An unwanted new record looms for Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone this weekend
- Henry Valantine
- 29 June 2022
The tale of Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1 is that of unprecedented success on many levels, hence why it seems almost unusual that he has gone 10 races without a win.
An 11th at Silverstone this weekend would see Lewis Hamilton go on the longest winless streak in his career. For a driver who has won 34.7% of his race starts, even four without a victory actually lowers his overall win ratio - which in itself is staggering.
In a Mercedes which has faltered at the start of Formula 1's new era, the seven-time World Champion admitted he has played the guinea pig role for the team's many experiments as they search for a way back to the head of the field.
As it turns out, when Hamilton has gone on these runs without wins in the past, there are seemingly a couple of underlying themes within them.
Planet Sport looks at his four previous 10-race barren spells.
Brazil 2008 - Germany 2009
Hamilton famously took fifth at Interlagos in 2008 to win his first World Championship at the final corner, but the start of the following season was much more problematic at McLaren.
The Briton had the number '1' emblazoned on his car, but the McLaren MP4-24 was unworthy of such a title - especially in the first half of the season.
As is the case now, sweeping regulation changes had taken place in time for 2009, meaning the cars had a very different construction to their predecessors.
Jenson Button and Brawn GP (which would later become Mercedes), flew out of the traps and won six of the first seven races, followed by Red Bull.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was barely scraping into the points. In fact, he headed to Hungary off the back of five point-less finishes in a row, so the turnaround at the Hungaroring ended up being nothing short of remarkable.
Whatever the concept McLaren had tried and failed to achieve suddenly fell into place, and Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen were frontrunners from practice onwards.
Hamilton went on to win after starting fourth, taking full advantage of Fernando Alonso's struggles - in which a pit-stop mishap saw him drive on three wheels - to end his losing streak.
Brazil 2012 - Germany 2013
Hamilton had opted to leave McLaren for pastures new at the end of 2012, making a move to Mercedes which raised eyebrows, and even derided in some quarters.
Jeremy Clarkson put it to Hamilton while appearing on an episode of
Top Gear that his switch was the equivalent of moving from Manchester United to West Ham in footballing terms (though it's more of a sideways switch in the present day, but we digress).
Hungary 2013 = @LewisHamiltonās first win with the Team! š
ā Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 18, 2019
Hungary 2019 = @LewisHamiltonās 60th win with the Team! š
But which one of those @F1 victories has been his very best... š pic.twitter.com/96sM5PiSTA
And Clarkson's prophecy appeared to be correct in the first half of 2013, with Mercedes occupying a similar place to their current standing in the pecking order - not quite fast enough to challenge Red Bull regularly, but in the mix to be best of the rest, taking three podiums before arriving in Budapest.
But the Hungaroring would prove to be Hamilton's domain once again that season, as he put in a controlled performance from pole to take what would be his only win of the 2013 season.
Belgium 2013 - Australia 2014
With the Mercedes driver's sole win coming in Hungary, this meant another half-season of having to settle for the minor placings as Hamilton bedded himself into his new team.
He would take one more podium finish in Belgium before finishing either side of the top five for most of the remaining races, ending up fourth in the championship.
But where regulation changes counted against him in 2009, the turbo hybrid era's introduction in 2014 proved to be the start of something very, very good, to say the least.
From one win in 2013 to 11 a year later and dozens more since, it turns out Hamilton wasn't moving to West Ham after all.
Apologies to any Hammers reading this.
Abu Dhabi 2021 - Canada 2022*
Now, we all know that Hamilton finished second in Abu Dhabi by now, so we're not going to go open up that particular Pandora's Box again.
However, another mass regulation change has come in Formula 1 since and, a la 2009, other teams have made better use of the adjustments than Hamilton's team.
Red Bull and Ferrari have comfortably led Mercedes all season - comfortably both in terms of pace advantage, and how their drivers' bodies have coped with the new cars.
Mercedes' issues with porpoising and bouncing on the W13 has left Hamilton in physical turmoil, adding to the disappointment already in the seven-time champion's mindset as they look to get back to the top.
A ninth win at Silverstone on Sunday would be perhaps his most satisfying to date, and the team have confidence they'll be able to take a step forward this weekend.
They'll have to if Hamilton wants to avoid his longest winless run in his Formula 1 career.
