested many times and passed those tests – including showing he can succeed when the machinery doesn’t want to play ball

And then there’s his team-mate. Heikki Kovalainen rarely looked a threat to Hamilton, but Russell is already touted as one of the next greats. He’s younger and surely hungrier. He’s also got more recent experience of car struggles thanks to his time at Williams.

PLUS: What Russell's current Mercedes form ahead of Hamilton means for his F1 future

It’s almost inevitable that Russell will surpass Hamilton; that always happens eventually with young challengers to the established aces. It’s amazing that Hamilton has held off the new generation for so long.

How soon the crossover happens will depend on a number of factors, including Hamilton’s own motivation, which may in turn rely on how quickly Mercedes can recover. Fighting against Russell for wins and podiums is likely to bring out more from Hamilton than battling for fifths or sevenths. That’s not a criticism, it’s just realistic given where they are in their careers.

Hamilton concluded his 2009 account with: “My dream is to have a competitive car each year, with which I can build on myself and become a better racing driver year by year, and win more and more races and more and more championships.”

In Russell, Mercedes already has the driver that will be its future - but Hamilton is still capable of delivering in the present

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Viewed from 2022, it’s hard to deny that Hamilton has achieved those goals. As well as making the most of the fantastic equipment Mercedes has given him, Hamilton has also pushed to keep the team at that level, including helping to sort its 2017 ‘diva’ and in the development races in the close 2018 and 2021 title fights.

Hamilton could yet write another remarkable chapter in his incredible career by helping Mercedes bounce back and by joining Verstappen and Leclerc (and Russell) at the front of the field. Or Mercedes’ woes may prove to be one challenge too many and the final factor in the timing of Hamilton’s retirement.

PLUS: The small details where Hamilton can make the difference for Mercedes

Either way, this shouldn’t be regarded as the defining moment of Hamilton’s career. He has already been tested many times and passed those tests – including showing he can succeed when the machinery doesn’t want to play ball.

Hamilton has weathered plenty of storms in his F1 career before - including in 2009, when McLaren became a winner by season's end

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Hamilton’s 2009 Singapore GP win

After all the troubles with the MP4-24, Hamilton took his first victory of 2009 in Hungary. But perhaps his most impressive drive of the campaign came in Singapore, round 14 of the 17-round championship being fought over by Brawn and Red Bull.

On the streets of Singapore, where Hamilton has often excelled, he put in the sort of dominant performance McLaren could only have dreamed of at the start of the season.

“It was Lewis, you sensed, that was the difference between a pole-to-flag victory and what happened at Williams, Red Bull or Brawn – all cars with windows of McLaren-matching speed through the weekend,” reckoned Mark Hughes in Autosport’s report.

A stunning Q1 lap on the harder compound gave him an extra super-soft set in Q3, and that helped him to qualify on pole with a relatively heavy fuel load.

Alongside him on the front row, Vettel’s Red Bull made a poor start from the dirty side of the grid, allowing Nico Rosberg’s Williams into second. With more fuel than his rivals, Hamilton was happy to stay just out of arm’s length and nurse his tyres around a punishing circuit.

“It’s not just the temperatures,” said Hamilton. “It’s corner after corner after corner. There’s no break and it’s so bumpy.”

He also had to deal with a faulty KERS unit, flicking through menu options to ensure it didn’t overheat and, ultimately, catch fire. Nevertheless, only Rosberg and Vettel were ever really in contention. But the Williams challenge faded when Rosberg picked up a drivethrough penalty for crossing the white line as he exited the pits.

Rosberg then had to wait until after a safety car period to come in, putting him out of contention, and Vettel got a penalty for pitlane speeding. Hamilton thus cruised to victory, crossing the line 9.6s clear of Timo Glock’s Toyota.

Hamilton's Singapore GP win was the most impressive of his troubled 2009 campaign

Photo by: Motorsport Images